Machine Gun Blog

Closing Up Shop

2011-02-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

Machine Gun Designs has officially folded. Shuttered. Closed for business.

The bank accounts have been rolled into new business ventures and we will no longer be doing business as Machine Gun Designs. This is a bittersweet time for me as Machine Gun has been such immeasurable fun for me over the last 8 years. I started doing this thing in college as a way to provide my ow band, and the bands of my friends with quality merchandise to help get them to the next level.

After I was no longer in these bands, Machine Gun let me stay plugged into and have some, however measured, influence in the music scene that had sure done nothing short of saved my life and helped me become the person I was and am now, for better or worse. Even several years, a career, a wife, and 3 kids removed from that part of my life, I take values, lessons that I learned, and too many memories to count into every day and I will for the rest of my life.

I'll never forget the feeling when a band like Shadows Fall or Stretch Arm Strong or Nodes of Ranvier. Somebody I had listened to, and paid to see, and preordered CDs from, and admired, and loved for so long came looking for a shirt or poster. Or holding freshly printed All In CDs for the first time. It never got old.

I am weighing anchor on a new project, alongside my beautiful and talented wife, called Upper Air Creative, in case anyone is interested. You can find and follow us on Facebook @Upper Air Creative, and on Twitter at @UpperAir. Please come see us, and if you need work, please don't hesitate to ask, we can still help, it just will be under a different name.

I'll try to pull together a Greatest Hits Collection and post it in the coming weeks. So, I'll sign off by saying "thanks" to all the bands and artists and labels and friends that have supported Machine Gun Designs over the years. Thanks for letting us help you on to the next city, the next show. Thanks for trusting me, thanks for letting me have so much fun.

Don't let them grind you down.

I'll see you when I see you.

-Shane

local acoustic/folk show

2009-08-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've blogged up a poster. This is for a show at a book store in Birmingham. Green Cup Books is a great place, it's unique in that it is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and they do a lot for their neighborhood just be being there. Go support it. Buy a book, see a show, do your part. This is another place Birmingham is lucky to have and needs our support. Not to mention, these bands, both touring and local, that need your support.

Sort of a departure from what I would imagine a folk music poster to look like, but who wants to see the same old thing over and over again? Tony and I have been calling it The Crazy-Hair-Metal-Tiger-Space Poster. Enjoy.

2009-07-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

A few shots from All In's last show.

Great White North Hardcore

2009-07-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

If you've never heard of Comeback Kid, odds are you've never heard of us either so I won't bother you with this band's back story. Suffice it to say they're one of our favorite bands, ever, and have been since those first 2 songs surfaced on that Face Down Records sampler way back when.

These are part of a Canada-themed pitch we did for the guys a few months ago.

The first ones are fairly self explanatory, it's a beat and bloody maple leaf. The second set utilize Canada's national crest. We worked in the type treatment, or something close to it, used on their latest album, Broadcasting (which is an unbelievable, genre-defining piece of musical genius through which, if you can manage to stand still, you're probably either made of stone or at the wrong show).

Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed designing them up. Stay dope, kids.

All good things...

2009-07-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

All In, some of our favorite people on Earth and a band we've worked with and helped build up from their first day (even to the point of playing some guitar for them early on), are calling it quits. This is sad for us but, in honor of everything they've done for us and meant to us, we designed a special edition, funeral-themed poster for the show. Old Mexico style, Day of the Dead skulls and all. If you're anywhere near central Alabama on Friday the 24th of July, do yourself a favor and get to this show. We're awfully proud of All In for everything they've accomplished. Thanks guys, for all of it.

I Am Terrified.

2009-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

I Am Terrified from Birmingham needed some shirts with their name just huge on the front. Here are a couple of different layout options we did. The one on the far right is in metallic, gold-foil. We did a logo for these guys a while back that turned out pretty nice. They have an album out on Gotee Records right now and available in iTunes.

And We're BACK

2009-06-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

So, it's been kind of a while since I posted any new work. I took a sort of hiatus while we put together some new work of a more corporate nature... boring, but you gotta keep the lights on and the computers humming. So I'm finally being able to post some recent work that applies to Machine Gun Designs. Some of these were part of pitches to labels, which means that some of them got picked up, printed and are (or were at one point) available for purchase and some of them didn't. Either way, it had been way too long without an update and I wanted to put something new out there.

