Band Logos - Brand Upon The Brain

Interstitial #9: Number Nine...Number Nine...

2011-04-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, now getting it ready and so on and so on. Some people, like American porn actress Viper, take three months to have their December deaths announced - I am nothing if not incredibly thorough.

Meanwhile - also in December - the passing of Judge Trev from Inner City Unit, who graciously provided the origin story of the band's logo way back in 2008. Meet your heroes at least once in your life - free of expectation and adulation, of course, let disappointment be your lifeblood forever after.

Interstitial #8: The Passings of the Past

2011-01-02T02:12:00.000-08:00

One of my great manias is the making of lists. In the next couple days I'll do a round-up of who we lost in interesting culture in 2010. Occasionally it takes concerned relatives a few days to realize that they haven't heard from this recluse or that, like Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton's solitary demise in 2009. No one knows what day he died, precisely. Sad, true, etc. I suspect the coroner could have guessed, but he'd probably have had to ask the bugs.

Have a happy 2011. If you live, of course.

Logo #325: Uncle Slam

2010-12-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Originally designed by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917 and appropriated by the inestimable Ellie and Tom Hughes and Mike Seiff in 1988. Uncle Slam were purveyors of that weird '90s hybrid of thrash metal and punk that puzzled and angered a lot of people. In mid-'90s Los Angeles, caught between hair metal and the waning days of punk, not an enviable place to be. Their "Say Uncle" LP, for which this illustration - in which Uncle Sam appears to be gathering up funds to find John Connor - was destined. "Say Uncle...or die!" was the rallying cry that ranks up there with "skate or die" and "Sophie's Choice."

Logo #324: Flux of Pink Indians

2010-12-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

This mix of Native American imagery and the peace symbol was designed for Flux of Pink Indians in 1981 by Exitstencil Press, Crass' in-house design firm founded by Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher. I write "Native American" because, by inference and the time in which it was cast, likely "Indian" means "Native American" - although one never knows. So by what signifiers do we infer that these are two Indians? The "head-dresses" could just as easily be mohawks; are the raised knees part of a dance? They could just as easily be climbing the angles of the peace sign - which just as easily could be a teepee. The fringes might be frocks. Mssrs. Rimbaud and Vaucher maintain a stony silence on the matter - smoke signals notwithstanding.

Keep in mind that Derek Birkett, the bassist of Flux of Pink Indians, co-founded One Little Indian, the record label that last year signed Paul McCartney. Long and winding roads that intertwine are what make life worth living, ultimately.

Apropos of something, here's a nice piece on Clinton Riggs, the Tulsa PD captain who created the yield sign in 1950.

Logo #323: NON

2010-12-03T13:47:00.001-08:00

1980 was a banner year for logos. Roughly the same time Boyd Rice adapted the wolfsangle for his Industrial noise act NON, the following musicians were also developing, drawing, and detourning symbols that would become their own logos:

7Seconds
45 Grave
Adam and the Ants
Anti-Nowhere League
Bad Manners
Bad Religion
The Beat
Circle Jerks
Circle One
Conflict
Devo
Die Tödliche Doris
The Effigies
Einstürzende Neubauten
Hüsker Dü
Ill Will
Inner City Unit
Instagon
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Laibach
Men Without Hats
Klaus Nomi
Reagan Youth
Sisters of Mercy
Stray Cats
This Heat
White Spirit

I like lists. Think of all the collective creative brainwaves that energized the world thirty years ago, making it a better and more interesting place - terminal obscurity notwithstanding. "Iconoclast," Larry Wessel's documentary on Rice, premiered this past August to a packed house in L.A. at the New Beverly Cinema. It was overlong - in much the same way that chocoholics sometimes overindulge - and filled with the Boyd Rice legends that have been re-told through the years, entertaining though they always are. There was scant mention of Rice's longtime companion Lisa Carver throughout the film - the overall effect of which is a bit like the Old Testament written without mention of Moses. I'll always have time for Boyd's many different noises; in the '90s, he wasn't replying to many people who wrote to him in his Colorado sanctum sanctorum. He did, however, take the time to send me an impressive nastygram because I'd pissed him off with a postcard the contents of which neither of us can recall now. Now with Peter Christopherson from Throbbing Gristle having passed into the Great and Eminently Deserved Beyond, we should cherish our Industrial forefathers more than we already do (yes, Male Rape Group, too).

God doesn't just make rainbows. He makes spitting cobras, too.

Logo #322: Aerosmith

2010-12-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Designed by Ray Tabano in 1971. "Crazy" Ray was the band's original guitarist, designer of Aerosmith merchandise and cultivator of their fan-base. Fired in 1979 by Aerosmith's managers, he now runs a catering company. One stage of life doesn't necessarily follow the other, but it does sound strikingly familiar to other tales of rock'n'roll excess and egress. For all the comparisons with The Rolling Stones that Aerosmith have endured, however, the Stones' logo - lips - was about personal identity. It represented who they were. The Aerosmith logo - wings - was about personal aspirations. It represented where they wanted to go. A rather illuminating article about where Aerosmith did go is here.

The Song of the Moment is "Alice" by Sisters of Mercy.

Logo #321: White Zombie

2010-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

This rather handsome fellow, designed by Rob Zombie in 1992, represents everything his kind of garage metal would become and should be: shambolic, snarling, and - somewhat tellingly - single-eared. Zombie, born Bob Cummings - with a name like that, you'd change your name to "Zombie," too - puts on a hell of a Halloween show at Universal Studios and he seems incredibly earnest. Even though money has bought him all the monster movies he could ever want, lately he's like that eccentric relative who over time has crossed over from "That's your uncle?!" to "That's your uncle?!" - at which point you just grit your teeth and bear his increasingly depressing antics and pretend to text someone while he tries to make eye contact at the dinner table. White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" is still a massive, surprisingly mournful-sounding song, though.

Interstitial #7: Return to Detourn

2010-09-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

I'll be going through all the old posts and clearing out the meta-commentaries that aren't quite so crystalline anymore (i.e. the dead links cropping up like gravestones hereabouts).

The Chinese sure love Men Without Hats! I've received more comments about that logo than any other. Of course, they're all spam, but spammers read, feel, fall in love, buy things, and laugh just like anyone else.

It's not a dead blog. Just a very, very sleepy one.

Logo #320: Men Without Hats

2009-11-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

Designed by Monica Froeber for the band's 1980 "Folk of the '80s" release - although actually this logo is a rallying cry against men with hats, but it's so simple and eye-catching with the black and the red arranged so sparingly that we can forgive the semantic shortcomings and wonder whatever happened to...Monica Froeber! Men Without Hats had two rather fine pop singles - "Safety Dance" and "Pop Goes the World" - and if that's all they ever made and then vanished, they would remain avatars of perfect pop. Instead - look out casinos! Here come Men Without Hats! Cue Metallica in one, two...

Logo #319: Distorted Pony

2009-11-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

I love following up something like Take That with something like Distorted Pony. David Uskovich, guitarist with the industrial / noise rock band, remembers: "Around '88 or '89 - maybe as early as '87 - Dora Jahr, bassist, made an abstract "pony" out of clay. She rolled the clay into ropes. I can't remember, but I think the head, body and tail were all one piece, with separate pieces for the legs and the "eye," which is that big circle in the middle of the head. It was like a 3-D version of a line drawing. She probably still has that thing. One of us, or maybe it was Robert Hammer or Theodore Jackson, had the idea to slap some black paint onto the clay pony and then press it onto a piece of paper. The results were pretty cool, as you have seen, so we decided to have some rubber stamp maker make us a rubber stamp from the original print and Bob's-your-uncle: instant portable logo-maker. We definitely used it for the first single. We were all total industrial dorks, so the fact that the Pony logo resembled the Einsturzende Neubauten logo was not lost on us."

Distorted Pony re-united this year in Los Angeles; sometimes it takes years for people to catch on. The world needs ditch-diggers - and grave-diggers - too.

Logo #318: Take That

2009-11-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

The one-time teen sensation's logo was designed by T&CP Associates in 1992. If ever there was a logo suffocated by its own cynicism, it's this one.

Logo #317: Hüsker Dü

2009-11-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hüsker Dü was graced by this particular sigil by band member and designer Grant Hart in 1980. I received this nice note from Grant Hart some time ago, discussing in-depth the other, more identifiable logo. "In 1978-1979, I was enrolled in the Advanced Graphic Arts Program taught by Will Wachtler at South St. Paul High School. We learned to set type by hand and a few of us were taught to operate and maintain Heidelburg automatic offset presses. The details of paper and ink were stressed, as well as inspection and recycling of worn type. I did so much proofreading without running actual proofs that I could read upside-down and backwards nearly as fast as I could a printed page. It was during this time that I became involved with the two others that would form the band Hüsker Dü. Punk rock posters and the photocopier were advancing and there was a tremendous merging and emerging in and of the graphic arts.

