Queen: Logo #326

It bores me not to do this blog.

I had no idea there were so many followers of what I've written. I sincerely appreciate your interest and enthusiasm, one and all. Thank you.

Queen's suitably regal regalia was designed by Freddie Mercury in 1973, before the release of their debut album. Brian May: "That QUEEN logo, and the crest, were both entirely Freddie's design. He had been a student at Ealing Tech, of course...and those designs stayed with us, through various modifications, for many years. Freddie had a great eye for design." Like the fairies and the Phoenix, Queen had a flair for summoning up the great Britain of yore - a place of romance and hard-scrabble mystique that lives on within the folk tradition. It's a tradition that was revitalized by Queen through an eclectically electric vein of sonic sorcery that no one seemed to notice at the time. Magic has a tendency to hide itself.

Brian May once said, "You have to get away from the idea that playing music is a competition. You should just keep on doing what you think is an interesting thing to do." Wise words for any artist, really.

Uncle Slam: Logo #325

Originally designed by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917 and appropriated by the inestimable Ellie and Tom Hughes and Mike Seiff in 1988. Uncle Slam were purveyors of that weird '90s hybrid of thrash metal and punk that puzzled and angered a lot of people. In mid-'90s Los Angeles, caught between hair metal and the waning days of punk, not an enviable place to be. Their "Say Uncle" LP, for which this illustration - in which Uncle Sam appears to be gathering up funds to find John Connor - was destined. "Say Uncle...or die!" was the rallying cry that ranks up there with "skate or die" and "Sophie's Choice."

Aerosmith: Logo #322

Designed by Ray Tabano in 1971. "Crazy" Ray was the band's original guitarist, designer of Aerosmith merchandise and cultivator of their fan-base. Fired in 1979 by Aerosmith's managers, he now runs a catering company. One stage of life doesn't necessarily follow the other, but it does sound strikingly familiar to other tales of rock'n'roll excess and egress. For all the comparisons with The Rolling Stones that Aerosmith have endured, however, the Stones' logo - lips - was about personal identity. It represented who they were. The Aerosmith logo - wings - was about personal aspirations. It represented where they wanted to go. A rather illuminating article about where Aerosmith did go is here.

The Song of the Moment is "Alice" by Sisters of Mercy.

The Dwarves: Logo #296

I received this nice note just the other day when I finally asked Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves where the band's "skull-and- crossboners" logo came from. "What a great question. It was drawn freehand by Jon Straus, a Chicago illustrator, way back in 1985. As 25 years of Dwarvishness looms, our logo keeps right on saying "Sex and Death Are Good!"

This Day in Death:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756 – Dec. 5, 1791)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (August 22, 1928 - December 5, 2007)
Forrest J. Ackerman (November 24, 1916 - December 5, 2008)

One of my greatest joys in life was finally meeting Ackerman some years ago, when he was living in his Ackermansion in Los Angeles. God bless you, Forry. You helped save my young and aimless life.

Interstitial #6: The Return From Witch Mountain

Took about a year, but there's no sense in coming back if it's not at the top:

Millions of websites with the words "rock", "band" and "logos" in them can't be wrong, I guess.

Apropos of something: Debora Iyall from Romeo Void reports, "Well, we used my lip-print with a red circle with a slash across it sometimes, and made a button of that."

I'm real busy. I still have over a thousand logos left. What, a man can't take a few months off and unwind? My triumphal and/or triumphant return awaits!

Rhino Bucket: Logo #277

Los Angeles (well, Van Nuys) hard rock band Rhino Bucket had their skeletal juggernaut designed by manager Deme Bermudez and Georg Dolivo in 2007. Bermudez: "Well, like many ideas (we've had), Georg and I were hanging out at my house drinking beers and needed to come up with a logo for the band. Rhino Bucket has never had a logo in the past 15 years, so it was time to make one. Rhino and Bucket aren't two words that really go together. Georg, the lead singer/guitarist, and I were looking on the net for ideas. I found a picture of a rhino skeleton and e-mailed it over to him (I was on the couch with my laptop, and he was on the other side of the room with his laptop). He did some work on it and added and changed some graphics around and we ended up with the logo. The original was altered by Georg; it might have been some zoo or history page...can't recall off-hand."

Logo #26: Devo

Devo's "energy dome" (or "flowerpot," as it's been re-purposed recently) is an emblematic piece of headgear designed collectively by Devo (Bob Casale, Gerald V. Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh, and "Oh That" Alan Myers) in 1980 and featured prominently on the cover of their "Freedom of Choice" LP. Just like the myriad varieties of Kryptonite, there are several colors of domes: green in 1981 for "Solid Gold"; white in 1982 during their spokesmanship for the then-new Diet Coke; silver chrome-domes for a few 2002 dates; and blue domes for Nike's 2004 "Run Hit Wonder" race and live action, coordinated with the event's overall color scheme. Gerald Casale explains, "(The Dome) was designed according to ancient ziggurat mound proportions used in votive worship. Like the mounds it collects energy and recirculates it. In this case the Dome collects energy that escapes from the crown of the human head and pushes it back into the medulla oblongata for increased mental energy." What Casale hasn't been able to explain is the existence of Devo 2.0, a particularly startling level of selling out that must have gone down quicker than a hand reaching for the Jergens on Valentine's Day.