Franklin

FRANKLIN “GO KID GO” ORIGINAL LP ART

| Brian

Occasionally I get emails in regards to this blog. Occasionally I even respond to those emails! My delay in responding is not because I don’t want to respond, but rather, because I tend to be a bit lazy.

A couple of weeks ago, a fella named Omar wrote the following:

“I’m not only giving you praise for the album Go Kid Go by Franklin but also that awesome blog you are maintaining about Philadelphia punk bands. It’s been an awesome read so far. It reminds me a lot of that Towncraft website about Little Rock, Arkansas punk. Way to go! Also, pretty excited about all those TV Casualty shows you have been doing. Wish I could be there. I live all the way in California, unfortunately. I visit philly often though! Anyway, SWEET WORK. Also, I wanted to show you a picture of a Go Kid Go LP I found while digging through a record store in philly. I’ll show you a picture of it below. Was there ever an actual cover to go with the LP version? I have it on CD as well. Hope you read this and reply soon. Thank you for Franklin. Let’s get pizza one day.”

There’s a lot going on in this email so let’s get right to it…

Thanks Omar for the compliment on Franklin’s Go Kid Go album. I haven’t gotten around to posting that album in its entirety on this blog just yet, but I promise I will shortly.

As for your compliments on this blog, thanks again! It makes sense that you might compare it to Towncraft since we have an incredible number of transplants from Little Rock and Arkansas here in Philly. Much like there was an odd connection between Washington DC and Olympia Washington in the early to mid-90’s there was a similar connection, I feel, between Little Rock and Philadelphia. There seemed to be a shared sense of community coupled with a shared sense of being somewhat out of the spotlight of mainstream attention that made us sister cities.

As for the image you sent (posted above), here’s the rundown on that.

When we started Energy Network, a record label that would release local Philadelphia bands, we were limited in funds. Thus, with our first two releases (Franklin’s Go Kid Go LP and Fracture’s S/T LP) we were forced to be creative with how we would deal with packaging. Sure, we could get the albums recorded and printed into slabs of wax, but what exactly would be put those slabs into to sell to fans we met on the road? Especially since we were leaving on tour in a matter of days. At the time, graphic design wasn’t as easy as spending a couple of hours on your mac and whipping up some print ready artwork. Instead, the process of off-set printing was difficult and cumbersome and frankly, none of us had any idea how to even proceed.

Franklin and Fracture were getting ready to head out on our summer tour in 1995 and we had printed 1000 copies of Go Kid Go. However, as I mentioned, we had no covers. Here’s where things get a little cloudy.

We had made friends with a guy named Mike Wessel from just outside Toronto, Ontario. He booked shows in the outlying areas and was one of the nicest people we had met. He had been running a record label called Workshop Records and wanted to work with Franklin. Here’s where I wish Mike was on the phone with me right now to sort this out…
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I am going to say that Mike is the guy that actually funded and released the Franklin Go Kid Go LP. However, it was split between Energy Network and Workshop. Neither label, of course, having much money. So, when it came time to make a cover, Mike had pulled a ton of thrift store LPs and dollar bin records to cut apart at the seams and then reverse out. Once the LP jacket was opened and reversed, he would hot glue them back together giving us a blank jacket that we could then silk screen our own cover onto. Brilliant!

Mike shipped down about 500 jackets I believe, maybe less so we could hit the road and have LP’s to sell. The cover was a linoleum cut that I quickly made that we would sit on my parents porch that summer, stamping onto the blank jackets.

The inserts were the only pieces professionally printing which feature some photos of Roy’s recent tattoos, lyrics and liner notes. We kinko’d Energy Network adverts that we ran in Maximum Rock N’ Roll and tossed them in the package.

In regards to the copy you have Omar…eventually, you see, we ran out of these reversed out covers. Thus, we improvised and started pressing the linoleum cut directly onto the dust jacket and across the vinyl label to make a sort of low-down album cover. We would hand-write the song names onto the dust jacket (which you can sort of see in the photo) and slide the insert and advert into the dust-jacket. We sold our LPs for $5 at shows so, hey, skimping on the packaging was necessary.

