My band “The Universal” (we are a psychedelic space-rock band from Boise, ID) finally has a website up…still some work to do and a couple dead links, but the majority of it is up and running. It uses a couple of out-of-the-box open source apps which I am pretty fond of – namely Calendarix calendars and JW Flash players.Awwww….my first site. Ain’t it cute?The Universal’s Official Website
Archive for the 'Music' Category
Rock Band Logos 4
October 29, 2007 Another of my all time favorite bands. There was a time when I was growing up that I couldn’t go to any musician’s house and NOT see a Roger Dean poster hanging on the wall in a prominent spot. Usually close to where the bong was kept.
The futuristic and fantastic spaced out landscapes were a serious inspiration to any sci-fi nut, pothead or hardcore prog-rocker. I loved them, I still love them. “Fragile” would surely have to be one of my “desert island” records.
But I must dispense with the rhetoric at last and apply the criteria to the logo and see how it fares on my “special scale.”
HOLDS MYSTERY: While the logo itself is beautiful, yet in connection with the complete “identity” package that Yes and Roger Dean constructed, there just isn’t a whole lot of “mystery” behind the logo. This is not the logo’s strongest point. It’s a great logo – one of the classics, and so it pains me to give it a low score in this category. 6
DESCRIBES THE MUSIC: Definitely one of the higher scoring categories for this particular logo. I think that if I had come across the logo in a record store, without having ever heard the band – I would likely guess correctly in assuming the band was technical, gooey, and literally “fantastic.” Very good example of how a visual element can conjure an imagined auditory response. 10
WORKS WITH SPRAYPAINT: It would be a tough one, but I am going to have to say “YES” it will. The lines between the letters can be cut out carefully and in the end, if all goes well, it would actually make for a pretty strong stencil. 9
VERSATILITY: I have seen this logo used with many color, textures, and effects applied to it. It’s very versatile – works great on t-shirts (wish I had one), posters, album jackets, patches, and bumper stickers. 10
COMPLEXITY: It’s a three-letter word, how complex can it be? Well, try and reproduce it on your own. It’s pretty complex. You can get it close, but I am thinking it took considerable work to design this and get the letter forms to look natural and flowing. A little on the complex side of the fence, this one gets an 8.
Total score for Yes Logo: 8.6
Rock Band Flyer / Colored Pencil
October 28, 2007Colored pencil and various pens. Sensitive young men indeed! Larger : Godzoundz Flyer
Rock Band Logos 3
October 24, 2007 From Wikipedia: “The hook-and-cross logo is that of Kronos, the king of the Titans and father of Zeus in Greek mythology, and is the alchemical symbol for lead, one of the heaviest of metals. Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description “heavy metal” would be aptly applied to Blue Öyster Cult’s musical sound. It was designed by Bill Gawlik and appears on all of the band’s albums.”
One of my all time favorite bands, and one of my all time favorite logos. The legend and story of this band is really pretty awesome, and literally rife with mysterious allegory. Their career is like a riddle within a riddle – with a mysterious “Sandy Pearlman” character lurking behind the curtain. Wikipedia has complied a pretty good history of Blue Oyster Cult. Look into it, I dare you. All the tie-ins with the “Stony Brook” and the Oysters, and “Sandy Pearlman” and it goes on and on.
Fascinating…
I could write thousands of words about this band and this logo – like I said, I am a huge fan.
I will try not to gush, but that is why there are rules to guide me.
HOLDS MYSTERY: Oh yeah. Just try and start googling things like “cross of questioning” and “cross of chronos”
and see what kind of results you get. Back in Jr. High, people thought I was satanic (merely posessed) because I
scrawled the symbol everywhere. Almost got beat up once, but I befuddled the bully. They made a point of hiding it on their record jackets – it became a game to find it. Spectres took forever – it was the hardest one.
