Never judge a CD by its cover #1

August 29, 2010 Arts, New Music Posted by: Sophie Benjamin 1 Comment

Welcome to 2010, where MP3s cost nothing and are worth as much, and even your Grandma has the skills to record show tunes and hymns before burning them to a CD-R.

It’s no wonder people aren’t rushing out to buy bog-standard glossy jewel case CDs. Sometimes some creative and aesthetically pleasing packaging can be the difference between your CD gathering dust on the shelf and your work of art being exchanged for cash monies.

After the cut are some of the more interesting CDs that have found their way onto my desk in the last few months. If you’re in a band and have a CD that you think I’d like the look and/or sound of, email me at sophie [at] whothehell [dot] net for my postal address.

Bixby Canyon – ‘Arndale’ demo

Bixby Canyon are a very very young band from Brisbane. They were giving out these babies in exchange for your email address and permission to be added to their mailing list. They made 100 of these demos, all of them individually cut, typed, folded, stamped and glued by the band and assorted ring-ins. Sounds painful and tedious. I think the inkjet-printed CD is a bit much (the colours! the teenage angst!), but never mind – you can download the music from their Bandcamp site.

Castles Sunk Below The Sea – Self-titled EP

I’ve posted about Castles a couple of times and was hoping I wouldn’t be disappointed by their EP. I’m not disappointed by the flow of the EP and I’m definitely not disappointed by the physical EP itself, even if the handwriting font is a bit illegible. The band give their thanks in the liner notes at least twice (pretty grateful, huh?) and it’s just a good-looking piece of digipak. You can get your own copy at the band’s BigCartel site.

Epithets – Self-titled album

More landscapes, I know, I know, just humour me.
Nick Smethurst has poured a (metaphorical) big chunk of himself into making this album, and it shows. Die-cut cardboard and foam packaging for the CD and detailed lyric sheet is classy and understated, as well as showcasing the sweet, earnest thankyous and performance credits. With only 500 individually numbered pieces in circulation, you can get your own at the Epithets Bandcamp site.