Untitled

2012-03-10

This is maybe 5% of the way into the cross stitch for the Saddle Creek documentary DVD artwork (Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek). Nothing is as good a motivator as the primal terror that you’ve made promises to your friends that you can’t fulfill. This took a lot longer to finish that I originally thought when I pitched the idea. That’s pretty typical for me.

Jason (who helps run the label and was half of the team behind the documentary) had a poster for the Cohen brothers movie “Fargo” that he really liked, which was a cross stitch design. But when I saw it I realized it was not real cross stitch, but a cheap photoshop job. I thought, “I’ll just do a real one, it’ll look better.” I underestimated how long it would take, especially all the yellow fill of the background. My lovely wife Melissa took on several stitching shifts and saved me.

One great touch by the package designer (Scott Williams of Plexifilm, I think?) was to show the ratty back side of the cross stitch canvas, with all the messy knots, on the inside of the DVD insert. I thought that was a cool way to show that it was actually made in real life, and not made on a computer.

Full disclosure: the titles were done by a local embroidery company and photoshopped onto the cross stitch. There was no way I could do that level of detail by hand, and that was a better option than doing the type with a font.

2012-03-09

A lot of people have asked me if the artwork for “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” was based on a real place. It’s a compilation of different (NYC) images, but this one was the basis for the main part. I modified it quite a bit, but this was where I got the outlines for the buildings.

It’s unfortunately not a beautiful or interesting photo, and I didn’t take it myself so I don’t even know where this is. Maybe someone in NYC will recognize it? As you can see, there’s no view of the skyline. I pulled that in from a different image. I also stretched the scene out horizontally so that it didn’t feel so squashed.

So for what it’s worth, this is the place. If someone knows where this is, let me know!

2012-03-01

Making the figures for “Lifted” and “There is No Beginning to the Story” EP, way back in 2001/2002. All the beasts and people were built from bent wire armatures, wrapped with cotton batting and thread, then scrap fabric and beads were sewed on top. I have a lot more photos of these, I’ll post more at some point.

2012-02-22

connyxoberst asked: hey zack, just wondering if you can enlighten us about the crying girl with the snake and violin t-shirt design. what song/album is it supposed to be paired with? much debating has been done with little answers. thanks so much!

Hi! I don’t have an exact date, but I’m pretty sure that came out at the release of “Lifted” or maybe a little before that. You guys probably already know this, but our friend Kaite did that design (along with the Bright Eyes “Bats” shirt). She also did the linocuts on Lifted, which are awesome. She is the Kaite of the Son, Ambulance song “Kaite Come True” from Oh Holy Fools. She’s a rad person.

Edited to add: I’m not sure it was actually paired with that album. I think it was inspired by the line “I know a girl who cries when she practices violin”, but not positive. So it might have been first sold between 2001 and 2002 (between Oh Holy Fools and Lifted).

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This is one of the images used for the Bright Eyes “Thread” t-shirt. This was at the same time that I made the Wide Awake cover art. I made three layers, one for each ink color. All were made with embroidery thread. Two layers were tangles of loose thread, and this one started as stitched lettering in fabric.

2012-02-08

planecrashinc asked: I thought Tilly and the Wall was named after the children's book 'Tillie and the Wall'. The one about the wall and the mouse named Tillie who wondered what was on the other side? Is that partially true but the spelling being a homage to Conor's former pup? (By the way, Hotel Frank's floor totally feels like it's going to cave in at any minute still. There must be a little bit of magic holding that shit together.)

I think you’re probably right, and the spelling is an homage to Tilly the dog. This seems like something I should know, but I’m not sure :) I’ll have to ask.

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This is the front and back of the original insert for the “Every Day and Every Night” LP. It was out of press for a long time, but Saddle Creek is reissuing it soon. Conor, Robb, and I laid out the artwork in Robb’s apartment where he used to run the label. Robb didn’t have a lot of room to sleep because he had so many records in his bedroom.

