WTF?! Category

It has been quite a long time since the cover art for an album or single has given me a genuine WTF?! reaction. While several have made me scratch my head, I can't remember the last time I actually said those three words out loud in reaction to cover art. That is until this evening when I saw the cover for Canadian pop singer Anjulie's forthcoming single Stand Behind the Music.

The cover features a rather horrific photograph of the artist hanging by neck from a musical note. I do not believe that I have ever seen anything quite like it. I guess if my stylist had dressed me in bathing suit and knee-high boots I would probably consider suicide, too. The single is scheduled to be released on December 13, 2011.

It has been quite a long time since an album cover resulted in a real WTF?! reaction for me. The cover for the forthcoming self-titled album by N.R.F.B. (Nuclear Raped Fuck Bomb) did the trick. I know nothing about this artist and all of the press materials are in German. The album is scheduled to be released on August 19, 2011.

The cover appears to be a photograph of four military amputees using donkeys to assist in mobility. There has to be an interesting story behind it. Combine that with the weird title and it has to be a major WTF?! for most English speakers.

Pronounced "oooooh", oOoOO is a San Francisco music project created by Chris Dexter Greenspan that produces music in the "drag" subgenre of industrial music. A self-titled album is scheduled for release on May 10, 2011.

The album cover is oOoOOoOoOOoOoOOoOoOO so spooky. It definitely creates a scratch-your-head, WTF?! moment. Do I want to find out what they sound like? Perhaps I'll wait until Halloween rolls around.

The world of Japanese pop music is often one big WTF?! experience. There are many genres based on thing like anime and seemingly kinky schoolgirl fantasies that are difficult for Westerners to understand or appreciate.

S/mileage is a group that is fairly typical. Their name is said to be an amalgamation of the English words smile, mileage, and age, which together is supposed to mean the age of smiles. Yeah. Right.

The cover art for the group's forthcoming single Koi ni Booing Bu! is especially creepy. Not only are the members dressed up in pink satin schoolgirl outfits, they are wearing furry pig ears and noses. While the girls are made up to look as if they are about 12, they are all over the age of 16. WTF?!

It has been a long time since my last WTF?! album cover post. Perhaps I'm getting jaded, because not to many album covers make me recoil in disgust these days.

The cover for the forthcoming album by Tennessee trio Those Darlins comes close to providing the requisite amount of revulsion. I was not able to find a decent biography of the band online (not even on their official website). So, I don't know whether or not they are a novelty act or serious recording artists. Do they pick noses or guitars? Maybe I don't want to know.

Why would anyone use a close up photograph of a spit bubble for an album cover? Just think about the times you've been in church or on an airplane and were forced to watch a bored child continually blow bubbles of mucus.

Apparently, a San Fransisco-based electropop band called The Limousines wants to be regarded the same way as a child who doesn't know better. Uck! I can barely stand looking at this mess. What are they going to follow this up with? Boogers?

Earlier this year, Kelis released the single 4th of July (Fireworks). So, I assume that her latest single is supposed to be a Halloween hit. The cover art for Scream (below) should make that obvious.

I wrote about the music video recently released for the single a few days ago. It was filmed in 3D. However, it doesn't contain anything related to horror movies. The scariest thing about it is gratuitous footage of Kelis jogging, with her breasts bouncing in slow motion.

The cover art for Scream features a photograph of Kelis with what looks like something a high school art student copied from Gray's Anatomy applied to it. It isn't over-the-top enough to be campy and it isn't scary enough to be taken seriously. It is definitely a WTF?! moment for me.

Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny (2006)

While browsing through upcoming music releases, it is unavoidable to come across an album cover that makes one say out loud, "WTF?!" Over the past few months, we've seen mutilated animals, human corpses, unattractive nudity and more.

This installiment of WTF?! is an photograph of a horse urinating, with a GE logo Photoshopped on its behind. This album cover is so repuslive, I don't even want to find out anything about the recording artist. This is one of the most obvious attempts to be controversial I have ever seen.

For fans of this artist who may feel compelled to write and inform me that I don't understand the artistic statement, blah, blah, blah, you are just kidding yourselves.

I had never heard of Finnish metal band Lordi until I came across their forthcoming album Babez for Breakfast on Amazon.com. According to Wikipedia, Lordi won the Eurovision song contest in 2006.

