Chunklet

Earlier this week I got an email via Gavin at Stickfigure asking for my assistance on a book being released about seven inch record design. After inquiring if I could cast a wider net via the chunklet.com freaks, they agreed. Here's their spiel:

"Soundscreen Design is currently finishing a book, tentatively titled Touchable Sound: Twenty Years of 7” Record Design.

For our research, we're trying to compile lists of people's suggestions of the best DIY 7"s, in terms of design and packaging, as this is NOT about music or nostalgia. We're looking for lists of people's twenty (or more) best 7"s from roughly 1986 through 2006. Records where either the packaging is handmade or you can see the hand of the creators in the work (even in something that wasn't handmade, but extra work was put into its creation—like, say, the Black Dice 7"/book on 31G). We're very interested in the role local communities and record collecting had on the design, and therefore are interested in hearing about stuff that would definitely be off our radar—examples of local records that never really got much distribution, tour version records, non-hardcore/punk/indie records (we do not want to limit ourselves by genre), foreign releases, etc. It doesn't have to be a super formal list, we just want to make sure that we've got all the really good stuff covered, and you all know more than we could possibly research on our own.

Please send lists (with photos, if possible), noting: band, label, city or region label is from, and details you think we need to know about the design here.

Thank you very much, your help is invaluable, and we hope you’ll enjoy digging in your crates as much as we’re going to enjoy seeing what you’ve got."

Here's what I sent back. Please bear in mind that this was a quickly assembled list (Billy doesn't believe me that I did this in 30 minutes) and can easily be improved upon. Please also note that I threw in a couple graphic designer notes keeping in mind that this was intended for a fellow designer.......

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet "Wedding Single" (released by Albini)- The sleeve was a wedding napkin for the marriage between John Mohr (TAR) and Beck Dudley (MOTO) and was recorded by Albini and given out by him for guests at the event.

Shellac - Uranus/Rude Gesture (Touch & Go) - Probably a bit of a no brainer. The die was made and thousands upon thousands were made. The word "SHELLAC" was printed with a spot varnish so when it was brushed over with root beer extract, it acted as a resist. I know of at least ten bands that paid off debts at Electrical (and/or Steve) by assembling these in his living room and/or studio.

Tsunami - Matchbook 7" (Simple Machines) - Sleeve is oversized and looks like a matchbook. The records didn't hold up very well (either physically or musically) due to no real inner sleeve, but it stands out nonetheless.

Revo 7" (Pop Bus) - Record in a bag with a retail-like hanger on the top. The hanger is letter pressed. Clever design.

Strangulated Beatoffs - 2x7" (Skin Graft) - A comic book with an outside clear plastic overprint in green that lays on top of the artwork. Really clever for 1993 or whatever year it came out.

Rapeman - Hated Chinee (Touch & Go) - The printing is rather simple 2/c with a blind emboss, but the bass player used the insides of the sleeves to do his calculus homework.

Jessamine - Houdini (Thingmakers) - Hands down one of the most insane packages I've ever seen. Cardboard with glued on paper (4/c with 2 spot varnishes and two foil stamps!) and the whole thing is locked in with a real FUCKING LOCK! The key is inside the sleeve. You just have to see it, but good christ, it's retarded. Thingmakers did incredible stuff, but were/are insanely flaky. Additionally, the Sub Pop single (screwed in place) and the self released 7"s (with foil paper, blind embossing, etc etc) are also tits. (Postscript: This single is still available for SIX FREAKING DOLLARS at the Barsuk site!)

Bruce Lee, Heroin & The Punk Scene - 3x7" comp - Kinda hard to describe. In a box. a bunch of esoteric shit thrown in. Genius.

Wingtip Sloat - I have four different singles by them and I know people who have the same ones and none look the same. Individually assembled and packaged with tons of weird shit (one of mine has 5 feet of chopped up audio tape). Brilliant.

Various Artists - Jabberjaw 4x7" - The second comp series that came in a gorgeous oversized cigarette box.

Lake of Dracula/Monitor Radio split (Carcrashh) - Each copy came with a dental x-ray that was individually glued in there.

Karl Hendricks Trio/Mothra split (Egg Yolk) - Beautifully assembled. Very handmade. The sleeves were flocked so they have a very tactile feel. The sleeve is to look like a shirt being unbuttoned.

Various Artists - Neo Metro 3x7" comp (Simple Machines) - 3 singles featuring artists from each city (Bmore, Richmond, DC) and designed to look like Neopolitan ice cream. Even came with an ice cream spoon!

Various Artists - Working Holiday box set (Simple Machines) - kinda way ahead of the curve. Taking a page from Sub Pop, you got 2x7"s every other month celebrating each month with special songs by Codeine, Tsunami, Crackerbash......A LOT OF BANDS. After all was said and done, you got a special super sturdy box to put them all in and a special bonus 7", a letter pressed calendar and a specially written Duplex Planet. Genius.

