This record is at the literal end of the line on the shelf. So, I’m always staring at it, but it’s been a long time since I’ve heard it. That’s too bad because Bird Wood Cage by The Wolfgang Press is a great album. Someone reviewed it on Amazon with the title “Industrial-Strength Bootie Quake.” In addition to being funny that’s also accurate. Sure, it’s late ’80s alt music on 4A.D., the record label synonymous with “gothic” music, and no self-respecting art school student at the time would be without it. But these songs are also a lot of fun, and dance-able! My favorite is probably the last one, “Shut That Door.”
Rabbits be damned! You can take our parsley, murder our cucumber plants, but you’ll never get our Japanese eggplant. First we had to put up a fence to keep out the rabbits and groundhogs. It worked, for a while. Then, a couple days ago Mary came back in the house from tending the garden and announced “breach of security, breach of security” like Gomer Pyle from an old rerun I remember. So, I fortified the garden fence and we’re now running at maximum security. We ate these eggplant for dinner. All thanks to Mary.
Yes! Today we celebrate. I’m celebrating because Mary and I got a new site up today for Heavy Duty Incorporated at WeAreHeavyDuty.com, our art and home furnishings business. To celebrate I’m finally posting Judas Priest’s Defenders of the Faith.
This album contains a song that has become my heavy metal mantra, “Heavy Duty.” The song contains the lyrics “I’m Heavy Duty” in the first chorus and “We’re Heavy Duty” in the last one. The first line I mentioned is, of course, the namesake of this web site. You can read more about why I chose that name. “We’re Heavy Duty” happens to be the URL for Heavy Duty Incorporated. “Heavy Duty” is simple metal dirge with some silly metal lyrics, but it never fails to give me a boost when I most need it. I play it all the time, and I have two copies, just in case. Just in case.
Another sentimental reason I love this record is that on April 12, 1984, the night before final exams in my senior year of high school, Roger Williams and I went to see Judas Priest live at the Hampton Coliseum. Roger is/was sort of an intellectual metalhead. If I remember correctly, he was valedictorian of his class and went on to Notre Dame. We lost touch after high school, which is unfortunate for him because I’m pretty sure one of those albums in the picture in his. Sorry Roj. Contact me to negotiate visitation rights.
The show was fantastic in a completely over the top heavy metal way. The “Metallian” creature on the cover was the actual stage, with the drums inside the mouth and a huge mechanical arm that lowered to allow Rob Halford to walk out. At least that’s how I remember it. Halford also rode a Harley onto the stage at one point. The whole band played perfectly was locked into the driving grooves that made this middle period Priest music so great.
Some of the other great songs on Defenders are “Freewheel Burning” and “Some Heads are Gonna Roll.” While overall the lyrics are the usual tough guy silliness you would expect there are more than a few corny-but-inspiring metal moments like this from “Rock Hard Ride Free”:
No denying, we’re going against the grain
So defiant they’ll never put us down
Rock Hard Ride Free
All day, all night
Rock Hard Ride Free
All your life
But my favorite, of course, comes from “Heavy Duty.”
We’re Heavy Duty
So come on let’s tell the world
We are defenders of the faith…
“I want to tell everybody a true story.” — Gogol Bordello
Here is how we made this first run of Jackpot Pillows. If there’s anything else you want to know just leave your questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Or maybe someone else will.
I was brainstorming ideas for triplet pillows and the somewhat obvious slot machine motif came to mind. We were tired of trying to get screenprinting to work for us on some other projects and planned to test digitally printed textiles. The long hunt began for just the right style of art.
Artwork
I found these killer vintage-style slot machine icon illustrations by Roy Konitzer at iStockPhoto. He also has a site at GiantRobot.com. Then I paid for the license that would allow us to use this artwork for commercial purposes. You can read all the gory details about the various licensing fees at iStockPhoto.com, but the bottom line is we paid roughly $80 for enough “credits” to do this and we had a few left over. Of course there are plenty of other sources for art, some free, if you are not going to create it yourself. Vecteezy.com is one such site.
I’m not an illustrator, and I had a very specific vision for these pillows. So, I looked for what I needed and Roy’s illustrations were exactly what I had imagined.
Manipulating the Image Colors in Illustrator
That said, they were multi-colored as you would expect and I wanted something monochrome. Our plan was to make the pillows available in four different colors: red, blue, green, brown. I wanted the images to be monochrome to tone things down a bit and make it easier to coordinate the pillows with the rest of whatever space they would be in. I took the illustrations into Illustrator where I used Live Color to convert all the colors to shades and tints of blues, reds, etc. Not as easy as it sounds, but after much tweaking and experimentation I achieved the desired colors.
