I am a strong supporter of the idea that, regardless of things like image, it's the music that really matters. Certainly I have never stopped liking a band because they 'weren't cool enough'. Regardless, things like a good band name, a good album name, or good cover art are always plusses. So...what are your favorites?27 responses total.
For me...
Band names:
Southgoing Zak (Gotta love Dr. Seuss)
Average White Band
God Lives Underwater
Fred's Not Irish (Maybe it was Bob. Or Joe. I don't remember. *Someone*
Isn't Irish, and that's the important part)
Dr. Teeth and the Elecrtic Mayhem (Of *course* they're a real band. Do you
have a problem with muppets?)
Blue Vinyl.
Album Art:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Of course)
Axis, Bold as Love (Of course)
Brain Salad Surgery--Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (Of course)
Still Climbing--Cinderella
Little Earthquakes--Tori Amos (More for the liner notes than the actual cover)
Superunknown--Soundgarden
More when I think of them...
Album art: Zooropa, U2 Ten, Pearl Jam AEnima, Tool Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters Use Your Illusion I & II, Guns and Roses Smash, Offspring Artist names: Pearl Jam Foo Fighters Metallica Korn Stone Temple Pilots The Smashing Pumpkins More later as I go album shopping with my eye on names and art. I just can't think right now.
Steeleye Span, COMMONERS CROWN; photo of a large crown assembled out of little golden figures of people. Beatles, ABBEY ROAD; Paul is dead, man.
Pink Floyd--Pulse. (Except for the little blinky light thing, which bugs the hell out of me. *Never* try to sleep in the same room as this CD) The Verve Pipe--Villains (Mostly for the blue jewel box)
Another set of liniers that I like is Collective Soul's eponymous album, with or without the gold jewel case.
I think I'm swayed by a good title more than a good album cover but I do have a weakness for cool packaging -- within limits.. When it comes to CDs there is a very fine line between creative packaging and annoying packaging.. As much as I enjoyed the creativity used in coming up with LP packaging I have to admit to being pretty straitlaced when it comes to CDs. Anything that breaks or wears out faster than a standard jewel box usually starts to get on my nerves.
I have, from time to time, gone against my own advice and bought an album solely on the merit of band name or cover art. I have rarely been dissappointed.
We're only in it for the Monay-Zappa Farewell-Karen Mantler Tropic Appetites-Carla Bley LEd Zepplin III(with the moving parts on it) Supertramp-Breakfast in America
I got the zippered "Sticky Fingers" by The Rolling Stones in
both LP and CD.
I have avoided buying CDs not in jewel boxes. Ones that don't
file well with the others,or one of those carboard covers that don't
close.
Generally, I would have to say I can enjoy the art that came
along with an album I would buy anyway, though my eye had been caught
by a good work of album art.
the problem with jewel cases is that they fall aprat way too easily.. too fragile, I think they're an inferior storage system. but they're standard. Not that the cardboard is an improvement or anything.
BTW, I did see a music and video store at Briarwood that sells replacement jewel boxes, 20 for $9.99 (plus the mandatory contribution to John Engler's favorite charity).
re #10: My jewel-boxes stand up to a surprising amount of abuse, though there are certain types of blow that will generally kill them (the two tabs that hold the cover to the main body of the case seem to be the most fragile part..) Despite their flaws they're still better than 99% of the alternative "solutions" I've seen and have this virtue as well -- if anything *does* happen to them they're completely replaceable.
cool cover/inset art: Boys For Pele, by Tori Amos, has this picture of her
siting in a chair with a pig at her breast which I think is somehwere between
weird and hilarious; there's a picture of a broken lightbulb on the back of
on of Tori's singles, the God single I think, where they took the shards and
formed the letters of her name with them; I have a Cecilia Bartoli cd which
has a whole bunch of pictures of her, which I think are very spiffy (if I look
half that good someday, I'll make an album too (; )...
My problem is that I don't own enough cds. I like ALL of the album
art on Joni Mitchell's vinals. (=
Not for my AEnima CD by Tool, it isn't. AENima has a bit of a special case.. too bad I got it predamaged.
I like the new cardboard cases from Impulse. . .