Aerial M/Azusa Plane split (Monstertruck) - split single housed with duct tape inside two pieces of particle board and held together with velcro. Personalized pictures on the cover of each and all info hand placed with clear labels.

Unrest - Pretty much anything they did before 1991 or so. Especially the Catchpellet 7".

Von Hemmling (Elephant Six) - Individually constructed sleeves made out of construction paper. Hand stamped and written on.

Tar - Play To Win (No Blow) - Individually hand stamped records on a custom made bingo card. Die cut and glued. Fancy shit for '89.

Various Artists- Earworm Soup (Earworm) - End of the record label. Each record comes with pieces of the stampers for previous releases.

Cop Shoot Cop - Piece Man (Vertical) - each sleeve was splattered with pig's blood. No two the same.

Floor - Goddard (Rhetoric) - Interesting packaging for such a simple design. Innovative die cut.

Fugazi - Sub Pop single - Velum. metallic inks. Very unlike any other Fugazi release.

Candy Machine (DeSoto) - Encased in Carboard. Hard to describe, but the sleeve had to be destroyed to open.

Die Slaughterhaus Box set - 3x7" by Black Lips, Tabitha and the Lids. Boxes spray painted and stenciled by hand. Tons of homemade-ness in this.

Melvins - Tora Tora Tora tour 3x7" set - Sturdy. Bolted together. A sight to behold.

MOTO - Where The Love Lives (Hi-Ball) put out by the Coctails kids. Gorgeous.

Obvious stuff:
The entire Pushead singles club. I know a couple people with those collections (I sold mine years ago) and the printing/packaging is fucking retarded.
Halo of Flies - Tom was a completely self taught designer who did shit working at the copy shop in Seattle while he was still a marine. So much of it looks incredible for the time and just seems confounding to take into a print shop in (say) 1988. Overprints and crude trapping abound. I should also mention that he was extraordinarily instrumental in the larger implementation of 7" as art/official release than he's ever given credit.
Les Savy Fav - 9x7" series where all the sleeves were assembled to create a larger piece.
The Locust - Puzzle 7"
Polvo - Celebrate the New Dark Age 3x7" - Really gorgeous letter pressed job from Merge.
Piper Cub - 7" on Sub Pop. Unreal packaging ala the Revo 7".
All the singles by mid-90's hipster band Fuck. Every single was very personal, very hand made.

Personally released singles worth mentioning:
The Olivia Tremor Control "Giant Day" (Drug Racer) - Every copy was hand colored BY THE BAND. Hand stamped. The sleeves were letter pressed. Came with two enormous posters as well.
Man or Astroman? "UFOs and the Men Who Fly Them" (Drug Racer) - The sleeve turned into (no shit) a flying saucer.
Servotron "Servotron 9000" (Drug Racer) - Yet another idea I'd never seen before. You have to destroy the sleeve to get to the record which is inside a die cut, blind embossed 2/0 piece of art. Honestly. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS.

There's one other singles series that I did that's a bit more complex. I have done three singles that have served as TICKETS for shows I've done in town. All exclusive tracks. Available only at the local record store. THAT'S IT. Exclusive tks by Diplo, Black Lips (which I recorded actually), Deerhunter, Carbonas, Dark Meat and many others.... The ticket was perforated along the top side and served for entry into the show featuring the bands on the single.

So.....with all of that spiel outta the way, get in touch with them! I'd also be thrilled to hear what everybody else would recommend. You know where to put 'em (in the comments section, duh...)

One of the best designs I've ever seen, the Jessamine "Houdini" 7" (note the padlock)...(with Dave)

I was just reminded that the Halo Benders first 7" was in a brown paper bag that was folded over. Music was kinda "eh" but the bag was neat.

Posted by henry @ 02/22/2009 08:01 PM

I wanted to second the grasspatch/milkshed split 7" posted by Todd. I still have it and always thought it was an amazingly put together record.

Also, the new God's Dick 7" with cover art from Johnny Ryan is pretty rad. Recorded in 2004. But just came out. So it may not count.

Also, hopefully they'll look further back and mention all the Crass 7"s and stuff on the label.

Posted by Gene @ 02/12/2009 05:40 PM

Yeah, I have a (ahem) Megadeth record that also plays backwards.

As far as odd-sized records, some of the oddest I've seen were by a band called Ampere. I have one 6" split they did with Ringers, and I remember seeing a 9" record that was pressed with etchings done INBETWEEN tracks on both sides of the record. I didn't buy it 'cause I was afraid I'd play it and forget to move the needle between each song and rip the stylus all to hell.

Oh, and what about concentric groove records? Wasn't there a Cheech and Chong LP that, depending on where you dropped the needle, would either play the listed content or it would play Chong saying "man, you got ripped off" over and over again.

