Tag Archives: bad album art

WTF Album Covers: Bored Housewife

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Bored Housewife are a lo-fi punk band from Belfast. This album cover for “Too Horny To Sleep, Too Tired To Wank” is definitely a major winner for the band if they have the following goals:

1. To sell NO ALBUMS

2. To actively encourage people NOT TO BUY THIS ALBUM

3. To show the world just how indifferent they are to their own music.

The philosophy that’s always informed a band’s inclusion into the Turntabling WTF Bad Album Cover Hall of Shame is that an album cover has one important purpose–to sell the music and make people interested in hearing what’s on the record, CD, etc.

Sometimes that’s accomplished by making the album mysterious–a solid color field or deliberately non-representational artwork. Sometimes the artwork is so complex that it takes ages to figure out just what the hell is happening on the cover.

And then…there’s crap like this. I gotta hand it to them, they’ve certainly conveyed that the band doesn’t give a toss.  What? That’s NOT what you were trying to say at all? Well, stranger, from a newcomer to your music…

I hate to be the arsehole in the room about stuff like this, I really do. The real tragedy about this particular album cover is that if they had just left off the stick figure and let the cover fly with JUST the grungey cardboard/particle board packaging it would have been 100% more effective.

But I’m just this dumb vinyl junkie, what do I know? Continue reading WTF Album Covers: Bored Housewife →

WTF Album Covers: Hello Lovers Roger Nusic Here For You Only

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Knowing absolutely nothing about this record other than this wacko-jacko album cover, the first thing that springs to mind when I look at the image is, “I remember THAT SCENE in Cannibal Holocaust…” The liner notes for this Roger Nusic album on CD Baby helpfully mention the contribution of a drummer named Sticky Dave Friendly. With a name like that, can a career in porn be very far away?

Unfortunately for Roger Nusic, the album covers only get creepier from here. Feast your eyes on THIS:

I weep for the future.

–Joe Wallace

WTF Album Covers: Fun Da Mental Erotic Terrorism

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For the record, I have not heard this album, I know nothing of Fun Da Mental or anything they do. I am simply responding to an album cover by Fun Da Mental that I discovered for sale on Amazon. That said…I think I am IN LOVE with this album cover. Seriously. I want a framed copy to hang in the studio above my mixing board to remind me of what might have been.

I have no idea what was going through the mind of the special someone who designed this cover, but it’s a work of frickin GENIUS. I believe this is supposed to represent South Asian people in some sort of political commentary that I am clueless about, but what it says to me is some kind of Mexican direct-to-video action movie poster repurposed for an album cover. And the NAME of this record–hot DAMN, that’s inspired. I laughed out loud, very nearly spraying Earl Grey all over my screen.

EROTIC TERRORISM? The very idea…it’s so out there I couldn’t help looking for a secret Beastie Boys imprint on the cover somewhere. It sounds like something they’d pull for laughs. But the customer reviews of this record indicate these lads are SERIOUS…they aren’t kidding around even with a title like EROTIC…..TERRORISM.

All I can say here is…wow.

—Joe Wallace

Continue reading WTF Album Covers: Fun Da Mental Erotic Terrorism →

WTF Album Covers Disco Rick Has A Mouthful For You

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WTF album covers Disco Rick

If you think this is a throwaway from Chappelle’s Show, think again. The Negro’s Back by Disco Rick is one hell of a bewildering album cover. Is he brandishing the KKK hood because he just beat the living crap out of some inbred redneck throwback or is he threatening to MAKE YOU WEAR IT?

The flames on this WTF album cover are also confusing. Is Disco Rick in HELL here? Or maybe he’s just set fire to his own pants because, you know, it makes him feel sexy. Disco Rick isn’t sporting any disco attire here, so it’s not exactly clear what kind of disco we’re dealing with here. Perhaps this album cover is actually an ADVERTISEMENT for a redneck disco that features a nightly bonfire and weenie roast. Or maybe Disco Rick is actually a fireman and we’re mistaking a piece of safety equipment for a Klan hood.

No, that’s not right.

There’s SOME kind of statement going on here, just hard to figure out what it is. The noose, the fire, and the hood would all be pretty emotionally loaded, politically charged stuff…except the message is coming from a guy with the word DISCO in his stage name. It’s the equivalent of getting a book in the mail titled, “The Relative Merits of James Joyce and William Faulkner” written by HOWARD STERN. Continue reading WTF Album Covers Disco Rick Has A Mouthful For You →