Grey Wolves: Logo #305

Designed by Trevor Ward of Grey Wolves and perfected from 1988 through 1992. Ward: "I can't claim to have come up with the Celtic cross - this came a few thousand years before me - but it was me who cut out the wolf's head pic and stuck it in the middle along with the rune/lightning bolt. This was also a long time ago, when we use to mess around with symbols a lot more than we do now." Grey Wolves - a.k.a. The Blackshirt Orchestra, Brutal Love, Irritant, Lebensborn, Nails Ov Christ, No Lie G.I., Opera For Infantry, Tactical Aid Group - have constantly pumped out the most abrasive, politically incorrect, intense music, mostly on cassettes for the past twenty or so years. They show no signs of stopping. Their records have great titles: "A Wealth Of Misery," "Open Up Wounds," and "Many Are Called But Few Get Up," and for that they are highly recommended.

Logo #238: Blood Axis

Designed in 1989 by Michael Moynihan. Blood Axis had its roots in Moynihan's earlier, noisier band Coup de Grâce (expect that big beautiful archival Vinyl-on-Demand box set any year now). He now publishes esoteric literature through his publishing house Dominion Press. I can't recall ever seeing one photograph of him in which he smiles, although doubtless he must take enjoyment in at least one or two things in this life, but I don't think I'd necessarily qualify him as a "bummer." Ever known a guy like that? He's probably really good at drawing or squash or math but you'd never know it and he's probably got a backyard filled with cash that gets donated to Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle when he dies. The cross, in a way the inverse of the circle, doesn't get as much play in terms of logo design as it probably should - people occasionally get cagey about discussing their respective Christianities, and some see overly ostentatious displays of the cross as a little like wearing your bullet pendant to a dinner at the Kennedys - but straight lines are always attractive and when they meet, it's sweet geometric love.

Interstitial #4: Charles Manson

As you may recall, Charles Manson's original painting of the scorpion that inspired the 666 Volt Battery Noise logo was undated. I wrote to Mr. Manson recently, inquiring about this, and received this rather interesting reply: "Today - yesterdeeds to day - tomorrow's yesterday to me; it's always been one day. While camping in a cabin after hard travel, I came upon a bed full of scorpions. I was too tired, so I just brushed them aside and went to sleep - woke up, never got stung. I said, "Thanks." Moved on; found one in my pants and later in prison I [unclear] they were my spirit friends. They're related to spiders, so (after) years in cells I just tied knots in strings and one day there it was - it made me - I made all kinds of stuff out of what I had. Mostly nothing, but when you're in the hole 39 years, you've got time. Some of the stuff I made, people can't look at - as if it's in the room where they are. The bug is a powerful life form. They see/feel things in ways we can't even dream."

Logo #82: Wilt

James Keeler, he who do what thou Wilt, explains, "I think I had some photo manipulated image of a butterfly on the limited 1999 release "blackhole butterfly," but it wasn't a logo, just a graphic. I had created a logo back in 2003-2003 that used a silhouette of a black bird just up and right of the "t" in Wilt, and now I have a "black metal" version of the wilt logo. Not that we're black metal, but the sounds we have been doing more recently have been a bit more raw and dark than usual, hence the logo. I have designed all logos. I'm a designer professionally - Industrial Design and Graphic and Packaging Design." Gloomy but never glum, Wilt is James P. Keeler on bass, field recordings, pedals, mics, objects, sampler, short wave radio, synths, vocals, and viola, and Dan Hall on acoustic and baritone electric guitar, amps, field recordings, pedals and vocals. And what have you done today?

Logo #66: 666 Volt Battery Noise

Although New York composer David Brownstead now focuses his efforts on his Tidal project, his early '90s were given over to 666 Volt Battery Noise, a band of impeccable depth of field when it came to hitting heights both evocative and evacuative. Brownstead: "The scorpion logo has been in use ever since the first eponymous, privately-circulated demo cassette in 1993. It (or, in one or two instances, a slightly different version of it) has appeared on every 666VBN release, in the attempt to establish some degree of continuity and to have a bold image that one (hopefully) instantly associated with the project. While I put the "666" and "VBN" vertically alongside the scorpion, it is actually the handiwork of Charles Manson (Nb. titled "Purple/Scorpion"). It was not at all chosen for that reason; I was merely looking for a bold and easy to reproduce scorpion, and that particular one - from "The Manson File" (Nb. authored by Nikolas Schreck) - struck my fancy. I suppose it contains some degree of cognitive assonance, at any rate... "Negative Energy" being our working theory." Inquiries to our friendly neighborhood Manson acolytes at ATWA as to the date of this illustration's premiere have as-yet gone unanswered, but likely this was a design from the mid- to late-'70s, when Manson suddenly had a lot of free time on his hands to study the chitinous and the poisonous.

Logo #63: Hanatarash

Designed by Yamatsuka Eye in 1985, this logo appeared on the "ハナタラシ" LP, the debut album for this Japanese junk and electronics unit. A focused effort, its titles include the vaguely Yiddish-sounding "Ultra Cocker", the ballad "Domination In Spunked Cock," and the always inspirational "Cock E.S.P". Their latest, the longform "Hanatarash 5: We Are 0:00" CD, came out in May on Japanese label 3D System to criminally little fanfare. Hanatarash means "snot-nosed", a phrase that inspired busy British composer Michael Gillham, whose extortionately extensive MySpace page covering the band is from whence this vividly lime-green cover comes. Using a construction backhoe, Eye-san once demolished part of the venue in which Hanatarash played. This is what that looked like, and here is how they sound. More rock and punk than any endless loop of "Yeah yeah yeah" or the posturing of lyrics and fashion, Hanatarash are to music what John Wesley Hardin was to the Old West: so mean he once shot a man just for snorin'!

Logo #57: Cock E.S.P.

Cock E.S.P. co-founder Emil Hagstrom: "The current logo - the one on our MySpace and everything - I originally designed in 1999, but I do tinker with it every couple of years, so it's not totally constant. Also, I based part of the design on the original Cock E.S.P. logo designed by my former bandmate P.C. Hammeroids, which was used from 1994-1996." A tireless force for free noise and exhibitionism - from Minneapolis, strangely enough (do they register on Prince's radar?) - if it weren't for Cock E.S.P. and related record labels Freedom From and EF Tapes, there would be no Wolf Eyes, no Andrew WK and his special brand of Old Spice disco, no 21st-century noise scene in southern California and no trace of the occasional dissonance heard in modern indie music. Or, at least, their presence would be that much more stultified and dull. They labored in the occlusion of the Clinton '90s, thriving in the pre-Internet world even while ignored by the press who cover their descendants in glossy scandal sheets like VICE and The Wire. They tour everywhere that will give them a show and are grateful at every sweat-soaked, joyous high performance moment in which I've seen them.