Ex-Cop play their own special blend of black metal-meets-noise, mostly black metal though. They are crazy, create damn fine music and have unparalleled taste in beer. A relatively new band, Ex-Cop is made-up of members from Cellphone (rip) and Waterbear. Though they have not had an official release, they do frequently perform at unknown underground venues near you. It’s probably someone’s basement, hotter than hell, sweat-dripping and flying everywhere. Hell, there is probably a naked guy straddling an air conditioner, flopping his dong about and throwing food coloring at the audience. There is beer, music, deep film discussion and extreme levels of intoxicated pedal-falling-off bike-riding. But that’s the way Ex-Cop rolls. Peace to Mikkeller.

The Poster

About the design

If you hadn’t guessed it yet, this is heavily inspired by the work of the legendary Saul Bass and more specifically his work for the 1959 classic film Anatomy of a Murder. I’ve always adored hand-crafting type and I dig it when it’s sloppy. I had no master plan with this and wanted it to appear D.I.Y. Sure, this poster design could be refined, but I wanted to preserve it, as-is. A testament to experimenting with typography. Over time, I plan to hone my hand-craft-type skills and expand, in my own way, on the work of a legend. Note the “ex-cop” outlined body/figure assembled out of .38 special bullets — matching the .38 special revolver. All Ex-Cop, all day long.

When I think of the members of Ex-Cop, I think of the 1950’s-1960’s. I am ridiculous nostalgic and obsessed with the 50’s & 60’s. A time when I didn’t exist, but love to think of what it must have been like. Shout-out to Mad Men.

This is not a typical black metal aesthetic but who says it needs to be.

This past weekend, joined by Nicholas and Eduardo, we journeyed through the neighborhood as we usually do but this time with a bit more direction. Drinks were had, conversations dripped through near-by ear drums, more drinks were had, tator tots were assaulted and glorious fun ensued. Some people wore dresses, some gathered around supporting their community for monumental activities and some stayed at home too afraid to endure and/or conquer the weather. For those people I feel bad. It was worth it and we walked the whole time.

Here are some highlights:

FRIDAY

Seward Art Crawl
We went to the Seward Art Crawl at the Ivy Arts Building in the Seward neighborhood, browsed around and consumed the local talent on display. While not as diverse or wholly impressive as the St. Paul Art Crawl, it was still enjoyable. It should be noted that St. Paul is far bigger than one single Minneapolis neighborhood and that crawl spans several buildings. Even one building houses more talent/artists/people period than what the Ivy Arts Building can. It’s just a smaller area, flat out.

Regardless, we met a guy who makes very very strange, almost satanic figurines. He himself had quite the evil presence, baiting us with cheap wine in an effort to seduce us for his next “works of art.” Honestly, he was a very nice gentleman but very creepy. He had a dark room and wanted us to come inside. Maybe he wasn’t evil at all, maybe he just doesn’t get out much and loves to meet people. His aura could easily be mistaken for evil instead of unbridled eagerness to talk to people.
Here is what his brain produces:

Creepy Figurines

From there we stopped by tits and torches studio space, the home of EC Design Studios and 3 Jäg Custom Jewelry Design and also Susan Frerichs (no website, yet). As always, I am very impressed with the work these beautiful women create. Truly inspirational and I’ve been proud to do design work for them in the past and present. We hung out at their studio for a while, looking at new pieces, conversing and drinking some PBR from the mini fridge. Good times and sometimes awkward, as expected (if you know me).

We also hung out with a cool dude named Wallace who has a drum studio on the first floor. Eduardo was at home there with the drums, since he, himself, is a human drumming machine. Constantly pounding beats against his chest, legs, whatever. That dude has some crazy energy and it’s always nice having him along for the ride. Nicholas and I fell in love with the jazz aspect of Wallace’s studio. He had some great local jazz caressing the room. He was a really rad guy who offers drumming classes every Saturday — come on and stop by.

We visited Eduardo’s Factor studio space and met his co-worker Slava Pestov (brilliant mastermind). Very nice, focused gentleman. They have a nice little studio there — makes me want to have one.

From there we shuffled over to Memory Lanes for an evening of Anti-Civ eargasms courtesy of Bouncer Fighter and the only and only ShugE. Bouncer Fighter were absolutely brilliant, despite the poor sound quality inside a bowling alley — it’s just unavoidable. So, I’ll have to see them in a more appropriate venue, like the basement cellar of an old Seward home. ShugE was great as well — I actually only took picture of ShugE’s performance and have no clue why. Maybe I was too drunk for anything earlier, yeah that’s the ticket. Anyway, this is what it looked like:

shugE of Anti-Civ

Anti-Civ also houses one of the best (if not the best) local experimental avant-garde projects out there, Waterbear. This happens to be my buddy Nicholas’s brainchild as well — along with not-so-Amish-neck-beard Tom.

We attended the Seward Art Crawl both Friday and Saturday but I just lumped them together for readability here.

SATURDAY

We went to the 30th anniversary of KFAI just after 6:30PM, barely missing their “flip of the switch” ceremony. See, this wasn’t just an anniversary celebration, it was also a historical event marking their increased radio signal and digital conversion. I forget the specific upgrade but know that if KFAI was ever fuzzy for you, it shouldn’t be now. We got there in time to see the mesmerizing Indian music stylings of Nirmala Rajasekar. It was truly amazing to see. Easily one of the most passionate/intimate performances I’ve seen in quite some time. I wish we had arrived at this event earlier but I’m glad we showed up when we did.
Here’s a photo:

Nirmala Rajasekar

BEER CONSUMED:

Surly Furious, Rogue Brewery’s Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red, Rogue Brewery’s Brutal Bitter, Rogue Brewery’s Imperial Younger’s Special Bitter, Redhook ESB and PBR. I think that was it. Great beer, well except PBR (free!) but it costs a lot to have a healthy taste for the stuff — like anything worth it’s presence in your life.

Great weekend.. Sunday is damage control, recovery and sobriety.

Live long and be grangley,
joey