This site will no longer be updated. I have moved the Steak News, Steaf of Interest, etc. to http://steakmtn.tumblr.com/. Shit is just easier to post on. Real.
20110610
20110511
Ice Cream Man is Plumbing. (NSFW)
Everyone in Southern California (well, Los Angeles) are two months away from seeing the Heather Gabel x Steak Mtn. : SUPERNATURAL? PERHAPS show @ POVevolving. The opening is Saturday, July 9th from 6pm to 10pm. As the pitch swells and soaks the internet....I will be previewing a finger or two from the shuffle of Steak work. If you have seen the flyer, then you have seen the flyer, but the image over there is newish to the internet. It ain't got no name yet, but I am sure it will be something snappy, ironic and/or extending a cryptactical enough approach that keeps the public from talking to the Steak inbox about "what I mean", "where is that from", "will you do artwork for my band", etc. You would think it would work inversely,but I have been lucky penny as fuck these past few years. Maybe it's all the shit I talk about "street art". So, on top of the everything you are looking at today on the layer cake, here are two things that may or may not get you ready to look at more come the month of July. Seymour here : http://steakmtn.com/#1436468/-SUPERNATURAL-PERHAPS
20110405
Alt to the Alt : April 9th, 7pm.
HOODS UP, FLATS OUT :
I am going to play this post straight and narrow; no histrionics, no chatter, no pike-pulling esophagus slapping. Well, apparently a little, but I aim to ingratiate the setting with a little slippery ease, looking to set a record for writing one of these things in a final-throw phase and not get so complicated. Commercials for things shouldn't be complicated, shouldn't be a riddle to figure out I am trying to sell you something or set an idea as a good one in your head with a litany long in the tooth. And so with that, I am on-this to on-you with some helpful "What am I going to do in Los Angeles on April 9th?" information....which do to some bug in the blogness gets really small and you should get out the magnifying eye Sherlock because remember, I am trying to keep this short in type and upkeep so I can't get all "under the hood" and try to bring up the font size. Ramble.
HERE IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING via the Art Debauchery Organization site :
I am going to play this post straight and narrow; no histrionics, no chatter, no pike-pulling esophagus slapping. Well, apparently a little, but I aim to ingratiate the setting with a little slippery ease, looking to set a record for writing one of these things in a final-throw phase and not get so complicated. Commercials for things shouldn't be complicated, shouldn't be a riddle to figure out I am trying to sell you something or set an idea as a good one in your head with a litany long in the tooth. And so with that, I am on-this to on-you with some helpful "What am I going to do in Los Angeles on April 9th?" information....which do to some bug in the blogness gets really small and you should get out the magnifying eye Sherlock because remember, I am trying to keep this short in type and upkeep so I can't get all "under the hood" and try to bring up the font size. Ramble.
HERE IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING via the Art Debauchery Organization site :
ART DEBAUCHERY ORGANIZATION presents
// ALT to the ALT
// an xxx-themed art event
SHOW CAVE
3501 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles 90065
OPENING:
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
7pm
"ALT to the ALT" is an XXX-themed art event showcasing some of the well-respected movers and pornographers within the alt porn industry through their photography and art.
"ALT" is "Alternative". True to the saying, there is an Alternative to everything. The "alt" in adult cinema is an aesthetic difference that showcase the work of these pornographers as artists, rather than playing to the general public's stereotype of the adult industry. By pushing the boundaries of the artform, these artists bring forth the true ALT to the Alt.
Now, I am in this show, as you can see on the Steak designed flyer. The four pieces I have in the show are three original works (one being the one below) and one Risograph print of a photo manipulation I did (of a still from the absolute creepfest PAIN MANIA) for Landfill/Manymono called TENDER LEATHER. Minus me, because we should always minus me, Rae Threat (who is a wicked shutterbug; check her site for some NSFW type darkness) has wrangled, snapped and slopped some fucking awesome artists (who fit the carnal criteria) into Showcave's space : Eon Mckai, Kimberly Kane, Carlos Batts, Courtney Trouble & Bob Coulter. All of these links, may I mention for all your teens reading this blog or day workers stealing time from the "man"....are pornographic in the absolute prurient settle, tone and touch of the word Pornography. So, they are 18+ as fuck and NSFW as hands grab ankles. Beware and all that. But more importantly, COME TO THE SHOW.
Here is a list of important links :
20110314
Blood Steak, Part One.
The Graveyard Bell : Here is What You Know - Spring is coming and Summer is creeping in it's freshly minted shadow. This stretch of "Nature" has it's spine centered & driving a familiar, natural course, naturally & it usually leads civilians & creatives to the hope that there's hope for some sort of a personal, maybe professional, possibly supernatural rebirth rubbed from Winter's rumbling, counterintuitive minstrelsy. For the % of us that like the cold because it co-pilots the hiding of our plush figures with 80% laundry and/or we just don't like to sweat and/or we are enemies of the sun, it is founded information that we might not be fans of the molting of North America's frostbitten cycle to a microwaved one. Me? Well, yeah, I fucking hate the Summer/sweating/shorts as men's fashion/sunlight, and that, if you know me or are a good enough judge of lite-read posturing, is not that tough of a call I guess...but awkwardly for me & maybe ironically to those readers, it does facilitate THE optimum atmosphere to see many of the t-shirts I have drawn/designed/fumbled my way through. And so, here we are, it's Summer-Coming-Fire time and I have some new non-band branded shirts spilling out in 2x double seasonal doses via Los Angeles' textile empire, Blood Is The New Black.
The first two that are up now are up now for order......the next two should be up at some point soon and are equally, obviously Steakish in their handling of bum-outs, dark art, gallows humor, side-saddling, moral twilight, etc. And once they are all four fingers in the air, I will write up an emotional journal of a journey's intention and how my sincere pencil is mapping the night sky with every single feeling I have about about fun, dancing, relationships, romance & tanning one's supple skin under God's great architecture......but until then, feast your holes on the first two up for sale over at BITNB.
20110313
"Supernatural? Perhaps." : Eggs Laid.
