Friday, March 19, 2021

BLOODYMINDED "MOTHERCARE" SHIRT



NEW BLOODYMINDED "MOTHERCARE" DESIGN


Our "Mothercare" CD-single had a long and somewhat convoluted gestation period. During the 90s, I read several books on the Jamie Bulger case, which informed the direction of some lyrics that I was working on. In 1998, Xavier and I spent a week together in London, during one of my trips there. After Xavier returned to Toulouse, I spent a fun Saturday hanging out with Philip Best, visiting various pubs and "slob book" shops (I'm bastardizing Philip's slang here). I have a memory of passing by a Mothercare shop and boasting that BLOODYMINDED would be making some sort of shirt with the store's logo, as an insider nod to the Bulger case.

Five years later, our "Mothercare" single was released. My original thought was that we'd release a two-song 7-inch single, as something like a love-letter to the early grindcore scene, which definitely influenced my direction during the transition from Intrinsic Action to BLOODYMINDED. The single was to include two live songs, "As If" and "Baby," and it would have come in well under one-minute long. Somehow, along the way, the discussion changed to include "A Song For Lisanne, A Young Model," an alternate version to the one on our 2005 album, "Gift Givers," and to release the three songs as a CD-single in a cardboard sleeve. I have no memory of why we went with those choices, but there you have it. The front cover of the single features a cropped image from the well-known CCTV capture related to the aforementioned case. For the new shirt, I've included a wider crop of the photo and I've messed with Megan's great original layout. On a side note, the pressing plant objected to a photo of JonBenét Ramsey that we originally included on the back cover and they requested that we remove it, due to copyright issues. At least they weren't concerned about the photo of Alice Liddell that's on the back. The single went on to totally divide audience opinion. Some people loved it and some people simply couldn't understand why we'd bother pressing a CD that was only a minute-and-a-half long. I guess if you have to ask... 


Listen here: https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/album/mothercare

Twenty-three (oh my!) years later, we've finally made those Mothercare shirts, although they're not quite the same as the original idea that I had back then. They're a first for us, as the design is printed on red shirts (as well as red hoodies and red totes). People have been asking about colors, so as a follow-up to our recent "BLOODYMINDED Black-on-White" drop, here you go. They're available in a full range of men's and women's sizes.


https://BLOODYMINDED.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-mothercare


https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/

https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/