Lordi is a Finnish hard rock band, which was formed in 1996 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume-designer, Mr. Lordi. The band is known for wearing monster masks and using pyrotechnics during concerts.

Source: Wikipedia

The cover for Babez for Breakfast (I'm not sure if it is supposed to be pronounced "babes" or "babies") is one of the most disgusting I have seen in months. The cover features a demonic baby that is chewing on the bloody breast of a woman.

One review link below describes the album cover as "sexcellent" — really? Sexcellent? It looks more like a grizzly nightmare to me. Since when is a woman getting her nipple chewed off sexy? WTF?!

WTF?! A bloody wolf's head on a stake? That someone has pulled the teeth out of with a pair of pliers? Really? Is this what it takes to shock the public these days? Really?

I don't know anything about this band other than they are probably named after the 18th century book by William Blake. A poet and a printmaker, Blake's work is comprised of hand-colored etchings (right). The book's text and images describe a journey to a "Printing House in Hell" and a series of proverbs imitate the Bible.

I can see why Blake appeals to metal bands. What I can't understand is the mutilation of a beautiful animal. This has to be one of the most disgusting album covers of all time. It may even end up on my "worst ever" list.

I found a track from the album on YouTube. It is the typical raspy "I am the reaper...your God's not real...blah, blah, blah" satanic crap that we've all heard a thousand times. It is definitely not inspired by the work of Blake. The scribbles on the cover of a troubled high school student's bookcover? Perhaps. William Blake? No way.

I have one heck of a WTF?! album cover this time. V8 Wankers is a German metal band with a strange vision of American hot rod culture. Their album Foxtail Testimonial is being released as an import in the U.S. on June 22, 2010.

The album cover is perhaps one of the most tasteless I have come across in ages. According to the promo video, the model featured on the cover is named Bambi Lovedoll. Yeah, right. The photographer is Dirk Behlau.

I don't know whether or it was Behlau who came up with the idea of placing a foxtail over the model's genitals. However, I think someone needs to take the blame for this bizarre concept. What kind of drugs do they take in Germany?

Here is yet another addition to the WTF?! category that needs no explanation. I was browsing through upcoming new releases on Amazon.com today and came across this monstrosity from a Belgian heavy metal band called Kingdom.

I just hope that the dead body hanging in the photograph isn't real. However, it sure looks like it is. What is next? Autopsy photos? Uck! This album is scheduled to be released on June 22, 2010.

Revolting Cocks - Got Cock? (2010)

Posted by: zeefritz

I am kicking off the restart of the AAX blog with one doozie of a WTF?! cover. I don't think I have to explain why this is one of the most demented things I have ever seen.

Ariel Pink's online biography describes him as an "avant garde" musician whose genre is freak folk. I think the artist has taken the "freak" part a little too seriously.

I was browsing Amazon.com today and came across the forthcoming album by former American Idol contestant Bo Bice. The first thing that struck me was that Bice looks exactly like the caveman from those GEICO car insurance commercials (right). What has happened to him?

Those of you who remember Bice from American Idol know that he was known for his long hair. Apparently, he cut most of it off to achieve his new Neanderthal look. I must have missed the news articles a month ago about the haircut.

This is not an attractive look for Bice. Established artists like Willy Nelson and Kris Kristofferson can get away with letting themselves go to seed, but this is only Bice's third album. Not-so-creatively titled 3, it is scheduled to be released on May 18, 2010. Reported to be joining him on the album are Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and keyboardist A.J. Croce, son of Jim Croce.

If this album cover for the forthcoming album by musical group CocoRosie doesn't qualify for a WTF?!, I don't know what does. The group was formed in 2003 by sisters Bianca "Coco" and Sierra "Rosie" Casady and they perform in the freak folk genre. It all seems like a bad SNL comedy sketch to me (one from the mid 1980s with Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks). The promo video is the clincher. WTF?!

The album, Grey Oceans, actually has two different covers. One is for the LP version (right) and the other for the CD (below). Both feature sisters Coco and Rosie wearing makeup and costumes that look like they were created in a 19th century insane asylum. The designer got carried away with the Photoshop layer styles for the typography on both covers. The type has been beveled, embossed, and given an outer glow, all with the skill of a novice.

Grey Oceans is scheduled for release in the U.S. on May 11, 2010. It will be the group's fourth studio album.