Obviously a 10
DESCRIBES THE MUSIC: Well, if I saw the symbol anywhere, on anything, I am just the kind of curious person who would look into it. I think I would have to speculate that they were a thinking, brooding man’s band. Metal for sure…but something more – something not exactly metal. It’s tough to say if this symbol really evokes an imagined “sound.” It’s kind of up in the air, and I have to give it an 8.
WORKS WITH SPRAYPAINT: Hella. 10
VERSATILITY: I’ve seen it decorated a million ways, emblazoned on all manner of merchandise, and it works every time. It’s freakin ancient, dudes. Strong symbology, multiple applications, all around killer, versatile logo. Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. 10
COMPLEXITY: Not too complex, but that tight curve at the bottom takes a little practice to get just right. Simple enough to draw or scrawl, complex enough to make you have to think about it. Love it. A true ten sits squarely on the fence, and this is a great example. 10
Total score for Blue Oyster Cult: 9.6!
Collage / Mixed Media 2
October 24, 2007Another mixed media flyer. Materials were crayon, colored pencil, collage, oil pastels, scraping tool, spittle, and various ball point pens.
Full size version of mixed media band flyer.
Ball Point Pen Wash
October 23, 2007This is a topical piece, actually. It’s an illustration for a song I wrote while I hitch hiked through central Nevada. Heavy ball point pen treated with water and copious crumpling.
Full size version : Ball Point Pen Wash
Banda Elastica
October 23, 2007
Banda Elastica’s second album, Banda Elastica 2 (1986) is a masterpiece of progressive fusion and symphonic prog. Hailing from Mexico, their approach to creating complex spiraling textures while employing a mix of traditional rock instruments as well as flutes and violin, etc is truly matchless in musicianship.
The marimba is deeply reminiscent of later era Frank Zappa compositions. It melds the traditional musical styles of the great nation of Mexico with modern sensibilities and very progressive thinking. Mariachi style guitars complete with lots of flamenco flatpicking and frilly scales that spiral in and out of your conscious listening. The polka is hidden well, but it peeks through the fog every now and then like a snow covered mountaintop peeking through a cloud. The melodies dart around like rainbow colored minnows in a clear sunny brook.
Great drumming, great bass player..even an occasional drum & bass breakdown that is funky and bizarre at the same time.
A lot of this material sounds like there might have been a basic “script” in place for the song structures, but also it sounds very jammy and improvisational. Lots of cool keyboards and synths, at times sounding very jazzy – ala Herbie Hancock.
All in all, this is a fantastic record and you should check it out. Unfortunately, an mp3 has not yet been submitted to progarchives.com, otherwise I’d link you to a free listen. Check them out anyways. If you are a fan of Zappa, and also a fan of symphonic prog then you should seek out Banda Elastica. They are sure not to disappoint.
Rock Band Logos 2
October 22, 2007
Today the logo is for one of my favorite bands of all time….the french prog outfit, MAGMA. A lot can be said about this terrific and spaced out bunch of weirdos, and their logo is one of my personal favorites. You should read the wiki about this band….it’s pretty awesome. They invented their own language to sing in that tied in with a vaguely scientology-esque backstory as to what the band is all about. Vander had a version of the logo cut out of brass and hung on a chain around his neck. So badass.
HOLDS MYSTERY: While there is no real occult significance to this logo, there is a good share of mystery because it ties well into the backstory of the band. It looks like hot lava erupting from a towering volcano and spilling around it, swallowing up some sort of medieval castle structure. The symbology is fierce and fairly direct. I dig it. 7
DESCRIBES THE MUSIC: If you can describe the music of Magma with words, you are doing better than most. While the logo doesn’t really suggest any particular brand of music to me, I think if I came across the logo in a record store, I’d imagine them to sound like some kind of desert-rock 90’s grunge rock metal type band. I would be pretty mistaken in doing so, though I would not have been disappointed if I had bought the record based solely on the logo. This one has to land just above the middle mark.
