Kid Acne‘s ‘The Return’ solo exhibition just opened last weekend in Turin, Italy. Here are some photos from the opening and a film of him at work. The show runs until July 5th and is held at the Galo Art Gallery.
The entire exhibition focuses on his Stabby Women characters – adding new paintings, illustrations and prints to the ongoing body of work, which continues to explore the travels, rituals and mythology of these enigmatic female warriors.
To mark the release of The The‘s newly boxed and remastered ‘Soul Mining’ album on June 30th I will be quizzing Matt Johnson about its history and making at Rough Trade East at 7pm.
Sadly on Sunday it was two years since MCA passed away and there was a weekend long celebration in Brooklyn to remember the man and the music he made with the Beasties. With another, happier, anniversary also approaching – 25 years since the release of ‘Paul’s Boutique’ – there is a fair bit of Beastie-related activity on the horizon.
Above and below you can see a comic created by Derek Langille illustrating the song ‘Sabotage’ – this was done nearly two years ago now and takes a similar old school comic style to Ed Piskor‘s excellent on-going ‘Hip Hop Family Tree‘.
A couple of fans in Italy (SM&A Prod.) are preparing a ‘visual companion’ to the album, to debut online on July 25th (see new trailer above) and Filter magazine are running a special on it in an upcoming issue.
The 3-Way Mix should be getting a feature somewhere in that issue and I was interviewed recently for an updated version of Dan LeRoy‘s 33 1/3 book about the making of the album.
Also over the weekend the deconstructed mix of the album that I made with DJ Cheeba and DJ Moneyshot finally hit 100,000 plays on Soundcloud – this is a big milestone for us so thanks to all for listening.
Check out this original Kevin O’Neill painting from the cover of the ‘Twisted Times’ collection – short Future Shock stories by Alan Moore from his old 2000ad days. This is on sale now from Artdroids if you have the hefty £6k that Rufus wants for it and underneath is the original book cover it was used for. “if I was a rich man, la la la la la etc”…
As with last year’s Free Comic Book Day I’ve put together another collection of record sleeves that use artists from or reference comics in some way. Above is a Boo-Yaa Tribe 12″ which I THINK is drawn by Bob Camp who also did the Bambaataa ‘Renegades of Funk’ and Newcleus sleeves from the previous post. The only credit is ‘designed by Island Art’ on the back and the German 12″ says ‘illustration: Marvel Comics’ (!) This version features two remixes by Coldcut incidentally.
A classic back and front sleeve by (*update!) Dave Little for Bomb The Bass‘ first LP – the connection started when BTB adapted Dave Gibbons‘ Watchman smiley face with blood splat on their first 12″ cover for ‘Beat Dis’ – thus helping bring the smiley into the then current Acid House craze as its motif. Dave Little – as Steve Cook helpfully pointed out below in the comments – was Rhythm King‘s in-house designer, responsible for S’Express, Renegade Soundwave and more.
Next up – the master – Moebius, drawing Hendrix, as he would do several times in his career but this is the only album cover I know of. This is a ‘twofer’, two albums in one package for the French market on the Barclay label with a gorgeous gatefold. I love the way Hendrix is on the back instead of the front.
More Moebius, I’ve posted this before but it’s so good I’m going to do it again.
Staying with the French artists here’s Philippe Druillet with another Hendrix gatefold and another similar record that I can’t identify the artist on – both released on Barclay. Anyone know the second artist? Update: several people have pointed the finger at Richard Corben on this one and I can see the similarity for sure plus it would fit in with the series of artists featured in Metal Hurlant at the time.
This is the back cover of an Impulse Jazz compilation with a weird contraption by lesser-known Underground Comix artist Dave Sheridan (RIP) – odd to see this on a jazz record but then again Robert Crumb was no stranger to the genre.
Last but not least we have Jim Fitzpatrick who did many sleeves for Thin Lizzy in the 70’s through to the early 80’s. Not really a comic artist as such, more in the Celtic Fantasy range as an illustrator but you can see the comic book influence in his style with the psychedelic lettering on the early releases looking like Robert Williams‘ work or even Hawkwind-era Barney Bubbles.
Love this die-cut cover showing through the inside sleeve.
This Greatest Hits release was advertised with a comic strip-like page in an issue of Sounds, riffing off a cowboy theme. 
Not quite sure if this is Jim Fitzpatrick as the line work is a bit spikier and Steve Cook again pointed out that it could be Martin Asbury – probably best known for drawing Garth and the style certainly looks similar.
