LP Jackets as art?

[Jim Clark]

Doing some changing around in the family room and I get to decorate this time around! I'm thinking of getting 4 of these frames http://www.rockartpictureshow.com/concept.html and posting up some cool (to me) album covers.

So far I want London Calling and The Ramones first album up. I'm really stuck on the next two. In the end the other two will be important to me but I need some ideas of Heavy Weight albums, preferably really cool looking and available either new or fairly easy to find in good shape. Any ideas?

jc

If the whole idea is too schmaltzy in your opinion, weigh in with that too.

jc (again)

[Davey]

If the whole idea is too schmaltzy in your opinion, weigh in with that too.

jc (again)

Yea, kinda schmaltzy (that's a goofy word and doesn't look right, huh, I probably woulda misspelled it) but that describes me. At least after I got a couple frames for Christmas a few years ago and so occasionally rotate album covers. Last ones up were ...

[dean_martin]

Doing some changing around in the family room and I get to decorate this time around! I'm thinking of getting 4 of these frames http://www.rockartpictureshow.com/concept.html and posting up some cool (to me) album covers.

So far I want London Calling and The Ramones first album up. I'm really stuck on the next two. In the end the other two will be important to me but I need some ideas of Heavy Weight albums, preferably really cool looking and available either new or fairly easy to find in good shape. Any ideas?

jc

If the whole idea is too schmaltzy in your opinion, weigh in with that too.

jc (again)

I have an affinity for the lounge/exotica covers. Les Baxter's Space Escapades and Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream... are posted in my gallery. I also like the covers from the 60's instrumental groups like The Ventures. Girls in the jungle (I also have Martin Denny's Quiet Village), girls in bikinis and space age frolicking make great bachelor pad material (don't tell my wife).

However, my serious side admires the Blue Note album covers from photos by Francis Wolff. I get the Blue Note wall calendar every year for my office and I have a collection of Wolff photography in book form. I don't know whether you're into jazz, but Coltrane's Blue Train (on Blue Note) has an excellent cover and the vinyl is readily available. Columbia has reissued tons of Miles Davis on vinyl. I think the coolest Davis album cover is from the original "A Night at the Black Hawk". It has Miles in the foreground standing w/his head down lighting a smoke and a female (I believe it's his wife) kneeling in the background. If you can get away with mixing giants of punk with giants of jazz, Blue Train and Black Hawk would be my suggestions. (Be aware that some of the "A Night at the Black Hawk" vinyl reissues do not use the original cover art.)

[Snowbunny]

Uh huh. Just what kind of drugs are you on, Davey? Or are you just flashing back?

edit: anal punctuation

[nobody]

I love those things...but then again, I have a dogs playing poker and an Elvis on velvet, so my decorating tasts may be in question.

I've been wanting to get some of those for ages. I've always thought it would be fun to have London Calling next to the first Elvis RCA album since they have the same covers esentially. I think BAD also have an album with that same concept. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find four with the same theme. That may be an interesting idea.

[Davey]

Uh huh. Just what kind of drugs are you on, Davey? Or are you just flashing back?

Uh oh, does it show that much? I thought the internet hid all those personal quirks. Oh no, why didn't you tell me sooner

Maybe I'll try to work this one into the picture mix ... have you heard it before?

[Davey]

I've always thought it would be fun to have London Calling next to the first Elvis RCA album since they have the same covers esentially. I think BAD also have an album with that same concept. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find four with the same theme. That may be an interesting idea.

Four? That would be a lot. Most rock bands are more original than that, aren't they?

[Jim Clark]

Elvis' first album is certainly in the running. I'd seen that Tony Hawk thing recently too. Just don't know if it's avail. on vinyl. Glad I'm not the only tasteless one in the crowd. (like there was ever any doubt)

jc

[Dusty Chalk]

First of all, I like the idea, but I would, of course, go with other albums than you. I never get tired of Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary:



It's not schmaltzy, neither. It just shows your love of music.

Just don't put up Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA.

Hey, what's the difference between a record album frame and a picture sleeve frame?

[dean_martin]

Here's another classic cover that was ripped off recently -

[newtrix1]

I'm really stuck on the next two. In the end the other two will be important to me but I need some ideas of Heavy Weight albums, preferably really cool looking and available either new or fairly easy to find in good shape. Any ideas?

jc

jc (again)

and oh yeah, I am kidding!

[JDaniel]

Jim,

I'm in the process of doing the same thing in my new HT room. We have a chain of arts & craft stores here in the South called Michaels. They sell LP frames (black only) for $9.99, and occasionally run them at 50% off. If you have them in your area, check them out.

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/d...ductNum=fl0077

JD

[audiobill]

Hey, Jim.

We did the same thing with one wall in our rec room, by the pool table.

We arranged 20 album covers: all classics, all colourful & iconic.

Some of the titles are:

Elvis Costello's This Year's Model
Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy
Country Joe McDonald's Hold On It's Coming
Neil Young's Comes a Time
The Police's Outlandos d'amour
The Kinks' We Are the Village Greeen PS
Bruce Springsteen's The River
Janis Joplin's Greatest
Love's Forever Changes


Have fun with them. They're a real conversation piece when we have friends over; even our daughters' friends are mesmerized by them.

Cheers,

Bill

[Stone]

Here are a couple walls in my basement:

[Jim Clark]

Here are a couple walls in my basement:

Devo is an excellent choice. Did you buy the frames or have them done up. I like the mats.

It adds a nice touch.

jc

[3-LockBox]

I don't see why not, unless the significant other has other ideas...

Some albums would work, some wouldn't. I like albums that don't have pictures or the names of the bands on them the best for 'art', though an album like the Rolling Stones:Some Girls would make a great piece.

[Finch Platte]

Here are a couple walls in my basement:

Hoodoo Gurus- now that's cool.

You do need one of these, though. Or did you pay extra to have them mounted askew?

fp

[Stone]

Devo is an excellent choice. Did you buy the frames or have them done up. I like the mats.

It adds a nice touch.

jc

I bought them here. The LP jacket fits right in them and they have a plexi window. The CD frames are a bit different. They hold a jewel box and don't have a plexi window.

[Stone]

Hoodoo Gurus- now that's cool.

You do need one of these, though. Or did you pay extra to have them mounted askew?

fp

Well, I measured them all very accurately and got the nails all aligned. When we (my girlfriend and I) hung them, they looked like that. We started moving them around and they looked even worse. Then I looked at the back of them, and they say MADE IN CHINA. The frames themselves are off relative to one another and I wasn't going to take the time (at least yet) to get them all aligned. We put them back the way we originally had them, with the middle two a little lower than the outside 4.

I guess what do you expect for $24 a pop? Quality craftsmanship??