For a limited time only you can download the finale album release from Nakatomi Plaza for FREE / Pay what you want. The complete album with super artwork and essays from each band member will also be available on their final tour. There’s also a donation option too. This final album and upcoming final tour are completely self-financed, so they’re grateful for any donations.

More details about the album and the final tour can be found at the Nakatomi Plaza site.

Direct download link to Nakatami Plaza – “Ghosts” album.

Listen to Nakatomi Plaza on myspace

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What do Brandon Boyd, Jon Burgerman, Tim Burgess, Chet Zar, David Horvath, Duff MCkagan and many more all have in common? They have all offered up their inspirational words about their creative industries to Subvert Magazine. This genuinely one of my favourite magazine sites at the moments. It’s a must read for anyone creative, who wants to be inspired and further their prospective careers with truthful, authentic anecdotes and advice. What’s great is that founders Paul and Angel really recognise the mutual similarities of all the creative industries, and the necessary dedication and hard work they require in order to become ‘successful’.

Have a read of Subvert Magazine today!

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We’ve all seen retro tees around, but we stumbled across Retro GT. An awesome archive of your favourite pixel inspired computer images on tees. The best bit of this geekfest is that you can revel in all the background history too.

I personally like the simplicity of these tees. NINTENDO CORE! You might think it’s pretty sad, but fuck it why not bask in the glory of wearing an 80′s joypad on your top? At least it’s part of your past and it means something!

So go geek and be sleek, and buy these tees today! Cheaper than overpriced Topman faffwears

For more retro action read about Greg Wood’s Top 5 Amiga Games of all time!

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My good man, Illustrator and Designer Stephen Chan is giving away this lovely lovely screenprint over at Thunder Chunky!

The screenprint originally featured as a part of the Editions / Power in Numbers Exhibition by Cure Studio and Print Club London. The idea behind the print plays with the exhibition theme ‘Power in Numbers’, how this power if misused can lead to war and destruction, but if used wisely can stop wars and create peace.

Instructions on how to win one of these screenprints:

“All you have to do is use your wonderful gift of imagination, and come up with an interesting, weird, wacky, delightful, etc answer to complete this simple sentence “…if I had 1000…” eg. “…if i had 1000 > jellybeans, I would grow a jellybean forest and make a land of candy…”

Option A: Follow Stephen’s twitter or thunderchunky’s. And answer the above question, directing it to either accounts with the hashtag #TCxStephenChan

Option B: Just simply answer the question by commenting on the Thunder Chunky

EASY PEASY!

If you’re eager to get hold of the print, you can snap one up at Cure Studio!

To view more of Stephen’s excellent work jetset off to the Stephen Chan site

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Toronto based quartet, The Flatliners are just about one of the most exciting bands to see live at the moment. Their shows are full of energy, anthemic tunes and diverse musical arrangements from reggae jams, rock n roll and straight up hardcore and punk rock numbers. We caught up with they boys in the midst of their latest European tour to talk festivals, donuts, and broken down vans.

A big hello from the UK, how the devil are you?

Things are great. Constantly recovering from hot shows and strong drinks in Europe.

For those not in the know, give us a run down on where the Flatliners are today and how it all started.

We’ve all known each other since childhood, so naturally we all started playing music together. We’d book our weekends in high school solid with shows and then once we were out of there we just hit the road and haven’t stopped. We are currently in Germany on our way to Luxembourg to play with The Aggrolites, in the 4th week of our Summer Euro Tour.

As well as wider Europe you hit the UK shores late August to play the Reading / Leeds festival, doing a few dates here and there with A Wilhelm Scream, Strung Out and the Mad Caddies. It seems your relentlessly touring again like you did for your last record! How has it compared to the last time round?

Our world of always driving, always playing shows and always meeting new, rad people seems to never end. That’s the best part. We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to do what we do, and get the opportunity to play with these great bands that we’re all big fans of. It seems each time we return to a city as well, we’re met my more and more people, so hopefully we’re doing something right hahaha. We were blown away when we heard we’d be playing Leeds and Reading this year. I remember my brother always reading NME magazine when I was growing up, and every year I saw the epic line up for each respective festival, and thinking “holy shit, how do all these incredible bands play together?” And now we’re a part of it. And that, is truly mindblowing.

How is the new record coming along? I’ve heard that there’s going to be a few surprises in there! When will it be released?

