Art that rocks: A resurrection

Synchronicity » Local bands find rhythm -- and CDs meet vinyl -- with local album art.

By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune

Growing up, Eli Morrison knew what to look for on the cover of an album when browsing through the record collection of the KJKJ, the low-wattage Logan rock radio station his father owned. Or in the record stacks of Provo's KOVO, where his father also worked.

The younger Morrison was drawn to those depicting monsters, fire, or both. As a consequence, he brought home heavy metal records for trial listens and found the images matched the music.

Then came the exception. With their garish make-up and tough demeanor set against a back-drop of fiery apocalypse, the band members of KISS came across as downright evil on the illustrated cover of their Destroyer album. But when Morrison put the album on his turntable, he heard "Beth," a tender pop ballad.

"I had never been so disappointed," said Morrison, the 37-year-old guitarist and singer who fronts the Salt Lake City band The Wolfs.

Seeking art for their Death Theme album, the band started with no particular images in mind. Working with Salt Lake City artist Sri Whipple in a process Morrison remembers as "crafty," a prototype was born. Outside, the album mimicked a classy dinner invitation, folded into an equilateral triangle. Inside, once folded out, was a gallery of small vignettes that played off the shocking nature of the album's music, yet pulled the tension tight against the contrasting image of the invitation.

"We had nails, teeth, diamond rings, shards of glass, tabs from soda cans, pills, and knives," Morrison said. "That particular record was very grotesque."

Images are too graphic, perhaps, to be reproduced in a family newspaper, but the local rock band ate it up, then blew the house down when their fans raved about the design.

Years after compact disc format beat the vinyl album into temporary retreat, the urge for killer album art lives on. In fact, to hear local musicians, artists and music store merchants tell it, the resurgence of both rock album art you can see and feel has marched hand-in-hand with vinyl LP's growing sales figures. In the process, both bands and artists have benefitted.

"You can't flip through your CDs to check out the cover art like you do with albums," said Leah Bell, Salt Lake City's internationally renowned grande dame of rock music poster art. "There's been a shift. For people who want something large enough to make a visual connection to the music, you want the album and the bigger art."

Bell concurs with Morrison's opinion of Whipple -- counting him among her local favorites -- but also names Salt Lake City artists Trent Call, whose playful mix of graffiti and cartoon styles has graced many a concert poster, plus SLUG magazine's latest "Death by Salt" compilation album. Bell also adds to the list artist Travis Bone and the husband-and-wife team of Potter Press.

Creating album art for bands may never pay the bills on par with commissioned work from families looking for children's portraits or restaurants in search of murals, but the publicity and camaraderie it creates between artists and musicians is worth the steep discount. Both Whipple and Call say they've sometimes accepted payment in the form of six-packs or even bottle of whiskey.

"I think of my work as being the same rhythm, tone and structure of the band's music," said Whipple, who recently had one of his works honored as cover-worthy for Salt Lake City band Vile Blue Shades' John Thursday California Adventure LP. He's also in the process of creating album art for Eagle Twin, the heavy metal duo of Tyler Smith and Gentry Densley, formerly of Ice Burn.

The thrill of creating album art is the thrill of discovering whether or not musicians trust you enough to unveil the spirit of their sound and style in visual form. "If [a band wants] something hot and banging, just get to know the artist," Whipple said. "Be open to letting the artist run with it."

Chris Brozek, who co-owns Salt Lake City's Slowtrain music store with his wife Anna, said many bands now release full-length albums as vinyl, with either a redemption card for digital downloading or compact disc form of the same album included inside. The push among music retailers, he learned at a recent conference of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, is to include only the compact disc inside the vinyl sleeve.

Vinyl may never completely erase the compact disc, or vice versa, but the music retail industry is already seeing the day when both formats will be sold together. Big-name bands such as Wilco and Black Keys have already released LPs with CDs inside. "You'll hear it from people who buy vinyl all the time," Brozek said. "They love the format. They love having art that's also larger and more tangible."

After the insult of "Beth," Morrison recalls with equal force the time he heard an album with cover art worthy of them, and then some. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Are You Experienced?" blew his mind.

"It's up there in that classic echelon," Morrison said. "Not only is the record cover lime green and purple yellow, but the music is also. That was pretty neat."

SOURCE: http://www.sltrib.com