NPR's Eddie Garcia Made A Record and I Made An Image

 Go buy this record from Winston-Salem North Carolina’s, Eddie Garcia. Eddie has a one-man band that goes by the name 1970’s Film Stock. He’s a wonderfully talented person who’s making great art. He also has a husky NPR voice. The full record comes out on October 8^th but you can pre-order it now. Give me a few hundred words and I’ll come back around to the record.

Listen / Order here. https://1970sfilmstock.bandcamp.com/album/third-anthem

I started collecting records out of necessity. Before the days of streaming, or even peer-sharing services (I hate when people write such things…so boring, so obvious) you had to have a physical thing. There was a hunt to being a music fan. It was work.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked doing the work but it’s much better today. Being able to have so much music within seconds is a good thing, not a bad thing. It wasn’t better then. So, if you had a budding and insatiable appetite for music in the mid-90’s, you did the work. 

Front Cover.

The mid-90’s were a dead time for vinyl records. Most of the majors weren’t putting out records unless you were Pearl Jam and you had a song on your third record fetishizing the black circle. With four or five dollars you could flesh out your collection in no time at a flea market. Sure, the Beatles and Elvis records were overpriced, but everything else was a dollar or less. The week would be for studying magazines and books and VH1 Rock and Roll documentaries, and the flea market weekends would be for looking for those things. I found the inevitable classic rock, but I also found Venom’s Black Metal, Dead Kennedy singles on Cherry Red, and my first jazz records. All of this was just to be able to listen to MORE music outside of 106.5, my CD collection, and whatever I could borrow from friends. I didn’t get my first CD burner until my freshman year of college, which corresponded perfectly with the emergence of Napster.

While I liked records, I never was one of those guys. I wasn’t one of those guys who knew the pressing info of every record I owned but never listened to the music.  The format is not as important as what’s on it. I didn’t care if it was on record or CD I just wanted to listen to it.

If records were better than CD’s, they were better because of the artwork. There was so much more that could be done with a record. A record is an exciting artifact! CD’s are practical but boring. Like everyone I’d spend hours memorizing record covers, thumbing through them, and of course, cleaning the years of basement dust off of them. You can never get rid of that smell. 

Back cover.

Two years ago, Eddie Garcia told me that he wanted to use an image of mine for a record cover. At that time, he wasn’t sure if he was going to press them onto vinyl, make tapes, or offer it up as a download. I was vying for a record because I wanted to see him make his work more present in the world, and I wanted to see something I made on a record cover. I was cheering for him; I was happy for me. Thankfully he chose the vinyl option.

I don’t remember making the image that adorns the front and back cover. I know how I made it. I scanned a painting I did in my yard. I put that image in black monochrome. I added colors and then doubled the base image over and over again. It was simple but the finished product looked pretty good, good enough that I had my friends and local printers (House of Rodan) to print some on 16x20 canvases. Maybe three or of them were printed. Eddie said he wanted one so I stuck it in a frame and dropped it off at his house. Chances are I gave it to him. I have no idea what happened to the others. When I dropped off the blown up print to his house, his wife and in this case layout designer, Alex Klein told me, “I don’t like the colors. I just don’t like primary colors.”

Looking at the image now, I’m not too happy with it either. The colors are fine, but there’s white lines in the damn thing and that annoys me. I imagine the lines appear whenever the layers start to overlap one another. My technical knowledge is very limited, and I prefer crude anyway, so…it came out the way it did. If I could go back and fix anything I’d make sure those white lines would disappear. The layout looks great, the colors pop…it really stands out. Even though I made the image, I think it’s a cool looking record. You put this one on a record store shelf and people will take notice. A million seller right out of the box. 

You see that white line?

 Having my image on a printed record, one that will end up on people’s shelves across the country is kind of a dream come true. Mostly what I make ends up behind an envelope in a pile of other things. A record is dealt with, handled, and looked at. You have to see the thing! You have to interact with the thing!