Joe,
This is a cool idea for a battle
!
I am trying to go by the rules but hit a snag. I went to the Flickr page but the 3rd image was not downloadable. I had to refresh the page a couple of times to find one that was. I picked the third one from that page even though the first image was far better for the random subject chosen by Wikipedia. The other problem is that this is a color photo. Do I change it to greyscale or leave it exactly as I found it?

ChrisL

I would say your the designer you decide! this is a great idea i have to pass it on!

Joe,
Another question: In your specs, you say the image must be 600px wide by 400px tall, albums are typically square though so should this battle bee 600 by 600?

ChrisL

OK, Here is a quick first take:

ChrisL

Dimension? 400x400?

(Genre: Nordic Jazz)

I wanna play too! Mine's kind of cheesy-like maybe adult contemporary or something.

Here's Mine. I hope it's alright.

"In a startling move that alienated nearly all of its fans, Slowcore stalwarts Plant Sap released Peace is the Measure, an ostensibly inspirational album of gentle Christian rock."

This is a great idea!

I'm at work and am limited to my system fonts, but was too tempted not to give it a shot anyways:

The problem with using the 'interesting photo' page is that you tend to get photos that are too damn nice to mess with. ;o)

That said, I'm really digging Miss Tiffany's entry. Nice!

Thanks, Darrel.

too damn nice to mess with. ;o)

I didn't feel that way. Should've I left the image alone? :^!

nah, you did the right thing! You had the guts to mess with it and I think it turned out great. I was too timid so just slapped minimal type on top my photo. ;o)

Granted, if you ever worked with the band GUS Reporter System, you'd know what complete *@#&#$^ they can be when you go messing with their photos.

Eheheh. Yes. Well, you know creative types. Too opinionated for their own good! And they think just because they are good at one thing they are good at all things! Go figure. ;^P

"Fans of Eriastrum's 2005 debut, Eriastrum Solves All Your Problems, will recognize the same buzzy electronic beats and hypnotizing loops of remixed vocal folk music, but ultimately Protects You From Age suggests that the Belgian two-man operation may be running out of ideas."

(I'm a terrible and ill-equipped graphic designer, but this is too fun of an idea not to participate!)

"On their first album to be released outside of Japan, charming trio Dream Pop serve up a pop confection that is a guilty pleasure. The English lyrics may be poorly translated and mispronounced, and even nonsensical at times (e.g., the title cut, or the bouncy "Do When You, But Think Before"), but with hooks this catchy who can take issue?"

Citigroup will probably cancel my credit card.

Sharon

Deep and full-of-longing and ardour Mediterranean ballads but translated into stilted English with too many phrases lost in translation.

What a wonderful game!

Miss Tiffany, Start a jazz band call it Slyvan Muldoon... and I will buy that album! Amazing!

Hope it was ok to edit the image!

Imo, Tiffany's cover couldn't be improved upon. That is classic. As a long-time jazz fan, I'd say it is about as good as anything I've ever seen. If I had that CD, I would frame it and hang it on the wall.

Amica Wronki, japanese songs by a slovenian group

Well, this makes a great fontplay exercise. What fun! I love the image and the guy's name. A soccer player in France, if I recall correctly.

I did another one...

I set myself two extra conditions:

5. Use only a typeface I had never used before and had generally ignored.

6. Spend no more than 15 minutes.

(I just noticed that Faiyaz got the same picture. I like his rotated, lightened version: it's more interesting than mine, because it is harder to decipher.)

Wahahaha. I wasn't going to do another one, but I clicked the Wikipedia etc links to see what I would get, and this was too surreal to pass up. Sorry I don't have time to make it splendid:

(Apologies in advance if my use of the Thai Garuda symbol as a band logo offends anyone.)

Omg, this game is fun!

One of those end-nineties downtempo jazzy-chillout Danube beats – though the band name is a little bit out of place … ;°)

This would be the soundtrack to accompany the dutiful and patriotic nationalistic love-making reserved for German Santa's and the citizens who portray them.

NO SLACKING OFF!

Soft-spoken Scandinavian folk-duo known for bittersweet tales of Elk hunts gone horribly wrong and unrequited love on the tundra. After near universal panning of their first album by the critics, the title of their sophomore release gets right to the point of what they would like from reviewers and fans alike.

This is much too fun

Symphonic Speed Metal prodigies & identical triplets: Lars, Uli & Dennis McKinley from Canton Ohio break new land speed records and the hearts of their swooning fans with new heavy rock takes on Debussey's Nocturnes and Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche tone poem as well as revolutionary inroads into new diacritic use not previously available until the introduction of OpenType.

OK just one more.

How about one more from a first time poster? sorry...

Manx (cat)...just another wapper

Riding the popularity of the Balkan new wave (including such bands as Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box and Beirut), Dolná Streda lovingly reinterprets the folk songs of her native Czechoslovakia with a rockin' new sound!

And one for the road ....

Patty,
I'm loving your Balkan write-up :-)

ChrisL

Lots of good ones here. I added the words in italic.

I decided I'd give it a go.
Weirdest band name ever!

Couldn't resist trying another one.

Someone shoot me now, I can't stop...

Patty, that accordian cover is great. If I saw that in the used CD store, I would buy it just for the cover.

Some of these are sooo flukey. I also think the panda CD is very serendipitous.

So is the indispensable man.
; )

Loving this thread.

I thought it was serendipitous too, Dennis. :-)

I like the List of Asteroids...great name for a novel.

One more. My wikipedia link was to an actual cd called (the ep).

I wanna know what the
rent's like in heaven.

Blurred type to match image.

12oz. Mouse is a very surreal, bizarre animated show produced by Williams Street for Adult Swim.

j a m e s

Celtic experimental electronic—like Mouse on Mars with more trees.