Before I begin this installment of WTF?!, I want to remind my readers that being placed in this category isn't a bad thing. All it means is that an album cover or music video made me scratch my head and say those three words. Often, that is exactly what the recording artist indended.

There can be no doubt that Kansas City, Missouri electronic queer punk musicians Ssion want to shock their audience. Singer Cody Critcheloe's costumes and bizarre face paint are nothing short of eye-popping.

Ssion released their album Fool's Gold (right) in 2008. They have since released three remix singles, Street Jizz, Clown and Ah Ma. This week, they released a music video for Clown that hs to be seen to be believed. Really.

The cover art for the album and two of the singles is colorful and creative (even though it is nicely rendered, I don't really care for the black and white cover for the Street Jizz single).

It has been a few weeks since my last WTF?! entry. I have to admit that this one isn't quite as bad as many of the others I've put in this category.

True is a death metal band from Croatia. As unusual as that sounds, it doesn't compare to the artwork being used for the cover of the band's album Still Life. The cover features an illustration of a dog growling protectively over the severed and bloody head of a cow. The band is even selling t-shirts with the image (right).

The good thing about the artwork is that it is very skillfully rendered. It is a unique image that cetainly is a cut above most album covers in the metal genre. At least is isn't a flaming skull or a graveyard.

The forthcoming album from British rock guitarist Jeff Beck is called Emotion & Commotion. Yesterday, Kyle Ryan wrote the following at The A.V. Club Blog:

I know we're barely three weeks into the new year, but I'm pretty sure Jeff Beck's Emotion & Commotion will vanquish all others when it comes to the title for the Year's Worst Album Cover. And by "worst," it's also kinda the best--an image that would work as well air-brushed to the side of a bitchin' van as it would tattooed on some chode's bicep.

I have to agree with Ryan. When I saw this album cover, it was an instant WTF?! moment. It reminds me of the eagle that screeches around Steven Colbert during the opening of the Colbert Report. Certainly, this album cover isn't meant to be taken seriously. You tell me.

It has been several weeks since my last WTF?! moment. However, I came across an album cover on Amazon.com yesterday that appeared to have been censored. The cover of the 2008 album Forfeit/Fortune by Crooked Fingers has what looks like a black sticker over the naughty parts of a pair of nude models (right).

So, I did a Google search and found the uncensored cover. The absence of sticker doesn’t really make the cover any less strange. The models are both wearing rubber masks — one is a pig and the other is an elephant.

As an art photograph, I think the image is very interesting. I can imagine it hanging in an urban gallery. Does it make me want to buy the album? I’m not so sure. I was curious enough to listen to samples and look for a music video. You can check out the video for yourself (and let me know what you think of the guy in the black shroud and hook for a hand).

I grew up during the punk rock era of the late ’70s and early ’80s. There are still a few classic punk bands recording and doing gigs. Then, there are several bands that seem more like parodies of punk. Gay for Johnny Depp is one of those that seem to be based more on irony and performance art than music of a bygone era.

First, it is kind of difficult to get past the name. “Gay for Johnny Depp” is very similar to the name of a parody punk band that I came up with years ago — Richard’s Gerbil. I’m not quite sure why the name that appears on the album cover is “The Gay for Johnny Depp”, since it appears the band doesn’t use “the” anywhere else. Perhaps is is due to a printing error. In any case, this is one of my pet peeves. Either your band’s name begins with “the” or it doesn’t!

I was able to find a music video for one of the tracks on the album called Hey Fucked Up! (Punk Rock Can’t Exist In Countries With Good Social Services). It only added to the WTF?! reaction I had to this band.

Yesterday, I found an album cover that makes Rihanna’s recent dabbling in the world of S&M on the cover of her Russian Roulette single look quite tame. Rihanna’s bare breasts may have been wrapped in barbed wire as she posed wearing a dainty half mask, but the authentic look can be seen on the cover of a forthcoming album from British musician Steven Stapleton who goes by the name Nurse with Wound.

Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Machine And An Umbrella is scheduled to be released on December 8. It features a disturbing illustration of a woman decked out in a leather outfit that includes a hood, gloves, and a whip. This is definitely a WTF?! cover.

Unlike the Rihanna cover, the woman in the illustration has not seen fit to cover her breasts — in barbed wire or anything else. Several semi-nude men are lined up, apparently waiting for lashes from the leather clad woman.

