Products
To celebrate the release of both Bjorn’s Musician as Designer t-shirt and Artist Music Journal, we are offering a package deal of the two at a discounted price, 20% off. Available for a limited time and while quantities last exclusively in our shop.
We found a box of Vinyl is Forever Edition 01 (designed by Human Empire) V Neck T’s, in XL. There were 6 shirts in the box. We put them back on sale just for you. We also have 2 XS V’s left, in case you are not of the XL variety.
Thank you to everyone who came out to Flatstock 24 / SXSW, we had a great time meeting all of you who stopped by our booth. The lucky people who purchased advance copies of Rock Paper Show three months ahead of its official release are hopefully enjoying their books and hanging their set of original prints. The deluxe editions (with all 20 original prints from 20 of our favorite studios specially commissioned for the book) went quick, and are continuing to sell in pre-orders. Please pre-order yours to ensure you get one (there are only 500)!
Rock Paper Show officially ships in early June, and to celebrate the release we’ll be doing events on both coasts, Chicago, and Austin throughout the summer. Stay tuned for more.
We are excited to introduce a new blog series which will serve as an ongoing platform for our friends and collaborators to share long form essays on music related topics of their choosing. Thinking critically about creative output is essential to good product development, whether the product is an album, record packaging, a poster, or a t-shirt. The introductory post, from sociologist, strategist, and critic Michael Winter, provides a refreshing perspective on “Seen and Not Seen”, a standout track from Talking Heads’ Remain in Light.
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Seen and Not Seen: Identity Formation in the Talking Heads
On “Remain In Light”, the Talking Heads’ magnum opus they explore the theme of identity formation and self-awareness on the apt titled “Seen and Not Seen”. The song written in 1980, sets up against a changing national, political and cultural landscape on the verge of reinvention – gas lines, the Iran hostage crisis and stagflation of the maligned Carter administration giving way to the incoming optimism, Morning in America of the yuppie Reagan presidency; the death of disco, CBGB and explosion of alternative DIY music genres (punk, new wave, hip-hop, world beat) and an influx of young artists such as Basquiat who was merging street art and African-American cultural icons with political/poetical slogans. Juxtaposed against an atmosphere for the band, which had released a series of critically acclaimed records on which they explored “existential futility, suburban limitations, mental disorders and the evils of corporate culture.” (“Talking Heads: Once In A Lifetime: The Stories Behind Every Talking Heads Song”, Ian Gittins, 2004); that was in flux - rumors of disbanding fueled by their front man, the encroaching influence and accreditation of Brian Eno (producer) and increasing national and international attention of their contemporaries.
From the moment one sees the cover of “Remain in Light” they are confronted with the question of identity. Psychoanalyst Michael A. Brog called the front cover a “disarming image, which suggests both splitting and obliteration of identity” and which introduces the listener to the album’s recurring theme of “identity disturbance”; he states, “The image is in bleak contrast to the title with the obscured images of the band members unable to ‘remain in light’.” To create the cover image the band called upon M&Co. Design affiliated with MIT Media Lab founded that same year and whose “domain is applying unorthodox research approaches for envisioning the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life - technologies that promise to fundamentally transform our most basic notions of human capabilities.” It is evident that this subtext that the role technology plays in our own identity transformation and human evolution was critical in the duality of the band’s exploration of their evolving musical identity and devolving band identity. By inverting the A in their name on the cover they clearly are challenging the role of ones name in defining oneself and illustrating the fissure/’identity disturbance’ happening behind the scenes.
The opening lyrics of “Seen and Not Seen” pronounce “He would see faces in movies, on T.V., in magazines, and in books….”. Exploring the function that media and cultural influences one encounters plays in identity development and then through self actualization seeks, as J.J. Arnett writes in his piece on “Adolescents’ Uses of Media for Self-Socialization” (Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 24, No. 5, 1995), “the ones that best suit their individual preferences and personalities” mirroring as the character in the song thinks “that some of these faces might be right for him…” On this album the band was reaching beyond their urbane art-punk borders and blending emerging cultural influences from that of continental African culture, music and storytelling via mythology and the music of Fela Kuti to the emergent African American hip-hop cultural generation of Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks. Not only were the Heads looking at different faces they were going global and to the street, co-opting an entirely different skin, not unlike Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly taking from gospel hymns and the blues of southern black culture as the root of rock n’ roll, in similar respects equally repressed from the main street white cultural identity of the time.
