Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Happy New Years to all friends and family of Soundscreen Design! We hope 2011 brings you happiness and success, for without your support we would not be where we are today. Thank you for your continued loyalty and encouragement, and we’re excited to share with you some of the new projects we’ve been developing.

Record Messenger Bag

Here in Brooklyn we’re big fans of bikes. But to be fair, who isn’t a fan of bikes? We use them to get around the city, run errands, and of course to visit our favorite record shops. So it makes sense then that we’ve designed a Messenger Bag with a fortified vinyl pocket to keep your records unharmed while traveling. Each bag has a unique recycled vinyl lining (sourced from highway billboard advertisements). Only 150 will be made in our first production run and will be available only through our web shop on February 1st.

Artist Music Journal 12 - Yamantaka Eye (of Boredoms)

It’s finally here…almost! The twelfth and final edition of our Artist Music Journal series, featuring the work of Eye, known primarily as the vocalist for the Japanese band Boredoms and also for his prolific visual art portfolio. He used this project as an opportunity to design for dozens of imaginary bands, including original album art and vinyl details. One of our very favorite and most original releases in the series! AMJ 12 from Eye will be available January 15th.

Musician as Designer

Our Musician as Designer collection is still going strong, with our tenth release by the talented Sadie Laska of Growing. They say “sex sells,” in which case this edition of 60 shouldn’t last long. Grab one before they’re all gone.

Also out now is our newest design by the inimitable Justin Pearson of Locust, All Leather, and Retox (among others) and also the founder of Three One G records. The design is Justin’s original flyer from a show at USCD in January 1997 with 3 Mile Pilot, Dragon Rojo, Day Called Zero, The Crimson Curse and The Audience. If we’d been in San Diego, we would have been at this show.

All Musician as Designer T’s are printed on organic garments from Alternative Apparel.

Road to Rock Kid’s Coloring Book

We’ll also be releasing our first kid’s coloring book, Road to Rock, which is the story of a fictional 80’s hair metal band and their rise to fame. Illustrated by Buffalo’s finest, Hero Design, if you like the Rockin’ Alphabet series you’ll be sure to love Road to Rock. We are targeting an early spring release.

Sales & Low Inventory

If you haven’t placed your orders for 2010 Collection items, now is the time. We’re running extremely low on many sizes/styles, especially for Band of Horses by Slow and Steady Wins the Race and Animal Collective by Rob Carmichael/SEEN. Sold out items have been removed from the shop, and we recommend you grab your sizes while they are still available (remember, we do not reprint). In the same vein, only a limited amount of our earlier Musician as Designer tees remain, many of which are on sale now. Also check out the special Artist Music Journal bundle, editions 07-10 for only $50 (4 for the price of 3).

Last but not least, we’d love to see you on February 17th at Issue Project Room for our belated AMJ 11 release party with Dan Nadel, Joshua White and featuring a performance by Gary Panter and Devin Flynn. Issue Project Room is located at 232 3rd Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Thank you again for your continued support and looking forward to sharing more exciting news in 2011!

Please come out on December 4th as Desert Island and Picturebox present the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival. We’ll will be selling a selection of our products, all deeply discounted. We hope to see you there.

Video created by Zachary Palmarini.

Lots going on here at Soundscreen Design, including a new Vinyl is Forever edition, the complete 2010 Collection of designer band apparel, a limited edition Touchable Sound bundle, Artist Music Journal back issue discounts, and, of course, a few exciting projects in the works.

Vinyl is Forever

Our fifth (and final!) edition in the Vinyl is Forever series is out now, designed by the always incredibly Post Family. The Post Family began with seven guys living in Chicago who liked to make art, however over the past two years the collective has grown into a blog, gallery, performance space, working design studio, and resources for the Chicago community they intend to serve. The design for this edition is featured on crew neck t’s (natural and black), a heather black ¾ sleeve henley, and a grey pullover hoodie. As always, the design is limited edition and printed on soft and comfy organic garments. Order yours here!

Touchable Sound

We are thrilled and very thankful for the incredible turn out at our past events for our new book, Touchable Sound: A Collection of 7-inch Records from the USA. Events celebrating its release (thus far) included a special presentation at Family (LA), a DJ night featuring exclusively records from the book at Heathers (NYC), a special Man or Astroman? 7”/book bundle for their first Athens’ show in 11 years, at 40 Watt Club, and a panel and presentation at Criminal Records (Atlanta). Thank you for everyone that came out for these events!

