THE SMASHING PUMPKINS TEAM WITH SHEPARD FAIREY FOR ‘ZEITGEIST’ COVER

To capture the mood of our times with the album cover for ZEITGEIST—the forthcoming album by THE SMASHING PUMPKINS—the band turned to acclaimed Obey Giant graphic designer and illustrator Shepard Fairey. After being given the album’s title to work with, Fairey came up with a haunting image: it’s a red, black and white illustration of a drowning Statue of Liberty, positioned in front of the sun that is either setting or rising.

“Like a great artist can do, Shepard had summed up very simply a lot of complex themes,” says the band’s Billy Corgan. “He also used the type font from our very first single, and I asked him about it and he had no idea. He was just on point.”

Says Fairey, whose Andre the Giant street art has been seen around the world and whose credits include creating anti-war posters and the poster art for the feature film Walk The Line:

“I think global warming is an issue that is currently relevant, time sensitive, and a symptom of the shortsightedness of the U.S. As a broader metaphor, the drowning Statue of Liberty, a revered icon of the U.S., symbolizes the eminent demise of many of the ideals upon which the nation was founded. Civil liberties, freedom of speech, privacy, etc. have been decreasing since 9/11. The sun in the image could either be setting or rising and this ambiguity shows that there is still hope to turn things around.”

Click for more

BOMBSHELL; The Life and Crime of CLAW Money

BOMBSHELL The Life and Crime of CLAW MoneyThursday, May 24, 2007 8:00 – 11:00 pm: Book Signing at Turntable Lab, 424 North Fairfax Music by DJ Blu Jemz & DJ Pube$ 11:00 pm; After Party at Dance Right at La Cita Downtown Los Angeles 336 South Hill St. (btw. 3rd & 4th) Drinks courtesy of Dewars

Click for more

Reminisce Providence

In 1993 I was working late night at Kinko’s on some Obey Giant materials when I noticed a guy xeroxing a zine called KILL ROCCO, as in Steve Rocco, the founder of World Industries who many credit with taking the skateboard industry in a negative direction. I told the guy, who introduced himself as John Freeborn, that I had a mini-ramp in my studio and he was welcome to come ride it. He took me up on my offer and totally slayed it on my ramp. We became friends and I sorta sponsored him by giving him t-shirts and stickers. I also put him in my skate and propaganda video “Attention Deficiency Disorder” (which I still have a few VHS copies left of). He started his own skateboard and t-shirt company called GOOD AND EVIL and was kind enough to include a small part for me in his GOOD AND EVIL video in 1995 or so. I’m in section one of the video. The footage of me is on my mini-ramp in my studio in Providence. Notice that in my first run I’m on a normal skateboard, and my second run is on a dinky 70′s toy board. I had more goof off time in 1995. Also, artist Jim Houser is in the video. He actually started drawing and painting seriously while working for me in Providence. John Freeborn went on to co-found Space 1026 in Philadelphia.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=johnfreeborn

-Shepard