Ubiquity Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Ubiquity, band t-shirts, band tees, music t-shirts, music tees

Based out of Costa Mesa California, Ubiquity Records are as you’ve probably guessed by now, a music label. But don’t let that sway you, I mean if anyone is going to know how to design great music tees, it has to be a guy inside the music biz. Their Spring Collection is out now, I’ve taken a pick of old and new to give you and overview. Most are on sale in sizes S-XXL (where supplies are available). Anyway I’ll let you decide for yourself, but to be honest I haven’t seen music tees this cool in a long old while…

Sunset Analog Tee

Currently their bestseller, inspired by album art of the 60′s to the 80′s, and designed by Freddy Allen Anzures – an Art Director, Designer for Wax Poetics and Apple and a DJ. Only small sizes left but plenty more in S-XL in white. From the new Spring Collection.

Music On The Mind Tee

A nice ‘n’ jazzy little number from the Spring Collection, this one’s available in white and navy in sizes S-XL. Designed by Christopher David Ryan.

Radio Citizen Tee

Inspired by German Jazz/Soul combo Radio Citizen‘s new LP. $24.99 in White and Kelly Green sizes S-XXL.

Boombox Tee

Part of the classic collection, and my fave, still. Available in white but personally I think it looks far better in black (although only S-M sizes left) at $22.99 each.

The prices don’t include tax but I guess that’s local taxes.  I’d think about hiving off the apparel side in the future and get a domain name like ‘ubiquitees”. Even a subdomain could help exposure for their tees but I s’pose it’s all about the music ;)

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Mumford Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirts     Dan Mumford, Mumford Clothing, art shirts, art t-shirts, art tees, band tees, fantasy t-shirts

If you haven’t seen London artist Dan Mumford‘s work then you’re truly missing out, producing some of the most visceral contemporary imagery in the UK from his work space in Studio 100, a collective group of artists, illustrators, and graphic designers. His client list is as impressive including bands The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me The Horizon, and Gallows, Mumford has also tackled major companies such as Nike and Adidas. He is best known for his cover art for “Homesick,” the largely successful album from A Day To Remember, and his extensive t-shirt work for The Black Dahlia Murder.

Check these classic Mumford art tees, all of which are available in black at $18 each, sizes range from YL-XL where available.

Sunset Tee

Crazy colours, a palette that ranges between Fauvism and street artists like OBEY, a beautifully rendered illustration that almost makes you want to frame this one and hang it up on the wall. The end is nigh :0

Dawn Tee

You’d think things would have got a little better by the morning, but no, the evil powers that be seem to have built an intergalactic highway on the rubble of a ruined Earth. These designs could really be storyboards, when is the movie out Dan?

Hope Tee

The heroes have come to save the day, although they’re tooled up and look a little fanatical to me, I’ll be hiding in a cave if anyone needs me.

VIII. Epilogue Tee

I can’t quite tell what’s going on here, but it’s just about the best naturalistic abstract tee I have ever seen. Reptiles, wood, and wheat textures, golden hues galore, amazing.

VI. Dominion Tee

A dazzling design, Dan seems to pull out all the stops with every design. If ever you meet a girl that can do this, I’d run :D

V. Priest Tee

Old goatie, hallowed be thy name, thine evil mutton chops’ bidding will be done. This is probably the sort of thing they get up to at those dodgy Bohemian Grove gatherings. So detailed it hurts.

For more luxuriously illustrated yet rather spooky tees visit www.mumfordclothing.com.

Circus Tee

admin    T-Shirts     Circus Tee, band t-shirts, band tees, musical apparel

Check out the Circus Tee by the brand Musical Apparel, a musician/fan collective that turned to fashion to spread its love for music. Based out of Southern California, Musical Apparel has quite a few screen printed tees on offer, but this one jumped out at me:-

Circus Tee

I’d really like to see MA branch out more in this direction, there’s obviously someone on the team with a real knack for the abstract. The Circus Tee is available in black for guys and girls in sizes S-XXL for $24.95 each.

The other tees lean more towards traditional illustration, photo montage and typography, though less successfully in my humble opinion.

