What is it about the French and the goofy faces on their album covers? A great deal of the bad album art I’ve seen this year has some kind of face-pulling on the cover. This one I truly don’t get, but they would probably say that’s because I’m just a stupid cowboy. We can thank Reagan for that stereotype, no doubt.
The blue face paint and robot outfit (or is that a radiation suit?) are completely bewildering. Maybe this is some kind of retro/future Braveheart thing.
Before you say a DAMN THING, you have to burn this fact directly into your cerebral cortex and try to recover your sanity before proceeding: This band from Finland, Lordi, are the 2006 winners of the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST with this.
There’s nothing I can say that will make this picture any funnier. Just LOOK AT IT! If that isn’t quite enough for you, there’s always this video. Fear the reaper. Remember kids, you too can dress up like Cookie Monster death rockers with oatmeal face makeup and win the Eurovision Song Contest…as long as you gargle with gravel and orange juice first.
Continue reading WTF Album Covers: Lordi Hardrock Hallelujah
I can’t get into the notions I keep seeing on YouTube when it comes to how to clean vinyl records. Steam and wood glue seem to be popular with some, but I refuse to inflict such punishments on my record collection. I present this video as a curiosity…but if you’re REALLY tempted to give this a shot, may I suggest trying it on the most disposable record in your collection as a test first?
Continue reading Cleaning Vinyl Records…If You’re Really Brave
by Joe Wallace
Is this really happening? According to the Dallas Observer, yes. Cassettes are apparently getting their own little renaissance. I personally have spotted cassettes–new ones–for sale in my neighborhood home of all things vinyl and groovy, Laurie’s Planet of Sound, which I highly recommend.
Tapes have been on the pop culture radar for ages–you can buy cassette tape themed tees at Old Navy, Threadless and elsewhere, and I myself just purchased a mix tape button from one of my fellow Etsy sellers, Buttonhead.
Butthonhead seems to be a fellow retro junkie, and if her work–and all those tape tees–can be used as a barometer of the rise of tape culture, we might just be in for an interesting new collector frenzy.
Suits me just fine–I drive a vehicle still equipped with a tape deck in spite of having been made in 2003. But it’s strange, isn’t it? In the age of CD Baby, iTunes, and digital distro that the physicality of cassettes–not just vinyl or even 8-track tapes–is still in demand. A cultural meme. A fetish?
The mix tape was definitely a major part of 80s and 90s culture and nothing has come along to quite replace it–it was a unique animal to be sure, and no matter how hard you try, “mix disc” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
What’s YOUR take on this trend? I’d welcome a return of the mix tape, myself…
One-inch Mix Tape buttons by Buttonhead. I own the blue one.