As we mentioned, we made a special bundle for the Georgia events. Along with the book’s introduction writer and Mr. Man About Town Henry Owings (Chunklet), we teamed up with Man or Astroman? for a limited edition (300 copies) one-of-a-kind 7”, specially packaged for sale with Touchable Sound. The record comes in a static shield bag, complete with a (very real) circuit board, and features two unreleased songs ‘Earth Station Radio’ and ‘Updated Theme to Supercar.’ We only have a few left, and if you were not able to make the show you may purchase one of these special bundles by paypaling $39 to mike@soundscreendesign.com, while supplies last of course.

If you haven’t been to an event yet (or want to come to another one!) please make sure to check out our upcoming installation of 60 records featured in Touchable Sound at the John Varvatos store in NYC (in the old CBGB’s). The 3-month installation starts November 23rd.

Artist Music Journals
Both the 10th and 11th editions in our first volume of Artist Music Journals are still available and shipping now. The 10th edition, with Brian Roettinger, comes with an exclusive 10” record featuring a collaboration between No Age and Brian with three exclusive tracks. Brian also did the album artwork of No Age’s new album, Everything In Between, released in September.

The 11th edition, brought to us by Dan Nadel (Picturebox), features Josh White and the legendary Joshua Light Show. There’s currently an exhibition at London’s Welcome Collection, featuring a recreation of the visually mind-blowing Joshua Light Show.

Everyone likes a good deal – and that’s why we’re doing a sale bundle of 4 AMJs (editions 7-10) for the price of 3. Save big bucks on your AMJs and get your sale bundle here.

2010 Collection

Our entire 2010 collection is out and shipping now! The collection, featuring 5 renowned design studios / fashion designers and designs for 10 supremely talented and influential bands, is just what you’ve come to expect from us – one-of-a-kind designs printed on quality, limited edition garments. The bands and designers featured are:

Samantha Pleet for Chairlift / The Hundred In The Hands.
Patent Pending for Beach House / HEALTH.
Rob Carmichael for Animal Collective / Atlas Sound.
Hisham Bharoocha for Pantha du Prince / Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race for TV on the Radio / Band of Horses.

Check out the complete amazing collection and order here!

Upcoming Projects
There are several new projects in the works at SSD to keep your eye out for. The first is our new, uniquely designed messenger bag- featuring a fortified vinyl pocket to protect your records while you transport them.

We’ll also be publishing a children’s coloring book, ‘Road to Rock,’ telling the epic rise to fame of imaginary 80’s metal giants, Jet Vegas. The book, illustrated by the legendary Hero Design studio of Buffalo, NY, will be out this winter.

Long overdue installment in our Guest Blogger Series, an ongoing forum for some of our friends and collaborators to share some thoughts on their favorite music related products.

Raven Sings The Blues, helmed by Andy French, is one of the few blogs we read regularly. Readers have come to love the thoughtful writing, diverse choice of bands, and fully approved streaming tracks. Personally, we can list 50 bands we learned about from RSTB, and for that we are thankful.

We asked Andy to pick a record he loves as much for the packaging as he does the music. He chose Ensemble Economique’s Standing Still, Facing Forward, which is available from Amish Records.

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The beauty of the packaging alone on Brian Pyle’s Standing Still, Facing Forward is enough to pique interest but once opened and explored this solo project from the Starving Weirdos member is a gorgeous expanse of tones and emotion. Built around a bed of field recordings, later manipulated by edits and composition added to the pieces; the album moves from gorgeous soundtrack-like moments to cavernous drone explorations, each further solidifying Pyle’s intention to sum up the California coast on the record. It’s as beautiful and otherworldly intense as the natural surroundings it is attempting to capture. At times feeling wrathful and as chaotic as storms; at other times the album becomes serene, as crystalline and calm as early morning stillness. It’s certainly a more practiced step forward from Pyle’s work with the Weirdos, noisy but never in the same abstract way that they seem to function. Here he seems to have harnessed noise only to impart to his listeners the nature of his mutable subject.

The release is the second installment in Amish Records’ Required Wreckers series, created with equal nods to Throbbing Gristle’s retrograde conceptualism and Recommended Records unwavering musicality. In their own words the series aims to “disrupt the boundaries typically used to delimit genre and the sensibilities that help to inform taste. In so doing, R/W slips out from under the simple, reductive classifications so often used to discuss, and even critically engage, contemporary music.” Each release is a one-time vinyl pressing and will be housed in a letterpress band (designed by Bryan Christopher Baker) that will vary with each installment. The Ensemble Economique release also comes with a 16-page art book in stark black and white style assembled by the band.