Posted by bennett @ 02/10/2009 05:37 PM

Oh, I have that King Kurt 12". Read more about different formats here: http://www.kempa.com/2004/03/04/oh-inverted-grooves/

There was also this 500 track LP with all lock-grooves including Sonic Youth. http://www.thomasdimuzio.com/rrr5002.html.
Another good reason not to buy CD's!

Posted by Peter Glob Frandsen @ 02/10/2009 11:58 AM

There is a thread going on right now on the Killed By Death list (it's a Yahoo Group) about strangely shaped records (3", 5", 8", 11", and die-cut vinyl), as well as unique package designs and other oddities (like a King Kurt 12" that played from the inner groove to the outer groove).

Posted by jonder @ 02/10/2009 10:18 AM

record collectors are pretentious assholes!

don't blame me.. it's all Poison Idea, mang.

Posted by Jerny @ 02/09/2009 10:57 AM

The Music Tapes' first two 7"s. Can't remember the names or labels as they are deep in storage somewhere, but they both opened up like pop up books with hand drawn cartoon images and such. Really charming and totally indicative of the music inside.

Posted by adam @ 02/07/2009 11:10 AM

Oiler did song about masturbating called "Little Holes". The sleeve had a pop-up that illustrated the song. SFTRI also had that Mummies/Werewolves split with a comic book.

There was a Spin-Art box called POP LICKS that came with candy & toys. Speaking of which - is there ever gonna be a Veronica Lake comp?

Teenbeat did a Barbara Manning 7" with the ink changing on every cover so no two were the same shade.

Superchunk's "Driveway To Driveway" had a 3D picture glued to the cover.

The Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot LUNCH BOX 7" came with a spork, a napkin and a random 7" from the cheap bin at Phonolux records. Mine has a Gene McDaniels 45.

Posted by KS @ 02/06/2009 06:08 PM

didn't the serial killers release a single that included a bag of dirt (supposedly) from gary heidnik's basement?

Posted by chad @ 02/05/2009 04:39 PM

Well, I looked through all my stuff and I found a couple of things, 1. The grifters single with fluffy kitty on cherry smash records all the sleeves are made of handsewn fabric. The other are box sets one being the endangered species boxset on glitterhouse that has a different picture on the back of each single which makes a puzzle designed by Dancey. The other is the estrus lunch bucket which came with lunch bucket kids cards for every band.

I also like the independen project stuff and the amp rep research and development picture discs they did, some of them designed by Chris Mars.

Posted by Aaron Klein @ 02/05/2009 11:46 AM

You're so bossy, Joe.

Posted by henry @ 02/05/2009 11:37 AM

Lux is dead.
Let's do a post, huh?

Posted by Joe @ 02/05/2009 09:41 AM

looking through my shit, I came across the first couple Jimmy Eat World records (don't judge me).

The first one is pretty straight forward, but they got the records before they had the sleeves with the "doped boxer picture" printed. They xeroxed a note with directions on how to get the real sleeves, hand numbered them (1-25) and included a couple of photos and a bag of lipton iced tea.

A later 7", a split with Christie Front Drive, had for a sleeve a trimmed manilla envelope with two straight sharpie lines, a gold foil sticker where the lines intersect and two rubber stamps with band and label info. Made entirely by hand from things found or ordered from office max.

Posted by bennett @ 02/05/2009 09:20 AM

I'm still pretty smitten with Bruce Licher's Scenic seven-inches from the mid-90s. Incredible.

Posted by Draplin @ 02/04/2009 10:20 PM

That Sedaboh "Asshole" seven-inch cribbed its ideas from Big Black, who put all sorts of things (condoms, bloody band-aids, razor blades) in the "Lungs" EP.

Speaking of Big Black, what about the acid-etched sheet metal "Bulldozer" EP?

I think it was a 12", so that probably disqualifies it from the list here, but it was still cool.

Posted by Eric @ 02/04/2009 08:11 PM

i have a record by a band called "st joseph and the abandoned food, the front cover is made out of a piece of edible nori.

murder city devils/gluecifer split has a burnt off corner which is kind of cool

zeke "jack torrance" single on subpop is a pretty neat image.

out of band experience "one helluva tweek" has "real blood " all over the cover along with some good images.
including "bob"

neil hamburger tribute to diana is worthy of a mention due to the included tissue for your tears.

mercury 4F "FEED ME" is just a printed evelope hand numbered out of 287 mine is 176.

boss hog "old school" is pleasing to look at too.

melvins/melfunkshun split box version. 100 ltd

Posted by david @ 02/04/2009 11:48 AM

The Sebadoh Asshole seven inch (from 1992 on vertical industry - two pressings of 500) came with random things inside the plastic cover. Mine has little black plastic ants inside. The back was a random clipping from a comic book. The single was super rare and valuable until Eric Gafney started selling his stash at his solo shows in the mid 1990s. As far as other seven inches that come with stuff inside, there was the RFTC pogs single on sympathy -- that came with pogs. And then there's Caroliner -- noise band from California -- always had handmade singles made of fabric. I also liked the SubPop Bruce Gilbert single that came in aluminum foil.