An early poster for a performance of the band was printed in dark orange ink. The band name was set in a medium Helvetica type with two colons from a smaller font leaded in to form the umlauts over the "u" in "Hüsker" and the "u" in "Dü." This took place between late March of 1979 and early June of the same year, when I graduated and subsequently lost access to the facilities of the high school Graphic Arts Department. It was not long before the young band had need for another poster. Having no real type to use, and not wanting to use the "ransom note" method of clipping out individual letters, I cut out the band name from the dark orange poster for the next one. To add visual impact, I carefully tore the words horizontally and pasted them together with a gap between the top and bottom portions. I wasn't experienced with the inexpensive photo-offset presses that used a plate made of paper to deliver the ink to the paper to be printed on. These machines have disappeared from the face of the Earth due to the technical advances of photocopies, but I digress. The first attempt at printing the poster failed because elements that were lighter-than-black came out mottled and not too readable. Not having time to re-design the whole thing, I took up a Sharpie felt-tip and colored in the words quickly but carefully. The next attempt at printing was a success and the band immediately recognized the result with approval. It was varied in its use, printed backwards and psychedelicized. It has been spoofed and rearranged to spell out names of nightclubs, record stores and other bands, and I have seen at least eight tattoos of it on people's bodies."

Logo #316: Quiet Riot

2009-10-31T02:10:00.000-07:00

From the cover of Quiet Riot's third album, "Metal Health," this enduring metal mascot was designed by Quiet Riot and Jay Vigon in 1983. Makes a fairly synchronistic follow-up to the previous entry about Left Insane, really. The album ultimately sold six million copies - how many of those six million people do you know? "Cum on Feel the Noize" was the big hit that everyone knows; its video came from the same cosmos of dread as Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy" video and the clip for Dio's "Last in Line." Each - Kihn's impending marriage; Peluce's menial delivery job; the kid from the Quiet Riot video waking up early and having that mask hanging over his head - seemed to have their respective menaces spawned from a sense of middle-class responsibility that none of the curly-haired heroes wanted to assume or pursue. And here you thought people thinking about heavy metal only concerned themselves with messages playing backwards. Crushing, middle-class fears factor very heavily in the dull, beige, backwards world out of which heavy metal attempts to pull its listeners. Quiet Riot's late singer Kevin DuBrow (possibly the man behind the mask) dressed up in straitjacket and mask onstage, and while that makes for great theatre, it also represents a rare moment of explicit empathy between elevated performer and downtrodden fan. Guitarist Carlos Cavazo recently discussed the album cover: "It was an idea created by the whole band. It's supposed to be a guy who goes crazy banging his head, and they had to put a straitjacket and an iron mask on him, so that he wouldn't hurt himself. I remember the mask was Rudy's [Sarzo, bass] idea. He got the idea from the movie ‘The Man In The Iron Mask."

Here's "Night of the Living Dead," in glorious black&white. Happy Halloween, folks. All Souls' Day is just around the corner!

Logo #315: Left Insane

2009-10-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

South Bay avant punk band Left Insane had their logo designed by drummer Tony Cicero in 1989. A masterpiece of simplicity and perspective, it graced the cover of the band's "Visa Weekend" 7" on No Reality Records, an unheralded record label with a catalog that includes Nip Drivers, Pinhead Gunpowder, and Crimpshrine. Cicero got his start in Carson - a suburb between Los Angeles and Long Beach with a really beautiful old movie theatre nearby in Wilmington - in 1979 with a band called The Meathooks (I'm told there are recordings hidden deep in the heart of Lomita). He left when SST superstars Saccharine Trust needed a new drummer; after Saccharine Trust, he played in Vida with Dez Cadena. One of the most complex, driven and creative of all the drummers working in the Southern California punk world in the '80s, he's criminally underrated and I'm not just saying that because he's on the payroll. Now he's in Black Love - my band - and we are absolutely dipped in chocolate gold to have him with us. Someone asked recently what Black Love sounds like. We sound like Nick Cave and P.J. Harvey watching scrambled porn - but not necessarily the same channel at the same time. Also: disorienting hard rock.

This just in: Black Flag / DOA / Danzig / Run-DMC drummer Chuck Biscuits has died of throat cancer at age 44; BrooklynVegan has the most comprehensive tribute to Chuck, including a video possibly from 1988 in which Chuck shows off his collection of cereals (!) including Fruit Brute, Fruity Yummy Mummy, Count Chocula and his favorite: Quisp (?!)

Also just in: Chuck Biscuit death hoax?!?

Update: Yes, he's alive. Move along, people - nothing to see here.

Logo #314: Psychic TV

2009-10-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

Designed by Throbbing Gristle / Psychic TV co-founder Genesis P-Orridge in 1981. Deceptively simple and endlessly reproduced in a variety of materials and locations, it is at least a distant cousin to Raymond Pettibon's Black Flag bars and at best a close brother to Jesus Christ's cross - well, wait, let's not talk about that. That cross around your neck? You think Jesus is going to want to see that when He gets back and comes up to shake your hand? So distasteful. The Temple Ov Psychick Youth file declares, "The Psychick Cross is a symbol of TOPY. That is its main meaning. It can also represent a trinity, a reversal of the Papal Cross (i.e. two long crossbars and one short), and a TV aerial (receiver and transmitter of information). No meaning is imposed upon it by the group." Speaking rather incisively in a recent interview, P-Orridge recalls, "One reason we came up with what we called the Psychic Cross was to have a non-verbal icon, where if you saw someone with that on a jacket, or a tattoo, you would think, "They’re probably relatively close to my way of thinking…they're part of my invisible tribe." It doesn’t have a linguistic definition - it's beyond words.

(William S.) Burroughs was really interested in hieroglyphics. One of the things he pointed out was that he believed that the hieroglyphic so-called 'languages' work on the nervous system rather than the intellect because they're pictograms, which are received in our brains very differently to a linear, alphabetic language. And the subtleties and the nuances in this holographic information - of a hieroglyph - is more far-reaching and less specific than an alphabetized language. Whether alphabets go from right to left or left to right or up and down, they're basically teaching the brain to create habitual pathways that are - supposedly - logical…but actually they erase imagination from language. They erase the individual's subtle interpretations of meaning - and therefore meaning becomes very dogmatic."

With more than three dozen members coming and going since the group's inception in 1981, Psychick TV is a cross (har) between a symphony orchestra and the Justice League of America. Genesis P-Orridge - now Genesis Breyer P-Orridge - welcomes the publication in November on Feral House of the 544-page "Thee Psychick Bible." Finally - something to read this winter.

Logo #313: :zoviet*france:

2009-10-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest musical groups of all time - flat-out, hands down, bar none. They make the mystical and transcendent into something intimate, they make some of the best record packaging ever created and if ever there were a need for meditative drones made of sticks and stones, :zoviet*france: fulfills it. Robin Storey, late of zoviet*france:: "The ZF logo developed organically with input from all the artists involved in the early days (including Lisa Hale). I can't remember when that particular configuration (Nb. the star-crescent) was first used, but it must have been around the mid-'80s." The band is fractured and fractious now, for various reasons - which is sad, but their music is immortal and surpasses the paltry emotional firefights in which mere humans tend to delight from time to time. :zoviet*france: came out of a confluence of avant-garde minds working in northeastern England in the late '70s and early '80s - The Hafler Trio, Metgumbnerbone, Alien Brains, The New Blockaders and various variations of the people in those great creative brain-trusts. Here's :zoviet*france: about 20 years ago. Here's their incredible discography, which is fraught with some of the most luminescent titles ever - including "Shouting At the Ground," which comes from a slightly longer quote, "Shouting at the ground won't make it hear you any better." AMEN TO THAT!

By the way, that comment on the Operation Ivy entry just totally made my week. It's not that I'm running out of logos or affection for the form - I'm just overwhelmed in my current state of human limitation. Further bulletins as events warrant - lightning strike or sudden radioactive mutation notwithstanding.

Logo #312: Operation Ivy

2009-08-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Designed by OpIvy singer Jesse Michaels in 1987. At last report, there are no plans for a band reunion. Simple things are sometimes the hardest to do well. Theirs is a logo (mascot?) that was left out of the recent Yahoo! blog survey that ripped off many of the images and entries of this blog, which is a real shame but no real surprise. The NME did the same thing back in April. Linkbacks are the Internet's equivalent of the reacharound; neither site gave me the profound joy of even that cold comfort. Like that popular band once sang, "That's the price of love..."

Logo #311: Siouxsie & the Banshees

2009-08-12T22:24:00.001-07:00

Siouxsie's heroically pharaoic eyes - courtesy of London design house Crocodile - graced the cover of their 1987 LP "Through the Looking Glass." It was the face that launched a thousand shirts and plunged countless young girls into annoying, frustrating conversations with men and family who wondered who the eyes belonged to and why they have to be so weird all the time.

