The score for these commercials is incredible.

Pictures from an exhibitionist.

I think it turned out well.

The album, Western Medicine, was intended to be a vinyl only release, and they spared no expense in pursuing that – recorded to analog tape, mastered specifically for vinyl (this is different from how one masters something for CD), and pressed into 180 gram virgin vinyl. I’m not a vinyl fetishist, personally, but I do think that if that’s important to you then you should do it the way these guys did. Whatever the differences in sound quality may be, I would suggest that they depend doing the job to the highest possible standard. The vinyl’s used or flimsy? Don’t bother. Your cousin recorded it on his Fostex? It’s not worth it. The main argument for vinyl (from my perspective) is that it is a very mature technology, and several extremely smart engineers have spent several decades working to make it sound good. All of that benefit is negated is you press a flexi-disc. It will still play, and hipster kids will still buy it, but you’re not doing the music any favors.

Doing it the right way is, however, extremely expensive. The idea of sending some high percentage of those expensive records off to reviewers or as promotional items struck everyone involved as a waste of money. Furthermore, there are people like me who don’t buy records for whatever reason (although this one does come with the CD included and a great cover, so there’s a good reason to make an exception here).

So we hit upon the idea of packaging the CD as a 16 bit replica of the album. Something cheap and utilitarian that will give you the impression of the album, but not the same. It’s like a photo of a painting.

The package itself looks inexpensive and utilitarian, but still elegant. Design-wise, I was thinking of the crate-like wooden boxes that Sovtek Big Muff pedals used to be packaged in: something cheaply functional, but so cool on its own that you just knew there was something good inside. The raw cardboard, one-color printing, and hand-folded package all seem slightly shoddy, but the embossed logo gives it a sophisticated quality.

The CD itself has the portrait of the band printed on the face (painted by my wife), giving the package a shot of color when you open it up.

This is also related to the promo packages I sent out when our two bands went on tour together.

Pictures from an exhibitionist.

Pictures from an exhibitionist.

Several of the canvases are quite large, and it was nice to see them in a space where they had enough breathing room.

The artist said he hopes it some day gets bought by a museum, who will be obliged to let it try to sell itself again.

This seems very appropriate for the cynical art world. Clever, funny, but ultimately only relevant in the context of the art world. A tautology. Sort of like a Warhol film – better to hear about than to have to sit through.

Pictures from an exhibitionist.

I’ve only owned it for a few hours now, but it’s easily the nicest guitar I’ve ever touched. It’s incredibly easy to play, very resonant, and solidly built. And it looks great. This model is the DD, because it was originally built for Dwayne Dennison of the Jesus Lizard. I actually chose it because I wanted to switch to playing a hollowbody, but DD’s taste is undeniable, and doesn’t hurt the cool factor.

Alright – back to playing it.

The first one is the original artwork for a poster made sometime during the war. The others are reproductions of posters dating from during the war, with one more recent (the 1990s, I believe).

Pictures from an exhibitionist.

I love Oakland. Yes, okay, technically his shop is in Berkeley, but it’s the most Oakland part of Berkeley, and I claim him for our side.

For those interested, he has a website, which displays the graphic flare shown above. I particularly love this:

He also sells t-shirts (down at the bottom of the page).

I’ve got to find a way to work this into a client project soon. Wouldn’t your product’s name look great spelled out in emeralds on one of these sets?