September 6, 2002

August 30, 2002

August 2, 2002

July 26, 2002

July 19, 2002

July 12, 2002

June 27, 2002

June 20, 2002

June 14, 2002

June 7, 2002

May 31, 2002

May 17, 2002

May 10, 2002

Kenneth Higney is a classic outsider record. Johnny Charro is a fun, local lounge LP.

Welcome to Friday Record Fun

I've been collecting records since my early teens (which would be the early '80s). Obviously something we lost since the era of CDs, and now MP3s, is the 12" square record cover. Part of the appeal of collecting records is if you're out in the middle of East Forkdick, at some junky antique store where the crusty old owner pulled out a dusty cardboard box of old records (mostly Lawrence Welk, Mantovani, Jane Fonda Workout, etc.) that looks like it might have mouse turds in it, is trying to figure out what the hell this one weird-looking record sounds like based on its strange cover. There is a certain breed of collector that gets a real thrill when they see a homemade-looking cover that could be a local lounge band, loner folk artist, demented psychedelic waste case, or an unclassifiable piece of weirdness that sounds like no other record.

Back at an old job in May of 2002, just as a joke to get co-workers in the mood for the weekend, I started sending around an email with seven strange/funny/cool album covers, each with a one-sentence piece of wise-ass commentary, and called it Friday Record Fun. I stopped sending the email around a few years later (and no longer work there), but the tradition lives on at the great Gigposters website, where the visually-oriented get a kick out of the very existence of some of these artifacts. I've started this blog to store the best of the covers. I never saved the commentary, so only the lucky (?) who paid attention at the time will ever see it, but I think the covers themselves are interesting enough to stand on their own.

Please note that while I own or have owned many of these covers (maybe about half), many of them were culled from eBay auctions and collector websites. I'm indebted to the folks who dug these up; no one person could possibly be lucky enough to find them all no matter how tenacious. Lately the obsessive heavy-hitters at Waxidermy have been showing off their weirdest finds in the "Bonerz" thread. I acknowledge their efforts and all credit is due.