As the song continues through its narrative - the writing style continues the use of visual cues to show how this image is different from the rest, not following the formal line breaks of standard song structure it adopts the run on prose style of stream of consciousness; represented as blocks. As one listens to “Remain in Light” they are assaulted by a repetitive polyrhythm that forms the basis and formal hook of each song on the album - ‘almost by force of will’ creating a uniformity, a signature persona projecting an ‘ideal[ized] image’ onto themselves, away from the monochromatic Americanism to a more tuned in world view. This was achieved by moving away from previous album constructs and so by changing their own working process, their identifying characteristic, and instead relying on jam sessions, deconstructing and looping sequences that were then moved in a non-linear fashion across the entire album they were able to “arrive at an appearance that bears no relationship to them…” altering their born identity of earlier premature albums with that of this complex subconscious or developed cultural identity like the multi-textured, cultural beat sampling coming from rap music like Afrika Bambaattaa sampling Kraftwerk in the Bronx to the radiant child graffiti of Keith Haring downtown.
Turning the lens away from the formation of the identity in the first stanza to the self-realization and questioning of this idealized persona in the second stanza they sing/chant “Maybe they imagined that their new face would better suit their personality….Or maybe they imagined that their personality would be forced to change to fit the new appearance….” Jon Pareles wrote, (“Talking Heads Talk”, Mother Jones, May 1982) “they refuse to formalize their music or their image. Each successive album has been more experimental and more ambiguous.” Going on to say, “they try a bunch of concepts and personas and want to be judged by the resulting work, consistency be damned.” The following year would see individual side projects from all of the Heads, through these non-group works the full vision and identity of “Remain in Light” is realized via these fractured prisms of David Byrne and Brian Eno’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” a more deeply explored cultural mash-up blending African instrumentation with televangelists, husband and wife Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz’s eponymous “Tom Tom Club” album a send up to the dialectic rap/hip-hop and house music of the African-American and gay ghettos and Jerry Harrison’s first solo effort “The Red and the Black” a veiled critique of the red faces and black border of “Remain in Light” which incorporated many of the same musicians and back-up singers to create a funkier version.
“Remain in Light”, the fourth of eight studio albums, places the band in its adolescent stage revealed through its increased fascination and awareness with the outside world and wide-eyed exploration of something individual to them, internal rebellion and formation of social cliques and political side-taking. The resulting effect as is common in adolescence is that of something unique and often fleeting yet profound in its prophetic naivety; not yet approaching the jaded self-doubt of the closing phrase “He wonders if he too might have made a similar mistake.”
Thank you to Time Out NY for including Hisham Bharoocha’s Musician as Designer T in their story on the best band t’s (Image 8 in the story). Out of the edition of 78, limited quantities remain in our shop.
Printed in a very limited quantity on Alternative Apparel organic garments, Hisham’s installment features an original 2 color design (charcoal & metallic silver) printed on “earth natural” color organic crew neck t’s.
If you want more from Hisham, we recommend his Artist Music Journal, which is also limited and available in our shop.
A long time in the making, we are pleased to share a few updates on Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One. While the book is not officially out until May, Soundscreen Design will be down at SXSW to premiere the book at Flatstock 24. We’ll have a limited number of sell-able copies, both the standard and deluxe editions (we’ll be able to take cash and credit cards), as well as a display of all 20 original posters contained in the deluxe version. We might have a few surprises up our sleeves as well, you never know.
Should you be hungry and also crave looking at the original posters, you can also find an instillation of all 20 original posters at Frank, the best hot dogs and cold beer in all of Texas.
For those of you not able to make it Flatstock 24, we are also taking pre-orders in our shop. If you fancy yourself a collector, we recommend getting orders for the deluxe edition in now, as there are only 500 copies available. The deluxe edition features both the book and 20 11″x17″ screen-printed, letter pressed, or stenciled posters from 20 of the artists featured in the book. All the posters come in a protective portfolio denoting edition size (hand numbered of course), and all in a protective printed 12″x18″ box.