I wish it was spelled Layed. Anyway, Here is the flyer for Heather Gabel and I's upcoming show in Los Angeles at POVevolving. The opening is July 9th, 7pm to probably 10pm. We are doing something different this time around, where we will be showing new artwork in the front room & then in POV's project room, Heather and I will be covering the walls in all the bits and pieces, discarded xeroxes, original drawings, nausea that we have used in both of our ten plus years of illustrating and designing records, shirts, ephemera for punk, hardcore and rock bands.Click the image for a larger look.
20101220
I Probably Hate You : 2010
If light, dark & the oreo in between ever mattered as an evolving grace of personality, derring-do and/or artistic chops, 2010 would be the mail-order bride to my far flung Frankenstein. But, since time's are in fact and painfully, obviously modern (or modernity via energy or modern maternity via science) and we are all cogging and clogging up the information highway bit by bit, wet on wet and with no longevity past self importance and ego-has-landedness, it really doesn't matter much what I did this year except that when I tell you that it was quite a year, you won't think homeboy is bluffing and you will just believe that I did some stuff via the sample sale lineage of a decade starter below. Get that? It's getting worse, trust me, I know, I mean I am the one writing this crap. And with all the further ado I can mustard onto your toast, here is the Steak Mtn. Year In Review in spades, aces and clubs.....sorry, bullet points, in no order of importance or timeline, just dropped into the shoot and skipped over by you.• Against Me! White Crosses - My Heaven's Gate, the flagship, a body cast of sorts for the Steak year was this project (you can read the nonsense I wrote about it here.). The art and design went from skyscraper to shack so quickly, so sobering-ly, so....well, stupidly that collectively we should have seen it as a witch telling you that you are going to die but your ghost will haunt a mall for three years post. But...no one knows future math, there are no psychics anywhere and here we are : the record looks as solid as it could be under the constraints of a tumbling industry in a tailspin of smash & grab, the band has been "let go" from the corporate infrastructure and well, that's all I know right now.
• Fake Problems Real Ghosts Caught on Tape - The other undulating sparkle in the greater gullet of this year's portfolio was this shining step into a style that pitted my....darker (?) (transgressive? abject? boring? repetitive?) sensibilities with a re-papering of Nothing Feels Good-era record designs (for you young kids out there, I am referring to "early" emo record designs, more directly referring to The Promise Ring's only passably terrible record Nothing Feels Good.). I wrote extensively & ghostly about it all here & the portfolio page can be viewed here. Exciting.
• Guiltmaker The Emerald Coast - Dude, just go download the fucking record already, man. Here is the art, here is the blog post.
• Light Yourself on Fire Sea Legs - Here is the shatter spot from my original March post. It all still applies to your current reality, even in the light fast drip of our time, down here : Light Yourself on Fire's new digital EP is official, on the ramp, finalized in it's triplicate malaise and ready to purchase. Click on this THIS and it will take you to where you need to go and shake some dollars for it. As is my personal and professional history with LYOF, Steak Mtn. has supplied the face for it's digital life. It's funny that we are at this place in time that I design xeroxed veneered images for records that will never really be printed for the rub & handle.
• The Weight Nowhere Now - I don't know if this record is actually out yet, as I haven't seen it, but regardless, the design I did dead-on hit a light nostalgia in a dead-on way that I have never hit any nostalgia mark prior, so I am happy with it and am always happy to at least mention the boys and Bryce in a post because, well, I don't hate them at all at all and like to pass traffic in their directions.
• Weirdly enough, I forget that I am an artist...Artist, I mean and to lead with that thought of announcing, two art shows happened in 2010 and one met with the sting of professional abortion/bad luck. Here the write up for the one that Heather Gabel & I did in the Minneapolis. And here is the group show that Alexis Anne Mackenzie put together in Los Angeles that is still up and can be viewed by the living & vacationing of LA. The failed example was a group show called PLAIN AIR put together by Brain from Apenest for Cinders in Brooklyn......my part failed because of the post office eating my art piece. The show looked rad though, great job Brian.
• I am pretty sure I only gave one interview this year & it was for Bomb Magazine's blog via whizzkid Peter Moysaenko. There is not much to say about it other then what I would normally say, but in my defense I don't talk about being a mercenary once in the whole interview.
• Today! In Adult Film is the final thing on this year's list, closing credits and all. It's not so much Steak Mtn. related as it is Christopher Norris related and for those that know what I do during the day (or saw what Hanley wrote at Urban Outfitters and/or how McSwain tipped off Vice to post something), already know about the empty, PG-13 pictures I take on set semi-daily for TODAY!. For those that do not but have a tapped or untapped interest in the scenery of pornography over the splashy bits and slushy flesh of porn, should bookmark TODAY! IN ADULT FILM and be ready to look at empty rooms with furniture in them. You might enjoy it but I don't think you can fiddle your beef parts at it. Unless you have a wild imagination and you colorform your own scenes onto the supplied images, because you are preoccupied with the carnal side of humanity. That's legit. Try working that magic on the posted example at the roof of this post.
_______________________________________________________
Things I Know Are Happening in 2011
• Four Steak designs & two Steak/Derek Albeck collaborations for Blood Is The New Black are in the pipeline for Summertime releases. Can't show you pictures yet, but trust me, they look like t-shirts with Steak Mtn. artwork on them.
• Solo show in Los Angeles, in June-ish, at POVevolving. It will be called "Supernatural? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not." Which word to the geeks out there, is yes, a Ulmer/Lugosi/Karloff/Monkees reference in absolute pretentiousness.
And that's it. I don't have a good sign off this year, sorry.
20101206
"DISSONANCE" Group Show, Curated by Alexis Anne Mackenzie.
Dear Art Lovers of Los Angeles,To your browsing left is the web-flyer for a group show, curated by Alexis Anne Mackenzie and opening at POVevolving on Saturday December 11th. If you have ever been to an "art" opening anywhere in America or......Berlin, then you are familiar enough to know that these things start at 7pm. I can promise this is also the case with DISSONANCE's opening.
And if the web-flyer is read correctly, you will see the show features five artists and someone named "Christopher Norris", which also if read correctly or fuck, with adverse affect to this writer, will reveal that I am showing not under the idiotic Steak Mtn. name but the original one taped to my back in year 000.1. This was at the request of Alexis, who didn't want to have to have her fingers snap & crackle S-T-E-A-K-M-T-N-. into/onto anything involving DISSONANCE. I agree with her and thus this post is twofold announcement and pronouncement, which be so no confusion gets confused if you are looking for that stupid, staunch or sticky Steak Mtn. artwork in your Southern California gallery crawl this Saturday night.
