Hüsker Dü: Logo #317

Hüsker Dü was graced by this particular sigil by band member and designer Grant Hart in 1980. I received this nice note from Grant Hart some time ago, discussing in-depth the other, more identifiable logo. "In 1978-1979, I was enrolled in the Advanced Graphic Arts Program taught by Will Wachtler at South St. Paul High School. We learned to set type by hand and a few of us were taught to operate and maintain Heidelburg automatic offset presses. The details of paper and ink were stressed, as well as inspection and recycling of worn type. I did so much proofreading without running actual proofs that I could read upside-down and backwards nearly as fast as I could a printed page. It was during this time that I became involved with the two others that would form the band Hüsker Dü. Punk rock posters and the photocopier were advancing and there was a tremendous merging and emerging in and of the graphic arts.

An early poster for a performance of the band was printed in dark orange ink. The band name was set in a medium Helvetica type with two colons from a smaller font leaded in to form the umlauts over the "u" in "Hüsker" and the "u" in "Dü." This took place between late March of 1979 and early June of the same year, when I graduated and subsequently lost access to the facilities of the high school Graphic Arts Department. It was not long before the young band had need for another poster. Having no real type to use, and not wanting to use the "ransom note" method of clipping out individual letters, I cut out the band name from the dark orange poster for the next one. To add visual impact, I carefully tore the words horizontally and pasted them together with a gap between the top and bottom portions. I wasn't experienced with the inexpensive photo-offset presses that used a plate made of paper to deliver the ink to the paper to be printed on. These machines have disappeared from the face of the Earth due to the technical advances of photocopies, but I digress. The first attempt at printing the poster failed because elements that were lighter-than-black came out mottled and not too readable. Not having time to re-design the whole thing, I took up a Sharpie felt-tip and colored in the words quickly but carefully. The next attempt at printing was a success and the band immediately recognized the result with approval. It was varied in its use, printed backwards and psychedelicized. It has been spoofed and rearranged to spell out names of nightclubs, record stores and other bands, and I have seen at least eight tattoos of it on people's bodies."

Operation Ivy: Logo #312

Designed by OpIvy singer Jesse Michaels in 1987. At last report, there are no plans for a band reunion. Simple things are sometimes the hardest to do well. Theirs is a logo (mascot?) that was left out of the recent Yahoo! blog survey that ripped off many of the images and entries of this blog, which is a real shame but no real surprise. The NME did the same thing back in April. Linkbacks are the Internet's equivalent of the reacharound; neither site gave me the profound joy of even that cold comfort. Like that popular band once sang, "That's the price of love..."

Siouxsie & the Banshees: Logo #311

Siouxsie's heroically pharaoic eyes - courtesy of London design house Crocodile - graced the cover of their 1987 LP "Through the Looking Glass." It was the face that launched a thousand shirts and plunged countless young girls into annoying, frustrating conversations with men and family who wondered who the eyes belonged to and why they have to be so weird all the time.

This Day in Death: Leos Janácek (July 3, 1854 – August 12, 1928)
Thomas Mann (June 6, 1875 – August 12, 1955)
Ian Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964)
Philip-Dimitri Galás (July 21, 1954 - August 12, 1986)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988)
Bernard Kliban (January 1, 1935 – August 12, 1990)
John Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992)
John Loder (Southern Studios; April 7, 1946 - August 12, 2005)

Urban Waste: Logo #309

Fondly-remembered New York hardcore band Urban Waste had their logo designed by Billy Phillips & John Dancy in 1982 for the cover of their 7" EP on Mob-Style Records, although doubtless the band was using it as early as 1981, when they began. They reunited in 2002 and played the long-lost CBGB's, almost 20 years after this 1983 live action. Looking back at that performance almost 25 years ago, they all seem so earnest and sincere. Someone should survey all those old HC musicians and ask how they feel now, compared to two or three decades ago. "Time," as Thomas Paine once observed, "makes more converts than reason."

Contravene: Logo #301

Eric, bassist for Phoenix anarcho / peacepunk band Contravene: "We found the basis for it in a book of Japanese design motifs. We changed a few things about it, added the peace and equality signs and our name and that was that. As for when it first appeared, I believe our design came about in 1999. The original Japanese motif has been around much, much longer."

