Mysterious Drop In Views...

I cannot explain it, but for some reason my Santa Claus Video has experienced a steep decline in views over the past week or so. It was doing pretty well for a while there... maybe I should invest more in advertising?

Or, I suppose I could just wait and see how it does next year. Thanks to all who checked it out, commented or "liked" it!


Happy New Year!


(Just in case... you can still buy the song on iTunes or Amazon!)

Do You Know Santa?

Ho ho ho! I just released a new original Christmas song, "Do You Know Santa?", and for your yuletide enjoyment created a full animated video. Check it out below:

Play it for the kids! I actually wrote this a while ago and recorded it last Christmas, and the concept goes back way longer. My friends and I rented a movie called "Silent Night, Deadly Night" about twelve years ago, and, as you can probably imagine, it wasn't exactly great cinema. If you watch Siskel & Ebert's review of it, that's about all you need to know. There was one line in it, however, that we just found hilarious and repeated to each other all these years. At some point, I figured it might make a pretty good tune.


But this song is just meant to be pure fun, and hopefully fits in nicely with all the traditional Christmas classics. I would really appreciate it if you would take a minute to watch the video, and leave some comments letting me know what you think.


You can buy the song on iTunes or Amazon, too!


Merry Christmas!

Lousy Album Covers by Artists Who Should Know Better

Just for fun, let's continue on the same topic as my last post. This may become a recurring feature, because let's face it, there's a lot of questionable album art out there.

It's a shame, but today album art is pretty unappreciated. The glorious 12x12" record sleeves from my dad's collection have been reduced to less than 5" square in my CD rack. For today's kids, it now exists as a 300x300 pixel JPG that pops up on their iPod (or, more likely, doesn't appear at all). Imagine trying to pick out all the faces on Sgt. Pepper's on something like that.

Still, if you're an artist who cares about the quality of the product you're putting out, the cover art should really be regarded as a part of that. If nothing else, it reflects the image of the music and the artist whether you like it or not.

This post is not about unknowns or no-name bands who couldn't afford a good designer or have questionable taste to begin with. These are established artists who really ought to give a little thought to how they are coming across. I love all these guys but just can't understand how they let stuff that looked like this out on the market.

Bruce Springsteen- Plugged (1997)

First of all, I don't agree with his decision to "plug in" on the unplugged show. Bruce has enough great songs that he should have been able to pull this one off. Then, he loads it almost entirely with songs from his two contemporary albums, Human Touch and Lucky Town, the least memorable work from his "adult contemporary" period.

Now onto the artwork. To me, this looks like the work of a student in Graphic Design 101, who just learned Photoshop and Illustrator and is using every trick in his arsenal to really "wow" you. The stretched-out text, the clipping path around the Bruce photo so we get not one but two Bruces on top of each other, one apparently clapping politely at the other. The big red X over the "Un" is the perfect visual pun to complete the picture.

I definitely produced work like this my freshman year of college, and nobody ever gave me a job because of it. Nor should they.

Bob Dylan- Saved (1980)

The born-again message on all the songs is already questionable, but this cover is just embarrassing. It looks like it came from one of those Seasonal Missalettes at church, or worse, like he hired one of his fellow parishioners to do it.

It just doesn't belong on the cover of an album by one of the coolest, most revered songwriters ever.

Bob Dylan- Knocked Out Loaded (1986)

Not to pick on ol' Bob, but this one is just awful. I would seriously hate to see this thing blown up on a full-size record sleeve.


The album title is pretty cool, though.

The Rolling Stones- Dirty Work (1986)

I realize that bright, neon colors were perceived as cool in 1986, but this was folly. The music on this album is generally considered to be the band's worst, and to me, the cover says, "yeah, this is us now." There is absolutely no attempt to be any kind of cool.


As an extra morsel of excruciating unpleasantness, take a look at the way Keith's bent knee is positioned in relation to Mick's wide-open crotch, like a big black arrow on the otherwise day-glo canvas. I guarantee you this was no accident.

Lousy Beatles Covers

It's funny to think, as protective as the Beatles are with the presentation of their catalog, that there was a time the record label would abuse their image as much as any cut-rate, has-been artist. This is one of the first albums EMI released after gaining control of the Beatles' music:

Think Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road... and eventually, this.

Ringo supposedly had this to say: "It made us look cheap and we never were cheap. All that Coca-Cola and cars with big fins was the Fifties!" It's a pretty lousy illustration... but not as bad as what was to come:

Can you believe this? It's got to be one of the lamest album covers of all time. Click on it to zoom in and take a look at Ringo. How many arms does he have?


The Beatles have a much tighter grip on the stuff that comes out with their names on it now. And for the most part, it's pretty high quality (the cover to "1" is iconic in its own right at this point). So hopefully, we can consider the cartoon painting era of Beatles album covers over.


Still don't quite get what happened with this one, though:

Ballad of Billy The Kid

Who doesn't love this guy?

I've been listening to a bunch of Billy Joel lately. He's one of those guys I listened to constantly in the 80's because a) he was still churning out the big hits, and b) my mom listened to him. Back then he was pretty cool, boppin' around in his videos in sunglasses like he was a good lookin' guy or something. And he could back up his bravado because he was married to Christie Brinkley.

He's also one of the guys whom I have witnessed growing old, and unlike many of his contemporaries he has decided to age the way a normal person would. There's a definite dignity to that which I very much respect (just look at Elton John's wigs to illustrate my point- that being said, I love Elton too).

Here he is again with those features more exaggerated:

It's time for me to start improving my caricature skills, and to do that effectively I think I need to practice realistic portraits first so I get all the features down before I start exaggerating them. This one is a lot rougher than the straight portrait, but I think the ideas are there... busted-looking nose, sunken-looking eyes etc. I'll post an improved version when ready, maybe a younger-looking Billy this time.

These songs are second-to-none, by the way. It's too bad he's essentially retired form songwriting because he really does craft a solid song... verses and choruses all loaded with hooks, satisfying rhyme schemes, and they always tell a story. He doesn't cheat you either- listen to his songs, they always seem to have four or five verses, a bridge will repeat with an entirely different set of lyrics, and when you think the song is ending, a whole new verse starts up that adds a new wrinkle to the situation.

The Voice of Her Generation

Your 2010 Album of the Year Grammy recipient:

She's not bad, but once again the Grammys pick a pretty lame record to bestow their top honor. But you know, she means no harm (unlike the Black Eyed Peas, also nominated) so I depicted her very small, fragile, with this oversized guitar, and big goofy expression she always has on like she's just happy to be doing her thing, and as it so happens, she's in the spotlight.

However, I do like this: