Misplaced Misunderstood

The Misunderstood
Rick Moe, Rick Brown, Tony Hill, Steve Whiting and Glenn Campbell

Psychedelic rock greats, The Misunderstood, from near-by Riverside, CA.

Drawn in September of last year and found again yesterday.

What About Us?

Like the Coasters asked, 'what about us', Pop Hall of Fame?

More ignored founding fathers, pioneers and influential artists from unpopular genres like rockabilly, garage glam and doo-dah.

Charlie Feathers
1932-1998

Link Wray
1929-2005

The Sonics
Andy Parypa, Larry Parypa, Jerry Roslie, Bob Bennett and Rob Lind

T. Rex
Marc Bolan, Mickey Finn, Bill  Legend and Steve Currie

The Bonzo Dog Band
Clockwise from left: 'Legs' Larry Smith, Rodney Slater, Neil Innes, Vivian Stanshall, Dave Clague and Roger Ruskin-Spear.
Difficult to see: Vernon Dudley Bohey-Nowell, Dennis Cowan, Sam Spoons, Joel Druckman, and the Rawlinsons

Pete Johnson
1904-1967
Our new Epson scanner rotates this drawing slightly every time I try to scan it. Roll 'em, Pete.

In my day...

Scraps from the filing cabinet.

A rough looking comp for the Shrunken Head booklet cover.

Harley's idea for the cover was something like the Smokey Robinson cd below, a b/w band shot with a solid, bright color behind. I'd swear he showed me a hot pink Coasters cd as the example but I couldn't find it when I searched. The red background was cut out around the band photo on rubylith film and the lettering and small heads in the upper corners were put onto over-lays of acetate, this was now "camera-ready" art for the printer. I've spent a lot of time in a dark room with a photostat camera but that's another story.

All the song titles were written by hand using my own Deadbolt lettering based on the italic logo I had already created for the band. In the late 80's and early 90's lettering for graphic art was still supplied by a typesetter, if you wanted anything fancy there was always rub-down Letraset lettering or drawing it yourself.

 Tiki Man cover bamboo logo 

 Tiki Man disc lettering, 1994

Breakin' the law...

 The color version that was made into stickers and embroidered patches. No oval, as intended.

Still Sick

A cross-hatching nightmare version of Bal's cover art for Rockabilly Psychosis & the Garage Disease. Worked on occasionally over the past year or two between tattoos.

One of my favorite comps that still sounds just as good 25 years later. In the years following my purchase of this record I would get to see the Cramps, Gun Club and Meteorhead, live. In 1994, Gary Burns and I were putting a band together with Grant of the Geezers, we joined Deadbolt instead, as "the Wall of Thunder", replacing departed bassist R.A. MacLean with a bass duo. Playing with Deadbolt gave me the honor of sharing the stage the Cramps, Guana Batz, the reformed Geezers, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy and the late, great Hasil Adkins.