Digitally Printed Textiles
This is a very cool technology with few of the limitations of tradition printing, but it’s not cheap. You can even print photographic images on fabrics, or “grounds,” such as cotton twills, sateens, etc. Also interesting is that pattern repeats can be as large as you want, at least in theory. In traditional printing the repeat can’t be longer than the circumference of the printing drum.
I contacted numerous companies that print custom fabric and found that most of them are not that interested in our business, for whatever reason. Sourcing is always painful, but I finally came across a couple companies that were very responsive and helpful. We did test prints of the Jackpot Pillow prints and decided we got the best color and customer service from Digital Textiles Northwest. Their web site may not have a lot of info, but trust me, they will do whatever it takes to get you exactly what you want.
Expect to pay in the vicinity of $40 per yard of printed fabric. It really depends on the ground fabric you choose and of course the company doing the printing. Prices vary widely. Look around.
Pillow Forms: The Search Continues…
What a hassle this has been. First we found someone (nearby!) that offered a green pillow that used a “biopolymer” with the brand name Ingeo. The sample we got looked and felt great. We (Mary) started making the pillow covers based on its size. Then, to make a long story short this product suddenly became unavailable, and we couldn’t find another supplier that had it. Eventually, pragmatism reared its head and we decided to use a typical polyfill pillow insert, or form. We’re still looking into sourcing a really green insert and have a couple leads for Ingeo and Kapok inserts. Freddy&Ma use kapok pillow forms from White Lotus. The Freddy&Ma pillow I have is very well made but the insert is a little too flat for my tastes, even for a “decorative” pillow.
As far as sizes and the order of production, my advice is to not produce the cases until you have an inventory of inserts or at least a very reliable, consistent source. If you can find the Ingeo pillow forms they will probably be close to $4 each in some reasonable quantity. We have no direct purchasing experience with kapok goods. From the companies I have talked to I would expect more Ingeo goods to be available from more sources soon.
Woven Labels
Another sourcing challenge when you are getting started. We looked at a lot of companies and went with Cruz Label. They were pretty responsive and helpful, and the final product was accurate and high quality. They send a proof or test to be approved before they manufacture the real deal. So, it takes a while, but you’ll get what you want. They’re on the west coast; we’re on the east coast. Ideally we will eventually be able to find someone closer to us.
A basic label is not that expensive, maybe $.25 each, but you’ll probably have to buy at least 500.
Production and Assembly
We assembled these Jackpot Pillows so that with every jackpot set the three other sides will all be different. Our intent is that people can choose the color, and jackpot triple they want, and we will provide non-matching flipsides for more variety. Mary decided that since the inserts are also washable that we should eschew using zippers. Instead, she hand stitches each pillow closed after inserting the pillow form.
Next time you jump on the couch will you land on a jackpot? That’s up to the last player of the couch slot machine.
Thanks to Matthew for hipping me to this site: The Che Underground. Featured are bands from the swinging San Diego music scene of the 1980s, including one of my favorites, The Tell Tale Hearts. I posted a their self-titled record here a good while ago. Outsiders are allowed, check it out.
Feldman , Goldstein and Gottehrer are rock and roll geniuses. (Scroll to the bottom and start playing the “videos”) I Want Candy is the only album by The Strangloves. My copy is not in mint condition but that just makes it rock harder. Most people have probably heard Bow Wow Wow’s version of “I Want Candy.” There have been tons of cover versions of the songs on this record. It’s hard to pick a favorite but “Cara-Lin” and “Night-Time” are definitely in contention.
These cats are connected to all sorts of great music from the The Angels’ “My Boyfriends Back” to War, Go Gos, Blondie, Circle Jerks, J. Geils Band, George Thorogood, The Fleshtones, and on and on.
The band’s amusing mythology from the back cover (I can’t believe I typed the whole thing…):
What are Strangeloves? Unusual combinations of romanticists? Or parted sweethearts?
Actually, a more logical question would be: Who are The Strangeloves?
Anyone who has had his ears tuned in to teenage radio in recent weeks would probably describe The Strangeloves as the swingingest trio to hit the music scene since the British invaded these shores two years ago.
The Strangeloves, oddly enough, don’t come from England. They hail from the backlands of Australia, a wild and uncivilized area of the continent from whence the trio acquired its earthy, hip swiveling rhythms so evident in their group’s potent recording of I Want Candy.
