The Avon Ladies Bear (Logo Power #8)

It's certainly been a minute since I've posted one of these, so without any more "ado" let's get to discussing a band who, for my money, should've gotten a lot more hype than they did. Actually...we're just going to discuss that little bear up there.

I'm sure other artists have meddled with the idea of Jerry Garcia's psychedelic peace-bears, trying to toss their whole rose-colored ideology on its head. Maybe they've placed a joint or crack pipe into their furry, out-stretched paws or carved a swazi into their foreheads. (60's shit = Manson shit, funny story. The only time my Mom ever asked me to turn my music off was once when I was in high school. I was listening to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." She burst through the door, told me she didn't like it because it reminded her of all the worst parts of 60's culture and shut the door again.)

I'm not saying the A-Ladies were the first in their class to mess with the 'Dead bear. I am saying that I fell in love with them when I first saw their 7" cover of their Guns and Gold 7", which featured these cute little guys carrying machine guns and just looking badass. This is actually from an ad in Bloody Ways fanzine, posted for my own joy in seeing the machine gun that's been replaced by the ever-more-comical stick o' dynamite. This bear absolutely doesn't care about you or your commie political movement or your effort to rid the internet of (buzzword)-phobia. He's been around the block for far longer than you have. He knows rock n' roll. He was probably at altamont, gleefully cackling when a parkful of unknowing saps played witness to a hellish gangland murder as Mick n' Keith warbled on about banging prepubescents and such. When Sid n' Johnny cursed on Bill Grundy's TV show, he was feeding them their lines and when the last quivering vestige of anything remotely resembling a real-deal guitar GAWD got shot in the face at an Ohio rock club (Dimebag, RIP) this guy wasn't crying.

The guns are gone, only to be replaced by cartoonish explosives, rudimentary in design, but still indicative of one immediate truth: this is a suicide mission. Rock n' roll has been munching on its tail since Dylan went electric and there's no more sand in this etch-a-sketch.

(Editor's note: The Avon Ladies are [by my estimation] broken up. Thank jah for an internet that keeps every stinking thing around. There's a demo tape, a 7" a split with Tempe SS and some other bits and pieces floating around.)

W is for War Hungry

Back in the days before Tee Til Death, I got this hairbrained idea to do a blog about hardcore shirts. I would track down the artist, ask them a bunch of questions...it only lasted for two posts (you can still see the remnants at jerkswithcoolshirts.blogspot.com) but it was cool. Here's one I did with Spoiler regarding a War Hungry shirt that was made in 2006, but I obtained in 2007. I thought it was kind of interesting and since this blog gets SLIGHTLY more traffic, thought I'd leave it here.

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Yes I could've used a stock photo from the internet, but I decided to use MY shirt

So first things first, with the front design...I want to know, to the best of your knowledge how the exchange went in drafting the shirt.

Any War Hungry shirt I did was because of Hoodrack and me brainstorming over AIM. We'd come up with the best shit together. He always had great ideas but couldn't draw them. I don't remember who came up with what, but we decided they were going to have a mascot like Eddie for Iron Maiden, so that's the dude on top, cursing the world.

Hoodrack wanted a really metal looking shirt, but I made it borderline fantasy metal. I got a few of the ideas out of an art book. I wanted it to represent a bunch of different species being at war with each other, you know, “war hungry”, and their mascot standing over it all. Kind of a nerdy fantasy-land version of the real world.

It definitely reminds me of like...Jason and the Argonauts. Have you ever seen that? It has that theme...
I've never really heard of that before. Probably never aired in Europe where I grew up. Argonauts sounds pretty fantasy metal though.

Well War Hungry definitely has that kind of lyrical biz going on in their songs...like "Labors of Hercules" and stuff so maybe that helped…
I didn't go over any lyrics for this shirt, but maybe Hoodrack got some ideas from it. I'm sure it's all connected in his mind. 

On the back design, it's kind of a remake of an old psychedelic flier that I've seen...with the skeleton holding the peace sign. I've seen it used on an old flier....I remember you telling me that your Mom was kind of a hippie and your Dad was a metal head...is that where you got the design from?

Yea that's from a Grateful Dead flyer, on the original it's a lady holding the sign. Hoodrack sent it to me. It's not actually related to my parents though it could very well have been. I don't think they were into the Dead though, my mom is more into shit like Blue Cheer, the Who, and Black Sabbath. Way cooler than most hippies. But yea, there was plenty of weird psychedelic art and record covers in my house growing up, so that's why I like to incorporate it every now and then.