This Day in Death:
Nigel Christopher Preston (Sex Gang Children, The Cult; April 4, 1963 - May 7, 1992)

Timothy R. "Tim" North (Crash Worship, Rhythm & Noise; September 17, 1960 - May 7, 2003)

D.I.: Logo #293

Frederic Taccone, first bassist of Orange County punk band D.I. reports, "The D.I. dog came from a round silver-and-red coral pin/button about the size of a 25-cent piece that I found and bought at the swap meet at the Orange Drive-In; I think it's from the Indians in Mexico. I was opposed by the band but I insisted on this being used for the band as a symbol, as I was sick of the usual stuff of the day. We were kind of different and I wanted something that when you looked at it, you didn't know what kind of band we were. Dianna "Mac" Macalear was guitarist Tim Maag's girlfriend and a graphic artist. I asked her to come up with a way of writing "D.I." that looked like something between hieroglyphics and street graffiti, and she came up with the style of writing that appeared with the dog on our first five-song EP, later re-released as a full-length album on XXX called "Team Goon." Dianna did the drawing/direct copy of the pin in 1983."

The Ramones: Logo #286

Designed by William Barton and Charles Thomson in 1782 and detourned by Ramones confidant and lighting director Arturo Vega in 1977.

GO OUT AND VOTE!

The Descendents: Logo #282

Milo here was designed for the Manhattan Beach punk band by Jeff "Rat" Atkinson in 1982 for the "Milo Goes to College" LP. He's a caricature of Descendents lead singer and chemist Milo Aukerman. I could say that I haven't heard much of their music, but in these days of YouTube and MySpace, being instantly turned-on to any music about which one might be curious seems to be the natural order of things - so I'll just say that I'm lazy, which makes me efficient if not terribly informed right now. To put it another way: think of all those bands you've always wanted to get to but need a few years in a sanatorium to really do the job right. And that's my impression of Descendents: always there, perennially adolescent and sophomoric and hoisting the flag of discontent and good humor.

NoMeansNo: Logo #273

Another damned cow! John Yates created the cow icon in 1989 for the band's "Wrong" LP. Yates' logo design work includes icons for Anti-Flag, and, as we shall soon see, Jello Biafra. Sharp, immediate and direct, he keeps a rather low profile - well, by that I mean he hasn't answered my e-mail yet - and of course, as with all good designers, the work speaks for itself. If you look to the left of the cow's head, you'll see the Elsie doppelganger has human ears sprouting from its neck. NoMeansNo have been around for twenty years and show no signs of stopping - which is encouraging, because most mortals stop being righteously indignant and angry after about seven months.

Violent Children: Logo #271

Designed for the Connecticut hardcore band by founder Raghunath "Ray" Cappo. Cappo: "I designed it, and we use to put it on our jackets, flyers, and eventually our 7" EP."

Flowers in the Dustbin: Logo #269

The nameless compassionate woman was designed for the band by the mysterious Moira in 1982. Many of these artists fade into obscurity, leaving their imprint on a grateful-yet-perplexed world, and if you don't ask who did what when, chances are you'll never know. It's a bit like all those nameless French who rebuilt the Notre Dame Cathedral but whose identities remain completely unknown. Moira, what moves you today!

Strike Anywhere: Logo #268

Sergei Tschachotin designed the Antifascist Circle in 1931. It was appropriated by Strike Anywhere member Matt Smith in 2001. Tschachotin purportedly designed it "to be able to easily cover Nazi swastikas." Further: "The meaning of the three arrows have been interpreted differently. One claim is that they stood for the opponents of the iron front, the three enemies of the democracy: communism, monarchism and national socialism. Another claim is that they stand the three columns of the German workers' movement: a party, a trade union and the reichsbanner as symbols for the political, economic and physical strength of the Iron Front."

Logo #250: Sex Pistols

No "The" in "Sex Pistols" - they're the definitive article, not the definite article (as Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks used to say). Designed by Jamie Reid for the Sex Pistols single "God Save The Queen", released in July 1977, and ultimately the "Never Mind the Bollocks" LP. The sum of the logo's parts will always be greater than its whole - in as many ways as that Holist truism could possibly ever mean.

Logo #247: The Ex

Jos Kley of The Ex: "We designed it ourselves, soon after we started the band in 1979...together with some other bands, we were putting out buttons with our names on it and we decided to make ours look a bit different. So the "various straight angles" are basically an "E" and an "X"."

Logo #246: D.R.I.

Eric Brecht, the original drummer for punk band D.R.I., designed the skanking pedestrian in 1982. From D.R.I. Central: "It was actually an art school project - the project was to design a logo for a company. The company was our record label Dirty Rotten Records, but we just absorbed it as our bands logo."