Justin Pearson is a busy guy, and has been for more than 2 decades. Not only does his creative output include bands like The Locust, Swing Kids, Struggle, Holy Molar, Some Girls, The Crimson Curse, and recently All Leather, all the while running one of San Diego’s most influential and consistent labels, Three One G.

While working on Touchable Sound, which features a grip of Three One G and Peason-related records, as well as an original essay from JP on his approach to and experiences with Three One G, he told us about his latest undertaking, a memoir entitled From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry. We waited anxiously for this book to be published, and finally it has. Gripping, honest, visceral, and at times hysterical, the book is a must read not only for those familiar with Pearson’s work, but those interested in the experiences, memories, and thoughts of a man whose life you simply couldn’t make up. As Nick Zinner states, “JP’s writings are as inspiring as they are brutally honest, filled with amazing tales of beating odds and getting beat. A true punk legend.” We asked Justin if we could share an excerpt, and he graciously said yes.

From Justin:

At times I wonder if I’m really a musician. And lately I have definitely wondered if I’m a writer. Needless to say, I wrote and published a book since I have stories to tell about some absurd and some not so absurd things that pertain to my life. Anything from getting beat up by “Nazi” skinheads, to some bullshit Jerry Springer TV prank that I can’t seem to shake. If it’s not The Locust starting a riot, it’s a baby cockroach flying in my ear, but no matter what it’s never boring in my world. I just contributed art and words to the book Touchable Sound and with that, I would like to share an excerpt from my book, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry, which was published by Soft Skull Press earlier this year:

On The Locust’s next tour, we hit the East Coast and managed to get a show at a typical all-day festival featuring one crappy “play on the floor” band after another in the fine town of Who Really Cares, North Carolina. It was a clever mix of straightedge and white trash. We stuck out like a sore thumb—a beaner, a towelhead, and a couple throwbacks. Everyone thought we were total fags. And we were stuck there. We broke into a nearby church and stole a bunch of mics to ease the pain of that long, hot day. I slept in the baptismal tub for a few hours to avoid the blistering heat and humidity. But when it was time to play, it got a lot worse than we expected.

Our set was about four songs long. During the first three songs, the audience was as hostile as they could be. This shithead in front of me kept kicking the mic stand. When I went to sing, it would smack against my teeth and he’d laugh. After the third song, I told him if he did it again, I’d fuck him up. As the next song started, he kicked the mic stand and I headbutted him without missing a beat. When the song was over, I noticed blood on the floor in front of me. His girlfriend was yelling at us. Joey spat at her, Gabe gave us a four count, and we went into another song. But some people in the audience were trying to physically stop us from playing. We decided our set was over. Gabe ran outside to get some fresh air since the missing sound guy could not give us oxygen in the stage monitors. He came back to inform us our van had been vandalized. I threw off my mesh vest and started to charge outside, ready to fight, but Gabe stopped me. Apparently the brother of the guy I had headbutted punched our van’s headlight; his fist broke the glass, which slashed a major artery in his wrist. Blood spewed all over the front of the van, and the paramedics were called. It was probably good that I didn’t make it outside to fight the guy since I was only wearing hot pants and sneakers.

Our roadie went to the van to make sure it wasn’t getting completely destroyed. We packed up our gear, and tried load it into the van through the crowd. By the time we were loaded up—if you can call throwing everything in the back and hoping the doors would close “loading up”—the cops had showed up and started arresting people. There was a police helicopter in the air and police dogs on the ground. People were demanding money back for our merchandise they’d bought. Some even threw the stuff back at us. Everyone was yelling at us, but we weren’t taking their shit.

We managed to pull away from the parking lot without getting arrested or beaten up. On the drive out a car followed us for a while, but we lost it by running a couple red lights. We ended up at some guy’s apartment in the next town over. We’d become friends with him earlier that day while trying to pass time as the plethora of crummy bands played. We woke up in the morning to find our van’s tire had been slashed. We just changed out the flat with our spare and were on our way. I never understood why someone would only slash one tire. If you really want to be a badass, you should slash all of the tires. But I suppose a badass would have just kicked our asses in person.

