PUBLIC COLLECTORS

Lyrics to the song “Pig in a Blanket” by the Michigan band The Crucifucks scanned from the insert of their 1987 album Wisconsin on Alternative Tentacles. Some of the most scathing punk lyrics ever written from a singer, Doc Dart, who had no shortage of harsh words for his enemies.

A page scanned from Mexico Souvenir Program, a silkscreen and offset publication of collages by Jean-Kristau and published by French graphic extremists Le Dernier Cri.

Many bands or record labels write little messages that get pressed into the matrix of their vinyl records (the dead wax close to the center label). This phenomena, which can sometimes be very hard to see without a bright light, is specific to records and something lost to the development of CDs, much less MP3s. Many bands use this as a playful creative space - sometimes for little inside jokes - and a lot of listeners have no idea that these messages are hiding on records they may listen to hundreds of times. I asked people on two internet music discussion forums to go through their records and look for these messages (only some records have them). I also noted messages from some records in my own collection. There is a marked emphasis on underground and independent music including punk and metal, but some more mainstream artists appear as well.

One example:

Hüsker Dü – “New Day Rising” (SST)
Side A: here in the midst of graveyards that push up light
Side B: i’ll trade you two good shirleys for 10,000 dead midwestern indians

You can see the results of our collective efforts here.

If you have found some matrix messages that aren’t listed, please email me: marc [at] publiccollectors [dot] org

An insert by the Canadian artist Van Schley from the Winter/Spring 1973 issue of the art journal Avalanche.

The band page for Texas punks The Dicks from the booklet insert that came with the 1984 double LP, P.E.A.C.E. on R Radical Records. One of the essential international hardcore compilations of the 1980s.

A detail of artwork by Overton Loyd from the cover of the booklet insert for the record This Boot Is Made For Fonkin’ by Bootsy’s Rubber Band on Warner Brothers, 1979.

A detail of an original ad for Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison live album from the August 1968 issue of Eye magazine. Unfortunately an additional photo from the ad that fills out the page is too large for the scanner.

Just in time for Friday the 13th: a graphic in the souvenir book from the tour behind Black Sabbath’s 1981 album Mob Rules. The book, which is nearly the size of an LP, was a very sweet discovery found inside a used copy of that record that I picked up about twenty years ago in Philadelphia.

Society, a 1964 painting by Peter Saul, scanned from the 1989 exhibition catalog Peter Saul from the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado.

Actually nearly all tracts published by the Pilgrim Tract Society in Randleman, North Carolina, including this undated four page title, are quite funny. Why was the potato not a Christian? Because unlike Christians, when a little boy’s mother cut the potato open it was bad in the center, and as the boy remembered his mother telling him, “those who were not Christians had old hearts that were bad and rotten with sin on the inside.” Yep! Number one on my list of places in the United States that I’m in no hurry to visit? Randleman, North Carolina.

A drawing by Thomas Ockerse, scanned from his 1973 artist book documentracings: printed matter, printed in an edition of 300 copies by Tom Ockerse editions. This 10 1/2 X 11 1/4 image was made using source material from the Warwick / Zayre catalog.

Recently I picked up an original copy of Sun Ra’s 1965 Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1 LP on the ESP-Disk label. Inside the album was one the old sale sheets of records that ESP-Disk released. Here is a scan of one side of the insert. Oh to be able to go back in time and purchase some of these titles for $6.98 post-paid!

A photocopied flyer from a show in Philadelphia, I think in 1988. This was one of worst concert-going experiences of my life. The New York Hardcore band Breakdown brought out a very thuggish crowd, filled with macho douche-bags and skinheads. During Breakdown’s set my friend Colin was punched in the throat. I suggested that this might be a sign that we should leave but he was defiant and insisted on staying through the end of the show. As we were leaving and walking to his car, some of the large group of skinheads noticed Colin and I and decided they weren’t finished. Everything quickly came into sharp focus: the fenced in parking lot only had one exit and the skinheads were moving toward it while also throwing pebbles at Colin’s car. I instructed Colin to lock all of the doors and hit the gas, FAST. We wound up driving through a group of knuckle-dragging pieces of shit who were kicking the car as they cleared the way to avoid getting run over.

Artist Sister Mary Carita in front of her work at an exhibit at the Vatican Pavilion. Scanned from a December, 1965 article in motive magazine.

“Works in the Bruce Nauman Retrospective (Best to Worst)” by Gary Cannone. Scanned from “Untitled” fanzine, April/May 1996, produced for the exhibition “Cannone/Hall” at MWMWM Gallery in Chicago as an additional piece in the show.