The Story of Festivus

The Great 2009 Winter Solstice Mystery

Being the ungodly heathens we are at Amos (although it is well possible that JJ may find the Lord in the near future), we like to send out Winter Solstice greetings on December 21st, as this is the shortest day of the year and the turning point before we start the rush to Summer (or Winter if you are based in the Southern Hemisphere). This time of year affects us all and its existence cannot be denied, so it would seem right to mark it with some form of celebration. But this year there has been some confusion as to when the Solstice should be celebrated. The Druids, usually reliable keepers of solar time, could not decide amongst themselves. Here in the UK a bunch turned up to celebrate at Stonehenge (or Henge as we affectionately like to call it) on both the dawn of the 21st and the 22nd of December. The Gregorian calendar is out of synch with the solar calendar so they decided the Solstice should be celebrated on the 22nd. Yet, according to astronomers, the earth was furthest away from the sun at 17:47 on December 21st. So what decides when the Solstice should be recognised.?

After some research we have concluded that if the sun sets AFTER the actual Solstice, the Druids choose to celebrate on the following dawn (the 22nd in this case). This is despite the fact that this year there were fewer hours (9 hours and 43 minutes) between the actual Solstice and the dawn of the 21st which occurred at 08:04, than between the solstice and dawn on the 22nd which also occurred at 08:04 (14 hours and 17 minutes). Surely there is some Druid convention that comes into play here? And what of other pagan religions? When did they celebrate the Solstice? Any clarification on when we should have been celebrating the Solstice would be much appreciated.

In the meantime (and somewhat belatedly) seasons greetings to all, whatever your spiritual or philosophical inclinations.

Teenage Filmstars - Physical Graffiti

Discovered these guys recently. Totally missed them at the time. Ed Ball is a genius. This is my absolute favourite tune right now. Madness.

King Ken Carpets

We finally got our King Ken rugs delivered. They will go out to all those that pre-ordered over the next week. We messed up our order slightly so we have a few spare. Not many mind. And in brown or pink only. These will go live at store.amostoys.com on Saturday. Don't think they will last very long so if you need a big ape on a rug then be quick.

JJ Update

Just to let people know, I'm currently in bed with what looks like Swine Flu, so the Plymouth artwork is on hold until I am back on my feet.

Central Park Skateboard Park, Plymouth

Next week I will be painting a large scale artwork at the Central Park Skateboard Park in Plymouth. I should be working on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm hoping the weather will improve - it looks pretty stormy in that neck of the woods.

Praying to the Mighty King Ken

Praying to the Mighty King Ken
Originally uploaded by MrGilder

Witch Cults of the Radio Age

Loving this at present.

Willie Isz

A while ago we worked with our old friends at Lex records to design the record packaging for the Georgiavania LP by experimental hip hoppers, Willie Isz.

Jneiro is a fan of JJ and asked specifically for him to provide an illustration for the record. Tom from Lex contacted us, we listened to the LP, liked it a lot, and agreed to work on something. JJ provided a drawing and with the help of Dave Thomas at Fat Cat, we developed a simple concept for how we wanted the finished item to look.

Although the LP has been available for a few months now, we were waiting for the vinyl version to be released before listing some for sale through the online store. Unfortunately the vinyl has been delayed so we will have a handful of CDs available from this weekend.

Kosmische Echoes

Following last week's airing of BBC4's excellent "Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany" documentary, I've spent the week listening to all things Kosmische, new and old. I stumbled across this promotional video for Von Spar's excellent HyBolt 12". I am compelled to share.

Norman Painting R.I.P.

Voice of Phil Archer dies aged 85

Very sad news.

Holmes Story

I've been gradually building up a Flickr portfolio, and I found these images this morning. They're from a feature Asayan magazine in Japan did on Holmes, the label that Russell and Sofia made before Silas. Everyone looks so young!

Will Sweeney in Japan

Our wonderful travelling companion, Mr William Sweeney, will be exhibiting various examples of his drawings and prints at a new show in Harajuku, Tokyo, opening on Friday 16th October.

Apparently, from 8pm on the opening evening, he will be drawing "Psychic Portraits" of volunteers, aided by artists Matt Furie and Hiroshi Iguchi.

So if you're in town this coming Friday...

Acycle SHIPS JET BLUE
3-28-7, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0001 Japan
Tel:03-5785-3795
OPEN：11:00-20:00

Crom (LA)

Conan the Barbarian meets Thrash/Metal/Grindcore with much humour. Still interested? Then this is 2001 LP is essential.

Find it here or here.

Then buy it!

Vote...

Ken For President

More from the new collection...

Hello.



Ken as the Apprentice.



Check all of the tees here.

Tees for two.

