Art of the Cover - Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (1998)

A most memorable and effective - yet simple - piece of art adorns this mighty collection.

Yap, it's the second album from the seminal Neutral Milk Hotel - the snapplily titled "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" - which dropped in 1998.

Brit music mag NME later named "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" in their 100 greatest album of all time list.

Chris Bilheimer is credited with the art direction here, and Brian Dewan with illustrations.

The cover was a collaboration between NMH head-honcho Jeff Mangum and R.E.M.'s staff designer, Chris Bilheimer.

Elephant 6 Recording Company collaborator and pal Bryan Poole has said that "Mangum was always into that old-timey, magic, semi-circus, turn-of-the-century, penny arcade kind of imagery."

One particular piece Mangum showed to Bilheimer was an old European postcard with an image of people bathing at a resort, which was then cropped and altered.

Bilheimer also designed the broadsheet-style lyrics sheet for the album.

Interestingly, in the process, Bilheimer inadvertently titled a certain song - one that is probably the LP's best, and best known, nugget - "Holland, 1945". Mangum had oringinally wanted to use either the title "Holland" or "1945" for the song, but Bilheimer then convinced him to use both.

Tracklisting

1.     "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One"
2. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three"
3. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"  
4. "Two-Headed Boy"  
5. "The Fool"  
6. "Holland, 1945"  
7. "Communist Daughter"  
8. "Oh Comely"  
9. "Ghost"  
10. Untitled  
11. "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two"  

 
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Art of the Book - Peaches & Holger Talinski's "What Else Is In the Teaches of Peaches" (2015)

"[Peaches] has teamed up with her longtime tour photographer Holger Talinski to look back at a brazen career that has captured the attention of outsider artists and massive pop stars alike, ranging from Michael Stipe to PJ Harvey to Iggy Pop ... Along with Holger's uncompromising, often raw imagery, the book includes stories from artists who have championed Peaches's work over the years." 

--New York Times T Magazine

"One flip through the glossy new monograph What Else Is In the Teaches of Peaches is all it takes to get absorbed into the post-punk wonderland of pop culture icon Peaches." 

--W Magazine

Photographer Holger Talinski collaborated with Peaches on the book of photographs, What Else Is In the Teaches of Peaches, released on June 2, 2015. 

As well as text by Peaches, What Else Is In the Teaches of Peaches also includes text written by Peaches, R.E.M's irritating singer Michael Stipe, artist, singer and band-destroyer Yoko Ono and irritating actress Ellen Page.

What Else Is In the Teaches of Peaches is published by Akashic Books.

Peaches, born Merrill Nisker in Toronto, is a musician, singer, performance artist, producer, filmmaker, actor, and writer, who has lived and worked in Berlin since 2000. She has released five albums -- The Teaches of Peaches, Fatherfucker, Impeach My Bush, I Feel Cream -- plus the brand new LP RUB . She has collaborated and appeared as a guest vocalist on albums by P!nk, R.E.M., Iggy Pop, Major Lazer, and Christina Aguilera, to mention a few. Her songs have been featured in dozens of films and TV shows including Mean Girls, Lost in Translation, Whip It, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, South Park, and True Blood. 

Peaches has performed in more than fifty countries and has constantly toured the world for the past fourteen years. She created Peaches Christ Superstar, where she performed the entire rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar as a one-woman show; and she sang the lead role of L’Orfeo in a production of Monteverdi’s seventeenth-century Italian opera. Peaches’s most ambitious work to date was the mythical autobiographical electrorock stage-show-turned-film called Peaches Does Herself. The feature film debuted at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival and was warmly received at over seventy film festivals around the world.  

Holger Talinski (b. 1981) is a Berlin-based photographer focusing on portrait and documentary photography. He is also passionate about skateboarding, which was the reason he started taking photos in the first place--to document his and his friends’ lifestyle. He studied photography in Bielefeld, Germany, and interned in New York with Benedict F. Fernandez, most well-known for photographing Martin Luther King Jr. Holger’s work has also been commissioned in Europe, the United States, Thailand, and India.  

 
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Art of the Cover - Ken Stringfellow's "Never Said I’d Make It Easy" (2014)

Yeah, I fucking love the Posies ... so what?

And here's the legendary Posies head honcho Ken Stringfellow with the wonderfully titled best-of collection "Never Said I’d Make It Easy".

Great music. Great artwork too.

Stringfellow is beloved among pop obsessives for his work with the Posies, and he’s also been a sideman to the stars, sitting in with R.E.M., Big Star, the Minus 5, the Green Pajamas, the Fastbacks, and many other great acts.

However, for unknown reasons, his solo career hasn’t attracted the same degree of attention, and for folks who are curious about his work on his own but can’t decide quite where to start, Lojinx Records have come to their aid with I Never Said I’d Make It Easy, a sampler that pulls together 16 songs from Stringfellow’s solo catalog. 