Vagina Panther’s self-titled debut album is such an obvious choice for the AAX blog’s WTF?! category I don’t even know where to begin. When I was teenager, the California punk rock scene had a lot of appeal. Bands with outrageous names like Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedys had shocking album covers that captured the attention of my adolescent mind. I was young. The bands were young. It was all about being rebellous and deliberately inappropriate.

However, there is something disturbing about a band of seemingly mature adults who employ tactics that most of us outgrew over 25 years ago. A band called Vagina Panther seems more like something from an episode of South Park. An album cover that features a breast dripping milk seems just as sophomoric.

The funny thing is that I like this New York rock band’s sound. The only thing that would keep me from sharing that with my circle of friends and family is that I would have to say the band’s name. No one would believe that I was being serious. Word of mouth is important when it comes to the success of a band. “Vagina Panther” is going to keep a lot of mouths closed.

On rare occassions (which frankly not rare enough), I run across an album cover that seems too much like a parody to be real. The cover for the single Teardrops On My Telephone by California pop band Hunx and His Punx is one of those. Watching the music video on YouTube did not help to confirm that this is in fact a real, performing band either.

However, a little bit of poking around confirmed that Hunx and His Punx is a real band. In fact, they have just released five out-of-print singles and a new track called Do The Makeup on the LP Gay Singles (right).

The LP is being released by Matador records in a limited quantity of 1,000 pressings. The label’s website includes the following product description:

The debut LP from California’s Hunx and His Punx…Amazing, at once hilarious and deeply good pop songs, like the Gay Ramones mixed with Ronnettes filmed by John Waters.

The cover for the single is definitely more Ronnettes than Ramones. I suppose that is “Hunx” reclining on the bed with a giant telephone and black pantyhose.

It has been a long time since I last went to see a live performance at a club in San Francisco or Los Angeles. But, this band seems typical of the kind of campy acts that have performed there over the past few decades. The legendary Divine, Pasty Cline and the Memphis G Spots, Julie Brown, and El Vez are a few that immediately come to mind. 

Jason Urick is an experimental musician from Baltimore. The cover of his album Husbands is simply a bad copy of the cover of John Lennon’s Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins album (right) with the faces of two men pasted on the nude bodies of Lennon and and his wife Yoko Ono.

I guess if your intent is to create a controversial album cover, it is best to use one of the most controversial covers of all time as a starting point. I’m not sure what Yoko Ono would think about this cover. She’s been known to be very protective of John Lennon’s image and artistic legacy.

In an interview on the website of his record label, Thrill Jockey Records, Urick explains his inspiration for the album title and cover:

The title Husbands is a tribute to the Cassevettes movie of the same name. I became pretty obsessed with the movie around the time of creating the first pieces for this record. The scene in which they are sitting around the table in a bar singing songs especially resonated with me. It was long, drawn out, uncomfortable, but ultimately beautiful and rewarding. While I wouldn’t say that it was an intentional influence on the record, it certainly seemed in-line with what I was doing.

The artwork is obviously a tribute to the John Lennon/Yoko Ono record.

I don’t know anything about Krikor & The Dead Hillbillies. I stumbled upon the cover for the album today and wasn’t able to find out much more than the U.K. release date and that Krikor is a French DJ, producer and musician. What he has to do with hillbillies dead or otherwise is still a mystery.

Of course, it is the unusual album art that caught my eye. The same quartet is featured on an EP called God Will Break It All (right) that was released earlier this year. Apparently, tragedy struck three of the men at some point during the photo shoot.

I’m not quite sure that the group looks like hillbillies. Perhaps there is a French equivalent to American mountain folk. I don’t have an audio or video clip to share. Krikor & The Dead Hillbillies is scheduled for physical release in the U.K. on October 27. It is already available for digital download in the Amazon.co.uk store.

It turned out to be quite a week for disturbing and controvesial album covers on the AAX blog. Today’s addition to the WTF?! catagory is the album cover for Logos by Atlas Sound. This cover appears to be a nude portrait of Bradford Cox, the artist behind Altas Sound who has Marfan syndrome.