Just so you know the kinks of the story and why you should be at the opening or at least give the space a poke when you are in the Chinatown area of greater Los Angeles this 2010 December, Alexis has constructed a serious denouement for her main event. Here goes the show's lifesblood in direct English :
In music, “dissonance” is a term used to describe elements such as chords, harmonies, and intervals, which have a clashing quality. It is often, by definition, a harsh sound, but one which contributes greatly on many levels to the beauty and expressiveness of music.
Dissonance is intended to explore the similar overlapping/clashing qualities of visual artworks which are neither figurative nor abstract; or both at once. I'm hoping to highlight a certain grey area within which artwork can exist by either definition; wherein abstract sensibilities heavily inform figurative renderings, and vice versa, so that the two become indistinguishable, and can be simultaneously appreciated.That sounds like you need to be there to me, so see you there!
20101124
20100921
Ghost; Problems & Pop Music. Density and Avarice.
Bands. I work with them. And you are reading this, probably, because I work with some rock and roll act (that could or could not be a product of "the law of diminishing returns" via Rock and Roll's basic curse of repetition and boring-you-out) that you absolutely love....this week or at least love until they disappoint with a marketing decision you think ill advised or they sarcastically reply to your "tweet", leaving you the rubbed red lover scorned ......which could be easily explained away with the notion that you may or may not understand sarcasm because you are possibly in an age group who has spent your formals hugging the internet more than base human communication. Which I mean, no judgment, I don't like talking to people either and I am way stoked that the internet exists so I can at least project a personality that makes onlookers feel the warmth of labyrinthine jerk moves designed to catch flies over fans. If you have read more than one of these stupid things, your inner parent is wishing that you would actually just not do it again., ever. I get that.Regardless, I work with music groups who usually are the earnest, linear type with a fetish for pop music in structure and/or touch. You know the deal because you like them. And after a complete cavern year (2009), 2010 has been a 38" muffin stuffing itself into a 24" velvet box, which for those bad at trig : overflowing with a number of few things that make me feel busy and wanted. You probably like to be wanted, you are normal and reading this and know that : Everyone wants to be wanted. Obviously, I am not here to talk to you about the human experience, I am here to shill like a slow Saturday night on the other side of off season, if you dig my meaning.
So, here we go, Round Three:
FAKE PROBLEMS - REAL GHOSTS CAUGHT ON TAPE
came out last week. I am a little slow these days with the updated and timely blog postings (see the post before this for a little riddle of steel as to why), but, whatever, I showed to the party with a bag of cats and some yoke, so screw. I should have whited that out, probably. Anyway, regardless, segueway, the record - Well, for me, the record plays like a band that has officially shadowed past whatever shadow critics keep pouring their intent into (Short hand : Americana fused with the youth musical movement known as punk rock. Shorter hand : bands that sound like Against Me!) and while I never really thought that Fake Problems were ever a punk band, more a solid pop band that shakes hands with punk bands while they boat shoe the faces of punk band show audiences, I get the laziness of music critics punching in the hotline for byline. Fuck, I do it as well, hell, we all cheat sometimes right? And sometimes it's just lunch time and you need to get your thoughts internet wide, cheap and dirty. And next you will read me typing, GHOSTS is a pop record, through and through, from the beach to the blanket it surfaces and soothes in a mature complexity that reads with a granular touch (pretentious : auteurs in hand & product) that is so hard to breach in most currents of popular (or unpopular) music. It's a comfortable (but not dead) listen that is drawn, scribbled out and redrawn from hard work and the pouring of personality into their music making career's muscle memory. Meaning, GHOSTS doesn't skip on any frayed moment or thought to deliver to the farthest edges of it's intent and that, in my opinion, is hard as fuck for even the most talented singer songwriter band types. So, to me, the record is a success. It's also the sort of record I don't normally search out but am always happy to find & when the opportunity unearthed to work Problems through the Steak grinder once again, I was well into the lather of hand wringing the different directions we could go with the design. And, as ideas and outset intent tend to be transient lovers of disappointment and Frankenstein's monster, the project's design started as a thick, dark mood piece and transformed into an (early) Jade Tree VHS tape dipped of water damage, memory & road trips. Or something. And I am happy with it, I think Steak Mtn. did a nice job. There is more attention to design over imagery (as the flip is usually, well, the flip of that as far as what Steak viewers view or casually comprehend, map, etc.) and it was an interesting experiment of my ego and collaboration to take Casey Lee's rummaged ruminations and retrofit them into a constructed memento of a band in the next phase of their creative careers.
The End.
To take a look at a lean presentation of the record, you can check the Steak site. If my baroque idiocy has formed an interest in Fake Problems you never knew was there, well here, here, and here is where you meet the business end of their craft. And if you get really adventurous, check out three chord futurists (now there is a riddle of steel that stretches to a "reaching" and VERY "obtuse" rhythm), The Gaslight Anthem infuse an empty belly on a key track from GHOSTS, "Songs For Teenagers".
20100828
Here's Your Warning : TERROR EYES.
"Feast of the Mau Mau" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
The Steak web presence has peaked and splattered. "Being sincere" is a walk when vibrating in person, but the joy of masking is for the Internet, so, fuck it. I promise everyone is in on the same joke with this "Artwork" stuff. Let's get sunny & talk about Minneapolis.
"Oogum Boogum" by Brenton Wood
Crowning & careening past your notice while doing double duty as Living In the Legend for one personable, awesome artist & another that is well, hell, you know the deal, I am here to just fuck around with your attention span if you are willing and my "career" if I am Steak immolating....is the fantastique appearance of new (or new-esque depending on geography) work by my friend Heather Gabel & Steak Mtn., which, Me......but saying me without mentioning Steak Mtn. first makes it seem like we are friends and we are totally not friends Reader, unless in real life, we are & right now you are wishing we were completely not friends in real life because you have to pretend you don't really pay attention to these idiotic blogposts so that you can take me semi-seriously when I say anything at all to you. Don't worry, with the run-on sentence noted, I pretend I don't write these idiotic blogposts most of the time anyway, which means we still have something in common and can continue to be friends. Regardless, because I say regardless a lot to move something past the point of shoddy commercial writing, TERROR EYES is the name of the show and man, it's opening in Minneapolis on Saturday August 28th (8PM tonight of the day I am writing this) at Cult Status Gallery.