The tour was absurdity from there on out. Another show, somewhere upstate New York, was the same old run-of-the-mill mockery from a predictable audience. I knew that we were Jedis when some dickhead talked shit to us before we even played a note and got nowhere. Our lack of response resulted in him spitting on me for no apparent reason. As the spit dripped down my chest onto my mesh vest, I spat back without a thought. Now, this shot I took was without aim, concentration, or hesitation. It was exactly like the part in Star Wars: A New Hope when Luke blew up the Death Star. My spit went straight into this heckler’s mouth as he was leaning back, mouth open, cracking himself up after making a string of dumb comments about our band. I spun around toward my amp, amazed, tense, waiting to get socked in the head. I stood there, only a few feet from this guy, wearing my uniform, which consisted of a mesh vest with reflective stripping, hot pants, goggles, and sneakers. Nothing happened, and I then knew that the four of us Locusts had evolved.

While at the Touchable Sound release event at Family Bookstore in Los Angeles, shop owner David Jacob Kramer introduced us to a wonderful, perfect bound, 76-page music journal from Australia (coincidentally Kramer’s home), entitled Mountain Fold Music Journal.

Beyond the wonderful articles on Sun Araw (interviewed by Touchable Sound contributor Britt Brown of Not Not Fun Records), Rowland S. Howard (of The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, etc.), and Swedish label Release The Bats, editor Douglas Lance Gibson’s quote hit home.

“There is a reaction to music that I have that I find hard to explain. It is a physical reaction that occurs when I hear a song that truly excites me, live or on record. My tongue presses against the back of my teeth and I can feel the muscle of my tongue straining. The texture of the back of my teeth appears in high definition, as my tongue forces itself hard up against this threshold. I feel my lips drawing tight, stretching across my mouth, and revealing my teeth as they hold back my tongue. It’s not a smile, I can tell that much, but it is also not a grimace. I have no idea how it must look to others. I don’t know how to define it and I am certainly not able to control it. I have tried to conjure it up when standing in front of a mirror, and I can’t. I cannot summon it at will. Whenever I try, it feels hollow and false. It is an honest reaction.

No other stimuli, besides music, generates this response in me. I feel my cheeks tighten and my jaw muscles harden. It feels almost violent, though I know that it is a positive force. It is primitive, instinctual and it cannot be taught. It just happens and keeps occurring, and for that I feel very lucky. I feel lucky that these certain sounds exists and that they are able to provoke such an inhibited response from me.”

Check out Mountain Fold Music Journal back issues for more brilliance, and pick up Touchable Sound today in our shop.

As it finally cools down for fall, we have a bunch of exciting new things ready to go and in the works for you here at Soundscreen Design.

2010 Collection

We’re thrilled to announce that the second installment of our 2010 Collection is now available for pre-order, featuring exclusive designs from Slow and Steady Wins the Race for Band of Horses and TV on the Radio. As always, the collection features all original designs, is extremely limited edition, and is unique to Soundscreen Design. Pre-order the second installment here, ready to ship 9.28.

And remember, still to come in the collection in the upcoming months is the talented Samantha Pleet for Chairlift and The Hundred in the Hands, as well as the always exceptional Patent Pending for Beach House and HEALTH.

The initial installment in the 2010 Collection is still available, with exclusive designs by Hisham Bharoocha for Pantha Du Prince and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as well as Rob Carmichael for Animal Collective and Atlas Sound.

Touchable Sound

Now available for pre-order is Soundscreen’s latest book, Touchable Sound: A Collection of 7-inch Records from the USA.

In an era that advocates streamlined product, and music at the click of a mouse, Touchable Sound celebrates those independent-minded bands and labels that make their own records and relish the opportunity to produce labor-intensive one-off artifacts. As Henry H. Owings puts it in his introduction, the book honors “those who invest countless hours of themselves to further their art. It’s about having an attention to detail and a disinterest in the bottom line.”

Organized by region, Touchable Sound focuses on unique, exquisite examples of American 7-inch-record packaging. Spanning nearly 25 years, it lovingly documents the obscure and the hard-to-find with help from musicians, artists, and label owners. Many of these records-by bands as diverse as the Locust, Olivia Tremor Control, Angel Hair, Stereolab, Los Crudos, the Melvins, and more—have never before been seen by a wide audience, and were originally pressed in extremely limited editions.

Curated by Brian Roettinger, Mike Treff, and Diego Hadis, the book features over 300 records and 600 bands that have set the bar for record packaging and design. Learn more about Touchable Sound here. The official release is set for October 5th, but make sure you reserve your copy by pre-ordering.

