Cover art for Live at KEXP Volume 4

Let’s hear it for the honest and the authentic: KEXP! The coming together of an amazing, wonderful and extraordinary music community. (No corporate hacks found here.) If you aren’t a member, do consider it. You’ll be supporting some of the best efforts at keeping music alive and well today. The KEXP Podcast Songs of the Day (free downloads) are more than worth the membership. And not to mention their live albums they put out every year. (Yeasayer playing 2080 in their studios is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.)

Just to be clear, I have no ties to the station, other than I just think they kick so much ass, it isn’t even funny. I don’t even live in Seattle. But there is for sure a special place in my heart for KEXP. So listen up!

I enjoyed this video by El-P from Pitchfork’s Surveillance series (from last year’s ATP). Nice to see a little keytar action these days.

UPDATE: Strange coincidence that the day I post this video I also see rumors of El-P’s label, Definitive Jux, possibly going out of business. Let’s hope its not true.

Cabaret Voltaire - I always liked this cover.

Hard Format is a wonderful site dedicated to “reaching for the sublime in music design,” as curated by a couple of guys named Justin and Colin. The site is clearly a reflection of their personal tastes rather than a compendium of the standard “greatest album covers of all time,” which is what makes it so compelling. They also do a great job of photographing the pieces so you get a real sense of the packaging as a whole rather than just cover designs. I’ve personally never seen a lot of these sleeves and covers, nor have I heard of many of these musicians, so its a real treat to see such an array of great design. Click through the fold to see more images that stuck with me.

Hard Format

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