(top half, starting in upper left, clockwise) I’m in the upper left corner, at Conor’s house that he shared with some good friends. It was 1999. We used to play Atari 2600 over there, Tim Kasher was really, really good at Kaboom. Scary good.

All of the graveyard photos I took in Budapest, Hungary. It was a surreal and amazing place. The black stuff on the monuments is pollution from the cars there… they don’t have catalytic converters. Awful, but it made the graves look incredible.

Upper right, that’s Tilly, Conor’s old dog. The band “Tilly and the Wall” is named after that dog, but I don’t know what the “Wall” part is. I’ll have to ask…

Happy Conor and Happy Neely.

Tim Kasher and Jeff Tafolla. Jeff played in the Bright Eyes band way back when, and works for Saddle Creek now. I think Conor took the picture, but I’m not sure.

(bottom half, starting in upper left, clockwise) That’s Ted Stevens of Lullaby for the Working Class and Cursive in the devil mask, with Conor’s brother Justin. Ted was fucking scary in that mask, but he’s not scary without the mask.

Then there’s a house party photo from the place that Conor lived at while writing “Letting off the Happiness”. There are still house shows there, and 10 years ago it felt like the floor was going to fall into the basement, so I’m afraid what it’s like now. It was called the Gunboat for awhile, and now I think it’s called Hotel Frank.

Then that’s Kaite, who did the awesome linocuts and letterpress elements for “Lifted” with Robb Nansel, who runs Saddle Creek and played in Commander Venus back in prehistoric times. Kaite also designed the Bright Eyes “Snake” and “Record” t-shirts that a lot of us have worn. She’s ready for the pandemic.

I’m not sure Conor would endorse this brand of beer now, but maybe.

That’s all.

2012-02-03

The photo taken for the cover of Fevers and Mirrors shows my friend Jamie taking the picture. (She’s in Tilly and the Wall, by the way) She was reflected in the mirror, and you can see the camera on a tripod with a cable release. This was before any of us had digital cameras, so it was all old school film.

I hung that wallpaper on one wall in my basement, and got the mirror at the thrift store I worked at at the time. A couple years ago, I used a saw and cut the drywall off that wall in my basement, so I could keep and display the wallpaper. The big section of wall with the mirror is now on display in the Saddle Creek record shop.

The promo poster for Fevers actually used this image with Jamie. I like that it’s kind of ghostly.

Conor and I went to the wallpaper store and he picked out this pattern. He liked that it shows a guy playing guitar to a woman. I should have bought extra rolls… I think it would be cool to wallpaper an entire room with this, but I don’t think they make it anymore.

My friend Matt was playing drums with Bright Eyes at the time, and he was living with me. They had band practice in this room of my house where the wallpaper was hung, while they were getting ready to go on tour. I think there’s a brief clip of it in the Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek DVD… it’s my laundry room :)

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This is the official plan for the housing development that the Desaparecidos artwork was based on. For the artwork, I changed the name to “Briar Hills Estates” but “Fire Ridge Estates” was the real development in Omaha. When I was working on artwork, I went to the county office and you can pretty much look up anything and photocopy it. All of the liner notes were based on actual documents filed with the County, and I just inserted the lyrics into them.

Part of this is on the CD face, and more is under the white tray.

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Here’s the photo from the back of the CD. I guess I lied, you can actually see some ground. But you have to take my word for it that it’s surreal to stand in one spot and see pristine farmland in one direction, then turn 180 degrees and see this behind you.

At the time, I worked for the local phone company as an installer/tech, and I’ve been in hundreds of these new houses. It’s scary, every single one is exactly the same. You start to think that all of the people inside are exactly the same too. NO ONE HAS ANY BOOKS!!!! Once I was in a really typical West Omaha new construction cookie-cutter house, and had to go into the basement bedroom to check the phone extension. Their kid had a bunch of Bright Eyes and Cursive posters on her walls. It made me so happy, it lasted for weeks.