This Day in Death: Leos Janácek (July 3, 1854 – August 12, 1928)
Thomas Mann (June 6, 1875 – August 12, 1955)
Ian Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964)
Philip-Dimitri Galás (July 21, 1954 - August 12, 1986)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988)
Bernard Kliban (January 1, 1935 – August 12, 1990)
John Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992)
John Loder (Southern Studios; April 7, 1946 - August 12, 2005)

Logo #310: Phish

2009-08-10T19:44:00.001-07:00

Created by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, possibly as early as 1986. More Holist goodness - the whole being bigger than the sum of its parts. Speaking of the sum of its parts, so what must that internal memo have been like about the guy from Phish being beaten up by Hells Angels? The world, like the ad said with the wise old owl, will never know. I don't particularly care for Phish. Too imprecise and meandering and beardy. Their ice cream is fairly good, though.

My ex-girlfriend died last month. She was 26. Her heart stopped. I'll be 39 on Thursday. Do I really have to experience dead ex-girlfriends at age 39? Naturally - naturally - if you want to read about what a godly being she was, you have but to read any of the blaugs out there extolling her virtues and whatnot. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones," said Mark Antony in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and much like Mark Antony, I come to bury Danielle - not praise her. Here's the downright lowdown on the latter-day ambient saint: she was a beautiful pain-in-the-ass who had a deathly fear of commitment through her 20s and sought enlightenment and inspiration from one boyfriend after another. Conversely: I was not her star to follow. She wound up with the man she wound up with - and although I thought much of their recorded output were shiny cogs in one vast and endless boredom factory, clearly she was happy; clearly she was at peace. Who am I to begrudge anyone that? I'm just this curmudgeonly scribbler who writes brilliantly about disposable popular culture. Conversely two times: the day she died (unbeknownst to me), I was digging through storage and found a packet of her love letters that I hadn't looked at in years. Someone meant, it would seem, to say something before she departed for the great Beyond. Anyway, he had his time with her - but I got her on the way out. Bye, Danielle.

The Song of the Moment is "Last Day of Magic" by The Kills.

Logo #309: Urban Waste

2009-05-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Fondly-remembered New York hardcore band Urban Waste had their logo designed by Billy Phillips & John Dancy in 1982 for the cover of their 7" EP on Mob-Style Records, although doubtless the band was using it as early as 1981, when they began. They reunited in 2002 and played the long-lost CBGB's, almost 20 years after this 1983 live action. Looking back at that performance almost 25 years ago, they all seem so earnest and sincere. Someone should survey all those old HC musicians and ask how they feel now, compared to two or three decades ago. "Time," as Thomas Paine once observed, "makes more converts than reason."

Logo #308: Cyclic Law

2009-05-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

Canadian dark ambient band (and label) Cyclic Law founder Frédéric Arbour designed their own logo. Arbour: "It consists of the Jera Rune, a Norse symbol symbolizing seasonal cycles, birth and death and renewal...the Cyclic Law of eternal return. It was conceived in 2001." We trust he means the logo, not the Law.

Logo #307: Venom

2009-05-14T00:11:00.001-07:00

Created by Venom bassist / singer Conrad "Cronos" Lant in 1982 for the cover of the "Black Metal" LP. Venom Central reports: "All of the Venom artwork and Venom logos on the early Venom album and single record sleeves were all designed and illustrated by the band's singer Cronos (Conrad Lant)."

Logo #306: Orbital

2009-05-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Designed originally by Fultano '90 in, surprise surprise, 1990.

Logo #305: Grey Wolves

2009-05-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

Designed by Trevor Ward of Grey Wolves and perfected from 1988 through 1992. Ward: "I can't claim to have come up with the Celtic cross - this came a few thousand years before me - but it was me who cut out the wolf's head pic and stuck it in the middle along with the rune/lightning bolt. This was also a long time ago, when we use to mess around with symbols a lot more than we do now." Grey Wolves - a.k.a. The Blackshirt Orchestra, Brutal Love, Irritant, Lebensborn, Nails Ov Christ, No Lie G.I., Opera For Infantry, Tactical Aid Group - have constantly pumped out the most abrasive, politically incorrect, intense music, mostly on cassettes for the past twenty or so years. They show no signs of stopping. Their records have great titles: "A Wealth Of Misery," "Open Up Wounds," and "Many Are Called But Few Get Up," and for that they are highly recommended.

Logo #304: Pennywise

2009-05-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

Pennywise had their visual "meh" designed by Fred Hidalgo in 1991. Hard to believe they've been going for 21 years now; the band's the age of a grown-up but they're still spastic nerfbags.

I really have nothing more to say than that. Just because I showcase a band doesn't mean I always have to like 'em. Here are some things I actually do like.

Logo #303: Ima Robot

2009-05-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

The eponymous robot for the band Ima Robot was designed by Alex Ebert. Ima Robot Central reports, "It's based on a painting he did years back. We first started using it around 2001." The robot symbol - looking nothing so much as a hieroglyphic of the robot from the 1957 film "Kronos" - started showing up on walls and utility boxes in the early years of the 21st-century (I know - that does sound impressive) throughout Los Angeles. Looked like it'd be a new entry in the street art sweeps that, at the time, included Buff Monster, Skullphone and the endlessly tedious dyad of Shepard Fairey and Robbie Conal. Sadly, not to be. Just another band - but one with a well-presented public image.

The Song of the Moment - much as it pains me to say so - is "Actor Out of Work" by the painfully perfect St. Vincent.

Logo #302: Ian Dury and the Blockheads

2009-05-08T18:02:00.001-07:00

There's an Ian Dury movie in the works. Ian's to be played by Andy Serkis, the man who mastered the ways of Gollum, King Kong, and Martin Hannett. The Blockheads face logo was designed in 1977 by the indefatigable - well, almost - Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher, June 30, 1942 - November 14, 1983). There's also a new book on the astonishing range Barney's art, called "Reasons to be Cheerful." Ultimately, like the Sex Pistols and Whitesnake logos, the sum of the logo's parts remains greater than its whole - Holism rides yet again.

This Day in Birth:
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, etc. etc. (May 8, 1926)
Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire; May 8, 1951)
Lex Barker (was Tarzan; May 8, 1919 - May 11, 1973)
Kelan Phil Cohran (AACM; May 8, 1927)
Dagmar Dimitroff (Die Tödliche Doris; May 8, 1960 - Jul. 14, 1990)
Jean Giraud (Moebius; May 8, 1938)
Keith Jarrett (May 8, 1945)
Bill Legend (born William Fifield, of T. Rex; May 8, 1944)
Lob (Instagon; May 8, 1965)
Richard McAllister (Pentagram; May 8, 1955 - May 26, 2006)
Myst (born Volker Kahrs, of Grobschnitt; May 8, 1951 - July 20, 2008)
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. (May 8, 1937)
Mickey Ruskin (Max's Kansas City; May 8, 1933 - May 16, 1983)
Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen; May 8, 1920 – Nov. 7, 1991)
Alexander Arthur Van Halen (May 8, 1953)
Danny Ray Whitten (Crazy Horse; May 8, 1943 - Nov. 18, 1972)
David T. Wiley (Human Hands; May 8, 1954 - September 8, 1988)

Logo #301: Contravene

2009-05-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

Eric, bassist for Phoenix anarcho / peacepunk band Contravene: "We found the basis for it in a book of Japanese design motifs. We changed a few things about it, added the peace and equality signs and our name and that was that. As for when it first appeared, I believe our design came about in 1999. The original Japanese motif has been around much, much longer."

This Day in Death:
Nigel Christopher Preston (Sex Gang Children, The Cult; April 4, 1963 - May 7, 1992)

Timothy R. "Tim" North (Crash Worship, Rhythm & Noise; September 17, 1960 - May 7, 2003)

Logo #300: Type O Negative

2009-03-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

Type O Negative's brilliantly simple design came courtesy of lead singer Peter Steele in 1988. Type O Negative recorded one of the most amazing cover songs ever - that of Seals and Croft's "Summer Breeze," heard most notably on the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" soundtrack. What makes their version so rewarding is that Peter Steele is not necessarily someone thought of as embracing summer breezes or food cooking and plates for two. Such are the pitfalls of having a public image informed by heavy metal and a 6'7" frame. And yet his delivery makes the notion so completely plausible that it is to the original song what a drop of water is to fine scotch: unveiled potential. To quote William James, "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."

Logo #299: The Effigies

2009-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

My, but it's been a long time. Life, plans, etc.

Paul Zamost from pioneering Chicago hardcore band The Effigies reveals: "The hangman logo was our first button, which was made up in 1980-81 by our drummer Steve Economou. Not sure of who to credit for the clever idea; it was probably Steve as well."

"Reside," their latest album, was released in 2007; a promotional advertisement for it can be found here. Hardcore has as many local variants as does jazz - L.A. hardcore and New Orleans jazz spring to mind - what external factors shape the differences in sound? The '80s experience - Reagan, excess and EDD (Empathy Deficit Disorder) - was a fairly universal one, as are feelings of loneliness, rejection, love and pain. Maybe it's just the weather.

Logo #298: The Cramps

2009-02-04T22:45:00.001-08:00

This stylish zombie was illustrated by the illustrious Stephen Blickenstaff in 1984 for The Cramps' "Bad Music for Bad People" LP.