We finished recording our new album 2 days before leaving for this European Tour, so we’re in the mixing stages now and then we’ll get rolling on the artwork and everything. We’ve definitely got some tricks up our sleeve, involving some good friends of ours with rad voices. But I can’t reveal any more info yet. We’re secretive bastards! As it stands now, it looks like it will be out early 2010, so we’ve got some plans right now to do something cool this fall to get people stoked for the new record.

You’re very proud of your canadian heritage, what are the things you miss on tour and what are you glad to see the back of.

We all miss Tim Hortons like it was our favourite place on earth when we’re away. Its a coffee/donut shop that is massive in Canada. And the coffee is like fucking crack. We all miss our beds too. Sometimes its weird sleeping with a different pillow every night, but oh well. That’s life.

It was great to see you release a split with the snips for the fantastic Paper + Plastick!

Vinnie Fiorello is a great dude, and we’re stoked to be working with him on that split. The Snips are our homies too, they’re great. That split has been in the works for something like 4 years now. I remember playing a show with them in 2004 and we were all sitting around drinking, talking about the idea of doing a split where there were only short songs. 5 short songs rolled into 1 weird jam. And it finally happened!

What is your opinion on this crazy dispensable digital age of music?

Some bands will shoot it down like Metallica did Napster, some bands will deny that people downloading music actually helps your band. We’re not the kind of guys that really lose sleep over the fact that people download our music. I think things like MySpace and file sharing help bands more than they even know. Sure, people are buying fewer and fewer records every year, but look at the times we live in. The general population’s pockets are scarily empty, and they’re priorities may not involve buying a new CD for $15. We’re lucky enough to be a part of the Fat Wreck family, who share our ideals of making music as cheap as possible. We sell our CDs for $5 at shows, and I cant even count how many people I’ve talked to after our shows who have said something like “I downloaded your record, listened to it over and over again, came to this show and then had to buy the CD because it was only $5.” Fat Mike knows what he’s doing.

Which other bands are you currently enjoying?

There’s a band from England called The Living Daylights, who I just learned about a few months ago. And they’re awesome. We made friends with a band from Exeter last year called OK Pilot, and they’re like The Bronx meets Hot Snakes, but dirtier. I love that band. The Snips, of course, are a band everyone should check out. Same goes for our buddies Hostage Life from Toronto.

Who would be your all time favourite band you would like to play live with?

We’ve been lucky enough to play with a lot of cool bands, of which some are my favourites. I’d have to say one band the four of us would shit our pants over to play with would be Rocket From the Crypt. Although, they are no more… which makes it even more desirable.

How do you chillax when you finally get time out?

Get home from tour, do all my laundry, sleep for a week straight, wake up, hang out with my girlfriend, family, cat and buddies from back home, roll up some of Canada’s greatest export up and get real lazy. Oh, and then the four of us will likely jam a shitload.

Visual art

With all the cities you see on tour and bands you play with, you must come across a lot of of urban art, merch design and cultural images. Whats the most awesome thing you’ve seen? And would any of you have the desire to be visual artist if you had time away from the band?

Europe is covered in graffiti and I love it. I do a lot of merch design for our band, so I’m always looking around for cool shit and Europe has some incredible street artists. Its tough to pin it down to one or two sources, but I will say that its easy to be inspired when we tour over here.

Debate

What’s really ticking you off at the moment?

We just had to say goodbye to our tour manager’s amazing Sprinter Van. We got in an accident last week, so we’ve been touring in a rented Sprinter for a bit. We’ve done 3 tours in that van and its the best. RIP Duckmobile.

What are your “buzzing” and totally happy about?

We’ll be in England in 2 days. I love it there. Whenever we get to the UK this feeling passes through me like I never want to leave.

What would would the flatliners do to change the world we live in?

All we can do is write songs and enjoy life. People should love their lives rather than try to find ways to always to improve them or change them around. I think the human race is just so used to making advancements in all aspects of life at this point that we’ve forgotten that sometimes you’re OK just the way you are. Love your life.

Go see the flatliners play in your European city this summer!

Full details of the Tour are on the The Flatliners website.

Other links

The Flatliners on Fat wreck Chords
Listen to the Flatliners on spotify

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Hey there! How are you doing today?

I am very well thankyou. Tired as I normally am, but somehow refreshed after three hours sleep! London can be a noisy place to live.

