In these tough economic times™, it’s important to remember the things that are truly important in life—things like music and album artwork.
Prior to moving 9,000 Pounds of Crap as part of the NLASTBISOTSPOTUSA—aka the Southern Expedition, there was the urge to purge, to reduce—not via lap bands—but via reduction, reselling, recycling, re-prioritizing the deadly spread of mediocre CDs and outdated notions that had begun to clutter the interior of the fit n’ fightin’ Triskaidekaphobia World Headquarters.
Moderate success is all that can be hoped for against such a large opponent in so short a time—unless you’re a soulless sociopath, which isn’t possibly on the schedule for Triskaidekaphobia until at least early April (conditions depending). With renewed inspiration from our outpost’s tiny quarters, and the ever-influential words of Mr. Essler, further heaps of shit are being shoveled aside. “Great,” you say, “but what does this have to do with records?”.
Well…
Art Vinyl makes a nice product called the Play & Display that allows you to easily hang your favorite album art up while still being able to remove the record and play it. This is a good storage solution if floor space is limited, and your local ruthless landlord doesn’t mind 800 nails in the wall.
Art Vinyl has also compiled the best 50 album covers of 2008. Not a Designer’s Republic design among them! We guess they were dead, after all. It’s an interesting list, even if we think a lot of it sucks (IONSHO, natch).
If you prefer your album artwork on actual albums, which you could actually stare at, while you actually got baked in your basement after school, then you should check out For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis. For those not in the know, they did yer Led Zeppelins, yer Pink Floyds and Peter Gabriels, yer Black Sabbaths, fer christssakes! back in the day. A full review is on The Designer’s Review of Books, so don’t look around here for one. Plus, you wouldn’t be able to find it. Too much junk still lying around.
Best to get one now, if interested: it’s on sale from the publisher, PictureBox, for $20USD +shipping. Whatta steal! The office got a copy, which is in its shipping box… somewhere… in here. We think it’s behind the boxes.
So, the War Against Things continues. Two steps thrown out, one step bought and shipped back. We’ll be getting rid of more mediocrity soon.
Does, uh, does anyone want these Autour de Lucie CDs?