Red Mosquito

VinylGuy wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:I wonder if Tom Tomorrow is doing the art for the new album?

That was a serious question, btw.

i liked his worked in backspacer but i want the band to do a different thing now.

dimejinky99 wrote:If it's anything like the tshirt contest, we'd never see the album released. Ever.

bodysnatcher wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:Yeah, it was a huge improvement on the previous record's artwork.

that was embarrassing. And makes me believe Ed/Jeff aren't as involved or passionate about it anymore. Especially this:

McCready said, "That symbolizes just kind of ... Ed's at the end of the process and said, for all I care right now, we've done such a good job on this record, and we're kind of tired from it. Let's throw an avocado on the cover. I think that's what happened, and our art director goes, hey, that's not a bad idea. I think we were watching the Super Bowl, and we had some guacamole or something."

gardenparty wrote:

bodysnatcher wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:Yeah, it was a huge improvement on the previous record's artwork.

that was embarrassing. And makes me believe Ed/Jeff aren't as involved or passionate about it anymore. Especially this:

McCready said, "That symbolizes just kind of ... Ed's at the end of the process and said, for all I care right now, we've done such a good job on this record, and we're kind of tired from it. Let's throw an avocado on the cover. I think that's what happened, and our art director goes, hey, that's not a bad idea. I think we were watching the Super Bowl, and we had some guacamole or something."

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

pearljamonline wrote:Jeff Ament was interviewed on Siriux XM Pearl Jam Radio.
Jeff on new Pearl Jam album: "If all goes well it should be out before the end of the year".

WtOB? wrote:

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

stip wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

stip wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

Got Some wrote:Who gives a shit about the cover????

Get a close up of a sheep attempting to eat a carrot again for all I care. Still doesn't make vs a fucking amazing album

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

stip wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

Visually it is much better than Backspacer which is a mess - they should have just used the lady lying on top of the car / bed and the rest as jpegs in the publisher's recycle bin.

I thought it was a good rebrand from the previous black album covers going back to Vs (ex No Code). I wonder if they had an early version that was more like the interior artwork and felt that it was just more of the same so tried going for something more refreshing and that would stand out more in record stores.

I thought the avocado was meant to be a visual for the earth and then you can read in various things about fragility, retaining core values, ripening / maturing etc - on the other hand you can look at it from the pop art perspective and then realise that the avocado isn't really a consumer good or a celebrity - which most pop art would feature - but something from the land and something organic. Equally the could have been eating guacamole...

stip wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

stip wrote:nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

stip wrote:that's an interesting read on it. Nice defense of artwork in general.

Juvenal wrote:Digression alert, you sluts:

Oh you malodorous malcontents, you did have to mention Avocado. I shall brook no opposition to a critique of this cover - you're all a bunch of tarts, even if some of you make me hard.

Let's go all art school, shall we? You yanks and your liberal arts or summat, snorting fair trade coffee and drinking drug lord cocaine. It's 2005 or 2006 or summat, and the band's bete noire is in the White House being a dick, killing people (a bit like the way his laudatory successor still kills brown people with drones but, ah, [YIELD ALERT!] you'd better stop me before I begin). So let's also suppose that you're Superman in that god awful Bryan Singer remake and you're looking at the earth in space. It's so pretty! Now, like the God of Google Earth you're zooming in. Ruh, roh Raggy, those big cityscapes (just about lacking the cavernous maw of DTE's video) start appearing until wham! Your nose is lodged in the dislodged guts of some grunt. Similarly - the Avocado artwork. Aint it nice? Peel back a layer and uhuh, it's the seed then another and oh teh oh noes! It's Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jams zombified! Scratch the surface with your mourning paper, lie crying onto your stars on your pillow (a limp flag delivered by a grim-faced soldier during a rainy burial day) and you see it's all gone to shit.

Of course, we're not saying that the band were thinking this. Eddie is simply a dwarf with a penchant for fireman poles and delicious eggs; Mike gets in arguments via twitter about Ole for chrissakes and Stone - well, Stone is probably into some kinky, filthy shit. The album contains water bollocks Big Wave, Marker and it's wank chorus (HUSH YOU FANBOY FUCKS) and Mike's dreadful denouement of lyrics. But it is, as was stated at the time, (and I paraphrase but sucky dicky) "A product of what it means to be an American right now". (Or indeed, what some people were feeling - perhaps viewed through a liberal perspective. 330 million people feeling exactly the same? Probably not but fuck it.) Angry, grim and, er, corpsey. Looking California, feeling Minnesota. And the album cover facilitates this dirty little switcheroo.