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Hook & Eye + Marc Rimmer = The shortest, silliest LPWTF post ever?

Hook & Eye: North St. EP [Feb/2013] — Sometimes, impulsiveness is the best medicine. Sometimes even for record covers. 

My hyper-brilliant friend Marc Rimmer — whose work I profiled to get this blog off the ground almost two years ago, here — recently looped me in on the fabulously uncluttered guidance that led to his latest piece of kick-ass record packaging. Musician Jeff Macleod had enlisted Rimmer (an old buddy from the Calgary music scene) to design the cover art for his new band’s forthcoming EP.

Given that these two guys now live about 4,000 kms apart, this is how they settled on the image you see above, via text message:

Jeff: “I need an album cover. Got any sad, dark, lonely photos kickin’ around?”

Marc: “Not really, but here’s a photo I snapped at a farm on the weekend.” [At left, below.]

J: “Nice! It has the right mood, but needs something. Can you try superimposing a fire on it?”

M: “Sure, here you go.” [Middle.]

J: “Shit yeah! Well, while we’re on topic, if you make it an old Ford truck that’s on fire, I'll give you free hand jobs and pizza for life.”

M: “Done.”

Rimmer wrapped up the image by adding some glow coming off the truck and onto the surrounding grass. The original photo was taken on Rimmer's iPhone during a foggy farmland excursion to Huberdeau, Quebec (about an hour and a half northwest of Montreal), and he suggested it because of its “isolated, ominous, super-surreal” qualities. (The fire came from one of his old camping photos, and he fixed up and recoloured a stock photo of the truck.)

Macleod describes North St.’s songs as “lo-fi, moody, indie” — which sounds exactly as they should, considering they were recorded by another lo-fi, moody, indie Calgarian, Clinton St. John. (Those two played alongside the indomitable Matt Flegel in The Cape May a few years ago.) The EP will be self-released on Fir Trade Records in early 2013, and Hook & Eye will support it with some shows in Calgary and probably a small western Canadian tour in the spring.

Although the dosage of forethought that went into the cover art creation is perfect, I asked Macleod to elaborate a little on the choice, albeit not too seriously: 

Why did a sad, dark and lonely image need to be on the cover of this record? “It suits the mood of the music — especially ‘North St.’ and ‘Late Night Karate Practice’.”

Can you describe what you like about the cover image? “I think it has a pretty starkness/somber beauty to it.”

What have you got against Ford trucks? “Haha. Nothing. I was having sushi with a friend, and he saw an old one in his neighborhood earlier that day. It just popped into his head when we were deciding what to burn while texting with Marc.”

Can you tell me about the most enjoyable fire you were ever involved in building? “My friends and I still have illegal fires down in a secret spot on the city reservoir all the time. We just bring wood, Roman candles and beer.”

How is your music similar to an abandoned patch of land? “Hmmm... not sure. Maybe listen to 'North St.' on our bandcamp. It’s an instrumental. Very minimalist.”

And for good measure, I asked Marc to send me a handful of other photos that he took on his road trip to rural Quebec. Enjoy: 

All images by Marc Rimmer. Story by Eric Rumble. Hear and/or buy North St. from the Hook & Eye bandcamp page, or on vinyl from Fur Trade Recordings.