Depeche Mode: Violator (and the Enjoy The Silence single CD which is similar)
B-52's: Good Stuff
Suzanne Vega: Nine Objects of Desire
Ray Lynch: No Blue Thing (Music West release)
Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire II and A Fresh Aire Christmas
Chicago (1975 compilation-- forget the number)
Depeche Mode: Ultra, A Broken Frame
The Lightning Seeds: Sense
Erasure: Erasure
Tim Noah: Daredreamer
Enya: Shepherd Moons
The Cure: Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Notes:
1. The single rose has been one of Depeche Mode's greatest icons. It seemed
to be the symbol for the World Violation tour. The art for Ultra, however,
has captured them in all their melancholy glory-- dark, gothic/industrial
images-- the three with guitars, Dave with eyes painted on his eyelids, photos
of a hand with the nails painted black and a bracelet about the wrist-- truly
creepy. By contrast, _A Broken Frame_ has much more innocent imagery. Brian
Griffin took pictures of the three as young, hopeful, and still somewhat
innocent-looking. The cover has a peasant woman threshing wheat in the field.
2. I say the Music West release, and not the Windham-Hill repackage. The
cover has a blue sun with the title in the center, and an egg-shaped planet
beneath it.
3. Fresh Aire II has Jackson Berkey at a keyboard, while Chip Davis conducts
in an exaggerated manner with an overflowing score. Don Sears looks on in
an old aviation cap and goggles. All around them is hay, dead leaves, and
a crisp autumn air. A Fresh Aire Christmas has Christmas trees shooting like
rockets, each with clear ornamental globes with different items in them-- one
being the famous steamroller.
4. The Chicago album I speak of is where the band is trying to paint the logo
on a wall from a pulley scaffold. They're making a mess, since a cop is
hassling them, an apartment tenant is threatening to cut the rope, and a dog
is trying to pull one of them out. The flip side of the LP shows the
resulting mess of the project.
5. Anyone heard of the Lightning Seeds? Sense just has some nice pictures
of rockets, stars, and comets on it. hard to explain.
6. Erasure usually has really engaging cover art, but the art in the liner
notes of this self-titled album is really cute. The picture shows Vince and
Andy in the interior of a spaceship that's more like a music studio. Vince
is at the controls in the distance, with his back facing you. Andy is in the
foreground, crooning into a microphone.
7. This Seattle artist started out with a children's audience ("In Search
Of The Wild Wild Wibble Wazzle Woo"), but this album is directed to the young
at heart as well. It's a painted black and white photo, with Tim threading
a ribbon into a teacup (relates to the title song-- "a vision in a teacup..")
8. I think this Enya album has the best art of all. The pictures are
flattering, warm, soft, and engaging. The cover photo was taken in a soft
blue light that works well. Incidentally, this album also won a Grammy.
9. The art is close-up photos of lips and two different eyes. Psychadelic,
perhaps, but beautiful in their colorful realism.
I believe you're refering to Chicago 6, or 8. (I have all of them up to 13 when I stopped collecting them due to the death of Terry Kath). I think the best Chicago albums are 2,5,7,9,and 11.
Enya's always had good liner art.
Diverging a bit from popular music here, but the cover to the Kronos Quartet's CD "Black Angels" is pretty damn cool: A head tilted back, mouth open, in an anguished-looking way, with a single black feather floating above the mouth.
art (in no particular order of preference): jethro tull's "stormwatch," "thick as a brick," "songs from the wood," and "too old to rock 'n' roll, too young to die." steeleye span's "commoners crown." the beatles' "revolver," "sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band," and the butcher cover. king crimson's "discipline." david bowie's "diamond dogs." there are more, but that's enough for now. band names (again, no particular order): echo and the bunnymen the residents the plimsouls itchy dog butt siouxsie and the banshees duran duran (i think the name was the best thing about them) bongwater red hot chili peppers violent femmes i'll add more when they occur to me.
For titles I'd definately agree with Electric Mayhem. (But then I've always been a muppetty kind of person!) I also like the name The Toyal Macadamians, even though I know nothing about them. I loved the cover art for Enya's _Memory of Trees_. That is just the *coolest* dress in exsistance.
Cool cover art: Jackie Gleason presents Lonesome Echo with cover art by "the eminent contemporary artist Salvador Dali". Even has a tune on it called "Deep Purple", hmmm.....I wonder.....?
You didn't know that Jackie Gleason was a bandleader as well as a very funny comedian, didja?
Re:21 The Royal Macadamians, sorry. (Toyal? What kind of a word is that?) I also think the name Skinned Cats would make a cool name for a band, orin. (sorry. Inside joke. You had to be there.)
Of course Gleason was a composer, director, etc. All the music used on his show was his! "And away we go".
RE #25 Wasn't Sammy Spear Gleason's orchestra leader on his TV show?
Sure, but it was all Gleason's music. This is not to be confused with Patrick Gleason, whose all electronic "The Four Seasons" is very good also. Generated graphic for the cover, and a very intense thunderstorm in the summer.
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