One of the latest “true queer art punks” to emerge from the cracked pavement of southern suburban sprawl, Atlas Sound is the solo moniker of Deerhunter frontman / provocateur Bradford Cox. Here on his debut album, Cox / Sound moves out of dank nightclubs filled with eternal existential drone punk, and relaxes at home in his Grant Park, Atlanta bedroom. And this is, essentially, a bedroom album, a collage, mixing the garage rock and ambient electronic influences previously explored with Deerhunter in a new context, with newly explored recording techniques, mainly laptop-based, learned with guidance from kranky artist Nudge’s Brian Foote. The result is 14 Songs of melancholy and mania.

Source: http://www.kranky.net

The last recording artist that I would imagine having an album cover featured in the WTF?! category is Carly Simon. Yet, when I saw the cover for her forthcoming album Never Been Gone, I just about spewed my morning coffee all over my computer monitor.

I know that it looks like a joke, but this is the actual cover. Simon is such a beautiful woman. I simply can’t understand why she would go with such a ridiculous cover. It seems more appropriate for “Weird Al” Yankovic. Let’s hope that she comes to her senses and changes this cover before the album is released next month.

When I saw the cover for Rammstein’s forthcoming album Liebe Ist Für Alle Da (Love is for Everyone) and its depiction of a woman being slaughtered on a table (right), I came very close to making it the subject of a WTF feature. I am glad I didn’t because the cover for the second single from the album is just as outrageous.

The cover for Pussy features the German industrial metal band as naked women. Their heads have been Photoshopped onto womens’ bodies — one of them pregnant. It is absolutely one of the most ridiculous covers I have ever seen. Combined with the title of the song, Rammstein has crossed the line into legendary misogynist status. Surprisingly, the cover has not been censored on Amazon.com. It is not yet listed on iTunes.

The band posted a preview of the music video for Pussy on YouTube and it was quickly pulled for violation of terms and conditions. I searched the Web and found a copy of it on another video service and discovered that it is simply a series of old x-rated porn clips. How did they  think that would not ger baned from YouTube? Needless to say, I won’t be posting that video clip here. You will have to settle for audio alone.

I saw the music video for Baby Baby Baby by French electronic group Make The Girl Dance a few months ago. It features naked women strolling through the streets of Paris — turning only a few heads.

Today, I saw the cover for the single and that combined with the video makes Make The Girl Dance worthy of the AAX blog’s latest WTF moment. I guess this cover confirms the fact that I’m totally jaded when it comes to covers that try to be shocking. I’m not horrified by the sight of a woman getting her tongue tattooed. Even if they had Photoshopped a little blood in there, the strongest reaction this cover would get from me would be a roll of the eyes.

If an album cover that features a nude man on stage holding lobsters in his hands isn’t worthy of a WTF, I don’t know what is. When I discovered the cover for No Neck Blues Band’s album At 6am We Become The Police, I didn’t thnk that it was real. It had to be one of those covers invented by a clever graphic designer as a joke.

Nope. The No Neck Blues Band (also known as NNCK) is a New York City experimental collective that has been around since the early ’90s. If you search for the album on Amazon.com, you’ll discover that an image of the an LP label is being used as the cover (right).

I really don’t understand the logic behind using album art that is certain to be censored. I’m far from prudish about nudity. From a marketing perspective, I just don’t know why anyone would want to cripple their product by trying to sell it online without cover art. I think would be be especially true for an experimental music band.

From an artistic viewpoint, this album cover is worthy of discussion. It is a very interesting nude photograph. It works as a piece of fine art. Unfortunately, it is not an appropriate album cover. What works hanging on the wall of a Soho art gallery may not be something a major retailer would want to post online.

I was not able to find a video clip from the movie for which this album serves as a soundtrack. I did find several No Neck Blues Band videos and I’ve posted on that will give readers an idea of what they’re about. This is performance art and certainly not easy on the ears.

AAX user audio20 has suggested another album cover for the WTF?! feature and this one is a doozy! Dark Meat is a band collective from Athens, Georgia. The cover of their latest EP, When The Shelter Came, looks like a still from a ’80s porno movie with a strategically placed donut. I was amazed to discover that Amazon.com has not censored this cover.

There doesn’t appear to be any music videos by this group. I was able to find some live performances on YouTube. None were worth the trouble to post here. Yeech!

I did find an interesting article about Dark Meat crashing a performance by Simian Mobile Disco. They sound like a bunch of jerks (as if the album cover wasn’t a tip off).

