Superhotjoy: The Shindig Fantastico
Oh look it’s another cover which features photos in a natural history museum. This time the Durban Museum. Don’t worry this one’s different and while not having as polished photos as the others it’s still an interesting cover. Also it has an interesting title.
The bound book digi pack features four Polaroids of the band.
I think Garett in red is the only one who nailed the stunned look.
Richard Hart from Disturbance Design gave me the idea behind the design direction. “The band are from our own hometown in South Africa but Garrett, the lead singer was planning on moving to Seattle and taking the album with him in the hopes of getting a record deal. Thus we were briefed to demonstrate through the album art that they were an African band. We figured shooting them down at the local museum gave the whole African thing a humourous spin.”
Attack of the Monkeys
The photo on the CD of the monkey with huge teeth it’s pretty freaky. I always imagined our simian friends as friendly creatures but this and Ground Components cover is a reminder to never get into a bar fight with a ape or monkey of any kind.
Stuffed Animals:
With all the comments generated about Interpol’s latest album it’s interesting to note that Superhotjoy released this limited edition album a month before “Our love to admire” was released. I think Richard says it best here “Luckily by then most of the 500 copies had already been sold and we and the band managed to avoid looking like we’d done a cheap knock-off.”
See for yourself. Note: the Superhotjoy photo was not used for the cover though and they actually have some reason (if small) to use animals in their concept.
Here’s the lead singer telling an antelope (or Springbok) all about the cover fiasco.
If you want to see more of Disturbance’s work check their Flickr page. Or, like me, if you want to look at photos of their office with envy check here.
I think we can now officially say that any type of stuffed animal museum is off limits to all bands for at least a decade. Spread the word.
RealLifePixel.com:
I just read this on Wikipedia and thought this was positively fascinating. Forgive me if everyone reading this was intimately aware of much significance the springbok held for South Africa, but I simply had to share this. It truly puts these images in a new light.
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The springbok was a national symbol of South Africa under white minority rule (including a significant period prior to the establishment of Apartheid). It was adopted as a nickname or mascot by a number of South African sports teams, most famously by the national rugby union team. It appeared on the emblems of the South African Air Force, the logo of South African Airways (for which it remains their radio callsign), the reverse of the Krugerrand, and the Coat of Arms of South Africa. It also featured as the logo of ‘South Africa’s Own Car’, the Ranger, in the early 1970s.
The former South African Prime Minister and architect of apartheid, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, had a dream to change the then-current Flag of South Africa, remove the three small flags in its center (he objected especially to the British Union Flag being there) and replace them with a leaping Springbok Antelope over a wreath of six proteas. This proposal aroused, however, too much controversy and was never implemented.
The Springbok is currently the national animal of South Africa.
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Now, I’m not saying these guys are racist by any means. I just find it interesting that where I see “antelope” they see the culturally-loaded springbok.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLIfb9K-Q0
Superhotjoy - “Even Numbers”
I just checked these guys out and this is a beautiful song. Funny thing, this is this the second song titlde “Even Numbers” that I just heard for the first time tonight. http://giantsonline.blogspot.com/2008/01/they-might-be-giants-have-released.html
# 12 Jan 08 at 1:50 pm
richard hart:
hey, for what it’s worth, the antelope featured are not springboks, they are kudus. springboks are indeed a very culturally loaded symbol, used very often these days in a fashionably ironic way. we weren’ going for fashionable irony in this case… so we gave the springbok display a miss.
# 11 Apr 08 at 8:25 pm
Ash:
Hey Richard,
thanks for clearing that up. It’s interesting than a cultural icon can have some much baggage. But in a country like South Africa it’s understandable. It’s got almost as much baggage as the middle east
# 12 Apr 08 at 12:57 pm