THE FACTS :
1. Heather is hitting you hard with her self-squeezed bevy of buxotic, Frankensteinly fashioned, sew and splatter images that always sharpen to the belfry and beyond.
2. I am trying out some new stuff. Test marketing, taste testing and titularly tightening a stronghold on American Punk Rock's resilience to see everything you do minus the intent and it's strings.
"Voodoo Voodoo" by Laverne Baker
I don't have images of the Steak pieces, as they are mammothy in size & really I just couldn't do it before they had to travel to the Great White North. As far as Heather's work is concerned, I have it on good authority that her work is wooly to my mammothy (see modified -made up- word in first sentence), although she may have some pictures....hit her site up HERE for a checker or more importantly, if you are unfamiliar with her art styling and images. I do however, have the web flyer that features a Heather and some Steak typography. Check it & dude, check all the links in this post, because : TEST. Although I will hit you with all the answers after the fact, so you know, you can cheat and shit.
The Steak web presence has peaked and splattered. "Being sincere" is a walk when vibrating in person, but the joy of masking is for the Internet, so, fuck it. I promise everyone is in on the same joke with this "Artwork" stuff. Let's get sunny & talk about Minneapolis.
"Oogum Boogum" by Brenton Wood
Crowning & careening past your notice while doing double duty as Living In the Legend for one personable, awesome artist & another that is well, hell, you know the deal, I am here to just fuck around with your attention span if you are willing and my "career" if I am Steak immolating....is the fantastique appearance of new (or new-esque depending on geography) work by my friend Heather Gabel & Steak Mtn., which, Me......but saying me without mentioning Steak Mtn. first makes it seem like we are friends and we are totally not friends Reader, unless in real life, we are & right now you are wishing we were completely not friends in real life because you have to pretend you don't really pay attention to these idiotic blogposts so that you can take me semi-seriously when I say anything at all to you. Don't worry, with the run-on sentence noted, I pretend I don't write these idiotic blogposts most of the time anyway, which means we still have something in common and can continue to be friends. Regardless, because I say regardless a lot to move something past the point of shoddy commercial writing, TERROR EYES is the name of the show and man, it's opening in Minneapolis on Saturday August 28th (8PM tonight of the day I am writing this) at Cult Status Gallery.
THE FACTS :
1. Heather is hitting you hard with her self-squeezed bevy of buxotic, Frankensteinly fashioned, sew and splatter images that always sharpen to the belfry and beyond.
2. I am trying out some new stuff. Test marketing, taste testing and titularly tightening a stronghold on American Punk Rock's resilience to see everything you do minus the intent and it's strings.
"Voodoo Voodoo" by Laverne Baker
I don't have images of the Steak pieces, as they are mammothy in size & really I just couldn't do it before they had to travel to the Great White North. As far as Heather's work is concerned, I have it on good authority that her work is wooly to my mammothy (see modified -made up- word in first sentence), although she may have some pictures....hit her site up HERE for a checker or more importantly, if you are unfamiliar with her art styling and images. I do however, have the web flyer that features a Heather and some Steak typography. Check it & dude, check all the links in this post, because : TEST. Although I will hit you with all the answers after the fact, so you know, you can cheat and shit.
20100821
Birthing Tips : FAKE/GUILT
#1.
Index finger, middle finger & a lot of right hand wagging to get them to snap together. Shit is crazy hard, but once it's mastered, man, you look like a fucking REAL idiot.
Here is the bubble, pop it carefully :
FAKE PROBLEMS "REAL GHOSTS CAUGHT ON TAPE" ARTWORK HERE!
I will be going over this more around 9/21 when the record rears & drags about, but if you are occasionally wondering about the art, get summer at the link.
GUILTMAKER "THE EMERALD COAST" DIGITAL EP IS AVAILABLE HERE!
It's always exciting to hear what a band creates when song craft reflects their interests rather then feeding the collective ability obese with fickle fans and/or an omniscient marketing department. "The Emerald Coast" runs alongside a band attuned to the end-and-over sounds that are possible in the confined space of a basic rock-n-roll set up. An awesome example of which can be found in the final track, "Looming", 4 minutes and 35 seconds of slow boil, sonic tension that triggers an understated finale of rumbled noise & dotted harmony, sending you out in the comfortable hum of them powering down, closing the door, folding their day clothes, etc., you get my point : they nailed this fucker to the wall for sure (with the help of producer Jeremy Griffith). Tough call, I am onboard for the art, viewable at the link a few words back and as is the case in popular music these days, physical product is 99 and 44/100% dead so this is a straight laced, self released DIGITAL EP so go the distance (THIS SPOT) & download the record.
Index finger, middle finger & a lot of right hand wagging to get them to snap together. Shit is crazy hard, but once it's mastered, man, you look like a fucking REAL idiot.
Here is the bubble, pop it carefully :
FAKE PROBLEMS "REAL GHOSTS CAUGHT ON TAPE" ARTWORK HERE!
I will be going over this more around 9/21 when the record rears & drags about, but if you are occasionally wondering about the art, get summer at the link.
GUILTMAKER "THE EMERALD COAST" DIGITAL EP IS AVAILABLE HERE!
It's always exciting to hear what a band creates when song craft reflects their interests rather then feeding the collective ability obese with fickle fans and/or an omniscient marketing department. "The Emerald Coast" runs alongside a band attuned to the end-and-over sounds that are possible in the confined space of a basic rock-n-roll set up. An awesome example of which can be found in the final track, "Looming", 4 minutes and 35 seconds of slow boil, sonic tension that triggers an understated finale of rumbled noise & dotted harmony, sending you out in the comfortable hum of them powering down, closing the door, folding their day clothes, etc., you get my point : they nailed this fucker to the wall for sure (with the help of producer Jeremy Griffith). Tough call, I am onboard for the art, viewable at the link a few words back and as is the case in popular music these days, physical product is 99 and 44/100% dead so this is a straight laced, self released DIGITAL EP so go the distance (THIS SPOT) & download the record.
20100613
Steak Mtn. talks Against Me! "White Crosses" : Almost Essay, Mostly Commercial, Total Nonsense.
Welcome back.
