On second though, maybe you shouldn't do your own cover art...

we need a thread of sleeves made by band members who shouldn't be entrusted to design sleeves.

― baby i know that you think i'm just a lion (schlump), Monday, 16 August 2010 22:34 (Yesterday)

http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/000/212/0000021218_350.jpg

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/2650a7807f.jpg

i find this cover hilarious:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61yTLVrIcVL._SS500_.jpg

the cover for their ep is just as terribly drawn but i kind of like it.

oh man there are so many:

this one comes to mind right away:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Real_emotional_trash.jpg

Music from Big Pink gets by on a technicality, since Dylan painted the cover, but it does certainly suck.

http://images.artnet.com/images_US/magazine/features/finch/finch8-17-07-4.jpg

did Brian Eno really design that cover? that is goddawful.

real emotional trash cover isn't so bad, nothin special, but not bad.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/3853-the-smell-of-our-own.jpg

Shock G did this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/This_is_an_EP_Release.jpg

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/nova.jpg

"When Leanne saw the photo I took of Sharon and myself,
she said, "That's a picture of two people with one mind."
Given her stunning contribution to Ten New Songs, it was
necessary, just, and appropriate that Sharon appear on
the cover. Otherwise, Nova, my daughter's dog, would have
been featured; even though nobody really liked it but Kelley,
Lorca and me. The people at Sony thought I 'must be kidding.'
Nova will have her day."

holy shit that one is aawwwwwwwwwwwwwful

also fucking hilarious

i think that dylan one has a nice texture

like, it's sort of a shitty painting, but at least it looks like it took time -- as opposed to the eno & cohen ones which pretty much just say "i've put out too much music to give a shit about these things anymore"

THIS IS AN E.P. RELEASE

if move, band and cohen covers are any indication, EVERYBODY should do their own art. shit is awesome. in that spirit:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YD9RTCGTL._SL500_.jpg

pero otoh:

http://img.noiset.com/images/album/miho-hatori-ecdysis-disc-cover-47486.jpeg

re: cohen, how can you not love the dog saying "i love them"? wtf? there are 10 new songs and THE DOG LOVES THEM!

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/JI/arrington-600x600.jpg

come on, that is hilarious and great. lion says "ow, why did you cut my head?" fary girls with carefully manicured landing strips say "what? i am so relaxed."

the real problem is the musical part of AdD records.

have you ever heard him discuss his cover art?

no, but i'm gonna go for the easy kill

http://earz-mag.com/em/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cocorosie-grey-oceans.jpg

mi uzi weighs a ton

http://earz-mag.com/em/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cocorosie-grey-oceans.jpg

ahem

but, uh, what does mr. deDionysio have to say abt his body of work? cuz i'm curious.

http://earz-mag.com/em/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cocorosie-grey-oceans.jpg

right

lol mia to thread

the women are his "spirit muses" that inspire his music that due to their power are here presented in human form

it must be excellent that the nether regions of his human-form muses are so perfectly groomed

starting to think that the grey oceans cover is one of the funniest (i.e., best) i've ever seen, including horrid black bars and deathly font

it was a bit disappointing that he didn't just say, this is what all the chicks i randomly hook up while touring look like

Grey Oceans to me just says "rejects from the Raider Nation" and i lol

this is what all the chicks i think about (while telling the chicks i will later hook up with about my "muses") look like. plus the internet yeah.

if it was me (grey ociean), i'd have angled the cut on the top black area so as to diminish from left to right and dropped the bottom blackness entirely, and just floated the text on a rosie. but wat do i know?

i think we need to rediscover the functionality of quotation marks

dude, if that = raider nation, yr fans are way different than our fans

i was extrapolating quite broadly - the face paint is obv the wrong color

why has no-one mentioned this one

http://www.imagemakersart.com/images/large/Bob%20DylanSelf%20Portrait%20.jpg

i mean seahawks massive does not go so much for power crystals and hand-felted textiles, tho they should

I dig most of these, are there any album covers where it's obvious the artist spent a lot of time designing it yet still came out really bad?

the cohen one is really, really sweet

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GLQtTrnWqHo/SaJRKkLMaWI/AAAAAAAAAHM/RyFSgRPFlIc/s400/cherry-advert-NEW.jpg

Fall album covers circa Hex/Room to Live era consisted of MES doodling random words with a black marker pen over some blurry snapshots of band members, but they're somehow wonderful

why has no-one mentioned this one

I thought about it, but Self Portrait isn't bad compared to Songs from Big Pink.

Next thread, metal bands only: "On second thought, maybe you shouldn't have the drummer's cousin who airbrushes vans do your cover art..."

I really like that Digital Underground cover!

I always wondered who was responsible for this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/2596821277_603449d0f6_o.jpg

Me too, me too. -xpost

Don't know if Cohen picked the font, but the cover here is a self-taken Poloroid:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3045/2762516582_49bc332760_o.jpg

i am the cosmos, i am the wind. xxp

cohen is 2/2 here, those are both awesome

agreed

The Cohen album cover with the dog has a real "vanity press" vibe to it.

dyao otm re the nightwish cover

http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/releases/details?id=2

Maria Sandell. Whoever that is.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/610KYsJ1zPL._SL600_.jpg

What bugs me about the Real Emotional Trash cover is that the curve of the font doesn't match up with the curve of the painting.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RIPWXUtjL._SS400_.jpg

Several Brad Paisley covers are his own designs, and all of them bad, but this one should get Adobe to come to his house and take his Photoshop away. I'm surprised the label even ok'ed this.