Abstract music tees are a rarity fir me. most seem to be pretty literal even nowadays except for a few labels such as 101Apparel (who happen to be one of my all-time fave t-shirt brands as it goes). These days you can see the trend has slowly permeated the music merchandise scene, when I was a teen almost all music tees featured some idiot in a band sticking their tongue out and sticking it to the man) except for D.S.O.T.M by Floyd of course.

Nowadays the music biz is getting wise “to the street” and is gradually grasping the concept that loudly marketing your favourite band isn’t far off the tactics of loudly branded corporations like Nike The fact is that companies, bands, and just about anyone with a website gets enough marketing these days without slamming it in your face at the local mosh pit.

Abstract. Abstract. Abstract. Until that day dawns see the rest of Musical Apparel’s collection at www.MusicalApparel.com.

The Temperature’s Rising At Hotlife

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Frankie Says, MikeC, band tees, emptees, funny t shirts, hotlife, illustration, livingthehotlife.com, punk, skater, skater tees, t-shirt design

Recently MikeC of www.LivingTheHotlife.com contacted me and demanded to send me a couple of sample tees, as you might or might know I am one of the few t-shirt reviewers who doesn’t require freebies, but he was pretty insistent, he wanted to make sure I knew first hand exactly how high the quality of his products stands up, and I’m telling you, it’s up there with the best. It’s not just the100% organic fair trade tees he prints on, which are incredibly soft by the way, but the designs themselves are incredibly well drawn and fantastically ‘clean’. Mike is obviously an old hand at illustration, I took a peek at his biography on his rather hilarious FAQ page and found a few gems to help warm you to this relatively underground label:-

So HOTLIFE is designed exclusively by MCHC Art/Designs? Absolutely, 100% hand drawn by MikeC himself.That way you know you’ve got an 100% original design. Lots of “designers” like to take clip art and add a photo shop filter and pass it off as a design…we would rather make something thats unique and rad.

I’m pretty sure 90% of my wardrobe is made up of designs by MCHC already, what bands and such has he worked with? Thousands of bands, too many to mention, but Thinkfast! Records, Victory Records, Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember, Hawthorne Heights, Madball, All Shall Perish, Mychildren Mybride, Between the Buried and Me, Salt The Wound, Bishop, Emmure, Catch 22, & Kill Your Idols, just to name a few.

Now that’s a lot of bands! Hotlife have a strong connection with the music scene, if you fancy upping the stakes and making your own band’s image a little more hardcore then you can commission Mike’s talent as a t-shirt designer via his Myspace page. He even helps promote the bands he works with by graciously featuring their latest gigs at Hotlife’s news page.

It’s difficult to categorize Mike’s style, his illustrative style is strong, very strong, and even though there are reminders for me of punk and thrash, biker and tattoo imagery, there are two distinct qualities to his work that makes it rise above the competition. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, his drawing technique is fabulously clean, he actually draws everything by hand as you can tell, his line is fluid and flowing, the compositions spot on, I’m sure this guy must have been doodling throughout every spare minute of his life. Apart from the trained eye and hand co-ordination, there’s the humour, his sense of fun is infectious, one of the first tees to jump out at me was his interpretation of Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankie Says Relax. Which for me is hilarious, as was the original band that came up with that tune, although the latter wasn’t entirely intentional.

I’ll start by reviewing the tees Mike sent me, I’d have got my cute GF to pose but she’s up to her neck in work today, so I’m afraid you get the ugly guy instead of the babe. Still the designs should more than compensate!

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A Town of Tees At Iffyton

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British t-shirts, band tees, funny t shirts, funny tees, iffy, iffyton, virtual shopping, www.iffyton.co.uk

You won’t find Iffyton High Street or Iffydom on Google Maps, don’t bother searching I’ve looked, but what the heck, who needs reality when we’ve got the net? I mean I’m looking out of the window and what do I see? Practically a force nine gale bending the treesas if they were elastic and seagulls careering into each other in a vain attempt to fly. The fact is it’s not always a good day to go out, and when you don’t have to you have a few options, go back to bed, get on with some work, watch the dreaded boob tube, surf (yawn), Twitter with your mates, eat, drink some tea, write a blog post (ahem), okay there’s far more to life than that, but one option I hadn’t considered until now was taking a stroll down Iffyton High Street where every shop is a t-shirt store (well almost bar a few empty shops and a music venue (Iffy Voice), a Newsagents which has all the latest Iffy news, and erm… Betfair, erm which is a gambling site and absolutely nothing to do with anything,