As one may have guessed by now, or at least one of the ones that grip attentively to the happenings of Steak Mtn. or more specifically the Steak Mtn. who works for the band Against Me!, or even more more more in the swarm of scaring off your eyes by my endless typing, which is to say I am fully about to be getting out of control with the asides here and should rally the point proper for the reader reading.....Against Me!'s "White Crosses" got viral a few months back but officially bent about to make room for itself in the clutter of the digital music market and/or (for the sum that still enjoy the texture of a physical purchase) gathered into the ten fingers (or less...or more, handicap or mutant, probably more...fucking mutants) of the eager-to-hold-it, earlier this week, Tuesday to be perfect. I would have shuffled this post much much sooner, but I was out of the office all week vacationing minus a computer. And I say all the last detail as if you needed to know/care about that piece of information. Waiting with the baited breath (or is it bat'd breath? I am sure not many vampires read the Steak blog and I might be positive most of the '10's vampiric Grave Wavers prefer the sound of maybe something other then the Against Me! music. Now, I am often wrong and you never know really, they could in fact glean the darkness from WC. Fuck, I see it there and I am stoked, but I am also not a goddamn vampire.) that loves to wallow the depths of this infrequent and fragmented blog. Blog. Still a stupid name for these self indulgent things. The cliche writers were wrong, time does not heal all wounds.
So, yeah, it's out. What does that mean for you? I don't want to speculate but (even if speculating and then judging out of hand is one of the favorite hobbies I get in trouble for) maybe you bought it already because you are a Steak Mtn. fan but not an AM! listener. You got it because you like a brother and I thank you for that blind faith & curiosity, truly. No lies. But more really, you are a fan of the band (and likely have ambivalent lightning in the Steak spot) and you have the record in one of the capacity's I riddled on about above. You have it and you are publicly complaining that it's a pop record and want the scrappy punk sound back and won't take no for an answer even though you could actually just drop it, grow some foresight and move on because no one really cares about how you are glued to hindsight or pragmatically leveling it as the logical evolution of the band or are loving it because fuck it, you love it...which is super-brave past the issue of the subject of this post...I mean, who the fuck loves loves anything anymore? Or moreover, who has the strong swing to publicly love anything anymore? Don't answer that, I actually don't care what you have to say. And regardless and boringly (and back onto the vast chatter about the record), that's basically how human preference, personal opinion and the free will of pop culture works : who cares, you do what you want. You know that, you're a smart kid or at least a cool, informed parent.
And really, no typed enthusiasm about how this is my favorite record cover I have done or how my creative relationship with this band is at one of my favorite spots ever in Steak history or that the cover of "White Crosses" is personally cool to me because it angles against the sonic fiber/pop structure of the record and that is something that I rarely get to do with bands, especially ones the size of AM! or how I really do know it's invalid to be "excited" that a rock act with a "commercial" path got away with a truly "subversive" piece of smeary smut art inside of a giant corporation, as in, I know at this point everyone knows the common case that often no one is actually paying attention to a record cover because the majority of consumers are not consuming a physical product anymore (but a possibly heisted version or at best, really tiny-on-an-MP3-player-screen version of any record are in their ownership) and that's why we might have got away with such an abject image on the cover because it's almost like it doesn't exist.....will or would (and welcome back to the point I was making at the beginning of the run-on.....man, if I was reading right now I would not be reading anymore. Not to insult your attention or nothing, I'm just saying...again, thanks, truly.) boil or cool your want or diswant to purchase (hope, hope) "White Crosses". Really, I am just writing to write, since I don't do it as much Steak commercial campaigning as I use to and this is one of those "big" events in my commercial career that I would like to at least mark with anything that could confuse, anger or shame the older me....when I am the older me, which could be tomorrow. And then I might delete this. Possibly. I think it's a good thing that I keep potential commenters from being able to comment on these posts, it gives it that dessert island flare that I always appreciate in others posts across the internet. I mean, we all know that I am never saying anything of substance in these things usually, it's just a stack of alliteration, tiresome self deprecation and the occasional use of the word "moist" (and if that doesn't fit, "oozing", "dripping", "squeezed" or "sprayed".)
If you have made it this far and are interested in seeing some of the unused art that got dramatically discharged from the construction of "White Crosses", go to this link. It's all in line with the rest of the record, there are no great surprises at all, it's just all stuff that ended up getting run over or discarded or in the rare case, argued over in some capacity....you know who you are, jerk. And if you forgot to buy the record, check Against Me!'s webstore here : HERE, there are a few cool things to purchase, including a "White Crosses" Bundle that includes a tote bag with the front and back cover images, sans fonts. Which I think is cool, because I am a fan of myself in the context of this record's art.
_______________________________________________________
IMAGE GUIDE :
Picture 1.) A stack of all the pieces of paper used to turn "White Crosses" into "White Crosses". It's like Frankenstein. Does that make Against Me! my Igor?
Picture 2.) Two other pictures of two other vantage points of the same stack of paper. I know, impressive. No big deal. I screen grabbed this when they was iChatting.
Picture 3.) The World Famous Contortionist, Jay Leno, holding up a vinyl copy of "White Crosses". It had an obtuse and ark-like effect on his face. Exciting.
As one may have guessed by now, or at least one of the ones that grip attentively to the happenings of Steak Mtn. or more specifically the Steak Mtn. who works for the band Against Me!, or even more more more in the swarm of scaring off your eyes by my endless typing, which is to say I am fully about to be getting out of control with the asides here and should rally the point proper for the reader reading.....Against Me!'s "White Crosses" got viral a few months back but officially bent about to make room for itself in the clutter of the digital music market and/or (for the sum that still enjoy the texture of a physical purchase) gathered into the ten fingers (or less...or more, handicap or mutant, probably more...fucking mutants) of the eager-to-hold-it, earlier this week, Tuesday to be perfect. I would have shuffled this post much much sooner, but I was out of the office all week vacationing minus a computer. And I say all the last detail as if you needed to know/care about that piece of information. Waiting with the baited breath (or is it bat'd breath? I am sure not many vampires read the Steak blog and I might be positive most of the '10's vampiric Grave Wavers prefer the sound of maybe something other then the Against Me! music. Now, I am often wrong and you never know really, they could in fact glean the darkness from WC. Fuck, I see it there and I am stoked, but I am also not a goddamn vampire.) that loves to wallow the depths of this infrequent and fragmented blog. Blog. Still a stupid name for these self indulgent things. The cliche writers were wrong, time does not heal all wounds.
