The Holiday Sale is coming to an end. Since we wouldn’t want you to miss out any deals, head over to the shop for 15%-25% off, storewide. Just our way of letting you know STILL we care.

The Holiday Sale is now live in our shop. 15%-25% off, storewide. Just our way of letting you know we care.

20% off all editions of Vinyl is Forever.
25% off all Artist Music Journals.
15% off all ReFRAMEs.
25% off Collection apparel.
20% off the already discounted Hisham Bharoocha bundle.
20% off the already discounted Kids Book bundle (which was recently featured in Black Book’s gift guide…thanks!).

Happy Holidays.

The New York Times, always the last to know:

“But this is no music morgue; it is more like a life-support unit for an entertainment medium that has managed to avoid extinction, despite numerous predictions to the contrary. The bins above the boxes hold new records — freshly pressed albums of classic rock as well as vinyl versions of the latest releases from hip-hop icons like 50 Cent and Diddy and new pop stars like Norah Jones and Lady Gaga.

And with the curious resurgence of vinyl, a parallel revival has emerged: The turntable, once thought to have taken up obsolescence with reel-to-reel and eight-track tape players, has been reborn.”

Tomorrow (Saturday December 5th) from 11am-7pm, we will be sharing a table with Joel Speasmaker/Forest at the first-annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, taking place at Our Lady of Consolation Church (184 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg). We’ll have a selection of products including all the available Artist Music Journals, Rockin’ Alphabet Kids Books, and some apparal selections, all at discounted prices. Admission is free.

Presented by Desert Island and PictureBox, a mix of featured guests including Gary Panter and Kim Deitch will be in attendance, while booths will feature the work of Drawn and Quarterly, Nieves, Bodega and more. Panel discussions will be held at Secret Project Robot, and an event after-party will be held at Death By Audio.

The holidays always put us in a very giving mood, and in that spirit we have partnered with Insound to present the contest to end all contests. One lucky winner will be selected to receive one of EVERY PRODUCT WE HAVE RELEASED THIS YEAR. Yep, you read that right.

That’s one of each design from the Collection featuring No Age, The National, Deerhoof, Liars, Pelican, Handsome Furs, Gang Gang Dance, Battles and Fucked Up. The winner will get to choose which garment type they would like to receive, between crew neck t’s, v neck t’s, zip front hooded sweatshirts, and tote bags, all on premium, organic cotton garments.

That’s one ReFRAME, the elegant and glassless frame that has delivered on the dreams of poster collectors everywhere, in any size and color your choosing.

That’s one of each released edition in the ongoing Artist Music Journals small art book series, which features editions from Hisham Bharoocha, Bongout, Daniel Higgs, Jason Yates and Shaun Flynn.

That’s one of each edition from the ongoing Vinyl is Forever series, in the garment type of your choice, all on premium organic garments. This includes the recently released garments in Edition 03, designed by Rob Giampietro.

That’s all three music-themed Alphabet Books, so you can get the young one in your family learning the abc’s while you laugh your way through hysterical references to punk, metal and country & western.

Please head over to Insound and enter for a chance to win. Good luck and happy holidays from all of us here at Soundscreen Design.

We are excited to introduce our Guest Blogger Series, an ongoing forum for some of our friends and collaborators to share some thoughts on their favorite music related products. Creating products that allow people to live with their music, be it apparel or music inspired art journals or frames to hang their favorite gigposters, is the mission statement for Soundscreen Design. As a company, we place tremendous value in the physical, music related objects that take up space in our homes and on our walls. Please send us a note and let us know what items you cherish, and perhaps you could be the next guest blogger.

Joel Speasmaker has been a wonderful partner in crime since we launched Soundscreen. If you know anything about Joel, you know he loves music and collecting objects, mainly records, comics and zines. In a past life, Joel was the mastermind, editor, curator, and designer of the all too short-lived art / design / comics magazine The Drama, and we could think of no better way to kick off the series than with his contribution.

–

P.W. Elverum & Sun, ltd.
www.pwelverumandsun.com

As Soundscreen Design has so elegantly been an example of, music is undeniably linked to art in both its presentation and its particular meaning. For me, and no doubt many others, the emotional response a record forces out of me is completely enhanced by its packaging, whether it be through the design of the LP, the visuals accompanying a live show, or even a video streamed on the internet. Format aside, I am most drawn toward artists who obviously spend just as much time with how the public will interact with their creations as they do creating them. And I’m not talking about coming up with new ways to simply sell a product, as the music industry struggles to do. Sure, it will always be a part of it, as we all search for ways to sustain by doing what we love. But I’m looking for a tiny peek inside the brain of the artist; I want to see his or her hand at work, and witness their ideas in such a way that they can subtly influence my own. I’m looking for the honest and the passionate creators of the world.

I can’t think of a more inspiring example than Phil Elverum, formerly of The Microphones, currently of Mount Eerie, and the man behind P.W. Elverum & Sun. Long before mp3 downloads accompanied vinyl-only releases, Phil was crafting his own musical language and releasing it as beautiful and physical pieces of art, first through several LPs on K Records, and then eventually through his own label. Receiving a package in the mail from Phil is like getting something from a longtime pen pal, mailed just to you. The releases on P.W. Elverum all share this personal touch, no matter if its a simple gatefold LP or an extravagant 130+ page hard-cover book. Everything about his work is epic and magnificent, but you can tell that his intentions are pure. He loves to do what he is doing, he is searching for inspiration and meaning, he is haunted by similar demons, he cares enough to share them with you.

Maybe this description is a bit over-the-top, but its a sharp contrast to most of what I find out there. I’ve made it a point to collect most everything put out through P.W. Elverum (there’s special releases by other artists as well, including Woelv, Thanksgiving, and The Spectacle), and would suggest the same to any music OR art lover.

–

ELV005
No Flashlight
by Mount Eerie

The first proper album as Mount Eerie, with LP packaging unfolding into a GIANT 3.5 x 5 foot two-sided poster, with lyrics and quotations and explanations and more.

–

ELV012
Don’t Smoke / Get Off the Internet
by The Microphones

Two song 7″ with a beautiful letterpressed cover, and a beautiful message, including “Being ‘free’, you are born with a responsibility. Your parents will not take care of you forever. There is no God. You will not be punished. Deal with yourself. Recognizing problems in the world around you, hold yourself upright and do everything well.”

–

ELV019
Lost Wisdom
by Mount Eerie, with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire

I saw this album played live straight through by the original creators (Phil, Julie, and Fred); not sure what else could be better. LP packaging unfolds into a haunting ink and watercolor by Phil. Haunting is a good word for his art.

–

ELV020
Wind’s Poem
by Mount Eerie

The newest release, gatefold LP with gold foil on the front and back. OK, maybe there is nothing better than seeing this album performed live: two drummers, heavy distortion, Nick & Julia from No Kids on keys, Tara Jane O’Neil, and Phil - front and center. In my opinion there are few artists who can captivatingly perform in so many different settings and formations.

Just in time for turkey day here in the States, the newest installment in the ongoing Artist Music Journals series is now available in our shop.

Edition 05 features the work of the indefinable German team of Christian “Meeloo” Gfeller and Anna Hellsgård, known as Bongout. They describe their contribution to the series as “an experimental collage book. We actually scanned some covers from our record collection and cut and paste them into this new project.”

Featuring source material from albums as diverse as Black Dice’s “Broken Ear Record” to The Meteors’ “In Heaven”, the 24 pages of this AMJ are a kind of visual remix of selections from Bongout’s record collection.

We are thrilled to share a few new confirmations to the series, including: EE Storey, Post Typography, Dan Nadel (Picturebox), Bjorn Copeland (Black Dice), Brian Roettinger (Hand Held Heart) and Seripop. Each installment is limited to 1000 copies. Subscriptions and stand alone edition sales are available in our shop.

Ian Baguskas is a Brooklyn based photographer who we have been fortunate enough to work with on one of our book projects, Touchable Sound. Ian travels extensively to photograph for many of his projects.  Previous projects such as Search for the American Landscape brought him to Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Louisiana, and Mississippi over the course of 2004, while in 2005, Ian spent two months in South Korea working on his project, Below Line 38, where he photographed the landscape and the people. Ian is also an avid music fan, which helps explain his participation in Mixtape group show opening tonight at Jen Bekman Gallery in NYC.

Rincon Artificial Island and Pipeline, Ventura, California by Ian Baguskas, c-print

From Jen Bekman Gallery:

Please join us at the gallery on Friday, November 20th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. for the opening of Mixtape, a group exhibition featuring forty-six original works and limited-edition prints from 20×200, by thirty-six artists. In the spirit of what Geoffrey O’Brien declared the “most widely practiced American art form,” Mixtape brings the studio soundtrack to the gallery walls.

Here at Soundscreen Design, we have a very strong fondness for Post Typography, the incredibly talented design studio based in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to having the longest capabilities list known to man (see their site if you don’t believe us), Bruce and Nolen will be contributing to the Artist Music Journals series in the coming months.

If you live in New York City, we highly recommend you come to the NY release party for their newest book, Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces, at the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, at The Cooper Union, on Tuesday November 17th at 7:00. In typical Post Typography style, the concept of the release event itself is nothing short of brilliant. From Post Typography:

Fan Letter: 26 Artists and Designers Present Their Favorite Letter or Typographic Character

Twenty-six local, national, and internationally-based designers and artists give a two-minute ode to an alphabet letter or typographic character. These may range from multimedia presentations, performances, videos, stories, poems, animations, songs, stand-up comedy, rants, short plays, demonstrations, Gregorian chants, etc—however they choose to depict their letter.

Fan Letter is organized and emceed by Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals of Post Typography, authors of a new book from Princeton Architectural Press, Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces. This event is the launch party for the book, and also takes place in conjunction with Lubalin Now, the inaugural exhibition in the newly relocated Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography. The participants in Fan Letter include many designers whose work is featured in the exhibition as well as in Lettering & Type.

- Edition 03 designed by Rob Giampietro
- Eco-Heather Organic & Recycled Garments from Alternative Apparel
- Limited Edition - Never to be Reprinted

Available now exclusively in our shop and shipping immediately, we are proud to release the third installment of the ongoing Vinyl is Forever series.

New York based designer, writer, and teacher Rob Giampietro designed Edition 03, which we printed on Organic Alternative Apparel garments in crew neck t’s, 3/4 sleeve henleys, crew neck sweatshirts and tote bags.

Vinyl is Forever is a quarterly series of limited edition apparel featuring exclusive designs from prominent artists and studios, curated by Soundscreen Design.

A limited quantity of Vinyl is Forever Edition 02 - Andreas Samuelsson, and 3 pieces of Vinyl is Forever Edition 01 - Rob Giampietro are available in our shop.