The same undulating beat so prominent in their hit single is multiplied to frenzied proportions as the boys showcase their best seller with 11 other swinging sessions tailored for the young-in-body as well as the young-at-heart.
This album is designed to get the crowd off their respective derrières and onto the dance floor. Sample the No Jive cut or the Just The Way You Are selection and you’ll hear exactly what this album is attempting to do–supply the most torrid sound around, the I Want Candy sound.
The Strangeloves acquired this untamed rhythm by studying the musical attributes of the natives in their own Australia. The boys were born on a farm in Armstong, Australia to Mt. & Mrs. Wilmot Strange who themselves obviously appreciated good sound. They melodically named their three sons Miles, Niles and Giles. While attending grade school and high school they assisted their father in raising sheep, learning the business of sheepherding better than Papa Strange had even anticipated. For it was at the young age of 16 that Miles, applying his vast knowledge of cross-breeding. developed the now famous breed of long hard sheep know as the Gotteher Sheep. The boys registered the breed with the Feld-Goldstein Company, Ltd. in Australia and have become independently wealthy from royalties accruing to them for each born into the Gottehrer breed.
But after completing high school, the boys turned their talents on a full-time basis to their first love–music. While on a safari in Africa, the group’s hobby, the boys acquired some unique Masai Drums and incorporated these tympany into their developing musical style. They worked intensively on creating an exciting dance sound and finally hit upon the rhythm they wanted in a tune called Love, Love, Love which went on to become their first big hit and one of Australia’s top hits of early 1965. The song was also responsible for changing the group’s name from the The Three Stranges to the The Strangeloves.
Then came I Want Candy which has documented the boys’ names on the pages the Record Industry history books both in American and throughout the world.
To give credit where credit is due the Masai Drums are under the control and supervision of Niles Strange. Miles supplies the lead voice and is an adept hand with a tambourine or almost any rhythm instrument. Giles’ contribution to the group is his very able management of the piano as well as extra drums when necessary–adding the the Afro-English beat conceive on their records.
Together the boys deliver a gross of mean sounds aimed at making your feet move.
Join in the fun and add The Strangeloves to your collection of albums. It’s music get a party moving!
This is the classic sound of first generation punk. The title track “hit” from Sham 69’s Hersham Boys frequently gets stuck in my head. Another favorite is the raucous, screaming live cut of “What Have We Got?” This cover is hilarious, with a gatefold that contains a great illustration by Brett Ewins of the band as the cockney cowboys, or “Hersham Boys.”
My grandfather, Charles “Chick” Orndoff Sigler III, made this treasure chest as a Christmas gift for me when I was probably 10 or so. He also made one for my brother Grayson, and wisely painted our first initials inside the lid of each chest. It was filled silver coins, maybe even silver dollars when he gave them to us. But the real treasure to me is the handmade box my grandfather took time to make. This was no kit. He made everything and even painted the awesome Jolly Roger inside the lid. I should confirm that with the elders, maybe my uncle Robin helped with the painting.
Thirty-some years later it’s still with me. Now, I keep it on my bedside table and use it to hold pocket change. If I didn’t have pocket change I would find some because it looks so cool sitting in the treasure chest. For a brief period it was in the attic at our first house. A home invading squirrel got in, managed to find my treasured treasure chest and gnawed on a couple corners. He was evicted with a vengeance. Looking at the damage still hurts.
On St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley did a great cover of the Violent Femmes’ tune “Gone Daddy Gone.” The Femmes are repaying the cover love, with their take on the Gnarls Barkley hit, “Crazy.” It’s crazy smooth is what it is, with sounds of surf rock guitar, mandolin, flute, and of course the Femmes’ trademark bass. They even rock the theremin on the chorus.
This Mother Love Bone record, Apple, is better than I remember. Too bad the singer Andrew Wood wasn’t able to manage his state. He died of a heroin overdose before this album was released. On the back cover there is a note: “In memory of Andrew Wood.” At the time I thought they were a little too perfect, too Seattle, too trippy. Some of the lyrics and titles still strike me as a bit uh… something, but the record has plenty of great riffs and hooks. My favorite song is a dirge, “Stardog Champion.” I’m a sucker for gang vocals from a bunch of kids. Check out the video, and stay tuned for the kinders at the end.
Want to know what it's like to have brain surgery? Well here's the long version of my experience. Complete with pictures and videos! Read all about the Brain Surgery Experience.
