Cake Archives

Q&A: Aesthetic Apparatus distills beauty from poor choices

In a decade that will be characterized by staggering unemployment and one of the greatest recessions in recent history, it is refreshing to hear Aesthetic Apparatus’s story. Forging a partnership based on a shared love of music, art, and design, Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski left their jobs at a Madison, Wisconsin, graphic-design firm in 2002 to do things their way.

Their creation — Aesthetic Apparatus — is a Minneapolis-based commercial art and printmaking studio that has designed everything from gallery art to logos for local pizza shops to concert posters for bands such as Cake and The Black Keys. Leaving a successful graphic-design studio to start something for themselves didn’t promise Ibarra and Byzewski immediate success, but it did set the stage for Aesthetic Apparatus to become modern-day purveyors of pop-culture cool.

Ibarra recently took some time to talk about Aesthetic Apparatus’s unique vision.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Tom Vek’s Leisure Seizure

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Tom Vek: Leisure Seizure (Downtown / Island, digital = 6/7/11, physical = 9/13/11)

Tom Vek: “A Chore”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Tom_Vek_A_Chore.mp3|titles=Tom Vek: “A Chore”]

Hajduch: Alt-pop singer/multi-instrumentalist Tom Vek released his under-the-radar debut, We Have Sound, in 2005. Since then, he’s remained very quiet. It turns out that he was holed up in a studio, preparing more of his rhythmically propulsive, sort-of-electronic, meticulously produced post-punk pop jams. Leisure Seizure recently arrived digitally (a physical release is forthcoming), and it’s very solid, if largely unsurprising. Banging drums and sing-along choruses have always been Vek’s MO, and they serve him well here.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Powersolo’s Bloodskinbones

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Powersolo: Bloodskinbones (Crunchy Frog, 4/13/10)

Powersolo: “Gimme the Drugz”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Powersolo_Gimme_the_Drugz.mp3|titles=Powersolo: “Gimme the Drugz”]

[Ed. note: The track order of Bloodskinbones is different on Powersolo’s website than it is on the actual CD. This review reflects the order as streamed from the band’s site.]

Morrow: Denmark’s Powersolo are some strange cats. It’s a pair of brothers — going by “Atomic Child” and “Kim Kix” — who play a peculiar brand of rock and roll and rockabilly. Bloodskinbones is their third full-length album (fourth if you include the soundtrack to Himmerland OST).

Hajduch: I expected this album to be more rockabilly, but it actually reminded me of The Hives — driving, bar-chord garage with a few guitar leads thrown in to accent. About half-way through, I started thinking that the vocals sounded sort of like “Weird” Al, and it’s been messing with me ever since.

Morrow: Yeah, they definitely have that quality — sort of like Dr. Demento with dick jokes. But if you can get past the sophomoric humor and the oddball delivery, you’ll find some quality rock tunes. “Gimme the Drugz” is a good example of that — lowbrow lyrics but a real winner of a track. And yes, Bloodskinbones scales back the rockabilly and genre-hopping blend of the band’s first full-length for Crunchy Frog.