Lux Interior (born Erick Lee Purkhiser, born October 21, 1946) died early today. He died the day after the 50th anniversary of day the music died. I had the great pleasure of seeing them years ago in a small California town and Lux was as brilliant as ever, climbing the walls and the stacks of amplifiers until the very end. Purportedly he even took the trash out wearing high heels. Several other sites have their tributes - nothing I can say here would elaborate or expand upon their insights, so...yeah, well, so.

Logo #297: Doctor and the Medics

2008-12-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Clive Jackson {the Doctor of Doctor and the Medics} reports: "I designed the logo back in 1984, it's changed little since. First appeared on our "Happy But Twisted" EP in 1985 and continues to grace our backdrop and CDs to date!" Doctor and the Medics were a pop group that reflected pop back upon itself, distorting the features of an already warped dynamic by using liberal doses of grotesqueness, excessive makeup, high hokum and genuine fringe freakishness. Underrated in the wake of gilded arch-wackiness like Primus and Faith No More, they are to pop what Steve Martin is now to comedy: a visibly discomfited example of what once was.

Logo #296: The Dwarves

2008-12-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

I received this nice note just the other day when I finally asked Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves where the band's "skull-and- crossboners" logo came from. "What a great question. It was drawn freehand by Jon Straus, a Chicago illustrator, way back in 1985. As 25 years of Dwarvishness looms, our logo keeps right on saying "Sex and Death Are Good!"

This Day in Death:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756 – Dec. 5, 1791)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (August 22, 1928 - December 5, 2007)
Forrest J. Ackerman (November 24, 1916 - December 5, 2008)

One of my greatest joys in life was finally meeting Ackerman some years ago, when he was living in his Ackermansion in Los Angeles. God bless you, Forry. You helped save my young and aimless life.

Logo #295: Sacred Reich

2008-12-03T20:22:00.000-08:00

Paul Stottler designed this gas-masked mutant (this just in: its name is "OD") for Arizona thrash metal band Sacred Reich in 1987. "For every release except "Heal," says Stottler. Ever been to Arizona? It's hot in Arizona. Seems like one of the heaviest spots on Earth to start a thrash metal band.

In related news, apparently there was a heavy metal mascot war. Somebody came.

Logo #294: anticon.

2008-12-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

Shaun Koplow from the anticon. label: "The ant was designed by the great Aaron Horkey of Burlesque of North America. To my best knowledge, the first appearance was on our first 12" in 1999, "Anticon Presents Hip-Hop Music For the Advanced Listener." Pretty braggadocios title, eh? Oh the past! Aaron used to go by the name Abuse and designed the Rhymesayers / Atmosphere Headshots tape series art, among other things."

Logo #293: D.I.

2008-11-30T22:58:00.000-08:00

Frederic Taccone, first bassist of Orange County punk band D.I. reports, "The D.I. dog came from a round silver-and-red coral pin/button about the size of a 25-cent piece that I found and bought at the swap meet at the Orange Drive-In; I think it's from the Indians in Mexico. I was opposed by the band but I insisted on this being used for the band as a symbol, as I was sick of the usual stuff of the day. We were kind of different and I wanted something that when you looked at it, you didn't know what kind of band we were. Dianna "Mac" Macalear was guitarist Tim Maag's girlfriend and a graphic artist. I asked her to come up with a way of writing "D.I." that looked like something between hieroglyphics and street graffiti, and she came up with the style of writing that appeared with the dog on our first five-song EP, later re-released as a full-length album on XXX called "Team Goon." Dianna did the drawing/direct copy of the pin in 1983."

Logo #292: L7

2008-11-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

L7's skeleton hands were designed by the brilliant Randall Martin for the band's 1992 release "Pretend We're Dead." Here's Donita Sparks in 1992 throwing her used tampon at the fans at Reading and having a lot of sex. Well, not all at once - and by definition, a tampon company cannot be the best tampon maker in the world. They're not #1 - but they're up there. Looking at those clips from the whiny '90s, you realize how much time goes by and just how much things like Double and clean lines and quality dining start to mean. Very L7, that.

Logo #291: M.O.D. (Method of Destruction)

2008-11-30T22:15:00.001-08:00

This take on Uncle Sam was designed for New York thrash unit M.O.D. [Method of Destruction] by Anthony Ferrara for their 1987 LP "U.S.A. for M.O.D.". Not to be confused with the Uncle Sam that Uncle Slam uses - although M.O.D.'s latest logo - that of a guitar laid across red intertwined M-O-D letters - is an almost total ripoff of the logo for the Michael Schenker Group. Does New York thrash really need to look to mid-'70s German prog-metal bands for their artistic cues? I mean, really?

This Day in Death:
Francis-Marie Martinez Picabia (Jan. 22, 1879 - Nov. 30, 1953)
Phil Tucker (May 22, 1927 – Nov. 30, 1985)
Bobbi Brat (Red Scare; Jul. 14, 1962 - Nov. 30, 1988)
Charlie Rouse (Thelonious Monk; Apr. 6, 1924 - Nov. 30, 1988)
Guy Debord (Dec. 28, 1931 - Nov. 30, 1994)
Tiny Tim (Apr. 12, 1932 – Nov. 30, 1996)
Kathy Acker (Apr. 18, 1947 - Nov. 30, 1997)
Donald Scott Smith (Loverboy; Feb. 13, 1955 - Nov. 30, 2000)
Elsa Stansfield (Mar. 12, 1945 - Nov. 30, 2004)

Logo #290: Arx Kaeli

2008-11-30T21:24:00.001-08:00

Evgeniy Kuleshov from Russian ambient/IDM band Arx Kaeli reveals: "A similar emblem appears in the book "Encyclopedia of Doctrines of the Middle Ages". In one article there is almost the same symbol connected with air. My friend Yaroslav Proskuryakov stylised this symbol in 2005. Arx Kaeli (Arx Caeli) means that place where the sky becomes one with the earth." What a concept! The logo is quite beautifully simple and captivating as well - simplicity, as we all know, solves more problems than it creates, ultimately (too many chromosomes, for instance).

The Song of the Moment is "Corporate Cannibal" by Grace Jones.

Logo #289: Dangerous Toys

2008-11-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

Tommy Pons designed the clown Bill Z. Bubb for the eponymous debut LP for Texas hard rock band Dangerous Toys in 1989. I've never understood why some people get so freaked out by clowns but I can completely understand how the band felt when they first saw the artwork for that all-important first record. They probably celebrated with some drinks, wrote some more Dangerous Toys songs, and had an amazing day in which everyone felt like they were at the absolute height of their creative powers. There's a purity to that feeling - a great and exciting simplicity - and it's one of the myriad of little blessings one must necessarily count when things get sluggish and repellent.

Tommy Pons responds: "About Bill - well, he sort of came about by coincidence, really. All bands would love to have a mascot like the clown; Maiden being the #1 example / blueprint to go by. Eddie was and still is one of the most recognizable characters in music, hands down, right up their with Zeppelin's "Swan Song," Rush's "Redstar," Motorhead's dog thingy and The Stones' "lips." Anyway, I was reading Stephen King's "IT" and had just seen the movie "Killer Klowns From Outer Space" around the time Jason contacted me about doing a clown design. I was already planning a piece of art from the book so what became Bill kinda began then (the original clown design is under the CD tray of their "Vitamins and Crash Helmets" release). Sony thought it was too over the top so they made me tone it down. I also had to neuter the cover as the clown had skeletal remains of children around the box. Sony also neutered the cover for "Hellacious Acres," making me paint that over colourful piece instead of the dark moody painting I had planned. Maybe one day I'll re-paint the first two covers the way I originally intended, since I think I've actually learned how to paint a bit better compared to the nightmares I did back in the bands heyday. It's been flattering seeing people getting tatts of the clown and/or seeing them painted on cars, boats, whatever...I just wish my artwork would have been better. Bill's gone through some changes since coming out of the box and the latest pieces I'm doing for Toys are more darker I think...and they're executed a whole lot better. Bill did earn me a gold record, so that's something, I guess."

Logo #288: Radiohead

2008-11-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

The Radiohead "Death Bear" was designed by Stanley "Dan Rickwood" Donwood in 2000, rivaled only by the crying minotaur from their Grammy-winning "Amnesiac" LP in 2000. Radiohead have about six great songs in them - the rest is industry and gratuitous enigmaticism. Look for late-career forays into jazz, opera, ballet and other gracefully aging irrelevancies. My review of the paradigm-punching "In Rainbows" CD that released last year follows.