The Electric Hoax Pt.18 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
Seeing as it’s Free Comic Book Day tomorrow I’ll be posting a little more than usual about related events over the coming week. Another exhibition that just opened is this celebration of 20 Years of Hellboy by artists both professional and amateur.
It’s on at the Hero Complex Gallery in LA from today and you can see more examples of art here plus everything goes up for sale tomorrow .
Absolutely love this track from tUnE-yArDs‘ new album (out Monday May 5th) – nuts video too.
This just opened in London at the British Library, I’m going Monday, can’t wait!
Featuring such iconic names as Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta), Grant Morrison (Batman: Arkham Asylum) and Posy Simmonds (Tamara Drewe), this exhibition traces the British comics tradition back through classic 1970s titles including 2000AD, Action and Misty to 19th-century illustrated reports of Jack the Ripper and beyond.
“Can’t recommend British Library’s Comics Unmasked exhibition enough! Unexpected & rare exhibits, wonderfully presented.” – Dave Gibbons (Watchman and many more)
Parental guidance is advised for visitors under 16 years of age due to the explicit nature of some of the exhibits on display, the exhibition runs until August. For more info and updated content visit the Library’s Comics Unmasked page.
The Electric Hoax Pt.17 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version (just realised I didn’t put this up over the weekend – really not sure why the heroine’s clothes have suddenly fallen off)
It’s London’s turn to host Eilon Paz for the launch of the Dust & Grooves book in the UK with an exhibition, signing and guest DJs playing all vinyl sets on May 23rd. After the successful US launch on Record Store Day, April 19th we get the release in Europe a month later on May 20th.
Check out Ollie Teeba, Jonny Trunk, Dom Servini, Coleen Murphy, Kid Dyno and Sheila B spinning for free and enter a raffle to win a copy of the book at The Proud Archivist gallery in Hackney from 6pm. Unfortunately, due to a prior booking of the ‘3-Way Mix’ down in Southampton, I can’t be there otherwise I’d be joining that line up in a second.
There’s more info here and I’m currently working on editing an interview I did with cover star Mr Scruff that didn’t make the book deadline to appear on the D&G website for the launch. See a film of the launch party in Brooklyn below to get a taste of what will be happening and don’t forget to put aside a few hours to visit the Dust & Grooves website.
Incredible piece just finished somewhere in Krakow, Poland.
Canadian Marco D’Alfonso drew this Akira / Kirby ‘What If?’ mash up cover for The Line Is Drawn blog. I’d buy that in a minute.
50 years of fashion and music woven together from The Woolmark Company on Vimeo.
There’s little to say about Cyriak‘s work except ‘WOW’ – he knocks it out the park again for this Woolmark 50th anniversary short.
Absolutely love this, both sound and vision. The Soundcarriers are a new signing to Ghost Box although they’ve released several albums before, some featuring the songs here but in different forms.
You can order the LP here and marvel at yet another Julian House created video for the track ‘Boiling Point’ above. More info here and more soundclips here too, sounds like they’re moving towards a pure 60’s/70’s West Coast Sunshine Pop mood, reminds me of The Free Design or The Hellers‘ records on Command with a bit more edge. Previous LPs ‘Harmonium’, ‘Celeste’ and ‘The Other World Of…’ are highly recommended. Check ‘This is Normal’ from their last LP, featuring the dulcet tones on none other than Elijah Wood!
I can’t say too much about these because they’re not legit, but they are very good and make for an indepth journey into the back catalogue of the evergreen JAMMs / KLF etc. Collections of remasters and remixes, obscurities and hits mix with reworkings so sensitive to the originals that it’s hard to tell what’s ‘real’ and what’s not.
This is particularly excellent, extending Jimmy Cauty‘s ‘Space’ to over 72 minutes. If you do some research and a bit of digging around you can find out about and hear some of this material but you won’t find it in any shops.
Love this work by Canadian artist Pascal Blanché. It’s all new but has just the right amount of 70’s Métal Hurlant / Heavy Metal vibe to evoke that retro age of sci-fi. He has a Deviant Art page with a patron scheme going on to fund him doing more material like this for a book.
Love this, see how he did it on his blog here.
This compilation comes out at the end of April on the Throne of Blood label, a collection of ‘outer reaches of electronic ambiance, Kosmische vibrations, and crystalline acoustics’. If dark instrumental synth workouts and sci-fi ambiance with spooky vocals is your thing then check this out.
Featuring: Juju & Jordash, DAMH, Simian Mobile Disco, Jokers of the Scene, Naum Gabo, Professor Genius, Pittsburgh Track Authority, Auf Togo, Lexx, Steve Moore, RL/VL, and Evan Stalker on 2xLP and digital. Some roughly strung together soundclips are here.