Recently in WTF?! Category

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.