Enjoy the following previews of both the book, and the set of original posters.
To keep up with all Rock Paper Show happenings, check out the recently launched book site, designed by the book’s designers, Rumors. We will be uploading tons of content and updates over the next few months, as well as information on the book tour we are scheduling for this summer.
The second installment in the ongoing Musician as Designer series, designed by Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice, is out now. Printed in a very limited quantity on Alternative Apparel organic garments, Bjorn’s installment features an original 1 color design printed on “earth natural” color organic crew neck t’s, and are available in unisex XS-XL.
There are 60 shirts in this edition, and once their gone they will never be repressed. Each shirt comes with a custom hang tag, hand numbered to denote edition.
The inaugural edition, from series co-curator Hisham Bhroocha, is still available in limited quantities.
Stay tuned for upcoming installments from Jeremy Earl (of Woods), Eye (of Boredoms) and more.
Available in our shop for pre-order, the item will start shipping February 25th.
Edition 07 in the ongoing Artist Music Journals series features the work of the legendary Baltimore based design team Post Typography, who also happen to moonlight as two thirds of the wonderful rock band Double Dagger. For their AMJ, Bruce and Nolen chose to archive a large collection of their flyer and poster work for Double Dagger, while adding notes, stories and drawings about each work pictured.
About Post Typography -
Originally conceived as an avant-garde anti-design movement by Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen, Post Typography has come to encompass the pair’s creative collaborations including graphic design, illustration, conceptual typography, and custom lettering, with additional forays into art, apparel, curatorial work, design theory, and vandalism. Their work has received numerous fancy design awards and has been featured in such books as Ellen Lupton’s textbook Graphic Design: The New Basics, Phaidon’s Area 2, and Taschen’s Contemporary Graphic Design, as well as a new monograph of the studio’s work by European publisher Pyramyd Editions.
As longtime Baltimore residents, Strals and Willen maintain a strong presence in the local arts and music communities, contributing to numerous art and design exhibitions in Baltimore and beyond. In 2005 Post Typography curated Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering and Experimental Typography, a highly regarded art show that has traveled nationally to dozens of galleries and universities over the past five years. The studio recently wrote and designed Lettering & Type, a book on lettering and typeface design published by Princeton Architectural Press in Fall 2009.
Redesigned by our friends at The Office of Playlab, Inc., we hope you find it much easier to browse, find information on our projects and artists, and learn about all things Soundscreen Design.
We are excited to continue our Guest Blogger Series, an ongoing forum for some of our friends and collaborators to share some thoughts on their favorite music related products.
BJ Rubin is a man of many talents. Comedian, musician, archivist, writer, and all around knowledgeable guy, its no exaggeration to say that a conversation with BJ is always an enlightening experience. As avid readers of his absolutely fantastic blog, Pukekos, we knew we had to ask him to guest blog, but little did we know he would unearth this gem of a record.
For the purposes of full disclosure, it must be stated that some of us here at SSD HQ have Three Mile Pilot tattoos, and don’t own this record. If you have not heard Chief Assassin to the Sinister, head over to Pukekos now to check it out.
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This record is very special.
It appears to have been hand assembled, at great time and effort I imagine. Sewing things to burlap doesn’t sound like the most pleasant way to spend an afternoon, but not liking doing something doesn’t mean that you don’t like having it done.
They obviously couldn’t contain themselves when they were putting this together, as they threw in pages from scientific reference books and Cub Scout manuals. Every bit of positive energy they could muster was put into this artifact; they cast all the spells they knew at the time on these objects.
What we have done here is capture some of that specialness for you. Most of you will probably never know what it feels like touch an actual copy of this record, as there were very few made (and I’m sure some are already lost to history). I agree with the belief that photographing a person or an object does steal its soul, a little bit of it anyway (don’t worry, you won’t even miss it). I am sure many hands touched this object before it was put out into the world, each of them imbuing it with a little piece of their soul too.
Not being able to touch it with your own hands shouldn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to feel it, etc.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, Three Mile Pilot’s Chief Assassin to the Sinister.