So, yeah, it's out. What does that mean for you? I don't want to speculate but (even if speculating and then judging out of hand is one of the favorite hobbies I get in trouble for) maybe you bought it already because you are a Steak Mtn. fan but not an AM! listener. You got it because you like a brother and I thank you for that blind faith & curiosity, truly. No lies. But more really, you are a fan of the band (and likely have ambivalent lightning in the Steak spot) and you have the record in one of the capacity's I riddled on about above. You have it and you are publicly complaining that it's a pop record and want the scrappy punk sound back and won't take no for an answer even though you could actually just drop it, grow some foresight and move on because no one really cares about how you are glued to hindsight or pragmatically leveling it as the logical evolution of the band or are loving it because fuck it, you love it...which is super-brave past the issue of the subject of this post...I mean, who the fuck loves loves anything anymore? Or moreover, who has the strong swing to publicly love anything anymore? Don't answer that, I actually don't care what you have to say. And regardless and boringly (and back onto the vast chatter about the record), that's basically how human preference, personal opinion and the free will of pop culture works : who cares, you do what you want. You know that, you're a smart kid or at least a cool, informed parent.
And really, no typed enthusiasm about how this is my favorite record cover I have done or how my creative relationship with this band is at one of my favorite spots ever in Steak history or that the cover of "White Crosses" is personally cool to me because it angles against the sonic fiber/pop structure of the record and that is something that I rarely get to do with bands, especially ones the size of AM! or how I really do know it's invalid to be "excited" that a rock act with a "commercial" path got away with a truly "subversive" piece of smeary smut art inside of a giant corporation, as in, I know at this point everyone knows the common case that often no one is actually paying attention to a record cover because the majority of consumers are not consuming a physical product anymore (but a possibly heisted version or at best, really tiny-on-an-MP3-player-screen version of any record are in their ownership) and that's why we might have got away with such an abject image on the cover because it's almost like it doesn't exist.....will or would (and welcome back to the point I was making at the beginning of the run-on.....man, if I was reading right now I would not be reading anymore. Not to insult your attention or nothing, I'm just saying...again, thanks, truly.) boil or cool your want or diswant to purchase (hope, hope) "White Crosses". Really, I am just writing to write, since I don't do it as much Steak commercial campaigning as I use to and this is one of those "big" events in my commercial career that I would like to at least mark with anything that could confuse, anger or shame the older me....when I am the older me, which could be tomorrow. And then I might delete this. Possibly. I think it's a good thing that I keep potential commenters from being able to comment on these posts, it gives it that dessert island flare that I always appreciate in others posts across the internet. I mean, we all know that I am never saying anything of substance in these things usually, it's just a stack of alliteration, tiresome self deprecation and the occasional use of the word "moist" (and if that doesn't fit, "oozing", "dripping", "squeezed" or "sprayed".)
If you have made it this far and are interested in seeing some of the unused art that got dramatically discharged from the construction of "White Crosses", go to this link. It's all in line with the rest of the record, there are no great surprises at all, it's just all stuff that ended up getting run over or discarded or in the rare case, argued over in some capacity....you know who you are, jerk. And if you forgot to buy the record, check Against Me!'s webstore here : HERE, there are a few cool things to purchase, including a "White Crosses" Bundle that includes a tote bag with the front and back cover images, sans fonts. Which I think is cool, because I am a fan of myself in the context of this record's art.
_______________________________________________________
IMAGE GUIDE :
Picture 1.) A stack of all the pieces of paper used to turn "White Crosses" into "White Crosses". It's like Frankenstein. Does that make Against Me! my Igor?
Picture 2.) Two other pictures of two other vantage points of the same stack of paper. I know, impressive. No big deal. I screen grabbed this when they was iChatting.
Picture 3.) The World Famous Contortionist, Jay Leno, holding up a vinyl copy of "White Crosses". It had an obtuse and ark-like effect on his face. Exciting.
20100506
"My Friends Are Getting Famous".
Against Me! "I Was A Teenage Anarchist" video - Here. Slow motion youth, lunchy fuzz & ferocious cracks and wallops. After almost a year of working on the art and design for this record, "White Crosses" comes out June 8th.
20100310
Alexis Mackenzie "Dreaming Is Easy"
The Easy Reader :
Alexis Mackenzie's "Dreaming Is Easy" opens March 13th at POVevolving in Los Angeles. The opening is at 7pm. Click HERE to preview the work!
The Hard Rider :
If you, dear reader, are in the Los Angeles area this weekend (Saturday March 13th to shackle the real sharpness of the calender) and want to get your sockets saddled and frayed.....then come on down to Chinatown where Alexis Mackenzie is filling the walls of POVevolving with her new show "Dreaming Is Easy".
Last year's "Never Be Sad" showcased Alexis stepping up her uncanny aesthetic by taking breezy, positive phrases and dressing them in a delicate, anarchic swerve of nature's shrapnel. Flash us to moments away from this post, where "Dreaming Is Easy" finds her riding that installed killing spree by plummeting us viewers into a fresh, florally seared set of sliced and diced human menageries. This new work is a true spectacle of her phantasmagoric touch, disparately hinging on an energy that the description "collage" cannot contain & is best viewed up close and personal.
As I mentioned above, the show opens this Saturday, March 13th at POVevolving in Los Angeles and runs for three solid weeks. Check here for gallery hours if you are LA but cannot make it to the opening.
Here is a list of important links :
20100307
Ancient Lite, Weekly.
Spacial :
I have a new site. It's exciting in a particular tarotorial sort of way, plus the injection of pure goof proofing has made it leg-up for any looker to peel the piecemeal visual history of Steak Mtn. Right. If you misread the link at the outset, or I got too wily opponent with that last sentence, what I mean to tell you is you can see the new site HERE.
Negative :
Light Yourself on Fire's new digital EP is official, on the ramp, finalized in it's triplicate malaise and ready to purchase. Click on this THIS and it will take you to where you need to go and shake some dollars for it. As is my personal and professional history with LYOF, Steak Mtn. has supplied the face for it's digital life. It's funny that we are at this spot in time that I design xeroxed veneered images for records that will never really be printed for the rub & handle.