Moulktoniathus leembruggianus, the ultimate lizzard lounger...

j a m e s

Great work everyone! Really nice stuff here :)

>>>I like the List of Asteroids...great name for a novel.
Not such a great name for a band, it's ridiculous...
List of Asteroids/145301-145400

Maybe not such a great novel name now!?!
:(

Some great stuff going on.
I reall like jupiterboy's one.

Also Jos, could you tell me what typeface you used in your last one?

Oh dear another one.

I thought band names had to be ridiculous, Sean. :-)

Ah! You have me there Sharon!

What makes a good band name is quite subjective and often a matter of personal opinion. I've seen research that indicates the more absurd or ridiculous the name, the more effective it is for the band (and the record company too).

Currently there is a fashion for abstract and incongruous band names, many of which are "found" names, found on the internet in much the same manner as we are doing now. The random approach. Dada and surrealists of course practically invented the idea of incongruity in serious art, or at least they are credited with championing it.

One time about fifteen years ago I came up with a good name for a band but it was too far ahead of the time -- Carpet. I offered it to half a dozen bands here in Melbourne and not one of them was game enuff to take it. Musicians---they think they're so radical and avant garde. I've worked on PR for a dozen acts, and just about all of them were conservative when it came to business and marketing. Chicken!

j a m e s

Hey Jos, can you tell what typeface did you use for Samuel Lee cover! I really like it!

Wow james that was an essay (wanna write my thesis), I have to agree the stranger the name the better the band! I think sean got lucky!

Carpet... I can just see the album cover now! brillant!

Also Jos, could you tell me what typeface you used in your last one?

Séan & Robert, it's MUSEO. I've not finished it yet, but I thought it fitted just nice on this cover.

James, I grew really very jealous of your band name "Henry the human fly" :-)

Great resource, thanks Jos!

Carpet... I can just see the album cover now! brillant!

Yeah, I was doing drawings and rough comps with pictures of carpet and persian rugs and things like that, and showing them to the A & R department and to musicians so they could see the potential. Everyone said they loved the idea but all were too chicken to take it on. They said young people couldn't relate to the idea of carpet (shrug).

I always wanted to name a band Butter, as a kind of joke name. I thought, we've had Cream, and we had Bread, what happened to Butter?

j a m e s

I thought band names had to be ridiculous, Sean. :-)

When I showed this thread to a friend, he told me on a recent camping trip they got to conjuring up band names. He thought his entry was the best, "Roadkill Junkies". Their first album was named "Crows on the Highway". I think eventually I'll have to make that into a cover.
; )

Butter! That's very close to my reigning fake band name—MANTECA.

Kind of related! In ireland there were recent graduates of my college who named their company darling, just so they could answer the phone and say "hello darling"...

Here's my second one!

Do your thesis Rob!!!

Its to cold to do my thesis and this is way more fun! (damn addictive typophile)

Don't worry sean, i think james might take me up on my offer!

A second one can't hurt.
Tokyo Encore with 'made all the difference'
Quite an addictive competition I'll add.

'nother one. 12oz. Mouse was a missed opportunity.
Football clubs make good band names.

j a m e s

Rob, you want me to write your thesis? Post a thread in General Discussions asking for assistance, I'll be along.

j a m e s

I'm at a loss for what kind of music this would be...

Too bad I didn't get a photo of duct tape...

A conversation about this exercise resulted in this, although not part of the challenge.

I always wanted to name a band Butter, as a kind of joke name. I thought, we’ve had Cream, and we had Bread, what happened to Butter?
Don't forget about Cake.

Aw jeez, this was too bloody good (unbelievably serendipitous photo/album title) not to include. I'll stop now I promise.

Where there's butter there must be JAM. Irie.

Here's one of mine that got lost in the thread move:

Will McClay sings just a little too quietly for his regular-volume guitar, but uses no percussion.

Here's a new one:

Calm, atmospheric music, influenced by a trip that the members took before forming the band, where they experienced the hauntingly elegant melodies of the indigenous tribes of Perú.

I guess I kinda used the same exact format for both of them. The band names are even both in Newt. I resolve to be more creative with the next endeavor. These ones just seemed to work this way, though.

P.S.: anyone know how to delete images that I mistakenly uploaded? I managed to botch the Huancavelica album twice before getting the right size image loaded, and I'd hate to take up 2.3 MB of Typophile server space for no good reason at all.

I think I have sharondipity as a talent handicap of sorts.

I guess this is some form of experimental electronica/jazz, judging by the cover.

Oh, alright then, one more.

Brain in a vat is a variety of thought experimental music intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning.

What's with the "insert Image" command? Is it me or the whole world?

ChrisL

The gods of comic relief cannot do better than random selection! I cracked up when I tossed the dice of Wiki and Flickr and came up with this pairing! The "It Man" is of course from the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus skit :-)

ChrisL

What’s with the “insert Image” command? Is it me or the whole world?

Ahh its all in your head man ;) But I did have the same problem as you when trying to download a picture from flickr if thats any consolation.

...problem as you when trying to download a picture from flickr...

Some seem to be protected. They default to a "spaceball.gif" download.

Chris,
That one takes the cake! I literally L(ed)OL at Starbuck's, startling the person next to me.

Some of these are great - could very well be real bands!

Patty,

That really works!

ChrisL

These are terrific -- but please remember that Flickr's Terms of Service require that if we use images we find on Flickr, we link back to the original image's page.

WHDLoad sounds like electronica, and "one will believe it" (short for "The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it" -- Bertrand Russell, in accordance with the rules) their effort to reach a mature statement of their musical philosophy. The album cover was fortuitiously square when it popped up, so I didn't need to change it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDLoad
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urchinmama/2161738275/

folkadelic alt-goth

post-rock rejectronica