6
WORKS WITH SPRAYPAINT: I think I would fall over if I saw that someone had made a stencil and spraypainted this logo under the overpass. “Whoa! Someone else has heard of Magma!” It is a clean logo, and without the verbiage, the logo would work great as a stencil. 10
VERSATILITY: Vander with his big brass cutout necklace version says it all. Extremely versatile logo. Looks great in any color, on any material. Works all on it’s own with or without text. 10
COMPLEXITY: While the shape itself is fairly complex, it is one piece, which helps make it simple enough to be reproduced with a sharpee pen or a mauve colored crayola. I would love to meet the pre-teen Magma fan – pretty sure it doesnt exist, but a pre-teen absessed with early seventies frech prog could paint it on their jacket pretty easily, or draw it on their pee-chee folder. 9
Magma Logo Total Score: 8.4
Rock Band Logos 1
October 21, 2007I’m going to start reviewing rock band logos – from the well known to the obscure. I will do one at a time, and I will rate them according to the following methodology:
Categories:
HOLDS MYSTERY: Nature of logo suggests some hidden meaning that one wants to investigate. These symbols are generally derivative of other arcane symbology and can possibly be described as a band’s “sigil.”
DESCRIBES THE MUSIC: Logo’s visual features integrate with the sound of the band and make for a nice package. Can you guess at what the band sounds like by seeing the logo? Reading the book by it’s cover can be more important than mom said it was.
WORKS WITH SPRAYPAINT: My favorite category. Can you cut it out of cardstock and stencil it with spray paint?
VERSATILITY: From small and tucked away on the wing of a tiny airplane to huge and towering above the cowering masses. From black and white to color to on freakin fire.
T Shirts, stickers, album covers, trapper keepers, etc. Does it adapt?
COMPLEXITY: This is doozie. A complex logo can be interesting, but can a 14 year old kid draw it on page 35 of his history book? Can a 17 year old punk rocker paint it on the back of their black leather jacket? How “talented” must one be to reproduce it on their own?
The first one I am going to do is the incredible KISS logo.
The power and simplicity of this band’s entire identity package is undeniably brilliant. The only category that it scores relatively low on is the first one…
HOLDS MYSTERY: While there were certainly widespread rumors that KISS was an acronym for “Knights In Satan’s Service”, even as a 12 year old kid, I figured out that that was just made up malarky. Why? Because their music was about traditional rock and roll stuff, like you know – sex drugs and rock and roll. There was never really anything to suggest any truth behind the satanic rumor. They may have even tried to play this rumor up a bit, but in the end it’s just kinda silly. On a 1 thru 10 I give this category a 4.
DESCRIBES THE MUSIC: The tight angles and jutting text suggests to me immediately that they are heavy metal. The letter I looks disproportionately wide against the other letters, working the macho phallus angle a bit. I wouldn’t really classify KISS as heavy metal, but their logo speaks heavy, which they certainly were. This one gets a 7.
WORKS WITH SPRAYPAINT: No closed loop letters make it ideal for spray painting. Wide letterforms make for room for creativity, even more than one color. Great for stencils. 10.
VERSATILITY: These are the categories where this logo scores very high. Extremely versatile logo – we’ve all seen how well it worked through the years on t-shirts, denim jackets, patches, head scarves, stickers, posters…there is nothing that this logo won’t work on. Very strong…10.
COMPLEXITY: Not very complex. A high score in this category suggests that the level of acceptable complexity is proportional to the drawing skill of it’s intended audience. Kids can draw it. Adults can draw it or sew or embroider it. 9.
Average score for KISS logo : 8
Next time: Judas Priest? Magma? Blue Oyster Cult? We shall see.
The Universal EP now available
October 20, 2007At Long Last, the 4-song super cd ep from my band, The Universal is ready.
You can buy it, listen to it, even download it here.
We are currently working on our full length release, and it’s full of surprises! In the meantime, subsist with the ep. It has the video for Dead Battery Accident by J. Sievers – a claymation masterpiece – even featured on IFC last July!