Nightmares :
Against Me! are currently out in the Canadian tundra with Billy Talent. If you are going to that event in your North North American town, you will see some of the new stage show I have designed : 24x24 stage banner of the White Crosses cover, some grill covers featuring the "signs" that a purchaser will eventually see in the Deluxe version of WC and a new kickdrum head for George that has another melting lady on it. If you are in fact not a show going civilian, can't stomach the boys touring mates or are just waiting for them to return for a US trip, then I will direct you to this youtube vérité shaker which has some bits and pieces of the items. The banner looks like a terror.
Daytime :
I will write more on this this during the week, but Alexis Anne Mackenzie has a new show opening on March 13th at POVevolving in Los Angeles. It's called DREAMING IS EASY & the work for the show can be viewed HERE. So set your body clocks for the March 13th opening Los Angeles, you will want to magnify your night in her phantasmagoric caress.
I have a new site. It's exciting in a particular tarotorial sort of way, plus the injection of pure goof proofing has made it leg-up for any looker to peel the piecemeal visual history of Steak Mtn. Right. If you misread the link at the outset, or I got too wily opponent with that last sentence, what I mean to tell you is you can see the new site HERE.
Negative :
Light Yourself on Fire's new digital EP is official, on the ramp, finalized in it's triplicate malaise and ready to purchase. Click on this THIS and it will take you to where you need to go and shake some dollars for it. As is my personal and professional history with LYOF, Steak Mtn. has supplied the face for it's digital life. It's funny that we are at this spot in time that I design xeroxed veneered images for records that will never really be printed for the rub & handle.
Nightmares :
Against Me! are currently out in the Canadian tundra with Billy Talent. If you are going to that event in your North North American town, you will see some of the new stage show I have designed : 24x24 stage banner of the White Crosses cover, some grill covers featuring the "signs" that a purchaser will eventually see in the Deluxe version of WC and a new kickdrum head for George that has another melting lady on it. If you are in fact not a show going civilian, can't stomach the boys touring mates or are just waiting for them to return for a US trip, then I will direct you to this youtube vérité shaker which has some bits and pieces of the items. The banner looks like a terror.
Daytime :
I will write more on this this during the week, but Alexis Anne Mackenzie has a new show opening on March 13th at POVevolving in Los Angeles. It's called DREAMING IS EASY & the work for the show can be viewed HERE. So set your body clocks for the March 13th opening Los Angeles, you will want to magnify your night in her phantasmagoric caress.
20100218
Against Me! "White Crosses".
So, here we are.
Gabel posted this yesterday on his blog and I have lot more to say about the cover : impetus, ideas, details, etc. but I am on vacation this week and do not really have the means or time to go into the normal garbage-mouth, self-important Steak Mtn. commercial campaigning about it. This post is basically to let you all know : this the cover for the new Against Me! record, "White Crosses". The release date for the record is early June, but the guys are doing extensive touring until then (here for dates). And if you are interested in Tom's original post about the work hit here. And furthermore, if you are interested in reading a few blistering teenagers Vajda-ing me, then read the comments on Punk News here.
20100115
HAUSU.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
One of my favorite movies ever is starting it's traveling engagement across America today in NY at the IFC Film Center. If you are in NY : GO. I promise it is unlike any movie you may see or have seen. It's got an uncanny detachment that sinks you directly into it's rhythm, almost immediately. Look here at the Janus site, it has all kinds of informational info and there is a link for playdates so you can plan accordingly in your non-NY city.
Below is a small thing I wrote about the film 2 and half years ago. It's a little awkward as most of my write-before-think work can be, but whatever.
HAUSU - An Appreciation (June/7/07)
The idea of a creaky old Victorian, ripe with the ectoplasmic spurts of hateful ghouls pulsing around it's wood grain and gables is a theme that stretches my mind into an excited lather........and with that being said, in theory, the haunted house movie should be my favorite slice of the horror genre. But, I am very rarely excited about the films that the genre has in it's full wardrobe. Sure there are the cold standards like POLTERGEIST or THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (and more "obscure" gems like HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY or in a fantastic stretch of the idea : CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING), but those are hardly the ones I want to cite when I am foaming about the joys of a spectrely swimming home caught on film. So, to me, THE greatest haunted house film is Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 opus of color coded females, people chomping pianos & cat paintings vomiting blood : HAUSU (or HOUSE..........not to be confused with the 80's Miner/Katt film...blah).
I first heard about HAUSU in Tom Weisser's (reportedly)(terribly researched?) Japanese Cinema: The Essential Handbook in the mid 90's. At that point in my youngish life, I was going goofy for any transgressively slanted, odd or outer spaced take on the "horror" film I could find. I found that Europe had it in fingers and toes, but Japan's rich cinematic history seemed to have it in 360 points of articulation, and HAUSU sounded like my CITIZEN KANE. And then it became our MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS due to an ominous availability on the grey market, mixed with it not having English subtitles on any dupey copy I tried to find. A few years ago, I ran into one of those infamous 8th generation tapes of HAUSU for rent at MONDO KIM's, and the excitement swelled heavily in the jeans of my mind.
I first heard about HAUSU in Tom Weisser's (reportedly)(terribly researched?) Japanese Cinema: The Essential Handbook in the mid 90's. At that point in my youngish life, I was going goofy for any transgressively slanted, odd or outer spaced take on the "horror" film I could find. I found that Europe had it in fingers and toes, but Japan's rich cinematic history seemed to have it in 360 points of articulation, and HAUSU sounded like my CITIZEN KANE. And then it became our MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS due to an ominous availability on the grey market, mixed with it not having English subtitles on any dupey copy I tried to find. A few years ago, I ran into one of those infamous 8th generation tapes of HAUSU for rent at MONDO KIM's, and the excitement swelled heavily in the jeans of my mind.
And like waiting for marriage : finally having it, watching it and rewatching it, melted my mind in every possible way I had imagined it would ten years earlier. It excited me even more, because it was the film I had always been wishing to see : one that deftly mixed plutonian horror, stagey spectacle & rainbow lit meltdowns in the same way I had/have been trying to tackle those fluorescent themes with Steak Mtn. It was amazing. I must have re-rented a billion times before I found a fan-subbed bootleg of the Toho DVD (and now, it is playing the country and probably getting a DVD release very soon.)
