Flight Final

Animal Disguise

MGM

more great UPA style character design and like so many kids records from the 60s (and 50s) the narrator is both genuinely goofy AND frightening.

G.H.B.

Love this bold, black on yellow script for the label name and its also an excellent album. Traditional New Orleans ragtime and dixieland jazz by Emanuel Sayles who graces the cover in a photo taken at Preservation Hall.

no information provided

What a raw, simple and strange drawing. Beautiful. The music is similarly raw and direct coming from former Bad Livers plucker Ralph White, who I assume also did the drawing.

Electric Lemon

So, a giant lemon! (as opposed to an apple) . Notice the jumbled type below the lemon.
Quite nice. And the organ solos are wonderfully grim and dense. This is not a kids party,
more like Eraserhead.

Manuiti

Interesting arrow spiral design, and that chunk of orange....... also, the potent pink background!
really works for the joyful mood and almost django degree of picking skill.

Lion

ARCO

I like the bold typography and the labels absolute simplicity. Fun record, fairly standard ribald humor, but she goes into some impressive verbal gymnastics on a couple songs.

Pickwick

Pickwick has quite a selection of fun weird kids records and this one is the single greatest halloween record ever. OK, to me. It is also the record I have owned the longest, must have been around ten when I got it. Find and listen.

Waikiki Records

Grainy blue label contrasts beautifully with red typography and sparkling transparent red vinyl. One of many fine records with, mostly, genuine hawaiin muscians on this all hawaii label.

Stereo studio recordings

Found this one in a salvation army, love the simple form based character design. like UPA !!! and it really is a fun record. no joke....children harmonizing on this one will make you sing.

Roaratorio

3D glasses embedded in the label for use with the crazy 3D artwork on the sleeve (artwork includes: corn on the cob, one dildo, two plastic alligators, three barbie dolls and an egg sunny side up).

Ugella and the Viking Pops Orchestra

Here's an lp with pretty standard label format. What attracted me to the composition was the hand drawn viking mask with the downward-pointing V. There's a real Baphomet vibe about it. It ties in well with the song titles.

The Man-Thing

Monster mummies in professional wrestling poses. Lots of kid appeal. I was surprised that the "powers" at Power Records didn't put the actual Marvel Man-Thing on the label. Maybe the Ent-Skookum-Snuffleupagus Man-Thing was too difficult to simplify in label form.

Man's Inhumanity to Man

The next two posts are monster tale labels. The graphic design and story writing are done by the same person: Frank Daniel. Pickwick records.

unknown

The look of this label kind of gives the impression that after one lesson, you'll play like John Fahey. Silver on black with a formidable font.

Mr Executive

One way to have a full human figure on a record label is to have the person doing jumping jacks. I think it was that initial idea that got the brains at Mr. Executive to do a fitness album.

Rip Rig and Panic

Punk rock and rollers and teeny boppers

Because You Care Flexi

With the name Baptist Children's Home, I think of a Nursing Home with children knitting in a full-immersion baptismal font.

Jiggers!

There's a big bite out of the vinyl, so I can only imagine what Jiggers knows about ghosts and happiness.

Help!

I found this 45 at a thrift store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It seems that if nothing else, the illustrator is between the ages of four and nine, and has a definite sense of how to create an exclamation point. I hadn't really started collecting records when I got this one, so maybe this was my great start.

The Record Changer (1947)

I found this amazing book called "Cat on a Hot Thin Groove" from Fantagraphics which features the collected covers and cartoons that the animator Gene Deitch did for The Record Changer magazine in the 40's and 50's. These are just fantastic!

Shandar (1973)

Today is the day! I thought I had two more left, but no--this is it. Thanks to Alexander for inviting me to participate on the blog.

So, I will now leave you with this final post: SHANDAR's 1973 La Monte Young&Marian Zazeela Dream House release, something very dear to my heart. Everything here is perfect, but I especially appreciate the hand-made quality of the layout -- the weaving design around the label name is one-of-a-kind. A real gem!

Tower (1967)

The 'Tower' logo is a classic. And it looks extra nice with the multi-colored diagonal stripes in the background.

Rough Trade (1982)

A few weeks ago, Kat posted an amazing Rough Trade single. But I could not pass this one up. I don't get any of the references--the French military-man silhouette, the European coins--but , who cares!?! ( If anyone can fill me in , please do) . I do like how they decided to back the A side with an AA side. And notice Robert Wyatt in the credits on guest keyboards.
PS thanks to my former roommate Daniel for leaving this prized 7- inch in my personal stacks this past summer. I owe you one.

Fire (1991)

Those floating '3''s are way cool. And the flipped color scheme representing each member's individual record side. Because this was Spacemen 3's break -up record, the line was permanently drawn in the sand by assigning side A to Sonic Boom and side B to Jason Pierce: they could no longer tolerate a collaboration. The drama is in the design.