Of the 16 songs on I Never Said I’d Make It Easy, 12 originally appeared on 1997′s This Sounds Like Goodbye, 2001′s Touched, and 2004′s Soft Commands, while two cuts came from an EP with fellow Posie Jon Auer, one was drawn from the B-side of a rare single, and one track, a low-key cover of the Replacements’ “Kids Don’t Fellow,” is previously unreleased. 

Melodically speaking, Stringfellow’s solo work isn’t especially far removed from his music with the Posies, but the tunes on I Never Said I’d Make It Easy are recognizably more downbeat than his best-known stuff with the band, and the tone of this music is significantly more dour, with the ache of broken hearts and the bitterness of failed relationships a dominant recurring theme.

 I Never Said I’d Make It Easy is dominated by bummed-out pop, but it’s great bummed-out pop, with subtly beautiful melodies and intelligent lyrics, while Stringfellow’s production smarts are estimable, blending organic acoustic sounds with a dash of electric guitar grit and a healthy splash of electronic polish, resulting in a powerful and engaging product. “Don’t Break the Silence” and “Any Love (Cassandra et Lune)” are pocket-sized masterpieces, and the closing cover of “Never My Love” manages to sound nearly as lovely as the Association’s original while taking on a smokier, more mature affect. 

If I Never Said I’d Make It Easy isn’t everything you might need from Ken Stringfellow, it certainly confirms he doesn’t need his many talented partners to make wonderful smart pop music.

Tracklisting

1. Any Sign At All
2. Down Like Me
3. Find Yourself Alone
4. Sparrow
5. Reveal Love
6. Here’s To The Future
7. Airscape
8. Don’t Break The Silence
9. Ask Me No Questions
10. Kids Don’t Follow
11. You Drew
12. Any Love (Cassandra Et Lune)
13. Known Diamond
14. Cyclone Graves
15. Death of a City
16. Never My Love

  

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The Shot - Muzak Mike On Mike

   
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The WTFFF - Muzak Monger Michael Stipe Inflicts More Pain On The World With Shots of Tiny Michael

Not content with inflicting inestimable amounts of shocking aural pain on the masses for at least two of their three decades together (the band, erm, disbanded this week! HURRAH!!) REM muzak monger and head effete singer, Michael Stipe (who now looks like a San Fran club Grizzly Adams!) inflicts yet more pain on the world recently with a vid of a series of shots of the douche in his bedroom ... playing a lot with Tiny Michael!

Check hit Tumblr page here [NSFW]

Ewwwwww!! I'd even prefer to listen to ridiculous lift muzak like "Shiny Happy People" a billion times than view this bullshit!

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Art of the Cover - REM's "Life's Rich Pageant" (25th Anniversary Edition)

Dropping July 12, 2011, a must have for fans of the Rapid Eye Movment crowd, it's the special 25th Anniversary Edition of one of their best collections, "Life's Rich Pageant" featuring a specially remasterd version of the original plus a fulll disc of rarities plus other goodies!

R.E.M.'s fourth studio album, "Life's Rich Pageant" was recorded by vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry at John Mellencamp's Belmont Mall Studios in Indiana. Produced by Don Gehman, renowned for producing a string of punchy, soulful heartland-rock albums by Mellencamp, Pageant includes the singles Fall On Me and Superman.

The album was R.E.M.'s first to achieve Gold certification status, and it reached #21 on Billboard s Top 200 Albums chart, the band s then-highest chart position.

The special 2CD lift top box contains the original album digitally remastered plus a full disc of rare extras.

Yap, Disc 2 contains "The Athens Demos," 19 previously unreleased tracks recorded by the band before the final studio sessions.

If that's not enough, also included is a special poster and a series of rare postcards.

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The Video - Tired Pony (Snow Patrol/REM) - Dead American Writers

The Snow Patrol / REM side project unleash a new album  on an innocent world!

Tired Pony?? ... More like 'One-Trick Ponies'!! (or 'No-Trick Ponies', in the case of Snow Patrol!)  

Tired Pony is a music group consisting of Gary Lightbody, Richard Colburn, Iain Archer, Jacknife Lee, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Troy Stewart. Lightbody formed the group out of his love for country music, and has described the group's music as "country-tinged."

The group visited Portland, Oregon in January 2010 to record an album, which was produced by member Lee.

The resultant album "The Place We Ran From" was released in July 12, 2010  in UK and will drop September 28th, 2010 in the US. It was recorded in only one week on January 2010, in Portland, Oregon, USA.  It includes contributions from actress and singer Zooey Deschanel, guitarist M. Ward, and Tom Smith of the indie rock group Editors.

 Album Tracklisting

1. Northwestern Skies

2. Get On The Road

3. Point Me At Lost Islands

4. Dead American Writers

5. Held In The Arms Of Your Words

6. That Silver Necklace

7. I Am A Landslide

8. The Deepest Ocean There Is

9. The Good Book

10. Pieces

Its first single is this track, "Dead American Writers" Not a bad piece actually. I mean it's a galaxy better than any Snow Patrol ditty!!

Really likin' the very unconventional and rather excellent video too.

The promo stars Joseph Gilgun, who burned up the screen in Shane Meadows' majestic 'This is England - one of my favourite films of the past few years (it has a mighty Soundtrack too!)

The vid was directed by Paul Fraser.

Gary Lightbody spoke of the   vid ..."We, me and Garret, had just finished the soundtrack to Paul's debut feature and loved his style so we thought we'd get him to do a study of a great young actor for the first Tired Pony video. It is supposed to strip away any thoughts of who made the record and make it purely about performance. A great face and, hopefully, a great song."

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R.E.M. Accelerate (2008)

R.E.M. Accelerate (2008)

Rock | MP3 VBR 208 kbps avg| Playtime 00:34:34 | Warner Bros | 54.6MB

R.E.M. have a brand new album out on 31st March - "Accelerate" (Warners) will be the fourteenth studio album by American alternative rock band and has been produced by Jacknife Lee.

The band will precede the album release with the single 'Supernatural Superserious', along with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 24th March.

A full European tour then commences in July with one date in Amsterdam on Wednesday 2nd July.

Tracklist

1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge 3:12
2. Man-Sized Wreath 2:33
3. Supernatural Superserious 3:23
4. Hollow Man 2:39
5. Houston 2:05
6. Accelerate 3:33
7. Until The Day Is Done 4:08
8. Mr. Richards 3:46
9. Sing For The Submarine 4:50
10. Horse To Water 2:18
11. Im Gonna Dj 2:07

Download

Thanks to the original poster

Banzai !

Art of the Cover - Bob Mould's "Workbook 25" (2014)

As the years go by, they take their toll on you

The great cover shot to Bob Mould's first solo album, the wonderful  "Workbook", originally from 1989 but now reissued in a wonderful 2-CD set.

As innovative as Hüsker Dü was, fans had to wonder if Bob Mould could take them on another journey as rewarding. Workbook not only proved he could, but did.

Deliberately different to the seminal Hardcore sound he was known for with Hüsker Dü, the album is primarily acoustic and has a strong folk influence. 

Drummer Anton Fier and bassist Tony Maimone, both of Pere Ubu fame, served as Mould's rhythm section.

Some of the songs were begun by Mould during his Hüsker Dü days. In the liner notes of the Hüsker Dü live album titled The Living End, critic David Fricke noted that Mould had an embryonic version of "Compositions for the Young and Old" in the waning days of that band.

The single "See a Little Light" was a hit on the US Modern Rock chart. 

The album was hugely influential in the alternative rock community. Its acoustic style would later be echoed in R.E.M.'s 1992 album Automatic for the People, while Nirvana's 1993 album In Utero used cellos in a similar way.

The album has - down the years - taken on iconic status, and Omnivore is now proud to present the special Workbook 25 edition of the LP.

In addition to the original album's 11 tracks, the first disc of this 2-CD collection adds 'All Those People Know,' originally issued as the B-side of the single 'See A Little Light.' 

The second disc is a wonderful live concert that sounds like Bob and pals are jamming in your living room!

It's a recording of Mould's complete 1989 performance at Chicago's Cabaret Metro where a total  of 13 of the 17 tracks are previously unissued. 

The show contains music from the then, two-week old, Workbook, as well as versions of some Hüsker Dü classic plus a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson's classic 'Shoot Out The Lights.'

Tracklistings

Disc 1: Original Album

1. Sunspots
2. Wishing Well
3. Heartbreak A Stranger
4. See A Little Light
5. Poison Years
6. Sinners And Their Repentances
7. Brasilia Crossed With Trenton
8. Compositions For The Young And Old
9. Lonely Afternoon
10. Dreaming, I Am
11. Whichever Way The Wind Blows
12. All Those People Know {Bonus Track}


Disc 2: Live at Chicago's Cabaret Metro (1989)

1. Sunspots

2. Wishing Well

3. Compositions For The Young And Old

4. Heartbreak A Stranger

5. Dreaming, I Am

6. If You're True

7. Poison Years

8. Sinners And Their Repentances

9. Lonely Afternoon

10. Brasilia Crossed With Trenton

11. See A Little Light

12. Whichever Way The Wind Blows

13. All Those People Know

14. Shoot Out The Lights

15. Hardly Getting Over It

16. Celebrated Summer

17. Makes No Sense At All

  

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