I don't know if I am buying these Gibson and Fender shirts because I have a love of guitar music, I have somehow made a (tenuous) nerd connection between guitars and Guitar Hero, or a pathetic stab at fitting in with the cool kids again.  My god, it's 1997 all over again, I'm at a crappy club on Melrose, and someone just asked me if I work in the record industry.  Here's an important lesson, kids.  Be true to yourself.

Anyway, one think I can say about these guitar shirts is the art is great.  I sold music t-shirts for years and rock shirts tend to either be brilliant or absolute crap.  Unfortunately the breakdown is about 2% good to 98% crap.  In case you are starting your own band and want some tips on making a decent shirts here are a few:

1.  Don't design your own shirts.  Trust me, as creative as you may or may not be, you are not a graphic designer.  Your design will most likely suck.  Billy Corigan, I'm talking to you.  Worst t-shirts ever.  Hire an actual artist.
2.  Put the name of the band on the front of the shirt.  Unless you have a truly iconic image (Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon) no one will buy it.  I don't care if you think it's for the fans or whatever.  People want to see the name on it.
3.  Stay away from pictures of the band.  In most cases you are probably better off if your fans don't now what you look like (cough cough Lemmy cough cough).  
4.  If you are a punk band, put a skull on it.  If you are a metal band, put a skull with horns on it.  Country a cowboy hat.  Alternative rock go with anything as long as it is ironic.  Death metal as much guts and gore as you can stomach.  Boy band go kill yourself.
5.  Don't do anything 8 Bit, or retro 80s.  That has been done to death and people (at least this person) is thoroughly sick of it.  Actually, I was sick of it back in the '80s and don't want to flash back.  At least the '60s and '70s had free love and easy sex.
6.  Unless you have a VERY specific reason (other than you are a rock star with a monstrous ego and think you should be able to dictate to the world what they should wear) go with black as a t-shirt color.  Sure, it's super common, but it's super common for a reason.

Anyway, it's obvious Gibson gets the concept of hiring talented artists to create their shirts.  Very cool design.  I found this article on the 20 strangest guitars in the world.  I like the gun one myself, but in the weird world in my head all things double as guns.  Of course, it is a Japanese product.  I was a little staggered but what looked a price of $79,800, but then I realized it was in yen.  That translates to $977.35.  Still ridiculously expensive for a novelty you will never use without looking like a complete tool.  

I'm not really feeling the description love today.  My speakers broke and I can't stream any radio while I work. I am finding the silence disconcerting.  I think I will wrap it up and go buy some new cheap speakers.

Dave
December 29th, 2010