My friend, director Mark Ford, recently completed this fantastic documentary that examines the connections between music and the LA Riots. Entitled Uprising: Hip Hop & The LA Riots, the film features compelling rare footage and interviews.

Vinyl Revisioned: Gang of Four/Entertainment!

Gang of Four's debut 1979 release, Entertainment! is an underground classic that I never tire of hearing. Oddly enough, I only just discovered it a few years ago and for someone that is a huge fanatic for just about every other UK punk, post-punk and new wave band from the same era, I am still shocked that I was not exposed to it much sooner.

Perhaps it was the fact that the Gang of Four lacked a particularly, dynamic or iconic visual element associated with it, compared to a band like the Buzzcocks or the Sex Pistols. Those albums are so ingrained in my mind as the pure forces of that musical era. With that in mind, I set out to tackle a redesign of an underground classic, that was new to me.

Appropriating a contextual cue from the original album artwork, I incorporated both stereotypical imagery of "Cowboys and Indians" and topical information such as newspaper headlines. I have designed a visually dissonant work that echoes with themes of disillusionment and alienation found amongst the content of the lyrics.

Vinyl Revisionists

I'm proud to be one of the exhibiting artists in Vinyl Revisionists. Opens Friday, March 30, 2012 at Warner Brothers Records in Burbank, CA.

Gang Of Four - Entertainment!

Ether, the opening track from the debut LP, Entertainment!, by Gang Of Four. Released in 1979 by Warner Brothers Records in the US and EMI in the UK.

This LP is also my selection for an upcoming exhibition at Warner Brothers Records, where my redesign/reinterpretation for this post-punk classic will be displayed. The show opens March 24, 2012. More info soon...

JRF for Obey Clothing/Artist Series

JRF x OBEY from OBEY CLOTHING on Vimeo.

SOUNDGARDEN

I'm not sure how, but I got on Soundgarden kick a few weeks ago...only the first few records still do it for me; UltraMega OK, Screaming Life/Fopp and Louder Than Love. I love that early stuff.

Jason Jessee 1988

Because the Minutemen, Santa Cruz, Jim Phillips and Jason Jessee were a lethal combo.

From PiL: First Issue

Lydon's anthem that cast aside the Pistols' legacy and declared a more interesting and more sophisticated group, Public Image Limited.

From 1979.

Disposable Heroes Live

There's always inspiration to be found in music. One of my favorite Metallica tunes, especially as performed above in 1985.

Bill Daniel

Bill Daniel is a pretty interesting guy. He's most well known for his documentary, Who is Bozo Texino?, which is an amazing film about a nearly-extinct slice of American subculture.

Daniel has also spent years wandering the country, doing still photography, hand-crafting silver gelatin prints, making zines and generally doing good stuff. Check him out.

Tellason Denim

I'm a fan of Tellason denim for obvious reasons...they're made in the USA and use high-quality materials. Pete and Tony are also passionate about their product, which is always key.

I wear Tellason almost exclusively for all of my artistic endeavors (painting/wheatpasting/stenciling/collaging/screenprinting) as well as many of my domestic assignments (gardening, splitting firewood, cleaning gutters, etc).

DDC-051 "Philadelphia Freedom Poster"

I'm a fan of DDC and the personality behind it, Mr. Aaron Draplin. He does great work, cares about the history of his medium and is funny as hell.

I guess Draplin's been doing a lot of speaking engagements/lectures and knocking out amazing prints to promote and accompany the various venues.

To summarize: support this dude. He does kick ass shit.

LOUD FLASH: British Punk on Paper

A little late with this posting, but above is a small sampling of 'Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper' exhibit from Honor Fraser Gallery in LA. It's a well-curated and very rare selections of prints, flyers, zines and other ephemera from the personal collection of Brit, Toby Mott. No doubt, THE most impressive presentation of the era that I've ever seen...most of which, in terms of design, is absolutely brilliant.

Press release from Honor Fraser:

Honor Fraser is pleased to announce Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper, opening Saturday July 16, 6 to 8pm, and on view through August 27, 2011.

This exhibition is a compelling portrait of a particular moment in British popular culture, at the bitter end of the post-war period. It tells its story through a unique collection of several hundred posters, flyers and other ephemera assembled by artist and erstwhile punk, Toby Mott. With the passion of a true fan and an artist's eye for an image, he has gathered the evidence of the short life and premature, messy end of British Punk. There are iconic images by artists such as Jamie Reid and Linder Sterling, as well as flyers, gig posters, and zines, crudely cut and pasted by anonymous hands. A fascinating collection of political material supplies further context of a nation of unrest, torn by extremism, recording attempts by political extremes of both left and right to co-opt the power of youth.

Ephemeral and throwaway as each of these objects were, collected together they tell, in uniquely immediate and visual terms, a part of the history of Britain, the history of ideas, and the history of art. Punk has always exerted a fascination, but perhaps never stronger than at this moment. The legacy of punk has permeated modern culture and society, and its visual vocabulary infuses much contemporary art, while the punk spirit resonates in particular with the anti-elitist, DIY ethos of today's young, blogging artists and musicians. This exhibition recalls the anarchic spirit of authenticity and amateurism, the volatile and ambiguous celebration of negativity, creativity, violence and protest that was Punk.

Chris Burden: Metropolis II Coming to LACMA

Can't wait to see this monumental work from Chris Burden at LACMA...

A short doc about a kinetic sculpture that took four years to build. We had the honor of spending three days in Chris Burden's studio filming this sculpture before it was moved to the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA) where it is being reinstalled.
The installation opens fall 2011.
Chris Burden is one of our favorite artists of all time. For more about him and his work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/chris-burden/

Directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Edited by Max Joseph
Cinemtography by Schulman, Joost & Van Neistat
Music by Tortoise (Ten-Day interval) & Mahogany (Windmill International A)

Special Thanks to Zak Cook and everyone at the Burden studio...Tortoise, Mahogany, Jaclyn Slimm & Andrew Prinz

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PLINC Catalog

I'm a huge fan of the boys (and girls) over at House Industries in Yorklyn, Delaware. Their latest project, the digitization of the overwhelming Photo-Lettering (PLINC) archives, has been online for a few months now. If you're a designer, be sure to go check it out...and be sure to sign up for their new printed PLINC catalog.

Above images House Industries © 2011

D*Face Pool Paint Attack

On the subject of drawing lines, English artist D*Face recently teamed up with a few skateboarders, including Screaming Lord Salba, to transform an ordinary backyard pool into a curved canvas of cured concrete. Using some aerosol paint, a remotely-operated trigger and some ingenuity, each board was modified into a kinetic paint brush.

The result? A three dimensional, Spirograph-esque collaboration between the artist, the skaters and the pool...

REFERENCE LIBRARY/Taliban Don't Surf PT. 2

My previous post, below, showed some of the content and concept of the Taliban Don't Surf print. Above are a few aspects of the craft of the design; from first thumbnail sketch (dated 2/21/11) and notes, to illustrating type specimens and creating other analog elements for use in the collage. After a few dozen digital comps, films are ripped, screens are coated and burned, inks mixed, paper trimmed and registered and squeegees pulled.

The final product, a two color, 18" x 24" screenprint, on 100# archival, black stock is available now (6/30/11) via 1xRun.com.

REFERENCE LIBRARY/Taliban Don't Surf

A few pieces of digital ephemera that serve the story of the upcoming Taliban Don't Surf print, available June 30, 2011, exclusively at 1xRun.com.