Hopfest 2013.

The awesome folks over at Brouwer's Cafe recently commissioned me to design a t-shirt for this years Hopfest. I guess my work for Epic Ales is how Matt and Nat came to find me and we quickly went to work on figuring out an idea. They had a "hop demon" from previous Hopfests, so they asked that I metal him up and make him look more menacing. Demons are pretty easy to make more grim and they were stoked on the final design.
 You can read more about Hopfest on their blog and if you live in Seattle, WA, you can head down to Brouwer's Cafe starting Thursday, September 26th- Sunday, September 29th.

High On Fire/Kvelertak tour the US and Canada.

 It looks like that time of year when I'll be packing up and getting out of the art room to tour with my good friends High On Fire. I look forward to running across the US and Canada with those crazy Norwegian folks, Kvelertak, too. Along the way, the tour will be joined by Doomriders, Pack Of Wolves, and Windhand. Tickets are on sale now, so buy one, come say hello at the merch table, and watch an awesome night of heavy music.

Here are the dates:
November 10: Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
November 11: Orange Peel, Asheville, NC
November 12: Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington, DC
November 13: Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA
November 15:  Webster Hall, New York, NY
November 16: The Middle East, Boston, MA
November 17: Corona Theatre, Montreal, QC
November 18: Opera House, Toronto, ON
November 19: Crofoot Ballroom, Detroit, MI
November 20: A&R Music Bar, Columbus, OH
November 22: Metro,Chicago, IL
November 23: Pop’s, Sauget, IL
November 25: House of Blues, Houston, TX
November 26: Tree’s, Dallas, TX
November 27: Mohawk (outside), Austin, TX
November 29: Granada Theatre, Lawrence, KS
November 30: First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
December 2: West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg, MB
December 4: Starlite Ballroom, Edmonton, AB
December 5: Republik, Calgary, AB
December 7: Venue, Vancouver, BC
December 8: El Corazon, Seattle, WA
December 9: Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR
December 11: Regency Center Grand Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
December 12: El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, CA

Kvelertak's space owl.

 Now that I'm settled into my new art room, the designs have been being pumped out at a quick rate. Take for example the new "Space Owl" design for Kevelrtak. It took only one week to complete as they needed it in a time crunch. Erlend gave me the idea of a sci-fi/robot owl and the first thing that came to mind was more inspired by Bubo from the 1981 Clash Of The Titans movie than a new style mech owl. I also wanted to reference a real owl, so I added the horned owl skull in it's talons along with the real owl's claws attached by thin ropes to the it's jawbone. I wanted it to be sort of a "machine conquering flesh" sort of vibe going on in the design.

The guys are really happy with it and i'm hoping that they'll have them when they head to Australia on Saturday. If not, then they should have them on their upcoming US tour with High On Fire starting November 10th.

Epic Ales Slow Southern Steel beers.

In celebration of the West Coast screening of SLOW SOUTHERN STEEL, Epic Ales has brewed up a special beer. They are hand numbered, wax sealed, and limited to 300 bottles. They will be in stores in the Pacific NW sometime this week.