New posters for Car Seat Headrest, The Life & Times/Molly McGuire

It's summer! Things are busy around the old hive here; my wife is 8.5 months pregnant and we're expecting to meet our little dude at any given moment! I've known anxiety in my life, but nothing quite like that feeling of knowing that, at any moment, all of the bells and whistles could potentially start going off and it's go time. So, if you message me and I don't respond immediately...well, things could be happening. 

I'm pretty happy with the projects that have been coming through the pipeline this summer, too! First up, I got commissioned by the Capitol Hill Block Party to design a poster for Car Seat Headrest, whose new album Teens of Denial is on a nearly non-stop loop around the Kentucky Chrome HQ. I recommend picking it up (and maybe grabbing one of these posters while you're at it). There's a long story behind this design, but if you'd paid attention to music blogs lately, you're probably fairly familiar with it. 

I also got commissioned to design a poster for The Life And Times/Molly McGuire mini-tour that's coming up! If you know anything about Kansas City music history, you realize that this is basically some holy grail territory here. The Life And Times are touring in support of their most recent record (Lost Bees), and Molly McGuire is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 1996 album Lime. You may see where the design went from there. 

The bands are playing 3 dates together throughout the midwest, and these posters are only available at these shows! Tell 'em Franklin sent ya. Date are as follows:

• Thursday August 25 - RecordBar - Kansas City, MO
• Friday, August 26 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
• Saturday, August 27 - The Accord - Champaign, IL

New designs

As always, Kentucky Chrome Industries enjoy taking on fun projects, especially the design of printed ephemera. Here's a couple of things that have passed through our somewhat hallowed hallways recently.

T-shirt design for our favorite space cat, Lil Bub! If you don't know the greatness of Lil Bub, you are truly missing out on one of our favorite corners of the internet. We did a Royal Basement podcast with Lil Bub and her dude (Mike Bridavsky) earlier this year, and this shirt design came out of that fantastic conversation. A few of these loving tribute shirts are available at Lil Bub's Lil Shop in Bloomington, Indiana. I recommend buying one, even if you are not what you own. 

We also got asked to design a poster for the triumphant return of Kansas City's own Dirt Nap, and their mini-Monsters of Rock tour that left the outer lanes of Interstate 70 scorched and covered in debris. Traindodge and Riddle of Steel were also along for the ride, and what a ride it was. Limited run of 50 posters, 2 colors (black and metallic gold) silkscreened on heavy white stock by the incredible people of Vahalla Studios in Kansas City. Message me if you're interested in grabbing one and I can send you over to the appropriate folks. 

More fantastic work coming up soon. Keep your eyes peeled here. 

New works

Times are busy 'round the ol' design corral. I've been booked pretty solid lately with a lot of exciting/awesome projects. Here's a little taste of some of what's been going on.

Album art for Boys Life "Departures and Landfalls" reissue (Topspin Records)
One of the more significant bands of my adolescence, Boys Life (Kansas City, MO), asked me to redesign their LP art for their upcoming reissue of their classic sophomore LP "Departures and Landfalls". I recreated some of the outside art (using watercolors and inks), took some liberties with the inner gatefold, and you can see the finished product in August 2015. Preorders are available here. 

Poster art for The Replacements
When you get offered the chance to work for one of the most brilliant pop bands to walk the face of the planet, you take it. I got commissioned to design the poster/ad that announced The Replacements first dates in the UK in a looooong time. These shows ended up being their next to last shows ever, as the band broke up earlier this week in Spain. (I swear, I had nothing to do with it!)

Poster art for Swervedriver
I got commissioned to design a silkscreened poster for Swervedriver for the Sled Island Festival up in Calgary at the end of this month. Copies of this will be for sale at the festival and on display in a poster show on June 23rd in Calgary. More information available here. Go buy one and go see Swervedriver for me. 

Poster design for Slow Bird/The Velvet Teen @ Barboza
More commissioned work for incredible bands (Seattle's Slow Bird and the Bay Area's Velvet Teen!). Built for silkscreened output. I was out of town for this show and am terribly bummed that I missed it. 

And of course, I've been working regularly on my music blog/podcast, The Royal Basement. We're up to 12 published episodes over there with more on the way. Swing over and give 'em a listen.