Cover Art: Voodoo Suite Plus Six All-Time Greats by Perez Prado & Shorty Rogers

(click for larger version)

RCA Victor
LPM-1101
1955.
No cover artist listed.

Excerpt from the back:
"The Suite opens with soft, mysterious beatings on the tom-tom, depicting an African dawn—the throbbing becomes increasingly more frantic until it is joined by a series of softly chanting voices. The drums become more fiercely predominant, introducing a heated vocal exchange. The music recedes and starts to build slowly again, with brass and percussion still predominant, spelling out the early African setting. A fast jazz figure enters, featuring a walking bass, after which the entire band pours in, preluding an extended sax solo. The part ends with a jazz figure punched out by screeching trumpet notes."

I found this at a Salvation Army without a record inside but I liked the cover so much I shelled out 25¢ for it. Really wish I had a chance to hear the music, but Perez Prado stuff is easy to find. I wonder where that LP is now...

Cover Art: More - Best of the Mummers by the Champions Aqua String Band

(click for larger version)

ABC-Paramount
ABC 401
No year listed.
No cover artist listed, not signed.

Excerpt from the back:
"In the forty years since 1921, Aqua has scoured every remote corner of the earth to use imaginative themes and costumes. Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Brazil have represented the Spanish influence, while such exotic spots as Africa, Arabia, India, China, Egypt, Siam, Russia, the North Pole, and even Shangri-La have not been neglected. ... The vivid Siamese Dancers themes for 1955 will be long remembered by those spectators fortunate enough to have seen it. Especially notable was Captain Fred Kesel's glittering portrayal of the six-armed god Vishnu, for which he was awarded First Prize from the City of Philadelphia in the Captain's Costume division."

So apparently 'Mummers' are a New Years tradition in Philadelphia, part of a Mardi Gras-like parade of costumed people. According to Wikipedia the 'String Bands' are "large marching bands composed of saxophones, banjos, violins, string basses, drums, glockenspiels, and accordions with dancers and backdrops." The cover on this album is part of a pretty cool series, with others shown on the back. As you can imagine though the music, featuring songs like "Oh! Susana" and "Swannee River", is pretty horrible to listen to.

Cover Art: Music by Cornelius

This is a single by Japanese producer extraordinaire Keigo Oyamada aka Cornelius released a month before his latest album Sensuous came out. I just wanted to point out the CD and inside specifically.


As a bonus here's the video for the single:

Cover Art: Yellow Bird by Jamaica Duke & The Mento Swingers

(click for larger version)

Tiger/Dynamic Sounds
SLP 0004
No year listed.
Photo may or may not be by Herbert Gordon, design by Grimax Advertising Ltd.

Excerpt from the back:
"Intrigued with the magic rhythm and sesuous beat of the Jamaican "Mento", The Duke took up singing in 1961 and skyrocketed to world fame ... In this Album are some of the most beautiful and nostalgic Caribbean music - from the "The Yellow Bird", the story of a pretty girl who wanted to stay free like the Yellow Banana Bird, to "Jamaica Calling" which tells of the Hills, Valleys and Beauty that is his island in the Sun. This is a lively record for listening and dancing, and if you're having a party, then - put it on."

The quality of the recording here isn't very good, even though they name drop like crazy with Sony, Telefunken and Sennheiser. Doesn't matter though, this cover is too damn cool.

Cover Art: Live And Heavy

(click for larger version)

Nems Records
NEL 6020
1981.
Cover by Cream.

This is a compilation of live tracks by major heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Motorhead and Deep Purple. The back features a huge speaker with a tiny dude in jeans and a black shirt standing in one of the cones with his hands behind his head as a small face emerges from his screaming mouth.

Made in England.

Cover Art: Single Bullet Theory

(click for larger version)

Nemperor Records
ARZ 38368
1982.
Cover concept by Single Bullet Theory, photo by John Paul Endress.

Not much of note from the back on this one, it's mostly a photo of the band shooting squirt guns at the viewer. "EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - BUTCH BALL / ALSO ON CASSETTE" Well thank god.

It's 80s music, one of the few eras I don't listen to.

Cover Art: Blue Hawaii by Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra

(click for larger version)

Dot
DLP 3165
No year listed.
No cover credit.

Excerpt from the back:
"Billy Vaughn's music is, as always, perfect for dancing, and here a swaying couple can suddenly imagine themselves beneath a starry sky, with moonlight silhouetting Diamond Head and touching the restless sea with silver."

Passion! This is a full string orchestra playing Hawaiian music and you'd be hard pressed to find someone under fifty who would enjoy listening to that. But at least the cover is sexy.

Cover Art: Songs Of The West by The Norman Luboff Choir

(click for larger version)

Columbia Records
CL 657
No year listed.
Cover credited to Arizona Highways magazine.