I've learned that there’s another version of English that’s spoken across the world. It’s called “Gimme.” So Radiohead offers their latest album as chiefly an online download option. You pay as much as you want for it when you order it. On 2007 October 10, the day of its release, purportedly 1.2 million copies were downloaded. As one of the blog wags so eloquently crystallized it, “So 1.2 million downloads = $20.82?” And yes, while there are going to be an overwhelming contingent of stalwart do-gooders whose heart lies squarely in the right place and will clearly pay generously, the “Information wants to be free” crowd has essentially rendered music almost completely worthless with the support of this paradigm. And when you free that “free free free!” toothpaste genie, no way is he going back in that tube. Worthless. Disposable. Gimme. If a violently huge band such as Radiohead gives away their records, the implicit logic is this: well, why should I give a shit about your crappy band? Your band who scrimped and slaved to put an album out, spending countless hours perfecting something true and good, only to be faced with the concept of scorn heaped upon your labors because you dared put a fixed price on what your time and creative energies were worth? Oh, a copy of the album? Thanks – just let me put it on the hard-drive containing all the other nameless records by bands I never heard of before and never want to hear again. I’ll get to it, baby – I’ll get to it…

Logo #287: Circle One

2008-11-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

The good folks at Circle One Central report: "(It's) just your standard symbol for revolution and it originated from some anarchist movement. We think it represents underground unity. Our original bass player Mike Ituarte designed it in 1980. He modified it a bit. I believe it was Turkish." Lead singer John Stephen Macias (January 29, 1962 - May 30, 1991) was by all accounts a deeply scary guy (also, conversely, a staunch Christian) and was shot dead after a confrontation with Santa Monica police after knocking a security guard off the Santa Monica Pier when told to stop preaching the word of the Lord. Purportedly Macias walked into a hail of bullets and just kept going - and so have Circle One, actually.

The logo's from Turkey. It's the best I could come up with for Thanksgiving Day. If you know which anarchist faction from whence this logo originally sprang, we'd like to know!

Logo #286: The Ramones

2008-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Designed by William Barton and Charles Thomson in 1782 and detourned by Ramones confidant and lighting director Arturo Vega in 1977.

GO OUT AND VOTE!

Logo #285: Jamiroquai

2008-11-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

In the tradition of Miles Davis' silhouette or Dolly Parton's latest public image, the Jamiroquai man-bull was conjured up by singer Jason Kay in 1993 for the band's debut album "Emergency On Planet Earth." Much scorn is heaped on Jamiroquai whenever this logo appears in "best of" lists (such as the recent NME list that ripped off my work without even so much as a link in return), but as an admixture of smooth jazz and driveway-moment fuck music goes, it's not half bad. They're still packing audiences in throughout Europe, so that's more than you've probably done.

Logo #284: Dilated Peoples

2008-11-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

The Dilated Peoples cyclops was created by Brent Rollins / Ego Trip NYC in 1997 for "Third Degree," the band's first 12" on ABB Records. One of the members, DJ Babu, coined the phrase turntablism and hails from Oxnard. Oxnard! Go figure. Oxnard was in fact one of the first places on the West Coast to play hip-hop with any regularity. The prime mover of this movement was a DJ named H.T., who, last I'd heard, died in a car crash in the late '80s or so. When I brought the subject up to DJ Babu, he replied, "What?! HT! KMIX 106!!!!! I used to stay up every Saturday night to record HT...I remember when he passed and all they did was replay old HT recordings for a week, then the station folded...that brings me back!!!!!!!"

Howard David Thomas, November 22, 1962 - August 14, 1988. Rest in peace, Mr. DJ.

Logo #283: Chris & Cosey

2008-10-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

This amalgam of sperm, king and egg was designed by Stephen Gilmore in 1984. Chris and Cosey go under the name Carter Tutti now; here's what I wrote in the L.A. Weekly after one 2005 live action: "Nostalgia is a bit like going to the dentist: past sensations are felt so acutely that their anticipation is nearly equals original sensation. So it is with Carter-Tutti, formerly Chris & Cosey, they of the previously submerged Throbbing Gristle until its recent revivification campaign – and what better space in which to play for these wreckers of civilization than a building whose reflective panels inflict sunburn in ten minutes for those standing before it? Slowed footage of children at the seaside and amusement parks segue into animated hands altered to resemble Kirlian photography by way of jewels and honey. Carter manipulates various inscrutable dials from his left-side laptop / mixing desk, scoring footage in which Cosey’s veiled head turns into a pomegranate. Her almost subliminal croon subsumes below the music, much of which is propelled by her gentle picking at an echoing guitar before occasional harmonica and trumpet blasts. There’s an overriding sense of revelation – from Carter’s unblinking eyes to the repeated images of wide-eyed children. Over time, naturally, revelation happens in one’s life in more gentle ways – for instance, under the idyllic gaze of Wozniak’s apple and the rapt applause of a literally full house rather than gallery-destroying milk-and-blood enemas."

Logo #282: The Descendents

2008-10-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

Milo here was designed for the Manhattan Beach punk band by Jeff "Rat" Atkinson in 1982 for the "Milo Goes to College" LP. He's a caricature of Descendents lead singer and chemist Milo Aukerman. I could say that I haven't heard much of their music, but in these days of YouTube and MySpace, being instantly turned-on to any music about which one might be curious seems to be the natural order of things - so I'll just say that I'm lazy, which makes me efficient if not terribly informed right now. To put it another way: think of all those bands you've always wanted to get to but need a few years in a sanatorium to really do the job right. And that's my impression of Descendents: always there, perennially adolescent and sophomoric and hoisting the flag of discontent and good humor.

Logo #281: Judas Priest

2008-10-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Designed by Roslav Szaybo for Judas Priest's 1980 "British Steel" LP. Livin' after midnight? Rockin' 'til the dawn? Lovin' 'til the morning? Then I'm gone...I'm gone? What an incredibly wistful song! For all the sordid aspects that Judas Priest outwardly embrace, it should be remembered that they know how to write rather good pop songs here and there. Motorcycles, spikes and studs - so to speak - notwithstanding, of course. And lest anyone labor under the illusion that Judas Priest has it easy in their world of metals both literally and figuratively heavy, imagine how you'd feel if someone told you that your art led people to commit suicide. Heavy, head, crown, etc.

The Song of the Moment is "Light Powered" by Deastro.

Logo #280: Wu-Tang Clan

2008-10-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

"The original Wu-Tang stickers when RZA was on Tommy Boy (came out in) 1991. The "W" as we know it (appeared in) 1992." So says the creator, Wu-Tang Clan logo designer Allah Mathematics. You might not see eye-to-eye with the Wu-Tang on everything, but you can at least talk about martial arts movies and spirituality with them. They seem like they'd be up for it.

This Day in Death:
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)
Walt Kelly ("Pogo"; August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973)
Dwain Esper (October 7, 1892 - October 18, 1982)
Henri Michaux (May 24, 1899 - October 18, 1984)
Lucky Philip Dube (August 3, 1964 - October 18, 2007)

Logo #279: The Rolling Stones

2008-10-18T03:34:00.001-07:00

The Rolling Stones had their logo designed by John Pasche in 1970, the original drawing of which sold in early September of 2008 to the Victoria & Albert Museum of art and design in London. Saith the BBC: "The logo, originally designed in 1970 and used by the rock band ever since, sold in the US for $92,500 (£51,375). Artist John Pasche, who sold the artwork, was originally paid £50 for creating the design. The Stones were so pleased with the logo that, in 1972, they gave him a bonus of £200. Pasche was studying at London's Royal College of Art when Stones frontman Mick Jagger, disappointed by the bland designs put forward by record label Decca, began looking for a design student to help create a logo. The singer went to see Pasche's degree show, which eventually led to the iconic pop art design's creation, first used on the Stones' "Sticky Fingers" album in 1971." Which is more rebellious and offensive: the lips, or the tongue? Rarely are the splashes of white on the tongue and lips mentioned; rarer still is the flipside of the icon observed: the tongue, forever licking out to taste and consume. Stones bassist and history detective Bill Wyman makes metal detectors now, Keith Richards gave one of the best interviews GQ ever published, Mick Jagger's drone soundtracks are some of the best yet recorded, and Brian Jones will always be Brian Jones.

Interstitial #6: The Return From Witch Mountain

2008-09-13T23:08:00.001-07:00

Took about a year, but there's no sense in coming back if it's not at the top:

Millions of websites with the words "rock", "band" and "logos" in them can't be wrong, I guess.

Apropos of something: Debora Iyall from Romeo Void reports, "Well, we used my lip-print with a red circle with a slash across it sometimes, and made a button of that."

I'm real busy. I still have over a thousand logos left. What, a man can't take a few months off and unwind? My triumphal and/or triumphant return awaits!

Logo #278: The Alley Cats

2008-06-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

Long-lost L.A. punk/rock band The Alley Cats designed this stick figure around 1978, when it first appeared on flyers for live actions and in Dangerhouse promotional material. Slightly more polished than the average shambolic / young / annihilated (circle one or more) punk band, if the comments on those YouTube videos are any indication, they are sorely missed. Here's a guide to slightly less polished alley cats.

Speaking of cats, here is a story about Monsieur Hat, the Mystery-Solving Cat!

Once upon a time Monsieur Hat was out finding a mystery and he hear someone crying. He see nothing! "A mystery!" he say to himself, and look for the source of the crying. He use his super-sensitive ears to find a large boulder making this sound! There were little rivulets of dust falling from the boulder and so it was his rocky tears! "Why do you cry?" Monsieur Hat ask. "Because I am lonely and feel unloved and my only friend is three feet away and it will take him a million years to come visit! I am a sulky rock." "A silky rock?!" Monsieur Hat ask. "That make no sense! You are too rough and stony to be silky!" "No!" the boulder grumbled, "A sulky rock, a sulky rock!" Monsieur Hat had an idea! "Wait here!" he say. "I will help!" So Monsieur Hat wrote some scribbles on some paper with his clever claws and some juice for ink and take it to the sporting goods store! He come back and saw the boulder being climbed on by rock climbers, who loved the boulders craggy crags and many handholds! The giant boulder was loved! The end.

