The Best Pitchfork Music Festival Find

Back in July when we were in Chicago hunting like mad for an apartment, we somehow managed to find time to also attend Pitchfork Music Festival for an afternoon.  In addition to great music there was the best group of vendors I’ve ever seen at a music fest. While browsing the selection of goods being presented by dozens of record labels we came upon Hometapes.  In addition to CD’s and vinyl records they also had tote bags and a lot of great art stuffs.  This is where I found my best Pitchfork Music Festival find.  It was a book called “The Complicated Bicycle”, a 24-page hand-bound screen printed book with an accompanying CD both by Nick Butcher.  The book acts as a perfect companion to his music which is full of pauses and blips and silence and interrupted melodies. And the book is bound using staples—a great example of quality art without a lot of technical complexity. I’m so glad to have it.  Plus, included was a small limited edition art print.

Check out Hometapes here.  They are some super friendly talented folks and the bands/individual musicians on their label make some great interesting music.  Also, please check out the art and screen print studio Sonnenzimmer run by Nick Butcher and his girlfriend Nadine Nakanishi here.

Made by Good!

So, here are the finished Panther Piss cassettes!  I’ve been out of town this past week and was going to try and get them posted before I left but in the hurry of packing and trying to leave I didn’t quite manage.  Finally though they’re here for everyone to see!  I’m so excited!  It was a great first project on my little press and I’m really pleased with how they turned out.  It was a total team effort with my boyfriend Drew who did the awesome linoleum cut used for the cover and designed the insert.  I used handset type for the text on the cover and the insert was made using a xerox machine.  It feels really great to have done something for someone else start to finish without taking any shortcuts or doing anything halfway.  I finally have the equipment and space to produce stuff for other people.  It feels pretty good to make something and want to send it out into the world with my mark on it.

Hope you like them! If you would like to order one you can from the Panther Piss blog here!

Printing/Bands

Back in November in a small town in Louisiana one of the kindest most interesting women I have ever met sold me a beautiful little Kelsey Excelsior 5 x 8 tabletop letterpress.  I had decided since it was going to be a while (hopefully one day but maybe never—let’s face it) before I could afford/house a large Vandercook letterpress I would try and find something that would allow me to print from home but would be manageable.  Well, after I bought it all of these things started popping up that it needed: new rollers, a boxcar base, ink, trucks, furniture, etc.!  So finally last night, almost all of those things having been purchased by now, I printed.  It was magnificent.  When I was in school part of my Book Arts degree was to learn printing and I fell in love with it immediately.  I even got a tattoo about it!  I’ve only scratched the surface of printing and have so much to learn.  I am in awe of true masters of the craft and hope that one day I will know a whole lot more.  Until then though I’ll be working on my little press on the dining room table which is just fine with me!

So, what was I working on?  I was working on a limited edition cassette tape package for a local Memphis band with the totally charming name of Panther Piss.  Yes, my dining room is covered in cassette packages all bearing the words panther and piss over and over and over.  It’s all good though and they make some pretty fun music (if you like loud screamy music).  I’ve just made the first run and will be going back to print the album name on the packages tomorrow.  It was a very successful first printing attempt.  I’m so glad to be working with friends and local folks on stuff.  Later this year my boyfriend and I will be designing and printing the wedding invitations for two of our lovely friends and I can’t can’t can’t wait to do more stuff like this.  I’ve put some pictures up today of the press and cassette cases.  Hope you like them!

You can get those darling cassette cases from Stumptown Printers here and can check out Panther Piss here.