KATA HA JIME

Montreal DJ, Jean "Jimmy" Phillipe (aka Kata Ha Jime) is basically a douchebag. During the day Jean is a roller-blading courier and by night he djs various Montreal clubs playing shitty 1990's electronica. The thing is, he thinks the music is fresh. If he was playing it as if it was his "schtick" then it would be kinda fun, but because he's balls out serious it's embarrassing. On stage, the moron djs without a shirt, sucking on a soother while wearing his rollerblades. He roller-dances while dj'ing and it's just pathetic as he spins about spinning discs. He also has been known to wear silly hats, such as a jester's hat or one of those hats you see french skiers wear; looks like a hand; usually the middle finger extended. His first CD "Selling Your Children" is absolute garbage. It's a bit of Aqua meets Ace Is Base and Roxette and a whole heap of shit.

HIGH SPEED STEEL

John Dryden writes: "Holy fuck! I hate these guys so much! It's the "other" guys from Stone Temple Pilots, with a new singer, that sounds EXACTLY like Scott Whelan. With songs like "Trash The House" and "Party It Up" and the groaner, "Total Gang", I want to punch their collective faces. Here is an example of lyrics from Total Gang...

We are so a total gang
we'll kick your ass
if you say that again
We're a total gang

I think you get the point. These guys are retarded. Oh, and check out their shitty album cover..."

I have to agree. Though this band doesn't suck as much as Nickleback, HSS suck major donkey cocks and balls. To me, they're the equivalent of a harder-edged Honeymoon Suite. One of the worst album covers I have ever seen.

MALEWICE

Clint Butler's band Malewice has been getting some major recognition in the music rags.


Clint writes, "Here's the cover for my band Malewice's 6th album cover. We are known as pioneers of industrial country music, equal parts Throbbing Gristle and Rascal Flatts, Layering heart-felt, sentimental country lyricism with samples from slaughter houses and church bake sales we changed the way people thought about Country music and noises things make. "

BABUSHKA LADY

Babushka Lady's There Is No River has been considered a classic in the underground fantasy prog-rock world. Kind of Hawkwind, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull and Uriah Heap with some obvious Pink Floyd rip-offs. An average Babushka Lady song is 88 minutes in length. With 34 members (at one point 56), the band couldn't tour unless they all paid for their own tickets to see their own show. In July 1978, the band made it into the Guiness Book of World Records by having the most members to ever be found dead in one hotel room.

DOME PUBLISHING

Jason Hopkins (ex-singer for Jason J-Hop and the Hopped-Up J-Walkers) has started a new band and have just released a new album! Congrats Jason! I can't wait to crank this and listen to it!

Formed in the late 80's Dome Publishing has gone through many phases, from it's electro key-board album "Yes!" to it's hard and heavy death metal album "No!" Dome Publishing is now a Euro-Pop Rock band and when asked who their favorite influences were, they replied, "We don't listen to music, we make it, that's Dome Publishing mother*-expletive deleted*!!"

PRESSIG

Colin Lorimer has a band called Pressig and they most definitely know how to rock.

Colin writes: "Kind of retro garage underground with a bit of a Devo influence."

GROOM'S CAKE

Your pal Colin Beadle's band "Groom's Cake" has a new album out.

Colin writes: "Here's the cover for my bands new album. We're called GROOM'S CAKE. We're a Canadian electro-funk group. Famous for our live performances. Our drummer once did a show without touching a single drum. your pal, Beadle. "

THE DAVID PEOPLE

Here's John Dryden's album design for The David People.


John writes "The David People are two man noise band. Some of their songs are absolute crap, but this album contains a few gems. I wish they would concentrate on more gems than the other shit they are capable of. Well produced, they sound bigger than they are."

NEW BANDS ON THE BLOCK

I've done some graphic design in the past and my favourite job and passion is doing CD jacket artwork so when my buddy JP sent me the instructions on creating new bands and album work, it got me back into the graphic design swing (I've been too busy with other jobs and awesome chores to take on graphic work). Here are 3 new designs thanks to the JP Randomizer...

LYSYLTRANSFERASE "The Worlds Of Time"

Lysyltransferase are similar to Dead Can Dance meets Bauhaus. Not a big fan of this band's music at all as it's kinda sappy with a faux-dark gothic edge and cliche lyrics.


Prulas are a Swedish electroklashy type band. Crystal Castles meets Boards of Canada.

Gatsugi Station rock. Despite the flowery jacket design, the music is pretty kick-ass punk. A little Bullfight in Mexico/At The Drive-In and a bit of The Hives. Politically charged punk.

MORGAN, UTAH

Thanks J.P. Holecka!

Here's the album artwork I did for the band Morgan, Utah.


Who the hell are Morgan, Utah? Here's who they are:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here's the original image by "Architekthura."

THE GOON MOVIE POSTER

Here's a movie poster for David Fincher's & Blur Studio's take on Eric Powell's The Goon!!! I can't wait for this movie!!

INTERVIEW WITH HALF-LIFE 2 "ESCAPE FROM CITY 17" CREATORS

CLICK HERE for details on what Toronto's Purchase brothers spent their $500 on to create their viral hit video (1.5 million hits in just under a week) and hear what Half Life 2 creators Valve had to say.

ROCKET SHIP VASE

On Valentine's Day I brought home some flowers for my lovely lady and again realized that our flower vase situation sucks. Either the vase is bigger than a punch bowl or too small; able to only hold one flower stem. So I said to myself, "We need a better vase." Well check out how cool this vase by Martin Bu is!


I mean this is fucking perfect for my home! It's something that everyone in the world can get excited about and when it's sitting on my dining room table and guests come over, they just won't shut up about it!

HALF LIFE 2 MINI-SERIES

Here's a mini-series based on Half Life 2. It was filmed on a $500 budget...

MIKE MCKINLAY'S DUNLIN BIRDS

My friend Mike McKinlay makes me super mad. He's always filming something cool, he's got a great eye, he's an amazing skateboarder (he just kicked ass at an Anti-Social skate competition and won a trip to Hawaii), and has incredible shoes. Here's a photo I took of the guy in a full-pipe in Drain, Oregon.


One day Mike and I went out for lunch and he said to me "I'm thinking of filming a dark gothic nature show on crows. About a month later he's filming crows and a few months later he's done and he's got this incredible documentary. Last week Mike spent two days out at Boundary Bay filming Dunlin Birds. There's only a small window of opportunity where the numbers of dunlin birds amass to the point of ridiculousness and Mike got a hot tip on when these days were so he went and spent two days filming the birds. What you're about to see is absolutely astonishing. It's mesmorizing, captivating, magical and almost unreal. It gets to a point where you think it's some kind of CGI particle effect! I wish you could see it at full resolution! Mike and birds make a great team.



Below, Mike takes flight on the Boom Boom Huck Jam half-pipe in Tony Hawk's garage.

666th HALFSQUATCH POST

MONKEY BEACH

Here's a one-sheet cover I designed for the feature live-action sceenplay Andrew Duncan and I wrote. The screenplay is based on an amazing Canadian novel Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson. The novel was nominated for 2 of Canada's most prestigious literary prizes (Governor General's Literary Award & The Giller Prize). Our script is finally finished and is in some big-wigs' hands.
I hope we've at least captured the essence of this incredibly complex, beautiful and haunting story.

JAPANESE FACTORY

Check out these awesome photos of a factory in Japan. INCREDIBLE!

LA MACHINE

Click here to check out what awesomeness these piloting gang-lords are operating...

KID ON DRUGS vs. CHRISTIAN BALE