THE WILL TO POWER 'might' 7"

another one from canada, this time for THE WILL TO POWER. james hofer's electronic/new wave project. i'd previously done some art for his hardcore band and he contacted me about using some art for something new he was doing. i already had the circe image with the dog heads and candles and the band has been using it as their logo since. i'm not sure who handled the final layout for this 7" outside of that logo. this record and others can be streamed, as well as physical copies ordered, through the bandcamp link.

here's a closer image of said logo. this was from their first ep, which, as i understand it, was available only as a digital release.

MORTALITY RATE tee

pretty sure i mentioned working on these before, but i recently got the physical shirt in in the mail. another shirt design i did for my friend cody (of withdrawal, war elephant, etc). this time for MORTALITY RATE - fast, pissed off, female fronted canadian punk/hardcore crossover. the band provided the letters, i did the art and then got everything ready to print.

mark flood resents "emotionally unavailable men", miami

from the MARK FLOOD RESENTS "EMOTIONALLY UNAVAILABLE MEN" show in miami beach during art basel.

chris bexar

paul kremer

brandon araujo

invitation posters

MINDLESS 7"

mentioned in a previous post about doing the art and printing for some limited tour edition covers of the new MINDLESS 'planet of pestilence' 7". austin based grind/hardcore featuring faiza k, formerly of HATRED SURGE, FAITHEALER, etc. not sure if i mentioned then, but i also did the art and layout for the regular edition. been a little slow keeping up, but the official release dropped and i got some copies in from the label. you can stream this and other releases on the MINDLESS bandcamp and order physical copies from the TO LIVE A LIE RECORDS label site.

FAR OUT tshirts

relatively new to playing out live, but a while in the making, FAR OUT is a new audio output by some friends out of houston. too pop to be punk, too rock to be pop, they're a hard group to categorize. but whatever it is they're doing, they're doing it right. as i understand it lacquers have already been approved and cover art shot for their upcoming 12". alex had dann miller come up with this tshirt design (based off the lace painting art of mark flood) and asked me to print some for them. as of right now they're still keeping things a little close to the chest until the album gets closer to the front of the queue at the pressing plant - no webstore and no song samples online. but highly recommended if anyone in the houston area gets the chance to catch them live.

NOT DEAD YET FEST poster

put together this poster for the IRON LUNG/ANASAZI/GLUE/COLUMN OF HEAVEN/ANIMAL MOTHER/FARANG show during NOT DEAD YET FEST in toronto. tried to keep with some of the previous stark, bold iron lung visual output without losing my own voice. also thought with so much going over those handful of days, a slightly cleaner poster might be beneficial. click the link for full lineups, dates, and locations for the rest of the shows during the fest.

HOLLOW TONGUE 'TIME/DEATH' 7"

recently finished the art and layout for the new HOLLOW TONGUE 'time/death' 7". this is the second time working with CROWN AND THRONE LTD, having done the limited covers for the TERRITORY 7" they put out as well. the label is on point with keeping a pretty tight schedule based on the turnaround time between finished art and physical records on the street. really enjoyed this project because garth is a great guy to work with and i've really like everything HOLLOW TONGUE has put out thus far. instead of a traditional cover they wanted to go with a two-sided poster style fold out, which i think ended up making for a nice presentation in hand. the band already had their sigil style logo, but i handled all the rest of the lettering. record comes in a handful of variants - test press, standard black vinyl, grey marble vinyl, and a limited clear blue vinyl with limited cover. i'm not sure who did the art for the ltd cover version, but i'm fairly certain they were screen printed by HOLY MOUNTAIN. available now through the band directly as well as the label. click photos for an enlarged/detail view.

CSD 2014

as mentioned previously, we dropped the ball in respect to our own label involvement with cassette store day. but that doesn't mean we didn't still attend. picked up this terence hannum tape/catalog that i was fairly certain had sold out in 2012. and rounded out my godflesh collection, having previously only owned 'songs of love and hate' on cd. i guess none of these were CSD specific titles, but tapes were purchased either way.
in an unrelated note i started a new instagram account for anyone that might like their media more social. it isn't sisster ssound specific, but a catalog of records that for one reason or another remain on my shelf. mostly second and third tier '90s and early 2000s metalcore. might slip a banger in every once in a while. @still.holding

swings and misses

never let it be said that sisster ssound as a label is anything short of a professional operation. or in the very least self aware. as we all know, this past saturday was the third(?) annual cassette store day - offshoot of the wildly popular record store day. in an attempt to cash in our ticket to the party boat we'd scheduled a tshirt and two new secret tape releases. secret because, knowing our own track record with meeting release deadlines, we never announced a CSD drop in fear that the product wouldn't be ready on time. the smaller irony being that they would still be available only in the webstore - a sharp contrast to the purpose of cassette store day in the first place. as the fates would have it, we weren't ready. didn't get the final tracks in time for the first tape. and the second, a scheduled live recording, didn't get a usable capture and said band didn't have any additional shows booked to re-attempt recording. incidentally we weren't happy with the sample from the first print run of tshirts either. but we will not be thwarted! intentions remain and as we get closer to actuality details will be made available on these new tees and tapes.

omm

was listening to xasthur and lurker of chalice today and remembered this exists. say what you will, or, rather, don't.

