Posts Tagged ‘ Melvins ’

One Less On The ‘Things To Do In Life’ List

As someone who upon stumbling into adulthood discarded popular music for whatever I could find on the fringe that excited me, one name commonly underpinned most of what I was into. That name was Amphetamine Reptile Records (or AMREP for short). Unsane, The Jesus Lizard, The Melvins, Cows, Helmet and many more names were the most exciting bands that I had ever heard at the time – In some ways they still are almost two decades later.

Anyway, I’ll try to keep this post shorted than a novella. The music I make with my best friends is the also the music we love, informed by the music we love. So after playing music for only seven years, five of which were as part of No Anchor, AMREP head honcho Tom Hazelmyer (HAZEXXL to you) – who both new and had heard of my band – offered to release some of our music.

This my friends is about as lofty a musical aspiration as I’ve ever had!

Amrep-1

 

Amrep-2

And here it is. On 10inchs of vinyl with as a bonus, two woodcuts of mine. A lot of work, sweat, organising, fear, excitement and elation went into this. I’m super proud of it. Below is some snaps of the prints coming together as well as the limited edition versions which had hand-printed covers by me. The standard edition was printed care of Matt at 7th Disaster Screeprinting

Amrep-3

 

Amrep-4

 

Amrep-5

I’d include a link to where you can buy it but upon it’s release back in June the entire edition of 500 sold out in about five hours. Not bad for a underground noiserock band from Brisbane Australia. The best I can offer is two filmclips made by HAZE. I liek to think of them as insights into his demented genius…

HAZE also did a version of the record with his linocut artwork (as opposed to my woodcut artwork)…

Hazecover

I never thought my visual art or my music, both new things in my life would reap rewards like this. Remember, think big kids!

2014
09/02
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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Making Records For Woodcuts (Or The Other Way Around)

I’ve got to say it is both fun and a lot of pressure doing artwork for albums or singles or any music to be released. Trying to match the sounds to images and translate other people’s thoughts on the music they have made is not always a seemless process. Luckily for me, my latest project has been my own. By that I mean I’ve been calling the shots which has made the final outcome that much more important to me.

The back story is late last year, one of my closest friends and I made some music together of which I thought it was good and decided to make it something more than just a few jams in a room. From there I got more friends to help me extract what I heard in my head and even went so far as to learn a new instrument (the musical saw no less). Now I am happy to be in possession of the 10-inch record below. It’s a little country, a little heavy and kinda weird but I dig it!

10inch-1

Now that might have next to nothing to do with printmaking or woodcuts. But you see, I get no greater pleasure than when I’m creating something out of nothing. Playing drums, playing instruments that belong in a hardware store, carving a woodblock or making a book – when you step back and look at what you’ve made, it’s pretty cool.

So apart from the 100 copies of the record that I hope to eventually send out into the world, I decided to spend the last few days making a single copy of the record that had all my creative loves fused into one artifact. I am really proud of what I finished off today, to me it’s an artist book, it’s a record, it’s some of my best woodcuts to date and as someone who also likes collecting records, it’s the most deluxe release I could come up with (with some ink, paper, tape and scissors).

It is hardcover and adorned with four original woodcuts and I’ve even put the test-pressing of the record in there. This one-off creation will be on show (and available) at my exhibition opening on the 23rd May (see the invite below) even though I really would like to keep this one for myself!

Front and back cover

10inch-6 Inside gatefold10inch-5 Back cover10inch-4

Front Cover10inch-3 Inside 10inch-2

2013
05/13
CATEGORY
Artist Books
Exhibition
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1 comment

HAZE XXL

As someone who is devoted to printmaking as much as I am to music. I find that a lot of the people who inspire me don’t necessarily come from the standard cannon of historically successful artists. Sure I can look at Hiroshige or Durer and appreciate what they helped create but in this day and age it’s the hands on artists that I love the most. Mix into that the DIY aesthetic that fuels punk rock music and you get people like Tom Hazelmyer from Minneapolis in the US – quite easily the person who’s artistic perspective I admire above anyone else. Everyone needs people to look up to so they can say to themselves “I can do that” and “I want to be as good as them” – and that’s not coming from a style perspective but from one of attitude.

Here’s a really cool clip I just watched on Tom that showcases his printmaking endevours. You don’t need to like the music to like where he’s taking art but it certainly helps…

and here’s a linocut poster that Tom made that hangs above my stereo.

Lino-poster

2013
02/12
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Friends
Inspiration
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