Eventually, there was an “official” album jacket printed for Go Kid Go, but it stands as one of the worst album covers in recorded history. Well, let me rephrase…the concept was pretty awesome and prior to printing, it looked pretty badass.

However, because of our limitations in graphic design, the final product was poorly replicated, looked about 1/10th of the way we had hoped it would look and we were sadly, incredibly disappointed. Not until the Go Kid Go discography was released by Workshop a few years later would we finally be happy with the packaging that accompanied that recording.

And that’s that!

P.S. – I just remembered…the night before we left on our 1995 tour with Fracture…I had spend the entire day stamping covers. The LPs had not arrived from the printing plant yet and it was looking like we would not have the LPs for tour…I was so stressed out, my parents house was covered in hand stamped album jackets drying that I could barely walk around and I still hadn’t packed to leave for one month that my stress level went so haywire, I ended up puking for several hours.

In the morning, about 2 hours before we were set to leave, UPS arrived with our LP copies of Go Kid Go. Victory.

P.S.S. – Omar, I fucking LOVE pizza.

FRANKLIN – THEY SAID IT WITH FIREWORKS 7″

| Brian

Franklin’s second 7″ was called, They Said It With Fireworks. It was released in 1993 on Slug Sounds Records, the label that released our first 7″, Something Blue, Automotive. At the time, we were spread out as a band. I was living in Baltimore, Maryland attending school while Roy was studying at Tyler School of Art and Greg was at Haverford College. Ralph was working of course and being Ralph.

I would travel back from school as often as possible so that we could practice. However, it was pretty rare. One thing about Franklin, was that when we practiced, we never sang. Our practices were strictly instrumental and often, lyrics and melodies would only be added when we played live or when we recorded. This was of particular interest when it came time to record and none of us really had any idea what the vocal melody would even be. I guess you could call it, “surprise singing”.

After the positive recording experience we had had at Hound Sound in Baltimore, we decided to continue on with it and make it a tradition. However, Tony French, the fella who had recorded our first 7″ was now working out of a new studio. An as yet to be built studio called Big Heifer. We would end up being the first band to record in this studio with Tony and upon arrival on a Friday night, the studio was still unfinished. Literally, drywall was still going up when we got there. This of course made us a bit concerned but we made the best of it. We would sleep in the studio while recording, practicing the two songs that would make up this 7″.

The songs themselves, Sliding and Sprinkler would go on to be two of my most favorite Franklin songs. Sliding would indeed become a favorite of the folks that liked us and would be a heckle that would continue until our final show. “PLAY SLIDING” someone would yell at almost every one of our shows. I never knew whether they were being sarcastic or not, but I’ll leave it to them to decide.

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There’s something about the manic nature of the song Sprinkler that still gets my blood going. While only being 3 minutes or so in length, it was the first time I felt we had written a song with varying chapters. It seemed as if it went somewhere from chaos to mania to resolution.

During the mix down of Sliding, Greg would suggest tossing distortion onto the drums at the beginning of the song. A sweet little effect that we would use again when recording Sliding for our first LP. However, on that recording, we put the distortion at the end of the song. Numerous reviewers would confuse the intentional addition of distortion as surface noise when they heard it…ah well. The best laid plans, ya know?

Sliding

Sprinkler

FLIER DEPOT!

| Brian

Chris O’Neill was kind enough to scan these old fliers from his personal collection. It’s definitely true that fliers, pre-computer design days, had a charm all their own. Cut up, xeroxed messes that showed actual hands-on interaction with the medium. Anyone could (and did) make fliers and each was a piece of art in their own right.

I suppose I could explain each of the shows these fliers were for, but maybe that would rob them of their charm. Too many words are bad sometimes. Enjoy!

By the way, is it “flyers” or “fliers”? I never can remember.


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JOSH MILLS – SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA

| Brian


Kristin sent me this photo via Facebook. She stumbled across it and thought it was a pretty sweet photo. I would agree.

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I kinda love the Lumberton, a la Blue Velvet logging truck passing us on the highway in the background.

THE AIRWAVES ARE NOT FOR SALE!

| Brian


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