So here you go.

First off, a couple of bands who the hourglass has almost run out on.

Across Five Aprils, from Chattanooga, actually hung it up late last year but these shirts have somehow eluded my attention for months. My first band played some of its first shows with these guys and they were always a blast.

All In, whom we've been working with from their very first show, are laying out their farewell tour even as I type this. They're finishing up at Cornerstone Fest in Illinois and then doing one, last show near their home town of Birmingham, Alabama. If they're coming near you, try and get to one of their shows - I promise you'll never have more fun at a hardcore show than you will seeing these guys. Also check out both their CDs, which we here at Machine Gun Designs also did the album art for: Team U.S.A. and Nothing to Lose.

Now for some metalcore. These next three bands are some of my favorites right now. Inhale Exhale, Gwen Stacy, and August Burns Red. You can not beat this stuff.

Inhale Exhale is from Ohio and if you've not heard their new album, "I Swear..." you are BLOWING it.

Gwen Stacy, from Indy, is one of the most terrifyingly awesome bands I've heard in a long time. Ferret Music picks up some of the absolute best talent in this scene and these guys are a prime example of it.

August Burns Red is in Europe right now, so if you're reading this in Europe, see if they're coming near you. Also they have a new album coming out in about a month, called Constellations, that promises to be INCREDIBLE. There's a new song from it up at their myspace page.

If you have ANY affinity for metalcore, you need to get into these three bands.

That's all for now. There will be more to post, hopefully next week. Getting xmachinegunx.com up has proven to be a slow, slow roll. Hopefully there will be a development in that in the next couple of weeks too. We at Machine Gun Designs are now, officially, on our grind - so stand ready.

Thanks for lookin'.

Hoover

2008-10-10T13:30:00.001-07:00

My brother is a brilliant history teacher at Hoover High School in Birmingham, Alabama. He's the faculty sponsor for the Young Republicans Club. He had me work up a logo for them and these are a couple of the better examples I came up with. It's a fun problem to try and blend Right-Wing Conservatism with a sense of youthfulness. Almost as hard as blending Liberalism with common sense. HEY-O!!!

Cascade Hills Church

2008-10-01T09:42:00.001-07:00

I worked at Cascade Hills Church in Columbus, Georgia for about a cup of coffee. That was several years ago, 5 or 6 I guess and I think they've fixed a lot of the problems they had holding them back in those days and are moving in a really positive direction. My friend Chris at One12 Apparel runs their music program and he asked me to work up a couple of shirts for them to sell and/or give away. I had some pretty free reign for design choices so these were fun to work on. One set is "ancient" and one set is "modern".

We don't have a whole lot else going on here. I may post some older work and some spec work we've done over the past few months, just so I'll have some new stuff up.

Confidence, Cohen CD cover

2008-09-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

This is the cover art for the demo recording that Confidence, Cohen was touring with the From the Branch play.

Marathon Update

2008-09-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Alright everybody, settle in, this is going to be a long update. I had considered breaking this into a few different posts, but I'm not going to this time. I just would rather get it all out on the table right now.

First off, our boys in All In. To accompany their "Team U.S.A." CD, we worked up some new merch for them to tour with. First, being the great, conservative Americans they are, will be a Ronald Reagan shirt. Done in the style of the old, Che Guevara iconic stencil image. I think the 2 on the right are the only ones available right now.

Next are the straight up American designs. The Flag design has a line from their song "Magic Johnson" on the back. The blue one I did for Blood and Ink Records to use as a preorder package to be sold with the album.

Incidentally, let me say that this Team U.S.A. album is INCREDIBLE. It was recorded, in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama by a guy named Eric Chapman and it sounds phenomenal. It is leaps and bounds better than their Nothing to Lose album in every way. They've really grown as songwriters and musicians and will be touring this CD a lot in the next year so go check them out and buy stuff from them: www.myspace.com/allinhxc.

A few weeks back, I got the chance to hook up with Common Market again and do some shirts to go with their new album "Tobacco Road". I was really happy with the way they came out and this record is absolutely AMAZING. I say again, if you like innovative, smart, outside the box hip-hop then you're missing out every day you don't check out Common Market. Go listen to them at www.commonmarketmusic.com and then buy a shirt.

