Just got done with the design for the new Desaparecidos double A-side 7”! Digital tracks will be going up for sale at midnight on August 2nd at www.desaparecidosband.com, and the limited edition 7” will be up for pre-order soon. There are links on their site to hear streams of both tracks at Huffington Post and Alternative Press. Not sure how long those will be up though.
“Marikkkopa” is about Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, AZ. The artwork shows the guard tower at Arpaio’s “tent city” jail. It has an American flag hanging off it, along with a pink neon “vacancy” sign. I threw a Homeland Security unmanned drone in there, because that’s where we’re heading as a country. Ominous times…
“Backsell” is about major labels, radio payola, A&R, and money in the music industry in general. Backselling a track is when a radio DJ announces the name of the artist and song he just played. There’s a lot of commentary in here about many aspects of the major label music industry. The artwork is an actual email from a major label, part of evidence used in the criminal case of labels paying radio stations for airplay. This is totally illegal, but was happening egregiously all over the place until Elliott Spitzer investigated the practice, and some huge labels got in deep shit. The snippets of audio from music industry people are actual bits of voicemails from those people left on Conor’s phone, which I thought was hilarious.
I think both are great tracks, and it’s hard to believe 10 years went by since the last time they were writing together. Very excited to see what else is coming!