Posted by Lucy Jewel @ 02/04/2009 10:11 AM

There was a Grifters split 7" w/ someone I think on Darla Records that was made of different types of table cloth for the sleeve. I have a blue one w/ little pink flowers.

Also, there was the Jabberjaw 7"s that came in a box w/ the 4 7"s that had coffee beans and a coaster in it. My dad threw the box away as trash. Have the 7"s though.

Question....were all the Rapeman T&G inner sleeves covered in Calc. or just a select few??

Posted by flowplow @ 02/04/2009 09:11 AM

Well, I could mention a lot of Melvins records.... like the Grumpy's ones on AmRep with corresponding posters.... or the Hooch picture disc/wraparound sleeve on Rise Records.... or the 12 monthly singles on AmRep.

But my all time favorites must be the Cherubs "Carjack Fairy" on Trance: 1000 copies, 5 diff. color of vinyl, and the sleeve made out of wallpaper samples, with handwritten notes and nonscence. Not two copies alike! And I have 24 copies of this... ;-)

Posted by Peter Glob @ 02/04/2009 04:16 AM

Id say just about anything on Space Cadette Records out of Miami... specifically the Floor/Ed Matus Struggle 7" (with the multi page "bug" book on the cover and the Milk Shed/Grasspatch 7" which was made of papyrus and had hieroglyphic type writing and the record was housed in a silk bag.... just about everything that label did was so beyond anything packaging wise I've ever seen.

Posted by Todd @ 02/03/2009 10:22 PM

I totally forgot about that Archers of Loaf single! But seriously, the Olivia Tremor Control single I did kinda put that to shame. Watching Will, Bill and their girlfriends precisely color each cover was really a sight to behold. And that Gold single was KINDA cool, but a necklace was kinda "eh." And you know what? That Return To Chaos single is genius! It's a pity that the Supersuckers pretty much copied it for a release they did. Made Chantry seem like he wasn't doing something totally original (which he was).

Posted by henry @ 02/03/2009 07:03 PM

If we're talkin' handmade, I remember at least one Archers of Loaf single with a crayon drawing on the front, but otherwise unremarkable.

You mentionned Pushead. The RFTC website has some pics of the split he put out with Septic Death. Of the 125 made, 75 were in a felt, fold-out rocket. And if we're talking RFTC, there is always the Gold 7" (with a necklace and a sticker you have to break to get at the record.) and the one SFTFI put out with pogs!!

as a bit of an Astroman geek, I need to point out the "Return to Chaos" 7" that came in the tiny manilla folder that fastened in the back with twine. The printing and inserts mde it look like a real, looted spy file.

Posted by bennett @ 02/03/2009 04:43 PM

Hey Patrick! I can't help it! They're camera hogs! They INSIST on being in each photo!

Posted by henry @ 02/03/2009 02:36 PM

You just couldn't resist having the labradoodles in the background of those photos, could you.

Posted by Patrick @ 02/03/2009 02:32 PM

I just love THE HATERS crap. I mean, they took the "coolness wars" to it's idiotic, non-logical end.

They had a record (just a while back) that you could only buy at ONE specific store. When you purchased your record, you had a Polariod taken of YOU standing there holding it. That was then glued to the cover of the album (The In-Store Album) - and that was "the cover". Take that photoshop-jocks!

Otherwise, I must confess, I'm just not a huge "design" geek. As much as I admire and truly respect the craft. But what do I know? I don't dig Led Zeppelin!!! Bwaaaahhhhh!!!!

Posted by billy @ 02/03/2009 02:32 PM

I have that Jessamine 7" and it brings to mind the Sub Pop Jessamine 7" - "Your Head's So Small It's Like A Tiny Little Light", one of my favorite Jeff Kleinsmith designs. I need to go through my collection, as your list included many of my faves. Did you ever see any of those crazy Wingtip Sloat singles? Oh, the other obvious one to me is the Poison 13 on Estrus with the pop-up ghost by Art Chantry. And like EVERYTHING on Independent Project.

Posted by eyenoise @ 02/03/2009 02:28 PM

Taylor (Brand Abrasive Sound Structure) 2x7" printed on sandpaper, with mounted slides and other ephemera. Some of the most sterile math-rock ever played, but whoever put the package together deserves some sort of medal.

http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/t/4925.php
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41612 (scroll down)

Posted by Doug Mosurock @ 02/03/2009 02:28 PM