Come help us celebrate the release of Touchable Sound at Family Bookstore in L.A.

Event Details: October 4th, 7 p.m.
Family, 436 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Artist Music Journals

Lots of exciting pre-orders up, including the 11th edition in our first volume of Artist Music Journals, featuring Dan Nadel’s (founder of Picturebox) account of the renowned Joshua Light Show at the Fillmore East in New York City (1968-1970), written and compiled in collaboration with Josh White himself. Featuring rare visuals of the psychedelic liquid light show, which backed live performances in the 60’s and 70’s of many of the greats, including The Doors, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix, this book offers a snapshot into what some consider the height of psychedelia.

Pre-order the AMJ here, ready to ship 9.23.

Quantities are beginning to get low on a couple of previously released AMJ’s, including Daniel Higgs and Brian Roettinger + No Age, so get yours today before it’s too late.

Musician as Designer

This month, the always-exceptional John Wiese contributed the latest design in our ongoing Musician as Designer T series. Wiese is a talented and multifaceted artist and composer from Los Angeles, California. He has worked with many diverse artists such as Sunn 0))), Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, Evan Parker, Smegma, Kevin Drumm, Cattle Decapitation, and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). His touring has taken him through Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. Wiese recently performed in the 52nd Venice Biennale with artist Nico Vascellari.

Stay tuned for more MAD designs: Shawn Reed of Wet Hair in October and Sadie Laska of Growing in November.

Sales
Last, but of course not least, we have two great sales for you to take advantage of with some favorite Soundscreen Products.

Buy both VIF Edition 02/03 T’s together for $30 (sale pricing available while quantities last).

Also, get a bundle of the first 6 AMJs, (Editions 1-6), for $72. Usually $102, it’s a $30 savings - can’t beat that.

As the dog days of August beat down on us here in Brooklyn, we have plenty of projects in the works to keep us busy.

2010 Collection

We’re excited to announce that the first installment of our 2010 Collection is now available for pre-order. The first batch includes designs by renowned Brooklyn based designers Hisham Bharoocha and Rob Carmichael. Hisham created exclusive designs for Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pantha du Prince, while Rob worked on Animal Collective and Atlas Sound. All original designs are extremely limited edition and commissioned solely for Soundscreen Design. The first four designs will be ready to ship the last week of August. Pre-order here.

Subsequent releases in the 2010 Collection will include Slow and Steady Wins the Race for Band of Horses and TV on the Radio, Samantha Pleet for Chairlift and a very secret Surprise Band TBA, and Patent Pending for Beach House and HEALTH. The next two installments will be released over the next two months.

Artist Music Journals

The newest edition in our nearly finished first volume of Artist Music Journals series is now available for pre-order and will be shipping on August 16th. The 10th edition of our AMJ features the multi-talented Brian Roettinger, an L.A based designer, musician, artist and record label-owner. Brian, who runs the creative umbrella Hand Held Heart, has a really special AMJ - included with the journal is a one-sided 10″ record, featuring a collaboration between Brian and No Age with three exclusive tracks. Order here before these are gone.

The 11th edition, now in the works, features Dan Nadel’s (founder of Picturebox) account of the legendary Joshua Light Show at the Fillmore East, 1968-1970. With never before seen visuals and archival materials, this AMJ tells the story of Joshua White Show’s pioneering liquid light show, known for its psychedelic visuals, backing live performances of such greats as The Doors, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix in the 60’s and 70’s. This exciting edition will be available for pre-order in September.

Rock Paper Show

This Friday, catch Soundscreen’s own Mike Treff and Rock Paper Show’s curator Geoff Peveto on Blog Talk Radio’s Red Velvet Media show. They’ll be discussing Rock Paper Show and Flatstock on the 1 hour show - more details and streaming media here.

Copies of Rock Paper Show will be available at the next Flatstock, number 27 for those of you counting, at this year’s Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle.

Touchable Sound

Soundscreen’s next book, Touchable Sound: A Collection of 7-inch Records from the USA, is an exciting celebration of nearly 25 years of labor intensive 7″ record packaging and design. Curated by Brian Roettinger, Mike Treff, and Diego Hadis, Touchable Sound features over 300 records and 600 bands, with an introduction from the always insightful Henry H. Owings, and essay contributions from Simple Machine’s founder Kristin Thomson, Amphetamine Reptile founder Tom Hazelmyer, Three One G founder Justin Pearson, and many more. The book will be out in October, but please check back for more info on the pre-order, and the numerous the release events in the works.