Logo #277: Rhino Bucket

2008-06-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles (well, Van Nuys) hard rock band Rhino Bucket had their skeletal juggernaut designed by manager Deme Bermudez and Georg Dolivo in 2007. Bermudez: "Well, like many ideas (we've had), Georg and I were hanging out at my house drinking beers and needed to come up with a logo for the band. Rhino Bucket has never had a logo in the past 15 years, so it was time to make one. Rhino and Bucket aren't two words that really go together. Georg, the lead singer/guitarist, and I were looking on the net for ideas. I found a picture of a rhino skeleton and e-mailed it over to him (I was on the couch with my laptop, and he was on the other side of the room with his laptop). He did some work on it and added and changed some graphics around and we ended up with the logo. The original was altered by Georg; it might have been some zoo or history page...can't recall off-hand."

Logo #276: Stukas Over Bedrock

2008-06-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Stukas Over Bedrock had their caveman designed by Art Morales. Pete from the band: "That was drawn by Art sometime between 1982-1984. He also did the first Social Distortion album cover (the skeleton reclining in a chair). It first appeared in an ad we bought to promote one of our records about that time in magazines like Flipside and Maximum Rock'n'Roll and in flyers we made to advertise shows." There's an endless charm that comes with these old punk rock mascots and logos - they are entirely individual and unique to the artist, drawn without artifice or calculation. Punk's "no future" here could either mean the coming apocalypse caused by the smoking volcano or the increasing pressure to get a "real job."

Logo #275: Treponem Pal

2008-06-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

Marco Neves, singer of Treponem Pal, reports, "It was designed by David Lebrun, the first drummer of the band in 1988. We always enjoyed this type of ethnic or tribal kind of image...it fits really well to us! It's on the cover of the first album and comes back since on all the records we did..." Named for Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis (not to be confused with sibilance, even if both are things with which most roadies are intimately familiar), it's a beautifully simple logo because there's the T, there's the P, and there's the primitive pelvic bones that tie the whole concept together nicely.

Logo #274: Onyx

2008-06-29T00:35:00.000-07:00

"Keith Brown here, I manage Sticky, Fredro and Onyx as a group. The Madface was originally sketched out by Fredro Starr as a caricature of Sticky's face and came to use around 1991/1992." Underrated these past twenty years, Onyx promises a new album in 2009; original member Big DS (born Marlon G. Fletcher; July 29, 1971 - May 22, 2003) died of cancer in Queens and there must be something about July 29 that augurs truth-tellers because his is the same birthday as Jenny Holzer and Ken Burns. Certainly Onyx are one of those few hip-hop groups that still live up to Chuck D's assertion that rap is the "CNN of black America" - an observation from many moons ago that stands in stark contrast to our sparkling age of bling and diamond rings and other temporary things. But not Linen-n-Things. They've gone bankrupt. Where-ever shall we buy our things now?! SLAM!

Logo #273: NoMeansNo

2008-06-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

Another damned cow! John Yates created the cow icon in 1989 for the band's "Wrong" LP. Yates' logo design work includes icons for Anti-Flag, and, as we shall soon see, Jello Biafra. Sharp, immediate and direct, he keeps a rather low profile - well, by that I mean he hasn't answered my e-mail yet - and of course, as with all good designers, the work speaks for itself. If you look to the left of the cow's head, you'll see the Elsie doppelganger has human ears sprouting from its neck. NoMeansNo have been around for twenty years and show no signs of stopping - which is encouraging, because most mortals stop being righteously indignant and angry after about seven months.

Logo #272: Renegade Soundwave

2008-06-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

Designed in 1994 for the band by David Little. It appears on the "Howyoudoin?" release. It's deeply reminiscent of the flying head in the film "Zardoz," and mixing it with the fierce lion makes it that much heavier a logo. "Biting My Nails" is probably the band's defining moment - "Probably a Robbery" was a hit worldwide but something really falls flat in the notes somewhere.

Logo #271: Violent Children

2008-06-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

Designed for the Connecticut hardcore band by founder Raghunath "Ray" Cappo. Cappo: "I designed it, and we use to put it on our jackets, flyers, and eventually our 7" EP."

Logo #270: UNKLE

2008-06-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

Futura 2000 designed the technopop band's warriors in 1994.

Logo #269: Flowers in the Dustbin

2008-06-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

The nameless compassionate woman was designed for the band by the mysterious Moira in 1982. Many of these artists fade into obscurity, leaving their imprint on a grateful-yet-perplexed world, and if you don't ask who did what when, chances are you'll never know. It's a bit like all those nameless French who rebuilt the Notre Dame Cathedral but whose identities remain completely unknown. Moira, what moves you today!

Logo #268: Strike Anywhere

2008-06-17T15:57:00.001-07:00

Sergei Tschachotin designed the Antifascist Circle in 1931. It was appropriated by Strike Anywhere member Matt Smith in 2001. Tschachotin purportedly designed it "to be able to easily cover Nazi swastikas." Further: "The meaning of the three arrows have been interpreted differently. One claim is that they stood for the opponents of the iron front, the three enemies of the democracy: communism, monarchism and national socialism. Another claim is that they stand the three columns of the German workers' movement: a party, a trade union and the reichsbanner as symbols for the political, economic and physical strength of the Iron Front."

Logo #267: Toto

2008-06-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Toto had their face designed by Tony Lane in 1981 for the cover of the "Turn Back" LP.

This is the true story of the making of "Rosanna" by Toto.

Logo #266: Poison Girls

2008-06-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

Poison Girls designed their raven in 1979. Lead singer Vi Subversa is one of the unsung stars of punk rock and a Poison Girls revival has been due every year ever since they disbanded.

Logo #265: Igor Stravinsky

2008-06-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Gentleman and scholar Chris DeLaurenti writes, "I believe the Stravinsky glyph first appeared in his 1959 book, "Conversations with Igor Stravinsky" on page 120; though to be fully understood, the glyph should be seen with the other images on the page drawn by Robert Craft to depict plain chant, polyphony, Webern, etc."

Logo #264: Average White Band

2008-06-13T01:05:00.001-07:00

The daring derriere of the Average White Band was designed by Tim Bruckner and Alan Gorrie in 1974.

Logo #263: Crash Worship ADRV

2008-06-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Polyrhythmic ritualists Crash Worship ADRV had their bird / knife logo designed by Markus Wolff. Wolff: "Very nice that this forgotten psymbol might be featured in your blog. I designed it in about 1987, and it was used on early shirts and stickers. The bird-headed dagger was of course used in a myriad of ways - I even sculpted and cast about six solid bronze daggers of this type. The symbols on the blade are the initials of Crash Worship's bastardized Mexican alter-ego - Adoracion De Rotura Violenta. That was our proper long name for a while, although the ADRV was dropped at some point in the early '90s for simplicity's sake. Two (of the daggers) were bought by gallery owners, one of whom is deceased and the other runs the Museum of Death. Another one got stolen, and I kept a really nice one. I just recovered two that need to be finished/welded, etc. I'll be photographing these when they're done."

Logo #262: Brigade Fozzy

2008-06-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

West German hardcore band Brigade Fozzy's bear was designed originally by Faz Fazakas, 1976 and appropriated by the mysterious Berthold for Brigade Fozzy in 1983.

Logo #261: No Milk on Tuesdays

2008-06-12T01:15:00.000-07:00

The cow for hardcore band No Milk On Tuesday was designed by Jennifer Johnson in 1984. Darryl Ohrt: "The logo was designed by the girlfriend (at the time) of our drummer (Dave "Voodoo" Sosbe)."

Logo #260: Deftones

2008-06-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

Designed by Frank Maddocks in 2000 for the "White Pony" LP. Admittedly I'm no great fan of Deftones - the instrument has yet to be invented which can measure my indifference to their work - but they do in fact have one timeless and brilliant pop song, "Change (In the House of Flies)." I shall at this point be charitable and consider that Deftones is a contraction of "deft ones" rather than "def tones" and expect them to crank out a great work of genius in the reasonably near future tense.

Logo #259: Stereo Total

2008-06-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

Created for the band by design firm Cabine in 2005 for the "Do the Bambi" record. Saintly deer are always so beautiful but this one is in blue neon and that makes it extra-lovely! In fact, if I do wind up getting married and having a little blonde hippie baby, she shall be called Estée - or "S.D.", for "Saintly Deer"! Now, I understand that some people might object to short babies being called hippies but think! A short baby is like a hippie because she has long hair, she jumps up and down, she protests, she's real loud, she's kinda smelly, she loves to sing a song, and she doesn't trust anyone over 30.

Inches tall.

