How have you passed the night?

Stitched song titles for the Wide Awake artwork. I kind of...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:22:52 -0400

Stitched song titles for the Wide Awake artwork. I kind of burned out my mom’s sewing machine working on this album and the Lua single. I didn’t totally kill it, but it sounded really pissed off when I was done. Sorry, mom.

We swapped out half of the Saddle Creek Shop display cases...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 01:10:01 -0500

We swapped out half of the Saddle Creek Shop display cases today. On top is the Bright Eyes “Lua” single tapestry, along with the stitched titles and CD insert. The small white circle is the moon from the artwork, the larger one is a reflection of a ceiling light from the shop. The moon in the tapestry is made from shiny fabric so it would be luminescent compared to the rest of the dark fabric.

Below is a test silk-screen of the jacket for “Letting off the Happiness” LP. I did the test run on colored stock, but the actual LP jacket was printed on white. The original mockup for the LP insert is off to the right. It was photocopied from a typed sheet with a 3”x5” photo taped to the bottom. No one I’ve asked knows who is in the photo, it’s a few people swimming. The LP inner sleeve from the 7LP vinyl box set is below that, which was scanned from an original jacket. The silk screened test print is stamped “000/300”. All of these silk screened covers looked terrible because I didn’t know what I was doing.

As I’m sure you’ve already seen, here’s the...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:51:29 -0500

As I’m sure you’ve already seen, here’s the front and back art that I made for the second Desa 7”.

It’s available for pre-order here.

They dedicated the record to Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, “an All-American Hero”. I agree with that credit. In his words, he believes the US public has a right to know the true cost of war. More here.

Coming soon…

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:30:38 -0500

Coming soon…

This is the new shirt design I did for Desa’s new tour...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:47:00 -0400

This is the new shirt design I did for Desa’s new tour dates. I’m happy with how it turned out. I think it’s a good match to the “Fremont” shirt I did in 2010 when they played the Concert for Equality in Omaha (to protest Fremont, Nebraska’s new immigration law copying Arizona’s).

Features the same guard tower from Sheriff Arpaio’s Tent City jail that’s featured on the cover of the new 7”. Complete with neon vacancy sign and of course the American flag… because, you know, GOD BLESS AMERICA and FREEDOM, etc, etc.

Just got done with the design for the new Desaparecidos double...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:46:00 -0400

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!

This is maybe 5% of the way into the cross stitch for the Saddle...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:16:00 -0500

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.

A lot of people have asked me if the artwork for...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:38:00 -0500

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!

Making the figures for “Lifted” and “There is...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:20:00 -0500

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.

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!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:45:00 -0500

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).

This is one of the images used for the Bright Eyes...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:43:00 -0500

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.

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.)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:33:48 -0500

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.

This is the front and back of the original insert for the...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:31:00 -0500

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.

The photo taken for the cover of Fevers and Mirrors shows my...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:58:00 -0500

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 :)

This is the official plan for the housing development that the...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:46:00 -0500

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.

Here’s the photo from the back of the CD. I guess I lied,...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:10:00 -0500

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.

This is the original photo used for the Desaparecidos cover art....

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:42:00 -0500

This is the original photo used for the Desaparecidos cover art. On the CD version this photo is on the front of the insert, under the vellum sheet that has the houses and titles on it. You only see the left half, the trees are cropped out.

Conor, his cousin Ian, and I went for a drive out in west Omaha for the afternoon to take album artwork photos. The sprawl was bad then, but it’s worse now. You’d have to drive even further out to get photos like this.

If you notice at the bottom of the photo (and the album cover) there is crop stubble above the road, and tilled dirt below it. That’s because if you faced north there was working farmland, and if you turned to face south you’d see a solid panorama of housing developments… literally across the street from one another. The back cover of the CD is the exact same spot, just facing south! You can’t even see the ground in the back cover photo.

The funny thing is that the album cover concept for the Desa record became reality. The farm in this photo turned into another housing development a few years after the record came out.

An old Commander Venus promo postcard :) I think the photo was...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:52:00 -0500

An old Commander Venus promo postcard :) I think the photo was taken outside of Conor’s parents’ house, but I’m not sure.

This was halfway through the gluing of the flame pieces for the...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:45:00 -0500

This was halfway through the gluing of the flame pieces for the People’s Key artwork.

When I started working on the art for the Lua single and...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:37:00 -0500

When I started working on the art for the Lua single and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Conor needed to give me track listings. He wrote out this for me. He has sloppy handwriting :)