Below is a clip someone put on Youtube. If my verbal buttering wasn't good enough, then feast your eyes on this totally bananas trailer for the film.
LOOK AT THIS STILL!!!!!
20091223
Widow Open : 2009.
2009 Back Peddle :
I began the year lathering the ears of others with a plan to move myself and the Steak Mtn. operations to Berlin. And like a lot of loudmouth legwork, the plan ended up failing and getting dusted by the twilight of a foaming economic downturn. Which is fine enough and understandable and legit, as the mirror of that artistic cliche worked out well : I have an Adult job and I hate almost everything about the city I ended up moving to, San Francisco...........and that has basically been my year in, out and lightly running my finger along the arch above the exit sign. Art things did get done though or at least finally hatched and with that statement goes my limp list of achievements for the year. Here you go :
• Rome Snowboard Line : A few boards in various sizes, with designs modeled after the key characters of horror : there is a Dracula board, a Frankenstein board, a werewolf board, blah blah blah. You get the point.
• Guiltmaker "Dilemmas" LP/CD : Here is what I wrote about the record a month or so : "resonating, thoughtful and epically staged." That's still how I feel about it.
• Cult Ritual "S/T" LP : I did one of three different record covers for this. Click Here and see what I wrote about this when it came out and what the cover I designed looks like.
• Against Me! "The Original Cowboy" LP/CD : The attic clearing of their sonic ephemera starts with this. If you are a fan or a fan of this era of the band, "Original" is a really rad behind the curtain listen for sure. I tried to make it look like a G.I.S.M. bootleg or a demo pressed on vinyl, I feel like I succeeded. I might also be so arrogant as to say this is the most punk looking thing Fat Wreck Chords ever put out.....not that I am paying any attention to the labels output at all, but still.
• Fake Problems "It's Great To Be Alive" LP/CD : From my perch, it looks like it's been the kind of year they wanted more or less, with a final tally telling me that things will be pointing North for these young men and their rock n' roll careers in 2010 ad nauseam.
• "Wearing Them For A Cannibal Night In Fear" A3 sized, two color Risograph Print for LANDFILL/MANYMONO : Rub your eyes on my melted Tina Aumont stylings HERE <<<<>
• "It's The Total Doomride!" totebag : Man, were you one of the few lucky ones to see or purchase the fully limited, Jamaican colored "Reichsteady" version? If not, the normal white on black one is still up for sale at my Exorcise! Storefront.
Bored?
2010 Criswell'd :
Right now, I am in the middle of designing the new Against Me! record "White Crosses" and future proofing almost everything revolving around the art side of it's release. Also, in the next few months, I will be finalizing the last Combatwoundedveteran discography, "Farewell Gaylords" which will have the "Duck Down for the Torso" 10", our half of the ROM split that came out Schematics and a few recently uncovered, untitled, totally throw away tracks that came from the Scrotum Grinder sessions...for completists, naturally. Plus, keep 'em peeled on the Exorcise storefront for some new items, hopefully up and ready to be sold in February......and that's all I have for this past year and the first little bit of 2010. I am sure when there is something important I'll brush it into your mane.
Oh! and if there is any reason to follow my punchlines on Twitter, here is the address :
https://twitter.com/steakmtn
20091212
Steak Inside LANDFILL/MANYMONO
COMMERCIAL :
LANDFILL/MANYMONO
is a new UK-rooted designing, printing, creatively retentive hub of fright like malevolence. I have lent a horrible hand in their fundraising machinations via designing a two color Risograph print called "Wearing Them for a Cannibal Night in Fear.", well me and a nice number of other design types. That's right I did write Risograph, that antiquated producer of undead printing quality, making all your recent memories of inkjet one offs and mashed pdf four color drabness take a time machine vacation to the 80s and before. And let me say once more I did write fundraiser, meaning the mentioned myself and a small group of line placers and markers are helping the Landfill/Manymono lot make some extra bank account to purchase pieces of a rainbow for the Risograph printer, which will runoff the option of offering their future clients multiple options of printing colors. Oh....I forgot to mention, that the MANYMONO slice of LF/MM are open for business and willing to take your money to print your zine, poster, pamphlet, terrible drawing, Christmas in Summer card, etc.
SO! RECAP! I have made a new Steakcentric, non band piece of "Artwork", a first in a minute it seems and a new direction of photo manipulation started with last years Cult Ritual record and probably ending when I want to do something different a few months from now. Click all the links, links and links, understand the Europe to US sizing (A3) and hit the kids up for the nice nice from me or if you think I am terrible, then from the likes of the other styles and manipulators that LF/MM have group hugged into the basement of their new empire.
Here is my Martino sliced and spurted piece in it's pre-printed computer form. The final can be viewed here and man, did them kids do a nice job on quality control.
LANDFILL/MANYMONO
is a new UK-rooted designing, printing, creatively retentive hub of fright like malevolence. I have lent a horrible hand in their fundraising machinations via designing a two color Risograph print called "Wearing Them for a Cannibal Night in Fear.", well me and a nice number of other design types. That's right I did write Risograph, that antiquated producer of undead printing quality, making all your recent memories of inkjet one offs and mashed pdf four color drabness take a time machine vacation to the 80s and before. And let me say once more I did write fundraiser, meaning the mentioned myself and a small group of line placers and markers are helping the Landfill/Manymono lot make some extra bank account to purchase pieces of a rainbow for the Risograph printer, which will runoff the option of offering their future clients multiple options of printing colors. Oh....I forgot to mention, that the MANYMONO slice of LF/MM are open for business and willing to take your money to print your zine, poster, pamphlet, terrible drawing, Christmas in Summer card, etc.
SO! RECAP! I have made a new Steakcentric, non band piece of "Artwork", a first in a minute it seems and a new direction of photo manipulation started with last years Cult Ritual record and probably ending when I want to do something different a few months from now. Click all the links, links and links, understand the Europe to US sizing (A3) and hit the kids up for the nice nice from me or if you think I am terrible, then from the likes of the other styles and manipulators that LF/MM have group hugged into the basement of their new empire.
Here is my Martino sliced and spurted piece in it's pre-printed computer form. The final can be viewed here and man, did them kids do a nice job on quality control.
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