Design Freaks

New episode 💫 For # 80 I spoke with label owner, musician, art director, printer , and designer Andrew Crawshaw!

Andrew and I talk about his creative origins, Broken Press, screen printing ALL their amazing record sleeves and cassette packaging, working with designers for SFI, his passion for tactile pieces, a harrowing health ordeal 🫀the new SOMAFREE INSTITUTE release Exit Signal — design by , and what’s coming up next!

Thanks for tuning in 🖤

Subscribe ✨Design Freaks on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts.

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
➡️ distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!

The newest Design Freaks episode is a remix of # 30 (published March 2021) on British graphic designer and musician ✨
I’m revisiting this and remixing with updated intro and visuals because
1. JH is one of my favorite designers of all time 2. Warp Records has announced a pair of Broadcast demo collections, saying they will be the final releases from the duo (May and September, 2024).

I also focus on his work with INTRO for CAN, Ghost Box Records, and independent work for Broadcast and Stereolab. PLUS the origin story of “Cliff”, Stereolab’s cartoon mascot 🫵
Thanks for tuning in🖤

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
➡️ distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!
Subscribe on Youtube and wherever you get podcasts ⚡️

CAN = “LIFE”. In this DFCAC episode, I investigated the cover for CAN’s 1972 release, Ege Bamyasi. Designed by the dynamic duo, Ingo Trauer and Richard J. Rudow, this is one of my favorite CAN records – it features Damo Suzuki and some of their most memorable songs. I go over two separate stories about the name Ege Bamyasi (Turkish for Aegean Okra), the recent Damo documentary, and what I was able to find out about Ingo 🕯️ 🥫

Check out the youtube for companion visuals / listen wherever you get podcasts. Thanks for tuning in!

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
➡️ distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount

New episode alert! For # 77 I spoke with poster artist and designer 💥🎆
Fez and I talk about his creative origins, visual inspiration beyond the 60s, design process, passion for analogue pen and ink, his days in the Electric Church, light shows, Austin woes, community building, and of course psychedelia.
Thanks for tuning in! 🖤

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
➡️ distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount ⚡️

Design Freaks on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts.

Yeah I got to interview today ✨👁️ ✨what a treat!
Stay tuned for my next episode.

✨New episode alert✨ In this DFCAC mini, I dive into the cover for Janelle Monae’s ambitious concept album from 2010, The ArchAndroid. I discuss the story of her alter ego–time-traveling android Cindi Mayweather, the art deco glory (and meaning) of her crown, creative talents Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Chuck Lightning ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
And all the zillions of art, film, and music influences: Metropolis, the Matrix, Sun Ra, Afrofuturism, sci-fi magick....

Check out the youtube for companion visuals or listen wherever you get podcasts. Thank you for tuning in!

Coincidentally, Seattle symphony is performing the soundtrack live this Thursday! I’ll follow up with a story after the show 🤖 🎶

Part 2: flyers from episode 75 with
⚡️Hopefully I won’t land in instagram jail for this 👀

Some are designed by Jeff Kleinsmith
Chime in if you made any of these or remember these shows!

Watch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify 📺 and listen wherever you get ur podcasts.

Thanks for tuning in, friends!

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
Check out distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!

Just a few of the flyers from episode 75 with
👀⚡️

Designed by Jeff Kleinsmith
Were you at any of these shows?

Watch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify 📺 and listen wherever you get ur podcasts.

Thanks for tuning in, friends!

This episode is sponsored by 🎵
Check out distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!

It’s my first show of 2024! For episode 75 I chatted with and Shane Bastian of ⚡️⚡️⚡️
Jeff is VP of Creative at and he was also my guest for episode 46. This time we talk Toil & Folly, Stymie’s new release on their label New Rage Records.

Hear about Jeff’s design process for this record, their other bands, New Rage, epic shows, and days at the Rocket Magazine–four of the six members of Stymie worked at the Rocket at one point!

From the band:
We raided the New Rage Records vaults to bring you Stymie’s first full-length effort, Toil & Folly. This is an unearthed Seattle gem from the early 90s, a perfect document of a band equally influenced by grunge, noisy indie rock and other heavy sounds of the era. Toil & Folly is a collection of (mostly) previously unreleased material recorded in Seattle between 1992-1995. The majority of the songs were recorded and mixed by noted indie rock producer/engineer Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Earth, Truly, Big Business) and all tracks were freshly remastered in 2021 by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering.

