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Here’s a good blast from the past of Shepard going through his all-time favorite bands and albums. This list still holds up. Check it out and throw on some of these records this weekend!
Poster Child
Graffiti ‘Giant’ Shepard Fairey Gets Musical
Since the mid-‘90s, Shepard Fairey has plastered the globe with his humorously anti-authoritarian posters and stickers emblazoned with Constructivism-inspired icons and Orwellian commands. Most notably, that of deceased wrestling star Andre the Giant issuing the vague threat to OBEY. But what does it mean?
Fairey, now 36, grew up in Rhode Island and attended Rhode Island School of Design. It was there that OBEY started with an ‘Andre the Giant Has a Posse’ sticker — an inside joke amongst friends in a Rhode Island skate shop. “It was our secret posse,” he explains. 17 years later, Fairey’s “posse” has evolved into a movement. His artwork provokes thought and pushes the observer to ask questions about the arts, government, and society as a whole. Does OBEY have an official meaning? No. But does it make ya ponder? Absolutely.
Inspiration for Fairey — who now lives in L.A. with wife and child, and runs a graphic-arts firm called Studio Number One (he did theWalk The Line and Wassup Rockers movie posters) — is a bit offbeat. You’d think he’d gush about Tatlin andRodchenko. To the contrary, he spews lyrics by Chuck Dand rattles off his recent set list from a night of DJing. “As a kid, drawing wasn’t something that got me super-excited, but I’ll tell ya what,Joan Jett and Foreigner and the Rolling Stones, I was really excited about that!” says Fairey. “And when I got into punk rock, it was more intense. The Sex Pistols changed my life.”
Fairey’s appreciation of music hasn’t diminished. In fact, he’s now become a DJ — a true one, who mixes records so smoothly you’d think he was Grand Master Flash. Recently, Wolfmother asked Fairey to DJ their after-party in Los Angeles, proving that his talents are far beyond playing vinyl within the “confines of one’s bedroom.”
Here, Fairey enthusiastically compiled a list of his all-time-favorite bands and albums. In his words:
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks
That album changed my life before I even knew that it shifted the entire paradigm. From the amazing venom of Johnny Rotten, to the fashion of Vivienne Westwood, to the graphics of Jamie Reid, this was the most brilliant “talentless” group to swindle their way to the top of the rock ‘n’ roll industry.
The Clash: London Calling
The Clash started as Sex Pistols imitators in ‘76, but by ‘79 they expanded their horizons to include reggae, rockabilly, and jazz influences. They were punks who believed that term meant you can do anything, not just follow the ’77-era template.
Black Sabbath: Paranoid
This album is perfect start-to-finish. “War Pigs” is an anti-war song that is alternately slow, menacing, frenzied and energetic. This album set the metal sound template that many others copied, but few could write the great songs Sabbath could.
Black Flag: Damaged
Rollins joined the band just prior to this. His vocals combined with a musical style that was evolving away from proto-punk to include dirtier metallic distortion, gave an anger and intensity to the album that make it possibly hardcore’s finest hour. Read Rollins’ book Get in the Van.
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions
Hip-hop officially became the new punk rock with this album. Slayer is sampled on it. Chuck D has one of the most powerful vocal styles that matches his powerful lyrics. Their logo was great, the beats were great. Public Enemy had all the angles locked down on Takes a Nation… it makes you shake your rump and pump your fist.
Here is my list of newer albums:
Radiohead: OK Computer
I know it’s kind of old now, but it might be the best album of the ‘90s. It is beautiful, but it rocks. It’s experimental but accessible. A true masterpiece they have not lived up to since.
The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
On this album they departed from their guitar/drums/bass formula and went more electronic (which usually is not my taste) and the result is beautiful, provocative and cinematic. They created their own category with that album. Wayne Coyne seems like an awesome guy, a real free-thinking artist.
Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
I listened to this album over and over for months. There have been many Joy Division comparisons (which is not a bad thing) but I think they bring their own thing to the party as well. The mood is dark, but the songs rock as well. There is a great balance between atmospheric and propulsive.
The Hives: Vini Vidi Vicious
That record has great short tunes with the snottiness of the Pistols mixed with the swagger of the Stones. The album title and the lyrics are great. They rock live too.
The Eagles of Death Metal: Peace, Love, and Death Metal
Josh Homme’s side project has a loose, twangy but totally rockin’ shtick that makes the album really fun and spontaneous in contrast to many pretentiously over-produced records. The songs are simple but great style in a way nobody has done since the Cramps.
~Jessica McMenamin