LOW BOTTOMS zine (SS010)

LOW BOTTOMS zine

8.5" x 5.5" B&W photocopy zine, LOW BOTTOMS is a collaborative/split effort between GIVE UP and RYAN TAYLOR.

after some number of years of friendship and doing design work for ryan's various bands (TEN CROWNS, THE BURDEN, BLACK COFFEE, etc), it was proposed that we do something together slightly more tangible. or at least something that was less a commissioned design and more a representation of GIVE UP art working in tandem with RYAN TAYLOR writing. the result being this 28 page zine.

featuring 11 new tracts of personal history and catharsis, interspersed with visuals designed to flow both independently as well as in context. all assembled in traditional GIVE UP form - all original content, all cut 'n paste by hand, no photoshop - and housed in a grey card cover.

as a final tribute to the GIVE UP/RYAN TAYLOR history of art and sound, as well as adding a final layer of collaborative cohesion to the project, the zine also features a downloadable audio track. with spoken word representations by ryan of his respective poems accompanied by meandering sound and instrumentation by GIVE UP aural side project HORDERS.

zine is limited to a numbered physical print edition of 50 and marks the first non-cassette release from SISSTER SSOUND. the audio is posted now and available to stream/download for FREE from both the SISSTER SSOUND BANDCAMP and HORDERS BANDCAMP pages. once the physical copies of the zines have sold out the respective bandcamp pages will change to a free stream/pay download.

available for purchase now in the GIVE UP WEBSTORE.

ROT IN HELL // CARRION SUNFLOWER poster

all worlds colliding, all worlds getting smaller. chris from MINE, HANG THE BASTARD, CULT CULTURE, etc asked me to do a poster for an upcoming show he booked with ROT IN HELL and CARRION SUNFLOWER. if you aren't familiar with any of these already then just keep scrolling - at this point i've done a fair amount of artwork for each mentioned. of course with previous histories with all of them i was excited to do it. already had the visual concept but no destination anyway, working in text was easy enough. a little jealous that this one's in london though. as that would be a bit of a trek for me. from what i've been told this will be a rare 4-piece acoustic set from ROT IN HELL. as well as one of the first CARRION SUNFLOWER shows where he'll be performing with a full band. click image to enlarge.

MORTALITY RATE tee

canadian homie cody dewald (WITHDRAWAL, etc) hit me up about doing a shirt design for his new band MORTALITY RATE. haven't had a lot of extra time lately, and they didn't have anything recorded yet when we first spoke, but i knew they wouldn't disappoint and i couldn't say no. their tarot card inspired design idea was solid too and i was stoked on the concept. demo just went live on bandcamp a couple of days ago now - fast, pissed, female-fronted hardcore. and i'm pretty sure if they haven't left for tour yet then they will be shortly. kind of been dropping the ball with this whole internet thing, but i'm sure google can tell you cities/dates. click the photo for an enlarged view, click the hyperlinks to stream/download music.

ANDY STOTT/DEMDIKE STARE/MILLIE & ANDREA poster

timmy (CHAOS IN TEJAS/540 RECORDS) booked the austin date of this ANDY STOTT / DEMDIKE STARE / MILLIE & ANDREA package and asked me to do a poster for it. i honestly wasn't familiar with any of them, but i was excited to once again do something design oriented outside of the realm of metal/hardcore/punk/etc. though, admittedly, my style visually doesn't really change that much with respect to genre. click image for a larger view.

OS BOYS zines

just got a handful of zines in the mail from SPAIN/OS BOYS. good looking out. flickr knows.

ROT IN HELL 'ruined empire' CD/CASS/ETC

made a POST a couple months ago with details from the art and layout i did for the new ROT IN HELL "ruined empire" collection LP. not only is the band incredible and incredibly prolific, but they also have their limited merchandising game turned up way past 11. i recently received a box with the limited smoke colored vinyl of the record, a test press in a screen printed cover, and a mess of other stuff. the cd version came from the equally enigmatic GROT label and has the same art/layout at the LP, save for being in CD format and with one extra panel in the booklet. the cassette version is the same and came in a cool VHS style box that i'd never seen before. the package also contained slipmats with the re-worked 4R logo i did for them and the circle of paws image from the back cover of the album. and finally some embroidered patches, enamel pins, and a shirt. it's been a real pleasure working on so many different projects with ROT IN HELL over the years. with how much time and effort might go into any individual piece of art, it's really nice to see how many miles they're able to get out of any of it as well.

barry elkanick at farewell

got a chance to hang out with BARRY ELKANICK while he was installing his show at FAREWELL in austin. barry may be better known in certain circles for his bands BACK TO BACK and STAGNANT YOUTH, as well as his collage work. but the show at FAREWELL is this first time he's exhibiting his paintings. show opened last saturday and will run through the month for anyone in the austin area.