These are some shirts I did for the guys in I Am Terrified a while back. They've never been posted anywhere, so I figured I'd toss them up here. They recently signed to Gotee Records, which is huge, so congrats to those dudes. They have an EP up at iTunes and new stuff on their Myspace - www.myspace.com/iamterrified.

Again, from a while back, we did these for Nodes of Ranvier and a band called Drag the Lake. Big ups to Hydro74 for the vector art of the soldiers on the Drag the Lake shirt. I think this was the last shirt Nodes did before they split up.

These are the shirts I did for Jimmy Israel Tattoo. This guy does some beautiful work. Check it out at www.myspace.com/jimmyisrealftg.

Lastly, I've been doing some work for the University of Alabama. I've been trying to break Machine Gun Designs into the realm of sports merchandising. There's so much sports merch out there and so much of it is so bad. As in all things, I feel like we can bring something different and better to the table and I think it would be so different as to sell really well to a younger market. Alabama is a big money atheletic program so it's a decent, high-profile gig, but I'm an Auburn graduate. So I kind of feel dirty doing these. I can't get anyone from Auburn to call me back though, so if anyone at Tiger Rags or some other licensed printer for Auburn University reads this, email me please. For these, I did a line from Alabama's fight song ("Fight on, fight on, fight on men.) and, what I think is a really cool idea with Denney Chimes. which is a landmark on the campus.

These, I went two totally different directions, one a vintage, scrollwork look with their old logo, and one a more typical "sporty" look and a reference to the turf at Bryant-Denney Stadium.

So that's what we've been up to over here. The website (xmachinegunx.com) is coming along a little better now, I'm making some real progress and I'm about ready to start the portfolio. So keep an eye out for that. Thanks for looking. Later.

Machine Gun Designs
www.xmachinegunx.com

sort of bland couple of weeks

2008-07-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while, so I'm going to give an update, though there's not a ton to update on. Lots of bill paying type work lately. Shirts for smaller businesses that just keep eating up time, but I gotta have the dough.

One minor little shirt for the University of Alabama. Some program they're having. Nothing sexy. Some good problem solving though, so that's been a fun little challenge (which I rose to, by the way).

I did work up some shirts through my friend James at Big Deal Merch for a tattoo artist up in Missouri, I think. Haven't heard back yet, but they were fun as junk to work on. They're really evil. I'll post some of them once (if) they get approved.

What I do have to show is the work I've been doing for From the Branch. From the Branch is an acting troupe, the head of which lives in Birmingham and is a good friend (I think they cast from all over the country). They're touring a play this summer that's about an as yet fictional band called Confidence, Cohen. Well, they decided to actually write, play, and sing these songs on stage as part of the production (which I think is SUPER clever). So, just like any band would, they've recorded an EP and have merch to sell after the show.

The EP art is almost done and I'll post it tomorrow. But, for now, here are the shirts:

The Blinding Light

2008-06-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

These are, possibly, the most metallurgical shirts we've ever done. The Blinding Light (which is one of the best band names EVER, by the way) deserves as much metal as we can give them though.

Really, we're just returning the favor.

For Boston, for Boston we sing our proud refrain!!!!

2008-06-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Boston Celtics massacre of the Los Angeles Lakers in game 6 of the NBA Finals, some Neon Hookers shirts.

These guys are really good, old school hardcore on Cabal Records, from Hull, MA. They are taking over the world. Go listen.
http://www.myspace.com/theneonhookers

Hammerlord

2008-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hammerlord is a metal band from Lawrence, Kansas. It shares members with The Blinding Light, Nodes of Ranvier (r.i.p.), The Last Tyrant, a few others. This is the Dracula shirt and two versions of the Coffin shirt. I hope they get made. Nodes and The Blinding Light, and The Last Tyrant have all been really good customers, so I was happy to have the chance at working on this incarnation.

Team U.S.A.

2008-06-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

All In, Team U.S.A. out soon on Blood & Ink Records.

I'll shoot and post the full art when I get a copy. This is going to be a phenomenal record. The songs are great, and the quality is probably the best thing Blood & Ink has put out so far. It was recorded in Birmingham by Eric Chapman and it sounds phenomenal. These guys have really come a long way since their last record so it's definitely worth a look. Every song is named for a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Basketball team.