During SMD’s headlining set, members of an earlier act, Athens, Ga. collective Dark Meat, crashed the stage, complete with face paint and live marching band instruments — including a trumpet and trombone — much to the surprise of the both the Jelly staff and the headliners. Confusion was relieved once the guys were removed a few minutes in. The tuba player, meanwhile, never made it on stage, but ended up walking into the audience of thousands and crowd surfing while playing his rainbow colored instrument.

Source: spinner.com

I watched the first episode of Glee and the thing that I didn’t like about it is that young actors in their early to mid-twenties are playing high school students. Most of the actors don’t look much younger than those who are playing their teachers.

Recently, the Glee producers released a single performed by an actress who literally grew up on the Broadway stage while performing in Les Misérables. Lea Michele has been in several Broadway shows and can best be described as a veteran Broadway performer.

That’s why the way Glee and the music from the show is being promoted is a real WTF?! The cover art for the single On My Own shows Michele dressed in her high school girl costume. From many of the online comments that I’ve read, many people believe she is 16, rather than a 23-year-old woman who has actually performed in the Broadway production in which On My Own appears.

Michele’s version of On My Own is quite good — as it should be coming from a member of the Broadway cast. But, I think that it would be honest to present this single under the name Lea Michele, rather than as something performed by a fictional high school girl.

Personally, I don’t think Michele comes close to matching Frances Ruffelle’s 1985 original London cast recording (Ruffelle also recorded the 1987 original Broadway cast version). You can judge for yourself by listening to the clip posted below.

The cover of German DJ Shir Khan’s upcoming album Exploited is a candidate for the WTF of the year award. It features a collage of plastic vampire teeth and a fake (I hope) hairy crotch displayed in a funhouse mirror effect.

Exploited is scheduled for U.S. release on September 15. I’ve posted promotional video that I found on YouTube.

AAX blog reader audio20 tipped me to today’s WTF album cover. It is for a compilation album put out by a French record label called Sisters or Sister Phunk. I don’t read French, so I’m not really certain about the name.

When I first saw the cover for 18 Airs du Temps, I was immediately reminded of Windowlicker, the 1997 EP by Aphex Twin (right). Windowlicker features a busty woman in a bikini with the head of Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James Photoshopped onto her body. The effect is intended to be comical and it worked. The cover for Windowlicker is often included on “worst ever” lists.

Like Windowlicker, the cover of 18 Airs du Temps features a woman in a bikini. Her head has been covered with a sepia tone photograph of a man with a moustache. Unlike Windowlicker, this collage seems artless and doesn’t have the same humorous effect. If you’re going to imitate something without looking cheep, it is probably a good idea to do it better than the original.

I was able to find a bit of information about Thomes Lélu, the artist who designed this cover. Apparently, he is selling prints of it as pop art posters.

The compilation reflects its cover designed by Thomas Lélu, artist, writer and graphic artist who comes back with a flourish to his first love with Sisters to a collage with 6 new in-your-face posters.

Good luck with that Mr. Lélu. Some of the artist’s other works include Farah Fawcett’s famous red swimsuit poster with the head cropped off and diagonal lines drawn across it. I guess I’m a philistine for not being able appreciate something like that as pop art.

The album actually has some decent tracks on it. It features artists like Yes Giantess, Passion Pit, and Frankmusic.

I know, I know. This album seems like something you’d find over at Famous Album Covers. I swear it isn’t a joke. There really is a band called Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. I don’t think the name is as funny as my fictional punk band Richard’s Gerbil. It is pretty darn close, though.

Apparently, the album Fuckfest by San Francisco avant-garde band Oxbow is a reissue of a album originally released in 1989. When I first examined the cover, it reminded me of some of the batik fabric designs I did for an art class in college.

Then, I looked closer and realized that the design is really a sexual anatomy lesson. The wiki for Oxbow describes their music as “a blend of Noise rock, Avant-garde jazz, Musique concrète (AMG), and Blues, creating soundscapes caustic, or plangent, with overtones of paranoia, revulsion, exaltation.”

I don’t even know what to say about the cover for the upcoming album 10 Neurotics by Black Tape for a Blue Girl. I’ll just let the cover and the preview video on YouTube do all of the talking.

NOOOOOOO! I just heard one of my favorite R.E.M. songs butchered by gay porn star turned pop singer Colton Ford. I don’t know what I hate more, the sound of an alternative rock classic put to a synthetic disco beat or Ford’s absurd costumes (when he’s even wearing one in the video).