For those who need to know, tell us who Dan Mumford is.

Dan Mumford is a freelance Illustrator, who also dabbles in design and print making. Primarily at the moment most of my time is spent working on tee designs and merch for bands, but I am slowly moving away from that at the moment into new realms of art, theres only so long you can work in one area before it begins to get stale.

Give us an insight into a typical day for you.

Most days will begin around 7:30 with me waking up, followed by sitting in bed emailing, surfing the internet and watching crappy morning tv. Then I will head to the studio for about 9:30/10 am, and start working away on whatever I have on my plate that day. I pretty much just sit in front of a computer for LONG periods at a time, most of the day is essentially just punctuated with breaks to get a drink. Sometimes I get to go down to the print studio where I do screenprints, but that’s quite rare at the moment as time doesn’t really permit that. Generally I finish up around 7pm and head home. I don’t do any work at home though unless its essential, I try and split work and homelife, otherwise I would never stop, so I make sure the evenings are for me.

What are you currently working on?

Right now I am working on a new batch of tee’s for ‘The black Dahlia Murder’, I’ve done something like 12 designs for them now, they’re gret clients, and just do bulk orders of designs from me to take out on tour, and its always fun working out ideas with their tour manager Karim. On top of that, I am working on a top secret project that should be fun with a couple of others. As well as that I am in the concept stages of a print series for myself, and also just started outlining some sort of graphic novel concept, those last two are literally in the beginning stages..i find it hard to get time for personal work, so it could be years before they see the light of day, but I hope not.

Your work is incredibly detailed and looks meticulously thought out.
What’s the longest you have spent on one piece, and which was it?

It completely depends on the piece really. A tee design will nearly always never be more than two days, sometimes three, which I think surprises some people, a lot of designers manage to crank stuff out in a day or even half a day, but each design I do takes quite a lot out of me to do, the intricacies are a real headache, I sometimes question why I decided to work like this, but then I guess that is what makes my work, my work! The longest though would probably either be the ‘Evil 9′ zombie landscape, which I remember was two weeks solid work, long days..or ‘Francesca’ which was around the same, but to be honest that wasn’t as intense. So yeah, the ‘Evil 9′ piece wins that award, that was such a nightmare..!

Your latest work has a limited colour palette which delivers an immediate punch.
Is there any other reason for this apart from it’s aesthetic value?

I’m not sure if I agree on the limited pallette, perhaps the range of colours yes, but I’m just adding more shades now instead! Haha, to be honest it’s all for the aesthetic value, that and just trying to change things up a bit. I can see myself going back to black and white in the future, colour used to scare me when I was at uni, I never really used it, and my tutors pushed me to use it, which was a good thing, but I think it maybe detracts somewhat from the linework sometimes.

You’ve worked with some quality bands such as the Gallows, Set Your Goals and Protest the Hero. Are you quite selective about the bands that you work with, and do they often present their ideas upon you?

I would say that I am only selective in that I won’t work with a band that I don’t agree with on some level. Most of the time it is just the people that come to me with a good idea at the right time though. I am lucky in that I have to turn down a lot of the work that comes my way now, so I can be quite picky about the jobs I choose, who knows If that will last though! And yeah the bands nearly always have some sort of idea, I don’t like to be given a clean slate to come up with an idea, you never know if the band will like it, so its always good if they have the seed of an idea.

Tell us a bit more about your screenprinting. How did you get into that. It’s such a beautiful art!

That was when I was at university about 5 years ago. As I said I was doing a lot of black and white artwork, and my tutors wanted me to inject some colour into it, and screenprinting seemed perfect for me, so essentially my movement into colour came with blocks of colour in pieces, and I slowly built up from there. I gained a real love for printmaking when I was at uni, and I truly hope in the future I can just spend all day making prints, I find it really calming.

Who has influenced your art, past and present?

I always find this question hard to answer, and I always answer with the most broad answer I can, because essentially my influences are all over the place. I think the one thing that really captured my heart and imagination was films from the 80′s-90′s in the sci-fi and horror genre. Aliens, the terminator, The thing, blade runner, Big trouble in little China and so on, artists didn’t really resonate with me that much and they still don’t, I try to look outside the box for influence. I think the only artist I can say has honestly impacted my style is Alfons Mucha, and I see it in a lot of peoples work these days, his flowing lines and yet the boldness of his work is unbeatable.

