This blog post featured on The Current from Minnesota Public Radio certainly makes us want to brave the cold and visit Mill City Sound in Minnesota. Mill City Sound is a bustling record store that is keeping vinyl alive and well. Read this great article on the owner, Rob Sheely, and his business which is actively contributing to vinyl’s resurgence.
Photo taken by Jay Gabler/MPR of The Current.
Got old vinyl records that you aren’t going to use again? Think again! BuzzFeed blew us away with these 19 Ways To Reuse Vinyl Records article.
This list goes to show that vinyl is truly art in more ways than one. Don’t throw away your vinyl guys. Turn them into a completely new masterpiece. Way to go, BuzzFeed! You have blown our minds once again.
photo via tattooedmartha.com
We are loving #5 on this list. How incredible would this look on your bedroom wall?
We love this BuzzFeed video, Things That Make Vinyl Collectors Very Happy, and hope you do too! Check out the video below.
Are you an artist or label wondering how to prepare your release for Record Store Day? Hypebot is here once again with great tips! Check out their article below!
Here at Dorado, we love vinyl and believe that it is here to stay. The LA Weekly seems to agree and posted this great video on the resurgence of vinyl. Kudos to our friends Meghan Pochebit and Pete Lyman from Infrasonic Sound. They give us their opinion on why vinyl is so great. Check it out below!
Read the entire article, “5 Reasons Why Vinyl Is Not A Fad” and let us know your thoughts!
Client: Alive! Natural Sound
Artist: Beachwood Sparks
Project: “Desert Skies”
Packaging: Standard 12-inch Record Jacket with Printed Inner-Sleeve
DoradoPkg loves a band that loves their art. Beachwood Sparks certainly fits that bill, having created beautiful albums (and album covers) that make up a rich part of L.A.’s music history. For more on the band’s past, check out this great article over at Aquarium Drunkard. We recently chatted with bassist and founding member Brent Rademaker about the band’s latest – yet perhaps oldest – release “Desert Skies.” Brent talked about the band’s visual journey, his love of vinyl and why the shelves of record stores are so important…
On the Design of “Desert Skies”…
The album cover was re-imagined. The photos we used are from ’98, but the cover itself has a more modern feel. Since the record was supposed to come out in the ’90’s, I imagined the cover differently from what it turned out to be. I think the current version looks more like poster art, which makes sense. This release, the music, it’s almost like a documentary. So the cover helps illustrate that. It’s special – the fact that this album gets out to people is crazy.
We enlisted our friend Yasmine June who had done an actual tour poster for our 2011 Santa Cruz show, which is in line with the art for our other releases. You’re so close to it [the whole project] when you’re in the band. For all Beachwood Sparks covers, we would know an artist and ask them – the first album was designed by Chris’ girlfriend and the second was by Aaron’s (our drummer) neighbor. For the third EP we hooked up with an illustrator – so it was always whoever was around, which makes it kind of a magic thing, almost like the recording process itself – maybe that’s why a lot of demos are better than the album.
We’re really proud of this album cover. It’s actually the second version Yasmine did, which the band loved and the label loved. When everyone loves it you can do so much more with it – you can really come together. But again, since this record was supposed to be released in the 90’s, we used an old picture. It’s actually from one of our first promo shoots – maybe for LA Weekly or something. Because of that we had to Photoshop one guy out and put Tom in there. Since we really only have pictures of Tom sitting down playing drums, Yasmine had to find another guy’s body – dressed like us – and then photoshop Tom’s head in. So everything has a story! Even the design of the album cover.
On Liner Notes…
The liner notes for Desert Skies are extensive. I had to recount the story of how Beachwood Sparks was formed – they were super important. In terms of the visualization of the liner notes, I was pushing for more of a re-issue aesthetic. Maybe some guy found an acetate and he’s the one who wrote the liner notes. So you’ll open the dust sleeve and you see our story. Keeping all that in mind, I tried to make it so that if someone reads the liner notes twenty years from now, hearing the music, looking at the album cover, they’ll know what the band is about. Liner notes and full artwork really just make it all happen. There’s a story there.
On Physical Releases and Cover Art…
It doesn’t matter if you have 50, 500 or 5,000 records if you connect enough with the person, or the fan. Vinyl helps you figure out how committed you are to music.
For me, since I bought my very first punk record, the cover has always been so important to me. One of my favorite parts about putting a record out – actually my two favorite things about putting “Desert Skies” out are 1. the cover and 2. the limited edition starburst vinyl. People are totally responding to the cover – it’s going to look good in their record collections and on record store shelves.
Which is what I like the best — seeing a record on the wall at Amoeba or whatever record store you’re in that looks so cool you actually stop to check it out. I’m stoked to be a part of that tradition. It’s really important.
On the Production Process…
I’m excited to be talking about printing and this part of putting a record out because it’s something I can share with our fans and open them up to this kind of stuff. I really like to know that records do more than just magically appear. There has to be a reason behind them and it’s a collaboration between so many people. Everything, including this record, has a story. It’s all connected to something better and it’s all part of the creative process.
To get your copy of Beachwood Sparks’ long-awaited “Desert Skies,” head over to Alive! Natural Sound or click HERE.
Client: Triple Point Records
Album: Call It Art
Packaging: Series of 5 standard 12-inch record jackets
in varying design and color
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so we’ll let the images below do the talking for Triple Point Records’ latest project at DoradoPkg. The series of five standard 12-inch record jackets make up a series of never before released material from free jazz legends, The New York Art Quartet. Thematic in design, each record jacket has a unique light pattern on its cover and is printed in a different color on the back cover. For more info on this project, visit Triple Point Records’ website here!
Client:Beirut
Album: The Riptide
Packaging: 12-inch Old Style Tip-On Record Jacket
Out now on Beirut’s own Pompeii Records, The Riptide is a 12-inch Old Style Tip-On Record Jacket with a unique spin.
The artist chose to have the chipboard shell wrapped with a heavier fabric; the album title was then foil stamped onto the cover and the back panel, which includes session photos and liner notes, is a standard paper weight, laminated into place. The result is an album cover that we think is not only nostalgic, but will definitely stand the test of time!
To learn more about Old Style Tip-On Record Jackets, for 12-inch records and for double LP gatefolds, click here for more info.
Client: Temporary Residence Ltd.
Album: The Way Out by The Books
Packaging: 2XLP 12-inch Record Jacket with spot UV Coating and removable stickers
Dorado Pkg is proud of the latest album cover we printed for our clients at Brooklyn-based label, Temporary Residence Limited with The Books’ double-LP, “The Way Out”!
What began as a standard 12-inch LP jacket evolved into a do-it-yourself art project for those who purchase the record, now available in-stores. After scouring through dozens of design options and graphics that The Books suggested, label founder Jeremy DeVine decided there were just too many to create only one cover. DeVine proposed multiple sticker sheets to include with each LP jacket so fans could design their own unique version of the album cover.
The all-black double-LP jacket features spot UV coating over each letter of the album title, “The Way Out,” along with an insert of multi-patterned stickers in the shape of the album title’s letters. In addition to adding an eye-catching sheen to the lettering, the spot UV coating also provides a surface for applying and re-applying the stickers, helping fans personalize their album cover.
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