Logo #258: The Partridge Family

2008-06-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

Designed by Sandy Dvore in 1970. Lest you think that made-up bands don't have their own logos, look no further than these partridges, or the fist of Faust. Fake bands are your greatest entertainment value - well, one of them, anyway. They even spawned their own feel-good love/terror cult, the Partridge Family Temple. "As for my computer skills, you know there hasn't been anybody that ineffective on a keyboard since Susan Dey was in the Partridge Family." - Dennis Miller

Logo #257: Slayer

2008-06-03T04:52:00.000-07:00

Designed by Steve Craig in 1983. Slayer's pentagram and lettering is a rare case of aspects of a logo being at once so intertwined and interdependent on one another that seeing either without the other becomes a rather incomplete proposition. The swords of the pentagram depend on the lettering to complete the horizontal axis; if you took the lettering out of the circle and replaced it with another sword, something would feel lacking from the entire presentation. Conversely, if you look at the lettering of SLAYER by itself, it comes off as though scrawled by a murder victim in his final throes - scratched painfully in the dirt as a clue to whomever comes along later.

Logo #256: Primus

2008-06-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

Carved out of clay by Lance "Link" Montoya for the 1990 Primus LP "Suck on This."

Logo #255: The Jazz Butcher

2008-06-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

Pat Fish from The Jazz Butcher reports, "He's called The Jazz Porker and he is the invention of British comic artist Hunt Emerson, whose work you can see in Fortean Times and other fine publications. Hunt did him for the cover of our 1984 album "A Scandal in Bohemia," whereafter he briefly took on a life of his own."

Logo #254: KISS

2008-05-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

The symbolic sigil of KISS - you know, the one that rallies all those Knights in Satan's Service - was designed by Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley in 1973. "This is Gene Simmons from Kiss. You know, I invented metal. Yes, both the music and the item." Ah, KISS. You wanted the best - but you got KISS instead. The hottest (investing) band in the world!

Logo #253: Nine Inch Nails

2008-05-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

The Nine Inch Nails logo was designed Trent Reznor and Gary Talpas in 1989. Ironically, it represents balance and order when Reznor's lyrics and themes present anything but a pastoral vale of clean lines and architecture.

Logo #252: Poco

2008-05-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

It is the deeply bizarre height of sadness and tragedy that we speak now about Phil Hartman in the past tense. He drew this horse - a paragon of economical lines leading directly to action and emotion - for Poco for the cover of their 1978 album "Legend." No truer a title chosen.

Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman, September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998. Comedian, artist, writer, father. Taken from this world ten years ago today. I still can't believe this is real. Fuck.

Logo #251: White Spirit

2008-05-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Designed by Michael Spaldin for White Spirit for their first single on Neat (Venom's label) in 1980. White Spirit was in the original 100 logos that started this blahg when I was scouring sites for heavy metal patches and punk badges for the survey that now numbers 1300+ rock band logos and counting. White Spirit guitarist Janick Gers went on rather famously to play guitar with Iron Maiden. Maybe Eddie goes falconing with the White Spirit bird of prey.

Also: White Spirit drummer Graeme "Crash" Crallan, June 5, 1958 - July 27, 2008. He fell.

Logo #250: Sex Pistols

2008-05-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

No "The" in "Sex Pistols" - they're the definitive article, not the definite article (as Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks use to say). Designed by Jamie Reid for the Sex Pistols single "God Save The Queen", released in July 1977, and ultimately the "Never Mind the Bollocks" LP. The sum of the logo's parts will always be greater than its whole - in as many ways as that Holist truism could possibly ever mean.

Logo #249: Kreator

2008-05-23T02:04:00.001-07:00

Kreator's mascot was drawn by Phil Lawvere for the 1987 "Terrible Certainty" LP.

Logo #248: Twisted Sister

2008-05-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Logo #247: The Ex

2008-05-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

Jos Kley of The Ex: "We designed it ourselves, soon after we started the band in 1979...together with some other bands, we were putting out buttons with our names on it and we decided to make ours look a bit different. So the "various straight angles" are basically an "E" and an "X"."

Logo #246: D.R.I.

2008-05-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Eric Brecht, the original drummer for punk band D.R.I., designed the skanking pedestrian in 1982. From D.R.I. Central: "It was actually an art school project - the project was to design a logo for a company. The company was our record label Dirty Rotten Records, but we just absorbed it as our bands logo."

Logo #245: Red Hot Chili Peppers

2008-05-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

The so-called "angel's asshole" was designed by Anthony Kiedis for the Red Hot Chili Peppers sometime around 1984.

Logo #244: Shelter

2008-05-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

Shelter's Disc of Vishnu Chakra was adopted by the band in 1990.

Logo #243: Miles Davis

2008-05-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

It took me forever to find out that Joe Eula drew this famous silhouette of Miles Davis for the cover of the "Sketches of Spain" LP in 1960. You'd think people would know these things! Apparently not. Few are the performers that become logos unto themselves - only the giants like Davis and possibly The Mentors - cut such distinctive figures that creating a symbol from those figures is the logical thing to do. I can very vividly recall driving through the beauty of the Coast Highway in central California in the distant past, with an otherwise lovely woman (who shall remain unnamed), and hearing "It Never Entered My Mind" in one ear and her Technicolor inconsequentialities in the other and becoming very sad that we were doomed to separate because she couldn't hear how beautiful the music was and just stop. Just be. Is there such a thing as objective beauty? Miles Davis is as objective a beauty as can be - and I like knowing that that's something that'll never change.

Logo #242: Björk

2008-05-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

Paul White designed this icon for Björk, looking nothing so much as a swan stifling a sneeze, in 1993. Her latest effort is the beautiful and amazing "Wanderlust" video. Shame there's no song to go along with the video, though - the phrase "there's no "there" there" rather comes to mind. So, to alleviate your intense letdown, here's the Swedish Chef. Bjork bjork bjork.

I really wanted to give this post to Front 242, but they never had a distinctive band logo. I tried. Honestly I did.

Somewhat relatedly, the Guardian has a recent article mooing and prostrating themselves before the supposedly dying art of record sleeve design. Tempest, teacup, etc. You know what's really dying? Flexidiscs. No, wait.

Logo #241: Hawkwind

2008-05-01T03:03:00.000-07:00

Created by Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher, June 30, 1942 - November 14, 1983) in 1972 for the cover of the brilliantly titled "Doremi Fasol Latido" LP. An overview of the endlessly brilliant Bubbles is well-worth re-viewing and can be found here. Still wish I knew when his dates of birth and death were - the reason for that can be found here. Yes, I do work very hard at these things - thank you for noticing. Apparently Bubbles also directed the "Ghost Tow n" video by The Specials, which makes his passing all the more depressing for knowing it. Oh, yeah - Hawkwind. In business for four decades with one propulsive force - guitarist singer Dave Brock - thirty-five years on they're still performing their "Space Ritual" around the world and melting minds in the process even in this jaded day and/or age. They also gave birth to Motörhead. I'm deeply square and clueless but even I have to respect something like that. Also: Robert Newton Calvert of Hawkwind, March 9, 1945 - August 14, 1988. Lest we forget!

Somewhat sideways, the Song of the Moment is "Wehe Khorazin" by Popol Vuh.

Logo #240: Anal Cunt

2008-05-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Designer: Chris Broduer, 1988. Replacing the "u" in the band's name with a helpful asterisk (*) rather crystallizes the whole concept just that much more eloquently, so I won't belabor the point. Grindcore band Anal Cunt are something that a lot of people don't get - but, in the words of Lo Pan, "You are not brought upon this world to "get it"." You either really like them or really hate them. The name sure gets you in the door, though - and sometimes that's all it takes. Band founder Seth Putnam has his own identity and voice - which means he owns his own soul, ultimately - and so I cannot fault them. And if that makes me gay - well, then it makes me gay.

Logo #239: Buffalo

2008-05-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

New Wave of British (or brutish, depending) Heavy Metal band Buffalo had its Holist bison designed by Geoff Ashworth and lead singer Mick Priestley. Priestley: "The Buffalo logo was an from idea of mine and designed by my friend Geoff back in the late '70s and I have used various forms of it ever since." Another rock band logo in the whole is much more than the sum of the parts - which is to say, were it only a hooved B, it'd be a terrifically funny logo indeed. The most popular NWOBHM bands at the moment seem to be: Def Leppard, Angel Witch, Girlschool, Samson, Diamond Head, Demon, Venom, Satan, Raven, A II Z. I sense a theme. Not to be confused with the burgeoning New Wave of Black Heavy Metal scene, naturally.

Logo #238: Blood Axis

2008-04-28T20:19:00.001-07:00

Designed in 1989 by Michael Moynihan. Blood Axis had its roots in Moynihan's earlier, noisier band Coup de Grâce (expect that big beautiful archival Vinyl-on-Demand box set any year now). He now publishes esoteric literature through his publishing house Dominion Press. I can't recall ever seeing one photograph of him in which he smiles, although doubtless he must take enjoyment in at least one or two things in this life, but I don't think I'd necessarily qualify him as a "bummer." Ever known a guy like that? He's probably really good at drawing or squash or math but you'd never know it and he's probably got a backyard filled with cash that gets donated to Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle when he dies. The cross, in a way the inverse of the circle, doesn't get as much play in terms of logo design as it probably should - people occasionally get cagey about discussing their respective Christianities, and some see overly ostentatious displays of the cross as a little like wearing your bullet pendant to a dinner at the Kennedys - but straight lines are always attractive and when they meet, it's sweet geometric love.

