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wax poetics - cover story - bizarre album art - wax poetics - books

Every album cover tells a story. Some hint at the profound—spiritual, supernatural, or chemical explorations—or speak of the mundane—war, sex, comedy. Some are by far more interesting than the music itself. A team of obsessive collectors has gathered together a unique and worldly selection of rare covers that spins bizarre and mind-boggling narratives. We are not deciphering mysteries, we're merely adding to their mythos. Join us as we enter the world of the odd, obscure, and outrageous.

Cover Story: Bizarre Album Art, the second installment in the Cover Story series from Wax Poetics Books, continues a graphic narration of the vibrant subculture of record collecting through the art of the album cover. This volume focuses specifically on strange and bizarre record covers, selected by major figures from music's avant-garde.

The Cover Story series vividly explores an element of music culture that has withered with the advent of MP3s and digital downloading. Vinyl records tell their stories visually as much as they do aurally, and the record cover eye candy for the music lover speaks a language rooted in the environment and era of the music itself. Cover Story: Bizarre Album Art celebrates the products of music's most eclectic and eccentric figures those whose artistic visions were so absurd and grandiose, they often extended beyond the boundaries of the recording and onto the album covers themselves.
About the Author
First published in December 2001, Brooklyn-born Wax Poetics hit newsstands with a new vision for music journalism, creating a bridge between the past and present of hip-hop, jazz, funk, soul, reggae, disco, and Latin music. Although originally created for a concentrated market of music aficionados, the magazine's audience has grown exponentially, making musical anthropologists out of average music listeners and spawning a soul renaissance, complete with comeback tours and sophomore efforts. Wax Poetics illuminates the dark corners of our sonic past, while also striving to give new and innovative artists the credit they truly deserve.