In our 2012 Album Covers of the Year feature, we once again get our hands on everyone we can. Through interviews with designers, musicians, labels, and plenty of others, we take a close look at just how many hands are in the pot when it comes to the album artwork process. Inside this feature are 98 album covers spanning a wide array of sonic and visual styles, each selected for its own unique contribution to the world. They are not ranked; instead, they are broken down into sections based on conceptual underpinnings or artistic mediums, and then are displayed on spectrums. Get started by navigating into any of these six sections: Geometric & Pattern-Based Classically-Influenced Narrative & Symbolic Photography & Manipulations Painting & Illustration Collage, Sculpture & Mixed Media You can also see last year's at 2011 Year-End Respect For Album Cover Art
 
29 December, 2012

One of the best aspects of Musicfest NW is its intimate club settings. Whereas most music festivals are synonymous with enormous outdoor stages designed to fit tens of thousands of people, Portland sticks to its quirky Portland roots and packs seething masses of people into sweaty, energy-filled bars and venues. One major perk of this indoor setting is that the festival can book major metal shows without scaring off the locals and more timid music listeners. And with that said, that is where I found myself most of the time -- in the face of thrashing riffs and flowing locks of hair.

 

Red Fang

Portland's Red Fang had a big night at Musicfest NW. The band was opening up for eventual metal legends Baroness and had also just inked a deal through Relapse Records to bring out their drink-ariffic metal tunes to the masses. So, inside the cozy confines of Dante's, tall boys of PBR and Tecate in hand, the crowd was ready to let Red Fang fly. But Red Fang didn't so much as fly as they steamrolled. The Portland quartet plays an interesting type of metal, less confined by creative riffs and more in the constant search of the ultimate head-banging guitar line. Personally, I think they found it with their beer drinking anthem of "Prehistoric Dog" (seriously, just watch the music video), which closed out a set that was equal parts old stuff, equal parts new stuff, and a bit of the stuff in between.
17 September, 2010

Man Man Man Man Man Man's Crowd Sleep Sleep Thee Oh Sees Thee Oh Sees Man Man Man Man Dead Man's Bones Dead Man's Bones Local Natives Wavves Wavves' crowd Ω...

10 September, 2010

While it would be nice to read a piece on Shrinebuilder without the use of the word supergroup, there is no getting around it. Shrinebuilder is most definitely a supergroup, comprised of Wino Weinrich on guitar (St. Vitus), Al Cisneros on bass (Om, Sleep), Scott...

15 December, 2009