This is a serious WTF moment for me. I love R.E.M. and it is difficult to imagine anyone being able to cover one of their songs. Ford doesn’t have a very strong voice to begin with — and very little abilty to convey the emotion necessary for the song. For him to try to tackle Losing My Religion is more than a stretch. I don’t understand the costume he’s wearing on the cover either. It looks like something from the movie Tron. What does that have to do with the song?

I was browsing through the upcoming releases on Amazon.com and spotted the upcoming Pixies box set, Minotaur. I was kind of surprised to see what looks like a penis on the cover of the booklet. I guess it could be a rocket. Naw…it is definitely a penis. It looks like something Perez Hilton would draw on a celebrity photo.

Even though I’ve seen tens of thousands of album covers over the years, I can’t say that I’ve seen them all. Yesterday, I discovered one of the most repulsive album covers of all time. A Pound of Flesh by Cain is a release of an album recorded in 1975. It is scheduled to be available for sale on August 25.

Apparently, this album was also reissued back in 2003. However, I’ve never heard of the band and I’m certain I’ve never seen this cover before. It really is unforgettable. I am adding it to my list of the worst album covers ever. Yeeeeeech!

Electronic musician Peaches (aka Merrill Beth Nisker) is known for her sexually explicit songs. So, I thought I knew what to expect when I checked out the video for her most recent single Lose You. After about 20 seconds, I knew that I was heading for a WTF moment.

The cover for Lose You features a lens flare on a woman’s crotch. That’s certainly not as disturbing as the bearded woman and the title of Peaches’ controversial Fatherfucker album. I guess I just hate to see a lazy graphic treatment like a lens flare used on a cover like this. It kinda looks like Peaches may have run out of creative ideas.

The lyrics of Lose You are fairly tame, too. So, I guess that’s why the music video is supposed to be somewhat shocking. I won’t give it away.

I ran across this cover for a free digital album via Twitter today. Eating Cornbread On The Millenium Falcon by hip hop producer Hannibal King (not to be confused with the Marvel Comics character) features one of the funniest concepts I’ve seen in a long time.

All I have to say about Shit Robot (aka Marcus Lambkin) is that I am very glad he does not have album art other than the record labels. I can only imagine what a robot made out of doo doo would look like. I don’t have to imagine what his music is like, though. Samples can be found on his MySpace page. It can be described using one of the two words in the band’s name (guess which one).

“Close your eyes and imagine, if you will, the bastard son of the Misfits and Daft Punk.” That’s the first line of the biography found on the MySpace page of Italian electronic duo The Bloody Beetroots. When I did close my eyes and put my imagination to work, I did not picture a pair of men in wrestling masks — one sitting on a toilet and the other painting anarchist graffiti on a wall. WTF is up with this?!

I suppose that this cover would have been controversial 30 years ago. Today, we see covers that are more shocking on Mad magazine. In fact, this cover does seem to be more of a parody than anything else. The Bloody Beetroots have a recent video posted on YouTube. Here it is for your consideration.

I heard about the cover for Wilco (The Album) a couple of months ago. At that time, no one seemed to have a digital image. It was described as featuring a camel at a birthday party. I couldn’t wait to see it.

Now that I have, all I can say is “WTF?!” That camel is wearing a party hat!

Image by Fritz Liess via Flickr

I took pictures of the camels the last time I went to the zoo. I didn’t know that what I was shooting could be used for an album cover. I guess I should have taken along a party hat and put it on top of this guy’s head.

Actually, I’m pretty sure that would have been a very bad idea. Camels are pretty nasty animals. I should probably note that the camel on the Wilco cover is a Bactrian Camel and the one in my photo is a Dromedary or Arabian Camel.

It is confirmed! It really is a WTF weekend. In my last blog entry, I asked if a song about farts was coming up next. Then, I opened up an email from my friend Michael that included a link to mrmethane.com. What I found is a guy in a superhero costume who literally farts to music.

Mr. Methane has an entire album of farting songs and you can buy it on iTunes. The album cover features the “artist” with a cloud of green gas jetting from his backside. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.

The video has to be seen to be believed. This guy actually farts along with the Blue Danube. I can’t imagine what the next WTF item will be. Can anything top this? Perhaps cannibalism.