Logo #237: Aesthetic Meat Front

2008-04-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

The simple sigil of the Aesthetic Meat Front was duly divined in the halcyon days of 1996 by band founder Louis Fleischauer. Fleischauer: "I designed the symbol when I first started the Aesthetic Meat Foundation. It's a bind rune meant to invoke violent change (evolution)." He currently designs fetishwear under the AMF Korsets couture line and quite honestly they're the only thing even vaguely interesting happening in that part of culture these days - vacuum beds and big rubber mummification balls notwithstanding. As with most couture, fetishwear has more than its share of cheap, pedestrian material and tatty, unimaginative fabrications - but AMF Korsets operate as a stylish and incisive comment on fashion-as-skinned-animals covering slowly rotting sacks of meat. Not that some slowly rotting sacks of meat aren't occasionally deeply attractive!

Logo #236: Death in June

2008-04-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

You thought this was going to be logo #14 or logo #88, didn't you? Academic chickens! The totenkopf logo was designed for Death In June by band founder Douglas Pearce in 1981. Pearce (who looks a little like Dave Pearce of Flying Saucer Attack): "I designed it, as I do 99% of the artwork, and it was first used on a sleeve in 1983 - although it had been around since just after the release of "Heaven Street" in 1981 as a patch design, etc. A screw-up on the 7" sleeve of "Holy Water" in 1982 meant that the '6' was left off." When asked whether he considered the totenkopf or the whip hand more emblematic of Death in June, he replied, "Now, now David. I've answered a couple of private questions - it's not going to turn into a book!"

Suitably enough, this Day in Death:
George Joseph Herriman ("Krazy Kat"; August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944)
George Sanders (July 3, 1906 – April 25, 1972)
Paul de Vree (November 13, 1909 - April 25, 1982)
Dexter Keith Gordon (February 27, 1923 - April 25, 1990)
Phillip "Phil" Suchomel (Naked Aggression; April 19, 1969 - April 25, 1998)
Roger Troutman (Zapp & Roger; November 29, 1951 - April 25, 1999)
Bobby "Boris" Pickett (born Robert George Pickett; February 11, 1938 – April 25, 2007)
Enrico Donati (the last Surrealist; February 19, 1909 - April 25, 2008)

Logo #235: Flotsam and Jetsam

2008-04-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a good example of a heavy metal band mascot that many consider as such but when you actually ask the band? Not to be! Flotzilla (also known as Flossie the Sea Monster) was designed by Kevin Tyler for Flotsam and Jetsam in 1992. Kelly Smith, Flotsam and Jetsam drummer: "Flotzilla was created as part of the story of Metal Shock and Doomsday that Jason Newsted wrote on the album. It first appeared on the cover of "Doomsday for the Deceiver." It wasn't used after that because Flotzilla was about that record, and there was already a Eddie in Iron Maiden and Megadeth had Vic Rattlehead. So we decided not to follow that trend." Not to be confused with The Jetsams, a cartoon about a family of trash that washed up on a beach in a dystopian future far, far away.

Completely unrelatedly, the Song of the Moment is "Holland, 1945" by Neutral Milk Hotel

Logo #234: Coil

2008-04-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

Coil's symbol of chaos was originally designed by Jim Cawthorn in 1962 and appropriated by John Balance (born Geoffrey Laurence Burton, a.k.a. Geff Rushton; February 16, 1962 - November 13, 2004) and Peter Christopherson in 1987. Christopherson: "I would say (we started using it) around '87, not before. By the way, I would claim some small credit for first deriving the vaguely 'animal-skull-shaped' version of the chaosstar which occurs when you filter a normal one through a Photoshop Polar co-oordinates filter! This version was used extensively by Coil during the '80s and '90s." Perhaps no other shape since the circle has captured the imagination of modern logo design than the chaos star. SFA, Naked Aggression, Psychick TV, GWAR, Skullflower and Fire + Ice have all wielded it as an identity over the decades, and why no one's used it in a movie as a shuriken is beyond me. Talk about a system! Coil was one of the very first bands - along with Sleep Chamber, Master/Slave Relationship, Controlled Bleeding and SPK - I ever got into on my long journey into the nights and noises of experimental music, and I tend to like them on compilations and in little bits. As one focused album of songs - mmh, not so much. Highly, highly recommended: the "Gold is the Metal with the Heaviest Shoulders" and "Stolen and Contaminated Songs" albums. Your life is improved immeasurably for having heard those sounds at least once and possibly twice.

Logo #233: Megadeth

2008-04-23T03:03:00.000-07:00

Vic Rattlehead, mascot for thrash metal band Megadeth was originally designed by Dave Mustaine in 1985 and fleshed out to his classic configuration by Edward J. Repka for the 1986 "Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?" LP and the 1990 "Rust in Peace" LP. Repka also presented Biohazard's logo the same year. Busy guy, that Ed Repka. Vic's story is that, because his mouth, ears and eyes are clamped and welded shut, he can neither speak, hear nor see any evil - which either makes him an innocent on par with Cassandra and her Complex or just a really great real estate agent. Here he is, selling the United Nations. It was really, really strange seeing Dave Mustaine in therapy with Lars Ulrich in the 2001 Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster." Dave's whole mindset was that Megadeth was always second to Metallica. Sentimental hogwash! He should take a cue from the attitude of Tampax: "We're not #1 - but we're up there!" Also, if any of you professional ironists want to start making t-shirts again that say things like "Prayer" instead of Slayer and "Megalife" instead of Megadeth - in the words of Lacy Underall, "Go for it!"

Logo #232: RKL

2008-04-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

RKL had their "Beanie Kid" designed by drummer Richard "Bomer" Manzullo and Dan Sites in 1983. Singer Jason Sears, speaking to Thrasher Magazine in 2002: “Some guy said, 'Ha, those kids will never be anything - they're just a bunch of rich kids on LSD, man.' The first party we played we didn't have a name for the band, so we put that one on the flier and it just stuck.” The Beanie Boy logo was born one night while Bomer and Jason were being tattooed. Bomer was attempting to draw a dragon tat pattern. On seeing the drawing, Jason commented, "Yeah, dude, it's Cecil! Where's Beanie?" Dan Sites was sitting alongside, drawing a flyer for a show supporting Suicidal Tendencies in Oxnard, and drew a beanie guy jumping from a building." As a band, RKL (Rich Kids on LSD) are almost as doomed as Battalion of Saints, what with how many people in the band have died. It's all the more surprising because RKL's home base of Montecito is slightly south of Santa Barbara, not the most discouraging and poverty-stricken part of the world. The rich kids are easier to find than a wet spot on prom night. Drummer Derrick Plourde (October 17, 1971 – March 30, 2005), Manzullo (July 19, 1967 - December 12, 2005), and singer Jason Sears (January 23, 1968 - January 31, 2006) have all died but the band theoretically still exists in one form or another, currently in yet another one of their increasingly frequent hiatuses.

Logo #231: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

2008-04-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' bulldog was drawn by Jerry Mattes, a friend of the band from Albany NY, in 1989 or 1990. The Boston ska-punk band's 1997 single "The Impression That I Get" would mark a high point in music for beer/deodorant ads and remained unsurpassed until Andrew WK's emergence on the scene with "Party Hard" in 2001 from the album "I Get Wet."

Similarly, the Password is "mensilingus."

Logo #230: Public Image Ltd.

2008-04-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Public Image Ltd. had their logo designed by Dennis Morris in 1978. Driving to work today, I saw that the band Lit has a logo that's a riff on this one (it was on the back of a red windbreaker, incongruously enough), so we'll be covering that one in the reasonably near future tense. From this rather illuminating interview with Morris: "F&F: Is it true you designed the PiL logo? Dennis: Yeah, I did the logo. I did the first single sleeve, the one that was in a newspaper. I did the first album sleeve, and 'Metal Box'. F&F: I was never sure who designed it. I know that John Lydon said he done it but... Dennis: [laughing] John said he designed it? F&F: Yeah. Dennis: Well, it was John's idea - you see what I mean - in terms of we had a meeting and he spoke about it and he put the idea of public image, but the idea comes from an aspirin! F&F: A pill. Dennis: Yeah, exactly the same as an aspirin. F&F: I think it' s the best band logo that's ever been designed. I think it's absolutely brilliant. Dennis: Yeah, it's very distinct." One of the greatest songs ever written about expectation and alienation is "Public Image." If no one gave a shit about you before and you find yourself in a band and cultivating a public image, having people suddenly come up and tell you how cosmically badasstic you are can be a deeply cynical prospect. Here's John Lydon and Keith Levene on Tom Snyder's show in 1980 - cynicism notwithstanding.