About three years ago, a very creative friend of ours—Agatha—started something called the Brooklyn Music Exchange, which basically boils down to getting a group of people who love music together and having them create and then distribute a new themed mix on a regular basis—in our case, every month. So, one person or couple or pair of roommates sends out a mix one month in the year and then gets eleven other mixes from their various friends on the list throughout the year. Kind of like an awesome pyramid scheme. Though it can be a bit of work and the idea’s evolved somewhat over the years—CDs have become a little less common that shareable MP3s and, after some Brooklyn exoduses, BMX now more accurately stands for Borough Music Exchange—we’ve discovered countless new bands and tracks that we may never have heard without BMX and we totally suggest giving it a try with your group of friends.
We wanted to quickly share our entry this year, built around the theme of old-school Choose Your Own Adventure books and a fantasy-style quest to find “The Ultimate Band.” Many who know me know that I’m a total nerd and, in addition to growing up on a steady diet of D&D games, I was a HUGE fan of the CYOA book series. Though Katie’s opinion on freeform roleplaying games differs a tad from mine, she also shared a love for the books in her youth. So we bought a collection of the actual old CYOAs from the 70s and 80s and designed new covers/jackets for the books, staying as absolutely true to the original designs, fonts, layouts, and writing style as possible. We used a combination of hand-sketching, in-Illustrator pen + blob brush work, and some other random illustration work to get the cover art and back jacket down. The result—Katie can conjure musically-inspired mystical energies and looks pretty damn snazzy in a hooded cloak and our cat has some bad-ass dragon wings. The books, which we sent out to the BMX list, each featured a call to visit a Web site we built to Begin the Rockventure!
Via our regular Music Monday, we now extend the invitation to you, dear reader. Don your feathered cap and totally tough tunic and enter the weirdly rock-nerdy musical world of our 2010 BMX—IF YE DARE!!! Out of respect for the artists involved and because….um….we’re not made of storage space, it won’t stay up for long, so check it out while you can. And, obvs, if you’re one of the artists involved and would like me take your tracks down, say the word.
Below: The entirely sensible site navigation diagram and full front-back jacket design. Click for larger versions.