Away from design how do you escape?

I actually really like being on my own, haha. I am a bit of a loner sometimes, so I like to hole up and watch a film or play videogames, it really helps me get away from work and immerse myself in another world, I am all about immersion and escaping from reality and getting involved in some fantasy world someone else has spent ages creating. Of course I do like to go out with friends and vist places with my girlfriend, go away for the weekend etc, but yeah.. a lot of time spent watching movies, I go to the cinema at least once a fortnight!

Music

What bands are you shuffling through your playlist at the moment?

Too many bands, in the last few days, Ghost Brigade, Behemoth, Darkest Hour, The Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree, August Burns Red, Poison The Well, DJ Shadow, Boards of Canada, The Get Up Kids..etc..

Who would be your all time favourite band you would design for?

I have always said Slayer in response to this question, but you know what, I don’t think that still stands. Maybe Opeth, they are a great band..or Adamantium before they split up.

Debate

What’s really ticking you off at the moment?

The HEAT. I really really hate being too hot, I am totally a winter man. I always say, if you are too cold, put on a jumper, but if you are too hot, you can’t take off your skin can you….if that makes sense? Hahaha, basically because In England we don’t have air conditioning everywhere, when it gets really hot like it has this summer, the tube becomes so hot underground, and shops are unbearable. TFL (transport for london) really needs to roll out air conditioned trains fast, or as summers get hotter its going to get even worse when you travel to work. Anyway, I am sure it will be back to rainy days soon, this is England after all.

What are you “buzzing” and totally happy about?

The new projects I have planned! I am itching to get working on a lot of personal projects, I am a little bored of client work at the moment, so putting new things into gear will be a real shot in the arm for me and hopefully make me a little more excited about work!

If there was one thing in the world that you could change, what would it be?

Chocolate would be good for you. I blame my mum for her sweet tooth, we had a sweet box filled with biscuits and chocolates, she said it was for me and my sister to have treats from when we were good..but I know the truth, she was the one who needed the chocolate, and now I do!

You can view more amazingly evil illustrations at Dan Mumford’s Site. Do it. Do it!

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These are simply amazing. Why haven’t these been thought of before? Notice the detail in the different hilts too?!

Starting in November, you’ll be able to buy these Star Wars light saber chopsticks in Darth Vader Red, Luke Skywalker Blue, or the Kid Sized Yoda Green for 1050 yen ($10) each from model toy retailer Kotobukiya. Fun at the dinner table for the whole family!

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I for one, can’t wait for this animated adventure! This is going to be class, not only because it is released a day before my birthday on October 23rd, 2009, but from the trailer it looks like it has been visually well executed too. The cast also features Nicholas Cage, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy as well as young Freddie Highmore (Charlie & the chocolate factory) as the lead voice.

A thrilling tale of a true hero, Astro Boy is an all-new, feature film full of action, adventure, humor and heart. Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly. Astro Boy was originally a Japanese manga series and television program first broadcast in Japan from 1963 to 1966.

View the previous trailer, storyline and an interesting “timeline” feature on the Official Astro Boy Site

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Hello! How are you doing today?

Not too bad at all. Sick last week, so this week is feeling a lot more productive. Thanks for asking.

Tell us what Drew Millward is about, what you do and why you do it.

That is the sort of thing that will send me into an existential crisis. I find it best not to think about myself too much in the third person, and certainly not to pay too much attention to what I’m all about. Basically I’m an artist/designer/illustrator. It’s not that easy to pigeonhole really. I suppose there are elements of all those disciplines in what I do. But the bottom line is that enjoy drawing pictures and having fun.

You seemed to have a developed a unique balance and blend of dark and light themes within your work, where does that influence comes from?

I think those are elements that I’m very much interested in. I’m drawn to things that have elements of light and dark, it’s something that I strive to illustrate in my own work. The thought that something can be attractive and disturbing at the same time is something that can engage a viewer in a pretty interesting dialogue. It allows you to build narrative into the work that would otherwise be lost without that balance. If something looks nice and the subject matter is ‘nice’, as much as people are drawn to it, the attraction tends to stop there. Equally with an image that works only to offend or confront the viewer will only really illicit one sort of response. You mix the two together, and you instantly create something that is a lot more engaging. I’m not saying I always achieve that, but it’s definitely something I look to as what I hope to create.