Take a trip into Seattle’s underground past and learn about how this record came to be. Design Freaks on Youtube and wherever you get podcasts.

Thanks for tuning in!
This episode is sponsored by
Check out distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!

Follow Stymie:
https://stymie-band.bandcamp.com/album/toil-folly

THANK YOU to all of my guests from 2023!
We covered a lot of ground – and thank you everyone for tuning in!
💕💕💕💕💕💕

What a treat 🖤 Eloise Leigh back in town from CDMX and DJ Sharlese ⚡️⚡️⚡️

Eloise is my guest from Design Freaks episode 70 and is the amazing designer behind much of and a ton more ✨

Episode 74 💥 I spoke with Seattle record shop owner Brad Tilbe of ! He shared some stories from his time running the Light in the Attic record shop in Seattle Center, and transitioning to a record shop owner.

We talk about his store moving into the building that formerly housed the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery (and the other new tenants in the space), whether the building is haunted?, aligning goals with the Vera Project and the Black Lodge, his ethos and commitment to community building, his beloved Nick Drake box set design, Ian and Baxter Dury, and lots more….thanks for tuning in!

“He’s got a very cool and weird taste in music that doesn’t necessarily fit in a conventional space…and so do we. So it made perfect sense.”
– Ricky Graboski, Executive Director at The Vera Project

Design Freaks on Youtube and all the podcast places. Link 🌲 in my bio

This episode is sponsored by
Check out ➡️ distrokid.com/vip/designfreaks for a 30% discount!

Follow

In this mini DFCAC episode, I dive into the lore and people behind Lou Reed's second solo studio album, Transformer. The photography of Mick Rock and Karl Stoecker, graphic designer and model Ernie Thormahlen, glam and drag: the people who inspired Lou, reasoning behind the font choice Electus as: ‘Transformer’ ⚡️high voltage ⚡️ the electrical connotation of a transformer, and also the blurred lines concerning Lou’s career and even his sexuality….and as usual, I explore connections to so many other great covers.

I seriously could have gone on for hours about each one of these subjects so consider this episode a loving introduction to Transformer and its many fascinating components 🖤

Check out the youtube for companion visuals or listen wherever you get podcasts. Link in my bio. Thank you for tuning in!

CONGRATS TO AND FOR THEIR 2024 GRAMMY NOMINATION (BEST RECORDING PACKAGING)!! 🎉

In episode 72, I let you in on this eye-popping, black light inspired design for The Arcs’ “Electrophonic Cronic” album and all the extras. Then I take a look back at my chat with Perry from May, 2020 🕰️ 🌀
Album designer for and T Shirt King Perry Shall talks Philadelphia, working for Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), his Covid cartoon series, his t-shirt show, Questlove, Harry Nillson, 90's bar mitzvah holodeck, and becoming friends with Gilbert Gottfried 🖤🖤🖤

Link in my bio. Please subscribe, like, and share so other nerds can find me ⚡️⚡️⚡️

Fred Cole
🖤
Aug 28, 1948 - Nov 9, 2017

Let It Freeze Provided to YouTube by IngroovesLet It Freeze · ZipperZipper℗ 1974 Tombstone RecordsReleased on: 1974-09-30Writer: Fred ColeAuto-generated by YouTube.

Loving the brilliant packaging design by for the NERVOUS GENDER / BEELZEBUB YOUTH “Music From Hell” reissue ⚡️fantastic warped electro punk magic ⚡️ the double LP comes with so many cool extras - such great attention to detail.

Hear more about the design process in episode 70 (link in my bio) 🩸 with my guest Eloise Leigh of

Design Freaks on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.

You can’t have good without the bad…or the Louvins without the Ira. 👹 Learn all about this kooky gospel cover and the Loudermilk brothers who made it out of the Appalachian mountains and gave us something spooky….blood harmonies, crappy record deals, demonic portraits, gunshots, scumbaggery, a 16ft. Satan, explosions, “fits of faith”!

Check out the Design Freaks YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. Thanks for tuning in ⚡️

Photos from the episode and Louvin Brothers puppets by coincidentally posted today!