I suppose they’re hard up for cash or love to have a flutter between tees, I couldn’t find a pub either, I wonder what does virtual lager taste like? Probably like two pence pieces (as usual). There’s no sign of a curry house in Iffyton, but I suppose it’s a little early in the day, still it’s great after a few beers. One thing I really like is the Countdown Giveaway where if you catch it at the right time you can win a free tee! Nice! Okay I haven’t seen it working so far, but it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled for that one. There’s also Iffy TV where according to the site their Nan likes to watch her grandson going Radio Rental (I guess that’s cockney slang for “mental”) on TV, right now it comprises of two videos about the site. From what I can gather the site is run by a loony called Uncle Iffy who used to be the frontman for an obscure band called “The Magnificent Seven” who gambled his remaining pennies on Iffy TV whilst his brother Peter Joyce (I’m guessing on the spelling here it’s all from a video) who owns Totally Original T-Shirts (t-shirt printers) called in a favour to help promote his wares and thus they joined forces. So much for the potted history.

The saving grace for Iffyton are their t-shirt stores, some undoubtedly better than others, but I’m sure there are plenty of t-shirt addicts out there who have had dreams similar to www.iffyton.co.uk – tee shirt shop after tee shirt shop as far as the eye can see. Well no, right now there are nine as far as I can tell, but that’s great for starters! Okay let’s take a stroll down Iffyton High Street… read more

My New Invisible Friend

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     UK t-shirts, band shirts, band t-shirts, band tees, designer tees, invisible friend, invisible-friend.co.uk, music t-shirts, music tees, rock t-shirts

My old pal, well an online friend, perhaps he’s my invisible friend, anyway, Ian Cretney of Invisible Friend has just released his latest collection of revamped and highly original new tees at his fresh and snazzily redesigned site at www.invisible-friend.co.uk. This is probably a collection you won’t be familiar with, and it always surprises me that I.F haven’t had far more exposure than they do, the truth is that it just takes time for the public to catch on to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

To be frank, one of my all-time favourite t-shirts is by this guy, it’s called Dead Rock Stars, he sent me a freebie when I first reviewed the site, totally out of the blue, as you know I don’t ask for freebies to review t-shirts, I do it for the lurve as they say. Anyway, I love that t-shirt to death, which is rather apt, and looking down I’ve just noticed I’m wearing it again! Ian is what I’d call a true craftsman in the field of t-shirt design and production, he’s a dedicated soul who spent the first few years hand screen printing every single shirt, as the business has grown he’s branched out and took on a little help to keep up with demand, (in fact he’s promised to guide me through the art of screen printing so I can start producing my own graffiti posters), but rest assured, the ethos and philosophy of Invisible Friend is still as strong and true as ever.

Trying to pin down exactly what that might be is a tricky thing though, I suppose you could say it lies somewhere in an artistic mind’s interpretation of urban myth, social revolution and music folklore peppered with a healthy dose of cynical humour and a rather laid-back attitude to mortality. Each t-shirt is almost a work of modern art in itself, the iconography lies halfway between graffiti and Post-Modern illustration, the attitude, quirky, irreverent, and with an undercurrent of ever-so-slightly solemnity, which for me is an extremely refreshing change from the usual run-of-the-mill funny one-liners tees you’ll usually come across on the Net. read more

Time Travelling T-Shirt

admin    T-Shirt News     Threadless, band tees, insane, mad, madness, slogan, strange tees, t-shirt, time travel, weird t-shirt

Yes I’m not the greatest fan of slogan tees…

but come on, if you are going to buy a slogan t-shirt, at least make sure it’s so whacked out and beyond the pale that even the freakiest trendsetters out there will stop, stare and drop their jaws in reluctant respect.

If you’re so far ahead of the latest trends and fashions that either: read more