^^^winner so far, that is bad.

Woah!!

Really sweet drop shadow BRAD

Seeing how the whole point of Self Portrait was to be sucky, I'm not really sure if we can call the cover bad. I mean it is bad, but seeing how it's supposed to be bad, it doesn't make it as bad as say Big Pink which was probably meant to be good.

http://www.academyannex.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/jacuzzi%20no%20seasons.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vy4z0ulpRK4/SQwgH7nytAI/AAAAAAAABhE/jlmAuPbh1RA/s400/o1083.jpg

Curt had been doing fine with the covers up to this point, then they let Derrick loose with the felt-tips.

What bugs me about the Real Emotional Trash cover is that the curve of the font doesn't match up with the curve of the painting.

― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:21 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

HI DERE to thread

as awful as it is, that Brad Paisley cover is kinda cute, and I were Brad's mom I'd definitely have his album art plastered all over the door of my fridge. imagine the huge boyish smile on his face and the excited calls to record company execs when he thought that "play a guitar"/"play on the playground" pun.

this, otoh, is pretty much indefensible:

http://i33.tinypic.com/b9f994.jpg

*thought up

http://i35.tinypic.com/2e6em9z.gif

ugh

y'all heard of salvadori dali

yeah the brad paisley one fits my criteria. most of these other ones seem to me done with a sly wink

The awful awful cover art is a big part of why I've shied away from giving Paisley a fair shot even thought a few trusted ilxors claim he is really good! I mean, twice now I've thought about picking one of his albums up when I come across a cheap copy, but the cover art always turns me away.

Shock G's cartoons are great fuiud

the endearing cover art sort of ties into his whole persona pretty well. regular guy with his wife and kids trying to make that darn computer work good when all he really wants to do is have a beer with the guys. or something.

Fair enough, I don't really know much about his persona. I just thought, "incredibly popular country artist with a zillion dollars skimps on the cover art, repeatedly".

jacuzzi boys cover is excellent

http://static.boomkat.com/images/195213/333.jpg

Mark Bingham, the record's producer and songwriter, drew this, altho he has always maintained he gave it to the janitor at the pressing plant. That would've been better, as would a picture of Caroline Peyton....

Paisley is pretty great, but yeah, his cover art is beyond primitive, like his art therapy. But I get his records in those watermarked plastic sleeves with the songs on a white sheet of paper. which ought to be the way his records are marketed...

there's something kinda awesome about that first one.

most of these are kind of charming! but it's weird how they all resemble each other.

the land of talk one is still cracking me up

jacuzzi boys cover is excellent

― a CRASBO is a "criminally related" ASBO (contenderizer)

I agree; it's meant to be appalling high school notebook scribbling. There's a big difference between intentionally amateurish and just not being able to draw. Especially faces (The Move, Miho Hatori)--if you can't draw a face, don't try portraiture.

But that Shit & Shine cover is really good.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6RCkLmrszz8/Sy_fi_ky04I/AAAAAAAABkQ/ARZ9ZWUzvvM/s400/Roy+Wood+Main+Street+Front.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Schoolly_D.jpg

and one by the (now ex-) wife
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Billy_Joel_-_River_of_Dreams.jpg

BLEAH....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Tortoise-TNT_%28album_cover%29.jpg

The Brad Paisley covers bug me because his guitar is paisley. GETIT?! HUR HUR

That Roy Wood "Main Street" cover is amazing and creepy

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/6000-nice-splittin-peaches-ep.jpg

I like the Meat Puppets cover.

Yeah I quite like it too. 'No Joke' is the worst cover in the Meat Puppets catalogue - suffers from the old 'look what I can do in Photoshop' disease.

really like the tortoise.

Woah I really want to hear that Brad Paisley album if it's at 402bpm!

starting to think that the grey oceans cover is one of the funniest (i.e., best) i've ever seen, including horrid black bars and deathly font

so much this

the cover that chromecassettes posted is next-level bad & wrong

Love the Tortoise cover.

Come to think of it, bad cover art threads almost always contain AT LEAST 72% AWESOME covers.

jacuzzi boys cover is excellent

― a CRASBO is a "criminally related" ASBO (contenderizer)

I agree; it's meant to be appalling high school notebook scribbling. There's a big difference between intentionally amateurish and just not being able to draw.

― Hideous Lump

Oh, I agree. I like the cover quite a bit. I think I put it up to provoke discussion.

That Cocorosie cover remains one of the worst covers I've ever seen.

It's not even the worst Cocorosie cover:

http://musicoogle.com/uploads/posts/2010-06/1277288910_3cb2931749a6d5ed3d35c88a81915459c.gif

ha! i like this better than the other one.

yeah that one's funny

as bad as that one is, Grey Oceans is worse.

starting to think that the grey oceans cover is one of the funniest (i.e., best) i've ever seen, including horrid black bars and deathly font

so much this

the cover that chromecassettes posted is next-level bad & wrong

― acoleuthic, Friday, August 20, 2010 8:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this, loved the cover even before the whole n-word controversy thread dropped

'noah's ark' one is a little too 'edgy but cute' though

well the band is awful, so at least the covers serve as a warning.

http://www.backtoblackvinyl.com/images/album-artwork/big/cat-stevens-mona-bone-jakon-front.jpg