To celebrate Patrick Cowley’s music and legacy on what would have been his 73rd birthday (October 19), Josh Cheon, founder of Dark Entries Records, interviews singer-songwriter and frequent Cowley collaborator Maurice Tani. Their conversation will be bookended with music by Steve Fabus, who DJ’ed at SF disco hotspots in the ‘70s & ‘80s. Tickets are limited! Info: tenderloinmuseum.org

Episode 70 with !
I spoke with artist and designer Eloise Leigh of and all things New Age Rage ⚡️

Eloise speaks about her recent move to CDMX after a decade in Berlin, creative origins, design process, passion for analogue print, the "Music archeology" of Dark Entries Records, and how fate brought her and Josh Cheon together….catching dreams / coincidences / MAGICK ✨

Subscribe to Design Freaks on YouTube 👁️ and all the podcast places.

Bonus - check out the archives of Eloise’s glorious show on Berlin Community radio - links in my bio 🎶

Special thanks:
Audio mixed and mastered

Hallelujah it's raining blood! For this DFCAC mini episode, I cover the art and design for Reign in Blood by Slayer 🩸

Larry Carroll’s mixed media process, making pop fans “ill”, an eternal hell scape, hidden erections, and of course buckets of blood!

Slide 3: The original artwork “sample” by Larry Carroll, from the estate of Jeff Hanneman. Some things are missing 👀

“For me, an album is a whole concept. When I pick up a record, it’s obviously the cover that I see first and it should tell you something about the music.....There are too many bands who concentrate solely on the songs and don’t pay enough attention to the packaging. That’s a huge mistake and one we’ll never make.” –Tom Araya

“One of the reasons why Reign In Blood became a classic is the impact of the cover...It screams metal.” –Kerry King

Check out the link tree in my bio and subscribe wherever you get podcasts ⚡️

Nervous Gender’s legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries on Halloween! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly q***r, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band’s name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band’s orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs’ Don Bolles, and an 8-year old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band’s notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed “Martyr Complex”, presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as “Beelzebub Youth”, is a live performance the band labeled "an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence." Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we’re treated to a full disc of the band’s demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the S*x Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36 page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh.

Episode 68 is up! Seattle artist returns to discuss the punk connections to Pee-wee's Playhouse and the endless creative impact of Paul Reubens.
Paul's beginnings with the Groundlings, bringing outcasts together, building timeless worlds, shaping generations of delightful weirdos 🖤

BONUS: Jump into a portal and land in December 2020 🌀 to hear all about the three album artists who worked on the Playhouse: Gary Panter, Wayne White, and Phil Hartman. Punk/puppets and yes, Kap'n Karl designed a Steely Dan record 🎷

Thanks for tuning in! Please share with other vinyl and design freaks and subscribe in all the places.

In my next episode, returns to talk about the punk connections of Pee-wee's Playhouse and endless creative impact of Paul Reubens.
BONUS: this episode includes a look back at episode 25 from December 2020 🌀 all about the three album artists who worked on the Playhouse!

Out soon – subscribe to Design Freaks on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts 💥❤️

Design Freaks # 67 is a very special episode featuring a live interview with no wave icon Lydia Lunch ⚡️ she recently came to Seattle for two nights to perform Murderous Again…spoken word/jazz noir with musicians Tim Dahl and Matt Nelson at the magical Rabbit Box Theatre. On night two, I got to sit down with Lydia for a chat onstage 🎙️

We discuss touring, audience hijinks, violence, stealing records, the first record cover she remembers, her podcast the Lydian Spin… thanks for tuning in!

Check it out now whenever you get podcasts. Link to the full episode in my bio 🖤🩸

🖤💔

700 beds! My newest episode covers the story behind A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd 🔺🌈

It’s not technically a Hipgnosis cover…or is it?

I talk about the new film Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) — Go see it if you can!
This record cover didn’t make an appearance in the film for good reason but I still wanted to explore this insane feat that could only have been pulled off by the amazing Storm Thorgerson. Fast forward to 2021 and the band gets back together for a remix of the original art…kind of.

Slide 2: 1987
Slide 3: 2021

BONUS: watch til the end for my ai experiments in attempting to create this thing the lazy way. What could go wrong? 🤖

Check it out on youtube under Design Freaks Podcast and everywhere else you get podcasts!

I also recommend you check out my Hipgnosis episode from 2020 (it’s #12! Not 13 like I say in the episode lol) with the one and only Kurt Bloch!