It looks like it is shaping up to be a WTF weekend. I was just browsing through my YouTube subscriptions and saw that Ultra Records has posted a video for Larry Tee’s horrible My Pussy dance single. Two versions of song were released back in April. One version is called My Penis and features Perez Hilton doing what can best be described as a William Shatner-speaks-to-music impression. The other features transgender performer Amanda Lapore singing My Pussy.

Both versions are simply stupid. Today’s public has seen it all and a disco tune about a penis/pussy can’t stand on shock value alone. There has to be some talent behind the music. Larry Tee fails to deliver. What can we expect next? A song about farts?

The video is getting some pretty harsh reviews on YouTube:

what a fuckin piece of shit

 

This song disrespects all the subscribers (me included)… why do you keep torturing the electronic fans with this kind of shit… really stop doing it!!!!!!!

 

unsubscribing… Ive had enough of this

 

This song is so fucking stupid, seriously.  

If I were Ultra Records, I think I’d get the message. This video is like fingernails on a chalkboard. The only good thing I can write about it is that at least it isn’t the Perez Hilton version! Watch it, but consider yourself warned.

It has been a few days since my last WTF?! moment. Tonight, I stumbled on an album cover that made me scratch my head. The band is called Pissed Jeans — kinda retro punk sounding. The cover features a photo of a man’s arm. It isn’t a particularly attractive or interesting arm. It is kind of scrawny, a little hairy, and it has a mole near the elbow crease. I figured that there has to be a story related to this ordinary, pale arm.

…WTF?!

I just found this cover for an dance remix CD called We Are All Prositutes by Adam Sky vs. Mark Stewart. It is simply a certain classic 1980s album cover with tape applied to it. As an added bonus to this installment of WTF?!, I’ll let you guess what the original album is. I’ll post both the front and back of this one.

The band Germart proudly proclaims on their website that the cover for their album Planet Booty was selected as one of the worst of all time by the Chicago Tribune. I’m not sure that I agree with the Tribune. While a photo of a man in blue pants and suspenders holding up one of those glass heads from Pier 1 Imports isn’t very creative, I don’t think it qualifies as one of the worst covers of all time.

However, the same cannot be said for the following video by Germart. It definitely is in the “worst ever” class.

Harlem rapper and Hip Hop producer Charles Hamilton is set to release his debut album This Perfect Life on June 23 through Interscope Records. Hamilton recently released the track listing and the cover art for the album on his blog.

All I can say about the artwork is...WTF?! I simply don't know what other comment I can make. A dazed-looking cartoon ape family? Really? Is this what finally happened to Magilla Gorilla?

You may also be interested in seeing this video interview with Hamilton and his girlfriend. Apparently, the two had a physical altercation in a club. WTF?!

Our WTF?! category is kind of a catch all for all of those things that make you stare at your computer monitor with your mouth open and eyes wide. The Aussie electonic music duo Brain Children is one of those things.

When I stumbled upon the cover of their upcoming EP, I immediately thought that it was some kind of joke. Two nerdy guys are wearing see-through bodysuits with boxer shorts underneath. One of the guys appears to have pissed his pants.

This has to be a joke, right? Either that, or this is a sly attempt to get publicity by creating one of the worst album covers in history. I’m not sure.

I did listen to one of the tracks off of the EP called Guts. It is pretty good. So, I don’t know if the crazy album art is going to hurt or help this artist — it got my attention anyway.

We see a lot of albums that make us scratch our heads and wonder, “What the f**k?!” Therefore, I thought it would be a great idea to add a WTF?! category to the blog (inspired by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann).

A few weeks ago, I bookmarked a music video on YouTube that is worthy of being the first WTF?! featured band. Feed The Horse by Danish duo Fagget Fairys has something to do with feeding a horse or beastiality or a nasty ephemism (I’m thinking something to do with a carrot). I don’t know. Both the video and the name of the group are disturbing in a way that I don’t think is intentional.

The cover of the album features a sexually ambiguous couple getting married. The bride appears to be a man who is part horse. Below the couple is a rainbow-colored spray. Between the couple is a symbol that combines the symbol for a same-sex union with horse shoes. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a political commentary regarding same-sex marriage or simply nonsense. Perhaps a language barrier is in play here.

Here is the video (don’t say I didn’t warn you):