Logo #232: RKL

RKL had their "Beanie Kid" designed by drummer Richard "Bomer" Manzullo and Dan Sites in 1983. Singer Jason Sears, speaking to Thrasher Magazine in 2002: “Some guy said, 'Ha, those kids will never be anything - they're just a bunch of rich kids on LSD, man.' The first party we played we didn't have a name for the band, so we put that one on the flier and it just stuck.” The Beanie Boy logo was born one night while Bomer and Jason were being tattooed. Bomer was attempting to draw a dragon tat pattern. On seeing the drawing, Jason commented, "Yeah, dude, it's Cecil! Where's Beanie?" Dan Sites was sitting alongside, drawing a flyer for a show supporting Suicidal Tendencies in Oxnard, and drew a beanie guy jumping from a building." As a band, RKL (Rich Kids on LSD) are almost as doomed as Battalion of Saints, what with how many people in the band have died. It's all the more surprising because RKL's home base of Montecito is slightly south of Santa Barbara, not the most discouraging and poverty-stricken part of the world. The rich kids are easier to find than a wet spot on prom night. Drummer Derrick Plourde (October 17, 1971 – March 30, 2005), Manzullo (July 19, 1967 - December 12, 2005), and singer Jason Sears (January 23, 1968 - January 31, 2006) have all died but the band theoretically still exists in one form or another, currently in yet another one of their increasingly frequent hiatuses.

Logo #228: The Press

André Schlesinger crossed hammers with laurels in 1984 and created this enduring Oi! band logo. Is the exclamation point mandatory? I guess there's no Oi Headquarters for the copy desk to call on that one. Schlesinger: "At first, around 1984, when the project was first christened The Press, the logo only consisted of the name and crossed hammers. By 1986, the laurels had been added." He now performs as maninblack and currently embraces a rather different type of Skinheadism.

This Day in Death:
Gustave Moreau (April 6, 1826 – April 18, 1898)
Ottorino Respighi (July 9, 1879 - April 18, 1936)
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955)
Martin Hannett (Joy Division; May 31, 1948 - April 18, 1991)
Alfred Hawthorn "Benny" Hill (January 21, 1924 – April 18, 1992)
Bernard "Bernie" Edwards (Chic, Allah and the Knife Wielding Punks; October 31, 1952 – April 18, 1996)

Logo #222: Crass

Designed by Dave King in 1978. It's a take on the Ouroboros myth with the extra added insight of being critical of Christianity and/or the military. Poor snake wants a tail for a snake but Christ says no!

Logo #213: Ill Will

Sheldon Parker from Ill Will: "In 1980, three surfers from El Segundo went to see a movie called "Rock 'n' Roll High School." After seeing the movie and watching The Ramones, we decided that we could do that just for fun. The Ramones inspired us to start jamming just because it looked like a fun thing to do. We started a band called The Haters. We called ourselves that because we hated just about everything that was popular at the time; we hated disco, condominiums, glam, and especially non-local surfers. We played Ramones songs and a few originals. The originals were mostly about surfing and girlfriends. We started playing house parties and people started thinking that maybe we were a band called "The Heaters" and also "The Gidget Haters." I knew we needed a new name, so I looked in a thesaurus I used for songwriting and under the word "hate" I found "ill will" - ding ding ding, we have a winner. We all liked the name, and I thought about the street signs that had the "do not do" red circle deal and decided the words ILL WILL should be covering the red, instead of the red covering what not to do - meaning Ill Will does not obey things that should not be done. We are currently jamming again with Derek Van Metere on drums and Lance Peterson (guitar), Brian Ramsay (bass) and myself. We will start gigging again at the end of spring."

Logo #208: The Desperate Bicycles

Designed by Ingram Pinn for the 1977 "The Medium Was Tedium" 7". Their rallying cry "It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it" is the coda by which countless punk singles are pressed and careers are launched. That the Desperate Bicycles back catalog remains out-of-print is rather mystifying. Here's an essay explaining why they're as influential as the Sex Pistols. This is what was on the back of the record's sleeve: "The Desperate Bicycles were formed in March 1977 specifically for the purpose of recording and releasing a single on their own label. They booked a studio in Dalston for three hours and with a lot of courage and a little rehearsal they recorded "Smokescreen" and "Handlebars." It subsequently leapt at the throat. Three months later and The Desperate Bicycles were back in a studio to record their second single and this is the result. "No more time for spectating" they sing and who knows? They may be right. They'd really like to know why you haven't made your single yet. "It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it" (the complete cost of "Smokescreen" was £153). The medium may very well have been tedium but it's changing fast. So if you can understand, go and join a band. Now it's your turn..." Clumsy yet endearing, the Desperate Bicycles broke up in 1981 and have kept utterly silent since. Here is their recorded history as it stands now. It's still your turn. What are you doing sitting around reading this dopey blahg?