i got axed to make a painting for the Powell Peralta RIPPER art show, for those of you who dont skate or dont pay attention to skateboarding, the RIPPER is one of the better skateboard graphics of all time, drawn by VCJ way back in the day, i think this show was an aniv show for some amount of years the RIPPER has been around, guess i should know the info, but i dont, and im sorry. here is a link to all the art from the show, guess you can even buy the stuff.
If you were at SXSW 2008, you hopefully dropped by our big ass dance party at Silhouette. We had a killer lineup of some of our favorite DJs – Dave Nada, Cosmo Baker, Smalltown DJs, Bird Peterson, DJ Mel, Prince Klassen, and Burlesque’s own Mike 2600 – rockin’ it all night long. Nada and Cosmo wrapped up the night with an hour-long set of monster Baltimore club stompers and it was just insane.
It was a stupid fun party. It was free to get in. Our good friend Drue from Silhouette really hooked it up for us!
The DO IT TO IT night was also the release for our vinyl EP of the same name! Here’s the promo video we hooked up for it:
SO, it’s just about time for SXSW 2009 and of course we’re gonna do the party all over again!
Be sure to visit burlesquedesign.com/doittoit for links to all the different DJs’ sites and to RSVP!!! More info and fun stuff coming soon!
Our inquiring minds weren’t content just to look at Arik Roper’s new print, “The Sighting” we’re set to release tomorrow. So we asked him what was behind it. Here’s what he had to say-
“The Sighting illustrates a metaphor of gaining insight and perspective from a new position. The Ice Age era hunter and his Wolf companion represent the Mind in its unadvanced stages, wandering and laboriously ascending the mountain in search of nourishment. The floating Apparition represents the Revelation flash of the advanced Mind, gained from the new point of view and progress on the mountain. The encounter initially appears as a meeting of two separate entities but is ultimately a meeting with the self.”
The Sighting will be available in our webstore starting Thursday, Jan 29th 2pm central time. Photos- Bjorn Christianson
do you read Vice? how about Skateboarder? if you answered yes to AT least one of those questions then there is a SLIGHT chance you saw this Volcom ad of Mark Appleyard that is in both of those magazines this month, if you actually saw it im sure you didnt notice the photo credit on it did you? no? thats what i thought, well today is your lucky day! cus not only have i posted the ad below, but im also going to tell you who shot the photo… thats right folks, i (Todd Bratrud) shot it!!
its actually not that big of a deal, but i kinda like the photo so i figured i would share.
Followers of the indie rap universe are hopefully familiar with Minneapolis’ own P.O.S. Our homie since day one, we’ve had the chance to work with Mr. Pissed-Off Stef on a number of occassions.
In 2006, we designed and printed his “P.O.S is Ruining My Life” tour poster.
Here’s P.O.S autographing one of the last available copies of said poster at our 2008 SXSW Flatstock booth.
He was one of the musical acts at the very very first art show at First Amendment Arts back in September 2006 and he brought the rest of his Doomtree crew with him:
Soooo yeah, our folks over at Rhymesayers Entertainment are just a few days away from releasing “Never Better,” the new album from the rapper we’ve been blabbing about this whole time. Not only is the music super damn good (bonus factoid – Burlesque’s DJ Mike 2600 did some scratches on one of the songs), but it also features far and away the best album packaging and artwork ever on a Rhymesayers release.
Watch this…
The art direction and artwork is by Minneapolis’ Eric Carlson, a member of the Hardland / Heartland art collective (along with Crystal Quinn and Aaron Anderson). They have installed art exhibits at little ol’ First Amendment as well big time Minnesota Institue of Arts and are responsible for some very creative and thought-provoking artwork. Here’s the poster they created for their SERIOUS ART exhibit at our gallery.
PS – you guys and gals can leave comments on our blog posts, so if you wanna ask a question or type a bunch of jibber jabber at us on any of these entries, go for it!
A lot of people have been inquiring about the special Melvins stuff we recently produced and when it was going to be made available on the site. Well, the time is nigh!
If this came as a surprise to you, then it means you aren’t on our awesome mailing list that hips peeps to such nuggets of info. Or maybe your email changed and you didn’t update with us. Well, all you have to do to fix the situation is send an email to: orders@burlesquedesign.com
requesting to be added to our mailing list. We’ll get you added on and we can put all this ugliness behind us.
BONUS: The people have spoken! We are now selling the items from the combo packages individually! Only want the shirt? Boom. Only want the 3CD set and not the shirt? Boom.
As Bjorn mentioned earlier in our blog, we just wrapped production on a new poster for Chicago’s great music archaeology record label, The Numero Group. Over the past several years, Numero has hunted and gathered some of the world’s most overlooked soul, folk, psychedelic, and disco music from days of yore, repackaging and re-releasing CDs and LPs complete with thoroughly informative liner notes.
Numero knows the importance of having great art to go along with great music and we have had the fortune to work with them for several projects, namely the Wayfaring Strangers compilation and the Brotherman soundtrack.
One of Numero’s best-known series of releases is “Eccentric Soul,” collections of songs from specific record labels or producers. Here’s Ken Shipley from Numero Group with more information on the series and how it led them to put on a concert:
“Eccentric Soul is a series of compilations that take a long and thorough look at the secret life of soul. Motown, Stax, Chess… their stories have been told ad infinitum, but for every Berry Gordy there were 100 Ed McCoy’s, and that’s just in Detroit. We’ve covered scenes in Columbus, OH, Miami, FL, St. Louis, MO, Atlanta, GA, Detroit, MI, and Phoenix, AZ, but some of our best work has been done in our backyard: Chicago, IL. Twinight [Records] was one of those projects that couldn’t have been done by any label outside of this city, at least properly anyhow. We pounded the pavement for two and half years, and even after the CD was in stores we kept turning up more information. The one constant thing was how many of their artists still performed or still wanted to perform. We had talked about a Live Revue before, but had always been inhibited by the expense of bringing everyone here. Twinight being here made it a lot easier.”
To help promote the concert, Numero once again enlisted the help of Burlesque of North America and asked us to design and screenprint a poster for the concert in the vein of traditional ’60s soul posters.This is a design universe that has always fascinated and inspired me, but I had never before attempted to design anything in this style before.
So why make a poster in 2008 that looks like it’s from 1958? Here’s Ken once again with his take on it:
“Everything about the Eccentric Soul Revue has been inspired by the great revues of the past, from the outfits to the backing band to the MC to the room. We want the experience to be as authentic as possible. That includes the poster. When I contacted Mike Davis I gave him the direction to make the poster feel like it could have been hanging on a wall 40 years ago.”
I started looking at those classic and iconic ’50s and ’60s posters to get a feel for layout, colors, and the general visual language.
A couple of years ago, this Chuck Berry poster sold for $35,000. Wow. It’s argued that it’s the first poster to use the phrase “Rock & Roll,” making it perhaps the first ever rock poster?
Of course I had Hatch Show Print on the brain too.
Sooooooo here’s what I came up with!
These will be available for sale at the Park West Theater on April 4th and right here on our website afterwards!
Wanna go see the show? Click here to purchase tickets. Still not convinced? Check out this Grade A footage of the fantastic Syl Johnson performing “Any Way the Wind Blows” back in 1975.
its actually not that big of a deal, but i kinda like the photo so i figured i would share.
