The Honor Roll

THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS

CAR TUNES The latest objet d’art rock from limited-edition publishers Visionaire (visionaire world.com) is a set of five picture discs featuring images by the likes of Cindy Sherman, Peter Saville, and Ryan McGinley, and music from David Byrne, Courtney Love, and Ad-Rock, among others. (The tiny Mini Cooper Clubman car/player actually contains a needle and a speaker.)

GIRL TROUBLE “How can one 35-year- old straight white man receding into the melancholy of middle age not like a band of cute girls, ten years younger than he is, playing a solid stadium-rock song about having sex in a car with a faceless male protagonist? Deadly combination, if you ask me.” —Dan Kennedy, on the Donnas, in Rock On (Algonquin), a memoir of working at Atlantic Records

SLEEVE MERCHANTS Downloading removes the tactile, visual pleasure from buying records—there was a time when the packaging was treasured nearly as much as the tunes inside. Compiled by crate-digger zine Wax Poetics, Cover Story: Album Cover Art ( waxpoetics.com) contains bizarre and brilliant highlights from the stashes of a dozen hard-core collectors.

ANALOG
CAMOUFLAGE
If you’re a 21st-century
digital kid, but you
yearn for the romance
of an old-fashioned
Maxwell C90, test out
the Mix Tape USB Stick
( Insound.com), which
hides a flash drive
inside a retro container.
Similarly, 45 iPod
Cases (45ipodcases.
com)—crafted from old
seven-inches and cas-
settes—are wink-wink
caddies for your Apple-
approved gadgets.

PUSHING TIN Desktop speakers are typically a staid, square affair. Designed by graffiti kings Mint & Serf and Mainframe, Boosted Tin Can Speakers (boosted mobile.com) are a witty remix of the old can-and-string game. Hook them up to a media device, and they’ll bring some color and monitor-rattling bass to any anonymous white-collar cubicle.

GOOD LUCK
CHUCKS
Is the co-option of punk
style by fancy-schmancy
designers a desecration
of rock’n’roll values?
Eh, maybe. Regardless,
these pre-abused, pre-
accessorized studded
and painted Converse
Chuck Taylor All Stars
(designed by John
Varvatos) will make
your friends think
you’ve been repairing
Harleys and moshing
with mohawked
ruffians. Pose away!