Are there any hidden meanings or messages within your work?

Lots. I find it really dull listening to people explaining why things are done the way they are done. It takes away some of the mystery. Like I mentioned before, I like the viewer to enter into some sort of dialogue with the work, so if someone sees something that means something to them it can draw them in and create a narrative that is personal to them, or indeed is intended to be there.
I love comics, and I love the traditional narrative form, but personally I could never think about sitting down and drawing a whole book. I would simply get bored. I’m much more interested in getting a narrative into a single frame, be that a poster, shirt, painting… anything really.

Tell us a bit about the process of your designs. I understand you do a lot of it by hand first.

Yeah, I’m a bit of a heathen really. I still prefer to draw everything by hand and then put it together in Photoshop later. I suppose as time has gone by I have become more reliant of computers to colour images and I’m beginning to see the advantages of using them to work out layouts a bit more, but I still would never want to stray too far from the hand-made aesthetic. Drawing is what I love doing, so creating something purely with a computer is not something I’m in any hurry to do. Having said that, it’s about the best tool you can hope for aside from a paper and a pen.

Does the music of the band you design for have any aesthetic impact on what you produce?

I would like to think so. The challenge of designing for a band is to try and capture the aesthetic of their music into a visual medium. As much as I have a style of work, I would like to think that I tailor what I do to the specific project I’m working on… maybe some are more successful than others. I really try as much as I can to work with bands that I personally like. As much as I don’t like turning down work, sometimes it’s unavoidable. If I were to disagree with a bands politics, or really dislike their music I would find it very difficult to produce work for them. I guess it’s a balance you have to get right.

You’ve done posters for The Melvins, Sonic Youth, Gallows, Bon Iver. What has been your favourite design you have done to date?

I’d probably say my Mogwai poster, but in truth it’s usually the last thing I have completed, since it’s usually fresh enough for me not to be sick of the sight of it.

Where do you hope to take your work in the next few years and eventually in the long term?

I’d love to carry on doing what I’m doing. As much as I bitch and moan about it, I genuinely consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth to be able to do what I’m doing. There are some things I’d like to do, like make toys, more clothing projects, more album work, but that is pretty much what I’m doing now. I would, however, like to own a house. Anything that can make that happen would be the best.

Music

What are you currently enjoying?

I’m constantly listening to music, so it’s a pretty long and eclectic list to be honest.
I’m listening to a lot of Tom Waits of late. I’ve always been a fan, but I’ve recently gone back and filled in some gaps that were in my collection. As a body of work it’s pretty much second to none, he even came through the 80’s unscathed. It’s pretty impressive that he has never made a bad album in such a lengthy career.

Other stuff…P.O.S., Trap Them, Black Tusk, Thou, Cannibal Ox, Pinback, Springsteen, Russian Circles, Hanged Up, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sunn 0))), Master Musicians of Bukkake, Goblin, Wolves in the Throne Room, Crippled Black Phoenix, Guapo, King Crimson, Lambchop, Richmond Fontaine, Mendoza Line, Giant Sand, Mogwai, Narrows, Planes Mistaken For Stars….

Who would be your all time favourite band you would design for?

I’m honestly not sure. Mission of Burma are one of my favourite bands, but I’m unsure whether my work would fit with their aesthetic. I’d love to work with Shellac, that would be awesome. To be honest, I’m happy to work with anyone who would ask me. But if pushed it would have to be Tom Waits.

Debate

What’s really ticking you off at the moment?

Most things really. I’m a grouchy individual at the best of times, but couple that with the fact that I’m mainly sat alone means I’m pretty much wound up by most things and most people.

What are you “buzzing” and being happy about?

Working alone and for myself.

And finally what would you change in this crazy world?

I honestly wouldn’t know where to begin.

You can view more work and information on the Drew Millward website. You can also follow Drew Millward on Twitter.

Drew Millward’s Music pick on spotify

Tom Waits, Cannibal Ox, Pinback, Goblin, Lampchop

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I’m really loving the brand new illustration site by Kev Speck – www.bliinddrawings.com.
He manages to capture the essence of the message with so few lines and colours it’s pretty magical. The humour is neat and concise, plus it has a universally appealing tone to it.

You can see the drawings here and follow the drawings on Twitter too.

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