Make it Pop

I had no idea, but people reeeaally love Man Man. Hey, free show. There's a whole series of these shows at the Rock Hall. Mystery of Two has really been on a rampage lately. Catch them if you can!

I wish I had a pink toaster. It would match my coffee maker.

The Dead Hand: HUMAN MACHINES

Damage Rituals is a new tape label, and they're bringing it with their first comp. It's about 90 MINUTES of intense bonkers awesome music with 25 bands, including a few Cleveland favorites like Self Destruct Button, Cave Bear, Deathers, and Homostupids. But also some of my buds and favorites like Dan Friel, White Mice, Satanized, Yukon, Drunkdriver, Zs, and Dyrhythmia!




I gripped it at the Upsilon Acrux show the other night, Cave Bear had it, but YOU can check the full blown track list, and easily order it for just $6 at the Damage Rituals website: HERE.

JOIN, or DIE.

Another Red 7 poster! Austin's Set Aflame and Goodnight Goddess, San Antonio's Tension Speak, and Bonnie Blue from College Station. Not exactly my jams, but I love doing posters for shows outside of Cleveland, and I think Austin is probably a good place to be doing posters for. This is also a JULY 4th party, so that's fun. It's how I landed on a lot of the design decisions with this character.

But I'll get to that in a minute. Here's some process breakdown:



Not sure why I've included this one, other than it's the initial concept, I feel like I haven't done the "hot tattooed chick with gun" approach in a while. It's one of my faves, and can always be catered to whatever the context is. At any rate, I think the initial madness at the bottom of the page with the skulls and stuff would have been fun, but possibly overkill. I dunno, I'm glad I didnt do it though.



This rough of the girl took a while, but it was totally worth it. Thinking up tattoos and trying to get the pose right is always a fun challenge.



I ink with a brush and then micron pens. Sometimes splattering ink with a tooth brush.



This time I chose to draw the background separate from the character so I would have the option to resize things if I needed to. Sometimes details change, or when I'm laying things out I leave enough room to make mistakes.



Took me a minute to color this one, I kinda got obsessed. This was a really fun piece to work on. Been using a blue sky a lot lately, maybe because it's summer?



So, firstly, I gave her a Dead Prez shirt because I've been listening to a shitload of Dead Prez lately. I'd never really gotten too into them, but man, they're good. It's been kind of a boon, I've been finding it's a lot harder to stay focused lately. A lot of Dead Prez songs are about working hard and staying focused and being healthy and smart. On the other hand, the rest of their songs make me want to just run around killin' white people. So it's definitely something to moderate. I've been blasting heavy ass metal intermittently. Anyway, new Dead Prez comes out Tuesday!



JOIN, or DIE., a Benjamin Franklin piece from 1754, that was used during the build up to the American Revolution. I love this image and imagine revolutionary militant punk girls would have it as a chest piece.



The Gadsden flag, again. I love this shit.



There's a Kool-Aid Man tattoo. There's also a green... peace sign.

I've got a lot of stuff on deck, so check back. I did hang a bunch of art at Cleveland based marketing firm Boondock Walker's studio for their summer open house party, Humdinger this past Thursday. The party was a blast, it's been a while since I've seen that many people, that happy. It may have been the new Boondock Walker brand of beer, or the awesome food (especially the huge bowls of muy bueno guacamole)(both provided by the awesome Rocky River Brewing Co.), or the super loud smooth jazz (seriously, it was loud), or the plethora of fashionable attractive people there (I felt like a bridge troll, like in that Patton Oswalt joke about the London Batman Begins premier on Werewolves and Lollipops). It most certainly had very little to do with my artwork, but I'm super stoked I was a part of it and got to hang my work, it looked great. I had a great time and got to meet and hang with some cool people. Boondock Walker rules.

Design Nerds on Thrill Jockey

Double Dagger rules, and is one tour, and has a new record out. You should grip that motherfucker and go see them where ever they play. If you live in the N.E. Ohio Region, your best bet is to see them Saturday, July 11th, at Now That's Class. SunGod and Cave Bear are also playing, it's gonna be a banger.

I might take the time later to post a process thingy for this poster, but I've got something else planned to go with it, which... is a surprise.

THiS iS CLEVELAND

So, this is a poster I made for the THIS IS CLEVELAND Art Show Closing Party, which is being presented by Cleveland Bachelor, for further information, check THIS out.

I'm pretty happy with how this poster came out. I was originally supposed to be a part of this show and botched it by not turning in my camera.

Oh, by the way, the premise of the show is that Lowlife Gallery gave 30 different people disposable cameras to take 27 pictures with over the course of 2 weeks. Then a committee got together and selected the best of the best and that became this art exhibit. I was one of the 30, camera #27 to be exact, but I blew it and didn't take enough pictures and then never turned in camera #27.

I felt pretty guilty about that, but I'm too busy to actually worry about it. I think maybe I also felt the need to make this poster exceptional, and somehow indicative of what I think of the show. I guess part of me feels that as much as it was a group of 30 individuals, it was really the city, as an entity, taking a single self portrait. The disposable camera being optimal, because it's so sufficient.

It was only halfway through this piece that it reminded me of this earlier thing I did. Nowhere near the same, but ...similar.

So come to Lowlife Gallery at 16001 Waterloo on June 27th and check this thing out. It's after the Waterloo Arts Fest, which is going on all day.

RED 7

An evening of brutal ripping with Lair of The Minotaur, Kill the Client, Mammoth Grinder, Pack of Wolves, Broadcast Sea, and Fight Pretty. Then there's the Black Irish CD Release Party. I've never been to Texas, but I'm pretty sure Austin is somehow exempt from being IN Texas.



THEN The Upper Crust, Orgasm Addicts, Fire Horse, and Shitty Car Wash.

Hey, look- BMX Ghost Rider.

12 Years Old at 30

Keelhaul is playing a bunch of shows with Isis, some of which are also with Pelican! Awesome tour, but these dates especially:

Isis Tour Dates with Keelhaul:
6/09 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop (w/Pelican)
6/10 Cincinnati, OH 20th Century Theater (w/Pelican)
6/11 Detroit, MI Small's (w/Pelican)
6/12 Chicago, IL The Bottom Lounge (w/Pelican)
6/13 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock
6/15 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
6/16 Salt Lake City, UT Club Sound

This poster is about as close to drawing something I would have imagined as being the pinnacle of all awesomeness when I was 12 years old. There's a Purple Beastman, Bigg Ass Robots, and a BBTTMB (Blue Big Tittie Tattooed Military Babe) firing an M16 one handed at one of the robots, while holding a samurai sword with the other hand.

Yeah, Keelhaul.

The MELT PIG ROAST

This is by far my favorite Melt Special of the year. It's so goddamn good, I had one yesterday and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting another one today. Sorry, no process "behind the scenes" this month. Gotta keep moving!