For the Record

Here's a t-shirt design I did for Pittsburgh's Sound Cat Records which has just hit the streets.

Sound Cat is a relatively new store, but it's part of Pittsburgh's musical history, and I have a longtime connection with them. Karl Hendricks opened it last year in the space that housed Paul's CDs since 1993. Prior to that, beginning in 1979, it was the home of Jim's Records, where I spent countless hours and countless dollars. I think Jim started in the record biz around 1976, and I still have one of the first records I bought from him, the Damned's "Neat Neat Neat" single on Stiff Records.

Karl worked for Paul and for Jim, and I've known him since he was a youngster selling his music on home-recorded cassettes. I designed several record sleeves and t-shirts for his band over the years, and I'm often approached by people who were introduced to my art through Karl's music.

Jim's Records was one of those once-in-a-lifetime places, not only a great record store, but a real social hub. Its basement served as the rehearsal space for some of my own oddball/misguided musical projects, and it was the headquarters for Public Records, a short-lived label that Jim and I ran for a couple of years.

It's great to be associated with this piece of local music history.

Wayno, with Mary Fleener at Jim's Records, 1992

Meeting Paul Westerberg at Jim's, 1987

Public Records PUB-8, 1982
Grover/Didn't Expect/Had to be There
300 copies, with hand-colored covers!
Sleeve design by Paul Bucciarelli

Karl Hendricks Trio drum head, circa 1992

Jim's Records Flyer, circa 1979-1980
Art by Wayno