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Hiss Golden Messenger Heart Like a Levee - Deluxe LP

Lettering for Little Scream’s Cult Following

The art director called it what it is: a manifesto. It’s right there, bright and bold, on the sleeve of North Carolina natives Mount Moriah’s new record, ‘How To Dance’. But Heather McEntire’s words were initially intended only to add further context. They were destined for the liner notes and thankyous. Only when the band had a mock up of Maggie Fost's striking artwork in front of them did it make complete sense. “I don’t think I realised until that moment, really, what this record could do,” McEntire said. “I guess I realised its purpose at that time.”

As told to Stereoboard.com by Mount Moriah’s Heather McEntire. Pretty much the nicest thing one can say about the design process. Love this band.

Eric Bachmann (self-titled)

This is one of those lifetime records. Gorgeous, human, mature. Design-wise, it was all about tuning as few knobs as possible to make it exactly what it needed to be. EB is the genuine article: a quick-witted and generous conversationalist in every sense of the word. That is, there is a back-and-forth dialogue that advances an idea forward elegantly. And then it’s done.

Here's Eric playing “Carolina” at the Pinhook in Durham earlier this year.

Merge Records 2016 Spring / Summer Sampler

This annual sampler is given out at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a fantastic event of which Merge is a sponsor. For many years, downtown Durham - where Merge HQ is located - was a ghost town. Most storefronts were empty. No one lived there. There were very few places to eat. The infusion of film people and festival-goers for Full Frame completely transformed the downtown ... like actors flowing into an abandoned city set. Now, downtown Durham is so happening all the time, the many restaurants overfull most nights. Full Frame is a less of a total takeover and more of a short-term surge in an already buzzing scene. “Filmkat” welcomes the Full Frame crowd and reminds you to please turn off your cellphones.

(w/ birthday messaging for certified cat lady, @lindseykron)

Bob Mould - “Patch the Sky”

Dream collaboration to be able to use gorgeous imagery from one of my very favorite designers - and my former mentor - Martin Venezky.

Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp

Katie Crutchfield’s third album—the first on Merge—is both intimate and expansive. We wanted to create something that felt classic, but not pastiche. The native proportions of the cover photo (by Jesse Riggins) include Katie’s legs. By cropping it just beneath her hands, she floats above the underbrush of the changing season—an effect that captures the grace and invitation that this record embodies.

The “waxahatchee” typeface is Grouch, designed in 1970 by Tom Carnase and Ronne Bonder. I customized it with a c-h ligature, so that the otherwise super-simple treatment conveyed a sense of cared-for-ness. This is a fantastic record. Hear it, buy it, see her and her excellent band play.

2014 Spring / Summer Sampler for Merge’s 25th anniversary

Cut, folded, and photographed origami paper and Russian candy wrappers.

Fall Sampler for Hopscotch and a giveaway to Merge mailorder customers.

Samplers are always done quite quickly. The elements usually come from the public domain, things I have lying around, or studies I make with simple materials at hand. The imagery is never precious; the type is quick and unfussy. The element I spend the most time tuning is color.

2015 Samplers: U.S. on top; Europe below.

“Calvander” is the new 7-inch from Mount Moriah’s forthcoming album.

#mountmoriah

Will Butler, Policy is streaming in full today on Pitchfork: http://pitchfork.com/news/58661-arcade-fires-will-butler-streams-new-album-policy/

The artwork was constructed from a cell-phone selfie and Will's photos of Portuguese tile. Working from the "first idea, best idea" principle that he described as guiding the recording of the album, this came together quickly through various conversations from various places last December. In the songs - and the projects surrounding them so far (see The Guardian song-a-day thing and Will's delightful self-directed video for "Anna") - you can see an artist in dialogue with his own work and the world around him in search of interesting questions. His work conveys a fearlessness, experimentation, and a lack of pretense that is paired with the no-nonsense focus of someone who has important work to do.

Buy it here: http://www.mergerecords.com/policy

Grouch gets a ligature for forthcoming Waxahatchee album, Ivy Tripp.

Hiss Golden Messenger Southern Grammar EP

Describing the songs on this three-song, 12-inch EP—and his creative space in general—M.C. Taylor summed up a "Southern mystical" vibe. He sent some images of old engravings that began to describe the territory, which launched me into further research of ancient Tarot books and mystical imagery.

Restraint was our beacon. One-color printing on standard chipboard sleeves with all the credits living on a photocopied download card-cum-bookmark kept it affordable for fans and fittingly tactile for the lusciously physical sound of this band.

Watch Hiss Golden Messenger perform "Southern Grammar" on Letterman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI1BE48lYBo.

Stephen M. Deusner wrote a spot-on review of this record yesterday, which you can read here: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20092-southern-grammar-ep/

This sold out almost immediately in the Merge shop, but your local record store may have a copy. This is rest-of-your-life playlist stuff.

#album art hiss golden messenger

We still make LPs. Because CDs are too small to be effective television props.

#bob mould

Will Butler debut record, Policy, as captured by a search on Twitter.

#will butler merge records

A few of the the many elements for the Merge Records 25th Anniversary Music Festival in July, 2014.

#merge25

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