Excerpt from the back:
"It is not surprising that the American west has captured the imagination of Europeans, for Europe, with its centuries of crowding, has no comparable vistas. Neither has any other area in the world been so swiftly and recently developed, opened up less than a century ago, and with the legend-makers still living. The songs and stories of the west, its histories (still to be got at first hand), its memorable movies—all of these excite the European imagination enormously. Perhaps because Americans are so close to these things in both time and space, we sometimes tend to overlook the sweep and richness of the story, and to think of "cowboys and indians" as a children's game, forgetting that only yesterday it was a matter of life and death to many."

I picked this up just because of the cover, I rarely see one without text. Because of The Big Lebowski I tend to grab any record that covers "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" but the music here is not that great. It was only a dollar though so I'm not complaining.

Cover Art: Stereo Dynamics! To Scare Hell Out of Your Neighbors

(click for larger version)

Somerset
SF-11400
No year listed.
No cover credit.

Excerpt from the back:
"STEREO DYNAMICS! To Test Your Stereo Equipment or Scare Hell Out of Your Neighbors."

This came without a record inside, which isn't so bad since the selection is all classical. (Track one is "Adolf Hitler" excerpt from Edmond De Luca's Conquerors of the Ages by The London Philharmonic.)

Cover Art: Songs by Tom Lehrer

(click for larger version)

Reprise
RS-6216
1953
Cover design by The Cambridge Design Group. No specific artist listed though, and no signature.

Quote from the back:
"Tom Lehrer is an entirely mythical figure, a figment of his parents' warped imagination. Ever since he was old enough to eat with the grownups he has been merely the front for a vast international syndicate of ne'er-do-wells. But enough of Lehrer the artist. What of Lehrer the bon vivant, man about town, and idol of three continents (and Madagascar, where half a million gibbering natives think he is God)?"

For those who don't know, Tom Lehrer plays piano and sings about social and political topics. For instance on this one he does songs about dope pushers, college football and Irish drunkenness. In other words the topics and comedy are very very dated, great cover though.

Art of Justice

Justice is Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé, two incredible French dance musicians who became prominent in 2003/4 with remixes of a couple of Simian songs. I've been impressed with their simple and stark black, gold and white cover art and their eye kablooming music videos so I've collected them all here. And it doesn't hurt that their music is damn good, you should really download or buy their album †. All of the covers are drawn by So Me.

Cover Art (click for larger versions)

Waters Of Nazareth (2005)



D.A.N.C.E. (April 2007)



† (aka Cross for people without a † key, June 2007)



Phantom (November 2007)



DVNO (2008)



D.A.N.C.E.

I came across this last year on Stash 34 (Stash is a monthly DVD magazine). Directed by Jonas & François, animated by So Me.

link to video's page

DVNO

Found this recently through an amazing post about retro art on Smashing Magazine's site. Directed by So Me, Yorgo Tloupas and Machine Molle.


link to video's page

Justice Vs. Simian: We Are Your Friends

This is just a strange video, not so much artistic as creative. Directed by Jérémie Rozan and Martial Schmeltz.

link to video's page

Ed Banger Records

This is a promo for Ed Banger Records, the label for Justice, Simian and So Me. I'm pretty sure So Me did this one too.



More!: Promo video for † release, wallpapers on the French fan site, Justice on Wikipedia.

Cover Art: Shaalu Sh'lom Yerushalayim (Seek Ye Peace For Jerusalem)

(click for larger version)

Columbia
XTV 60941
No date listed.
Cover by Sheldon Lenkowski.
Music composed by and that is a photo of Aharon Ron. Could use a little trim.

Quote from the back:
"In Walt Whitman's epic 'Song of Myself' the famed American poet transposes his identity with several characteristic features of American life. He is no longer the poet Walt Whitman. He is the beach, the hawk, the stage coach, the sensitive youth."

How poetic, but seriously get that guy a trim. And maybe a cookie.

Cover Art: Mine All Mine by CA$HFLOW

(click for larger version)

Mercury/PolyGram
884 722
1986
No cover credit.

Produced by Larry Blackmon with Gaylord Parsons on drums, I shit you not. Ca$hflow was only active for two years, I guess their only problem was... their... cashfl... naw.

Cover Art: Art Van Damme Quintet: Martini Time

(click for larger version)

Columbia
CL 630
No year listed.
Corner of cover says "Photograph by Dirone".

Quote from the back:
"One way or another, the work of his quintet satisfies just about every tassel on the fringe of public taste, and produces music that pleases all standards without infuriating any. Ordinarily this would seem necessarily [sic] to produce an emasculated product, but in the case of Art Van Damme the evidence is all to the contrary. His music is strong in its impulse, lively in invention, and flashing with honest jazz."

The music, unfortunately, is accordion jazz. Just terrible.