Facing the Music

Record covers come to life in an imaginative new photo book

Great ideas often occur by accident. An apple falls from a tree and gravity is discovered. A woman dresses her dog up like a bumblebee and beedogs.com is born. The photo book Sleeveface: Be the Vinyl (Artisan), out this month, has its own goofy origin: One night in 2007, Carl Morris, owner of the small U.K. label My Kung Fu Records, was DJing at a pub in Cardiff, Wales, when he came across a copy of McCartney II. Amused by the former Beatle’s tremulous expression on the cover, he held it up to his face and took a photo. “I’d had a few drinks and the concept just presented itself,” says Morris, 27.

Soon, Morris was rifling through his friends’ record collections at parties and encouraging them to, as he called it, “sleeveface,” which originally meant arranging themselves so that they blended in with the visage on the album cover. People quickly began

to take the process even more seriously, synchronizing their wardrobes and gestures to create the illusion that the album cover was actually part of a larger tableau (no Photoshop allowed, obviously). Morris created sleeveface.com to post the results, and in just a few months, he and his pal, Sleeveface coauthor John Rostron, were receiving hundreds of photos, more than a few featuring one particular bald

of the Strokes’ Is This It), the parental (Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2), the obscure (The World of the Harp), and finally the forgotten (Guv’ner’s The Hunt), with multiple variations on covers with David Bowie and Madonna. Obtaining permission to feature some of these albums turned into a challenge that nearly prevented the book’s publication. But after a cover change

“I’d had a few drinks and the concept
just presented itself.” CARL MORRIS

drummer. “A lot of Phil Collins albums have his big head on the front, so they’re kind of ideal,” Morris explains.

For Sleeveface, Morris and Rostron chose more than 200 images that represented a broad mix of anatomically appropriate entries, including the classic (Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A.), the mildly controversial (the U.K. cover

and some other tweaks, the
project went forward. Mostly,
Morris wanted the result to
reflect how much fun people
were having with his idea, but
he admits his ultimate goal was
loftier than, say, beedogs.com.
“I’d like to think that people
are getting into records again,”
he says. “Maybe they’re even
listening to those black vinyl discs
inside.” PHOEBE REILLY

The Spin
20Ranking
on Pop
Culture
Since 1998

JACK WHITE AND ALICIA KEYS’ 007 THEME

1 If she can play drums, this could become a full-time gig. Hell, even if she can’t.

^{2 TRL TAKEN OUT BACK BEHIND BARN} ation’s youth left to mourn, wail, read

₃ ELECTION SEASON FINALLY OVER Congratulations,

THE ROAD’S UNRELENTINGLY GRIM VISION OF 4 POSTAPOCALYPTIC WASTELAND

Just in time for the holidays!

^{5 TURKEY} Delicious

BEN FOLDS, NICK HORNBY TO COLLABORATE ON

6 ALBUM As a matter of fact, they’re not interested in working with Timbaland

^{7 LIVE EARTH 2008 ONLY BEING HELD IN INDIA} This outsourcing thing is getting out of hand

NATE DOGG IN HOSPITAL AS S TOCK MARKET

8 CRASHES Just when we could have used another regulator

9 ^{JOHNNY ROTTEN SHILLS FOR COUNTRY LIFE} BUTTER The setup is also the punch line

₁₀ AMY POEHLER LEAVES SNL Hillary Clinton finally _{concedes, hangs up her pantsuits}

₁₁ THE ECONOMY So bad, Hallmark is launching _{IOU-themed Christmas cards}

KANYE WEST TO PRODUCE HIP-HOP PUPPET SHOW

12 FOR COMEDY CENTRAL “Lil’ Bush hates black puppets” ad campaign already sparking controversy

MAKERS OF GUITAR HERO TO RELEASE DJ HERO

13 Miraculously replicates the experience of manipulating music with plastic buttons

₁₄ UPCOMING R. KELLY RECORD TO BE LESS SEXUAL _{Presumably not a children’s album}

^{15 MORE TURKEY} Zzzzzzzzz…sorry, where were we?

16 ^{COURTNEY LOVE ADVERTISES FOR HOUSEKEEPER} ON MYSPACE It’s a daily struggle for her to stay clean

₁₇ NEW MUSIC BY MOZART DISCOVERED _{By Tupac’s mom}

^{18 ITUNES’ NEW} “^GENIUS” ^{FEATURE Finally, a way to} escape the drudgery of making your own playlists

₁₉ ELBOW RECORD CHILDREN’S ALBUM Now children _{can ignore Elbow too}

AMERICAN IDOL DAVIDS RELEASE THEIR DEBUTS

20 Schlock like this makes us want to…oh, who are we kidding? We can’t wait!

EXCERP TED FROM SLEEVEFACE B Y CARL MORRIS AND JOHN ROS TRON (ARTISAN BOOKS) COP YRIGH T 2008