Presidents of the United States of America shirts

2008-06-06T08:40:00.001-07:00

Those last 2 ways I wasn't crazy about. I'm not sure I'm over the moon about this way either though. I don't know. Whatever. Still working on a new way to show the designs, hopefully I'll post some new stuff next week with the new proofing method.

the Presidents asked me to do some designs that incorporated some drawings that their singer had done. All the little creatures and beasties are from his mind. Given that this hand-drawn illustrative style is not, really, my thing, I was pretty proud of what I came up with. These dudes were really fun to work with. I think they have a CD coming out soon, too.

Common Market Shirts

2008-06-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is an attempt at loading up pictures for the first time.

I'm actually working on a new way to display designs on shirts but that's not up yet so, this is the old way.

First ever, work-related update

2008-06-02T13:41:00.001-07:00

Alright...

I don't really know the form this blog will take, nor its purpose. So I guess, for now, I'll just update on what I'm currently working on. Unfortunately, what I'm working on, right now, is fairly scant.

I just finished the All In art for their 2nd CD "Team U.S.A." and I'm super pleased with it. I wish I had more occasion to do more 4 color work for bands, but I've sort of carved out a niche for myself in the merchandise arena so it's going to take some work to get into other areas. Don't get me wrong though, I love doing merch designs. It's still my fave.

On that front, I just got, in the mail, the 2 Common Market designs I did for the release of their EP "Black Patch War". Common Market is a hip-hop outfit from Seattle and they got me and a designer from up there to do a couple of shirts apiece. Not to brag or anything but their manager told me that mine buried the other guy's in sales. This is because I rule. I'll tell you who else rules is Common Market. If you like this new stream of positive, underground, socially conscious hip-hop that's out there right now (i.e. The Procussions, Pigeon John, The Blue Scholars, etc.) they're for you. The Black Patch War was an uprising of tobacco farmers in the early 1900s to crush the monopoly help by the American Tobacco Company. It worked, too and is, actually a really interesting piece of history that not a lot of people know about. It is, also, a sick, 7 song EP by Common Market that you should listen to.

I got hooked up with their label and management by the guys that manage the Presidents of the United States of America who I did 6 shirts for a few months back. I'm super grateful that they saw fit to pass my name along.

Right this minute, I'm working on some shirts for a local acting troupe, which is fun. Something different. I'm actually way behind on getting them proofs because one of the designs is proving REALLY challenging. It's the one they had a very specific idea about and I'm having a hard time coming up with how to execute it. I'll get it though. Your boy's wicked smart.

Aside from that, and some shirts in the works for the University of Alabama, there's not a whole ton going on. Alabama wants me to do some game day shirts for the upcoming football season, so that means thousands of potential designs walking around, which is exciting. That's IF I can pull it off though and come up with something people will actually buy. We'll see. Also, I'll be doing some randoid, souvenir-type shirts which is wide open to my design and will be really fun.

I guess that's a solid update for now. I'll try to keep you posted.

New Personal Blog Location, etc.

2008-05-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

I shut down the personal blog and changed it slightly:

shaneetheredge.blogspot.com

Same name, just no "X" in the middle. I had set the two up under the same account, so they were both on the same bio and everything and I wanted them to be more separate.

Can't win 'em all, I guess. But, for what it's all worth, there it is. I'll try to post something up there today. I'll try to post some stuff I've been working on here later today, too.

Welcome

2008-05-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

Alright I'm setting up not one, but 2 blargs. One, here, for Machine Gun Designs so I can contribute to the industry of which I am a part in whatever tiny way I can. Then there will be this one: http://shanexetheredge.blogspot.com/ which will serve as my personal, every day life kind of blarg. I thought it beneficial to keep these two areas seperate as the majority of people who find interest in one will have limited to no interest in the other.

I can't imagine either one of them being terribly interesting, but I want to catalog certain things, if for no other reason than to help me reminisce should the occasion arise that I want to.

This particular blarg will serve to update any interested parties on what I'm currently working on in my professional life, new projects, hairbrained schemes, crazy time wasting ideas I have, maybe even a resource for other designers to learn tips and tricks, get some free vector art or textures or something if I ever learn to post that stuff for download.

Hopefully in the next couple of days, I'll be able to get a link up on the splash page at xmachinegunx.com to let any interested parties know we're here. Maybe I'll also turn that thing into an actual, functioning website too. You never know.

Warning Shot

2008-05-16T09:29:00.001-07:00

Mic check, 1, 2.