I’m in America touring with PRE right now. We played at SXSW and we are now on the west coast. It’s been great fun. But today I’m pissed off and I’ve got some things to say something about band T-shirts.
I’m always seeing people wearing Sonic Youth’s Goo, Black Flag, No Age and Minor Threat T-shirts, I mean, even the guy from Razorlight wears a Minor Threat Tee, it’s unbelievable. There are so many kids about wearing Misfits T-shirts who’ve never heard the band, but the other night I witnessed something even darker. I was with some kids in Karaoke Box and one of them was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt so I stuck “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on so we could sing it together; but he said he’d never heard the song. Fuck. That’s so fucked up its unbelievable. Look divs, don’t just fucking wear a band’s T-shirt because it looks cool, it will end up making you look like a dick. It pisses me off particularly because I’m in bands and I make T-shirts.
I make and design my bands’ T-shirts on very limited runs, we never repeat prints and always change designs once we run out of one design. I also design T-shirts for other bands, if I like the bands and if they don’t have money then I do it for free, but sometimes a band I don’t like ask me to do some designs. It’s not so cool, but I do it for the money; if they pay me loads.
This is a design I did for The Big Pink. Milo BP gave me some images from My Own Private Idaho and I came up with the design.
This is PRE’s new T-shirt. The picture was a photo we stole from a frat house we played at last year in America. We designed it together and did the tie-dye while we on tour.
AKIKO
March 30th, 2009 @ 13:57
Reader Comments
March 30th, 2009
5:01 pm
I call bullshit, I’m always hearing stories about people who pretend to like bands without having ever heard them at all, and they’re always told by people who ‘really care about music’ and I call bullshit.
If you hadn’t taken it so far, maybe if you put on rape me or something that has never been the biggest song in the world, maybe I’d believe it.
March 30th, 2009
5:23 pm
i kno what she means tho… it is annoying more than anything.. if u see someone in a club with a tee on of a band u love then try to talk to them about it and they havent a fuckin clue.. it is disappointing to say the least. They shud just stick to ironic 80s tees instead.
March 30th, 2009
5:26 pm
I was once wearing my ramones tshirt which admittedly is a bit cliche now but i love it and them and it was brothers before he died so… fuck it i still wore it. And then some horrid boy comes up to me and demands i tell him the name of at least 9 ramones songs!!!! how god dam rude… no hello, no can i buy u a drink… nothing. i know all the bloody ramones songs!! it is all this crazy new bands i have no clue about!!
mgm who?
And his breath smelled of boiled eggs.
March 30th, 2009
6:21 pm
my neighbour was wearing TOPSHOP’s Sid and Nancy tee, which I commented on, she had fake tan on the neck and had never head of Sid or Nancy. cuntflap.
March 30th, 2009
9:43 pm
shirts you get from the bands themselves at gigs at their merch table are cheaper too, i have some cliche shirts like joy division but i love that band and never was able to see them play live… shirts i wear the most are aids wolf, health,xbxrx etc because those are bands that can use all the support they can get.
i don’t make merch for my own bands because i have no money and don’t think anyone would want them either.
i know i shouldn’t judge people but i do feel a bit awkward when i see yet another uninspired person wearing the same rolling stones or metallica shirt, everyone knows those bands and the shirts cost too much but those bands don’t need that money or exposure anyway.
April 1st, 2009
11:01 am
i do feel like there are bands t shirts i cant wear now because people “in the know” will just out and out assum im wearing it to be cool, and i dont trust anyone in a crystal castles tee, so maybe its my own fucking fault
April 1st, 2009
7:58 pm
I always want to buy band t shirts when i go to gigs. However I know that i will buy the wrong size and that they will only have the size that I think will fit me left with the worst design on, also I usually need the fifteen pounds to buy some more overpriced drinks.
I think its cool when a band sells a CD and a T for ten pounds.
Usually i just wait for my friends while they get the best design T in size XS or something (which still fits over the top of existing clothing) and then we can carry on with our night, them with a memento they may treasure for the rest of their life and me with a slight hangover and maybe a few bruises!
April 3rd, 2009
4:33 am
dude, i played tetris with that girl for like an hour before Pre had to play. weird. i should have bought that shirt. i really wanted to but i didn’t have my wallet on me. RATS!
urban outfitters made bauhaus and joy division logo women’s tees that were a little interesting constructed. i saw girls i knew wearing them and they had no idea they were of bands, let alone who the bands were.
FUCK that
(i love you peter murphy)
April 6th, 2009
1:07 am
who gives a shit ?
you guys are all little dog shits that need to get a life.
who cares if some little prick is wearing a stupid band tshirt.
akiko - stop trying to sell tshirts / get work making tshirts and make me ”ah egg fwy wrai preeze”
April 6th, 2009
2:53 pm
I can understand how this would be annoying to someone who is in bands and makes band shirts, but i have to admit i have a Black Sabbath shirt that states “Listen To Black Sabbath” across the back and i wear it A LOT even though I could not name a single one of their songs. I like it because its black and purple and in the picture the dudes in the band have cool hair, is that sooo wrong?
April 7th, 2009
12:08 am
A Nirvana T-shirt is always a bad move.
May 4th, 2009
3:33 pm
Hi, Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Have a nice day
Elcorin
May 15th, 2009
3:31 pm
Have to agree with comment #1. Seriously never heard Teen Spirit and wearing a Nirvana tee? Fuck off.
November 10th, 2009
6:03 pm
I would have put a lesser known Nirvana song on, but Teens Spirit always gets ya going, and thats fucking stupid that he has never heard the song, what a douche, I would never wear a band T shirt of a band I don’t like, its just fucking stupid.