Whatever they did with Hairway by mixing these negatives, It just always stuck with me-there’s just a way to show it. But then you see a record come out a couple of years later in Pioughd, and they’re doing these first little bits of Photoshop techniques with more tripped out psychedelic shit. Maybe they mixed negatives and took a photo of that somehow. I don’t know how they did it all these years later. For that record, they were doing these weird photo techniques on the cover. We got to that stuff pretty young, and the Butthole Surfers had no problem making their own little universe of insanity and creepy stuff. Texas is weird in its own right, you know, and these assholes are getting away with this stuff! And it’s tripped out in a weird way that doesn’t feel forced. You had these weird little illustrations for the song titles, and there was so much mystery. What I love about Hairway to Steven is that these guys didn’t take themselves seriously. Even the way that they played, with Paul Leary rolling his eyes back in his head and doing googly eyes and shit and shaking his head, you were like, are they on something? Is it an act? I don’t know? The strobes? All the way home from Detroit, where we saw them, you’re like weaving in the car because you’ve just been assaulted. I saw them in 1991, and I was just getting out of high school. So because of that wonky psychedelia, the Butthole Surfers were weird and crazy and scary. But you could chug Robitussin and get a little buzz. You know we didn’t have whatever you guys had, or wherever you live, in the next big city or whatever. I also come from a chugging Robitussin community in Northern Michigan with these fucking hicks. I come from a big Butthole Surfers community, at least with my friends. Their shit still feels as weird as it ought to. If an album is supposed to make you feel, this made me love them, and that art made me love them so much because you could tell it came from their own hand. So when I would look at the back of that thing, and reading these titles, listening to the record- I only had it on CD back then-it gave me this hope that whatever I was seeing in graphic design at the time, here was a visceral example of these assholes going for it. That back cover sounds like the fucking Flaming Lips. The cacophony of the big and the explosions and the fuzz sound and all the cool shit. You knew it was Wayne and his shitty handwriting, and it’s perfect. I love the back of it, which was Howard Finster-esque. I love the crappy Photoshop with the boombox and stuff. When you flip that record, it’s not even the cover that I love. And the Flaming Lips is the perfect example of that. But why I pick these things is because, in some weird way, they gave me hope that I could do whatever I want. And so the idea is this the things that are on this list are things that I got to buy of my own accord. I’m trying to pick stuff that people have a little bit of access to. I bought this when it came out because it was in the Buzz Bin. It’s also best enjoyed with the accompanying playlist.)įlaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length. He cheated just a bit because there are a dozen albums here-but we’ll allow it just this once. So, we challenged Aaron Draplin to name his ten favorite record covers.
But also, you should always, always be going for it, because you never know when this all could go away. Sure he’s created posters and record covers, worked for his idol Jay Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., but you start to recognize a few themes emerge. And what you come to understand is that his design career and the music he rabidly consumes are deeply intertwined. But it felt more like the kind of conversation where you drink a couple of beers and throw a stack of records on the turntable. We went pretty long for the interview you’re reading now. He occasionally sends studio playlists out into the wild over social media with a mighty deep bench, and he’s the kind of guy that can talk records for hours on end-literally. He sells merch online and at the big design shows, slinging everything from “torso covers” and hats to Timex watches and posters.īut he’s also got one hell of a record collection, the kind that will generate some obvious comparisons when you measure shelf size over a Zoom call. He co-founded the immensely popular and handy Field Notes brand and has even produced designs for the Obama administration. Aaron Draplin has created works for the likes of Nike, Ford, and Burton Snowboards.
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