Fast Cars

Here's another teaser from the forthcoming Flying Saucers Rock'n'Roll book, compiling the wildest r'n'r interviews from the frantic pages of Roctober magazine. Still waitin' for word on the release date of this mighty tome but it should be happenin' pretty soon. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Brat Beater

Here's a poster I made for Norway's mighty Basement Brats back in 1997. If my befrazzled brain is feedin' me the correct info (quite a dubious proposition nowadaze), this was done for a tour around the time their Bratbeat album was released on Screaming Apple Records. Strangely enough at this moment I am working on art for not one but two current bands featuring ex-Brats members. More on that soon. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Kill Kill, This Is Pop

This is the cover for a mighty hip 24 track compilation of powerpop combos from all over the world that came out back in 2000 AD. Lots of great stuff on this one including tracks by The Barracudas, The Nuggets, DM3 and a cool collaboration by Paul Collins and the Yum Yums. I think this was the last of a bunch of sleeve art I did for the well known German garage/powerpop label Screaming Apple Records. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

I Wanna Be A Real Kid!

It was a major thrill for me to get to do the cover art for this tribute CD to the amazin' Real Kids way back in 1996. Comin' outta the early Boston new wave scene, the Kids combined high energy Stonesy rock with the best in pop hooks to make some of the flat out greatest rock'n'roll ever. The CD features 18 garage and powerpop combos from around the world paying well-deserved homage to the recorded works of The Real Kids, including the mighty Basement Brats, The Psychotic Youth and Aussie R&B coolsters The Breadmakers. Antipodean powerpop label Spinning Top Records put this thing together (see "Do The Pop" post below for more on them). I was pleasantly surprised to see this cover art show up onscreen in the 2003 Real Kids documentary film, All Kindsa Girls. Fresh thrills are coming soon to this Rubber Room so... Stay tuned for MORE NO PLACE FAST ACTION!

Punk Rock Slugfest

Amp Records put out this split CD back in 2000. The Manges from Italy blast off with a batch of heavily Ramonicized pop punkers and Canada's own McRackins follow through with their chicken-or-the-egg brand of powerpop. I was a big fan of The Manges at the time and was happy to work with 'em again after having done the cover for their debut CD a couple years earlier. Both bands are still goin' strong even unto this very day. I once gave a copy of this to my (then-) friend Vom and he immediately proceeded to break it and throw the pieces at me! Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Beat On The Brats

Blastin' outta frozen Norway in the mid-'90s, The Basement Brats were a bunch of fired up troublemakin' teens mixin' up a big action-packed mess of blazin' punk and powerpop. I loved their catchy high energy tunes and teenage punk rock attitude. This here poster for a German tour is one of several things I was privileged to draw for 'em over the years. The other stuff will show up here in due course. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Do The Pop

As a longtime fan of the label I was thrilled to get to work with legendary Bomp! Records honcho Greg Shaw on a couple of CD covers for his much esteemed recording imprint. This was during the late '90s powerpop revival and I made the cover art for a kool compilation of the best Bomp! material in that genre and also this design for a survey of the then-current Australian pop scene. This was compiled by the owner of Spinning Top Records, a label devoted to Antipodean powerpop which I had previously done a bit of sleeve design work for. As I mentioned before when blabbing about this powerpop thing, I often reference '60s pop art imagery when working in the genre and this one has an Andy Warhol concept to it. Anyhow, here's a salute to Greg Shaw, an all around ravin' rock'n'roll fan and a nice guy to boot. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

The Vikings

Straight outta Norway by way of NYC, The Vikings were a punk rock supergroup featurin' Crazy Stevie Baise of Devils Dogs fame, Morten Henriksen from The Yums Yums and Cosmic Dropouts plus a coupla Turbonegro dudes. Back-to-back KBD classick covers (Savage originally by Aussie maniacs The Fun Things, Just Head by Boston's Nervous Eaters) made this wild waxing an instant party fave. I was a mad ravin' Devil Dogs fanatic in those days (still am as far as that goes) so I was really stoked when my pal Ritchie from Screaming Apple Records asked me to design the sleeve for this 7"er. I thought a wise-ass punk rock parody of Frank Frazetta's iconic Conan painting The Barbarian would be a cool idea for the sleeve, but most people seemed to dig the skull action on the back cover more. The Vikings were just a side project for all these guys but they did have another 7" on Sympathy and an LP on Roto Records outta Spain. More way out weirdness coming at you soon so please don protective headgear when visiting this blog. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

The Yum Yums

Norway's Yum Yums have been rulin' the Euro powerpop scene for 15 years now. This poster was made for an early German tour which if I am remembering rightly took place shortly before the release of their album debut Sweeter Than Candy. I was doing a lotta powerpop art around this time (a couple of CD designs I did for Bomp! Records seemed to put me in solidly with the European pop crowd) and as with most of the stuff I did in that vein this one has two big influences: the '60s Pop Art scene and the sort of graphics you'd see on candy and bubblegum packaging. The Yum Yums are still goin' strong so you should check out some of their many cool releases. More stuff coming soon. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

The Sweet Nothings

Here's a little tearjerker for all you lonely hearts out there. The Sweet Nothings were a really great but tragically short-lived local powerpop combo. They had great tunes, lots of energy and personality, everything you'd want in a band playing that kinda stuff. They recorded a 7" which I'm hoping will still see the light of day at some point. Most of 'em are carrying on in a new band called The Vibrating Beds which I'm planning to see real soon. Whilst I'm waiting to do that, more art will be drawn and, more importantly, posted right here. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!