This weekend we will have another batch of tees go on sale through the online store. This is the second bunch produced under license by Säck und Nolde in Germany. They've done a nice job.

Magique (YOD in repose)



YOD Resist (featuring all your favourite Fathers of Anarchy)



More designs soon, including our very first sweats.

And then there was Goth...

A friend of mine, who administers the excellent Kick to Kill music blog, recently posted a mix I put together back in early Spring. It contains songs from my youth and a couple of others I have come across over the years. Anyone into post punk/early goth type business from the early 1980s might want to check it out. There's some well known bands and a few obscurities too.

Get the mix here.

Last Chance KK Rug

Thanks to all those who pre-ordered the KK rugs. We hope to ship these early December at the latest. We will do our best to keep you up to date on what's happening with them.

If you feel the need to grace your living abode with grown up novelty homeware then there's still a little time left to get an order in. Got to www.store.amostoys.com, pick a colour and order away. The pre-sale closes tomorrow (Saturday) at 1pm BST.

King Ken on Your Doorstep.

These rugs are the result of a collaboration between Amos Japan and Gallery 1950. They are approximately 700mm in diameter and made from 100% acrylic. They come in black, brown and an Amos exclusive pink colourway.

Due to the expensive price tag on this product we will not be holding any stock at the Amos online store. In fact they will be very hard to come by outside of Japan. However, due to popular demand we will, for a very limited time, be taking pre-orders for those hardcore Ken fans who maybe interested in grabbing one of these.

The KK Rug presale will begin this Thursday, August 20th at 1PM BST and end on Saturday, August 29th, exact time to be announced later. THIS IS A PRESALE. Although funds will be taken now, delivery is planned for early December.

So if you might be interested in this rather special KK piece then come and find us at www.store.amostoys.com from this Thursday.

Not in New York...

As predicted our allocation of the ATP version of the Primavera poster is gone but ATP will indeed have their own for sale (not sure how many they have). Unfortunately these will NOT be available at the New York event as we previously suggested. But they will be available at the UK festivals later in the year and I think they may also be sold online through their site at some point in the future. We'll try and post something when we know for sure.

All Tomorrow's Parties Almost Gone.

Our allocation of the All Tomorrow's Parties (Yellow YOD) version of the Primavera silk screen poster is almost sold out. We still have a couple left so move fast if you want this edition. However, once they are gone it should be possible to buy these from the coming ATP events in New York and the later "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Ten Years" events at Minehead, UK in December. You can find details on all events at the ATP website.

Happy Summer Solstice.

It's that time of year again...

It's 1pm alright!

Been getting many emails about the sale of the screened posters this coming weekend. The guys that run the store have informed me that they will go on sale at 1pm BST on Saturday. Lord help the server...

And don't forget the keychains too. They nice...

Amos x ATP Primavera Posters

Recently, in conjunction with All Tomorrows Parties,  Amos produced two silk screened posters designed by James, for the Primavera festival that recently took place in Barcelona. There are two versions.

The ATP edition (x 250)...



and a special Amos exclusive deluxe edition (x 50) signed by JJ.

We are super happy with how these came out. Both look amazing. The screeners did an excellent job. 

Very soon we will have very few of both to sell along with the keyrings we posted earlier. Check the store this weekend for more information.

Will Sweeney - The Parachute Ending

Click on the full screen icon for the full effect!

Tune by Birdy Nam Nam, directed by Steve Scott.

JJ Update

Apologies for the paucity of our posting of late.

I've been busy with various projects, most importantly the birth of a new baby boy, who arrived on the 8th of May. He's four weeks old today, and we still haven't named him.

The other big thing I've been working on since the end of last year was a design for the mascot for the 2012 Olympic Games. I made a shortlist of 20, then a second shortlist of 5 and finally a shortlist of 4 (they were really putting themselves on the line with that decision). I finally heard (also on the 8th of May) that we hadn't made the next selection, which was a shame. It's frustrating to have put so much work into something which ended up going nowhere but so it goes. The experience of working on something like this has been quite a strange one: I think a lot of the decision making was political rather than creative. I found this hard to deal with having had so much freedom in the work I've been making recently.

I've also started a new blog for publishing my drawings here:

http://jamesjarvisdrawings.blogspot.com

Hopefully that will be of interest when there are less big projects going on.

Coming Soon...

Available through the online store in the not too distant future.

Also on the horizon:

Official ATP/Primavera YOD screened poster prints, plus a special signed super limited Amos online store exclusive version. More soon...

The mighty Sleep

I've posted this in recognition of their two amazing performances at the All Tomorrow's Parties- The Fans Strike Back weekender earlier in the month. Their first performance together in more than 15 years. Mindblowing stuff. Doesn't get much better.

Honorable mentions for Electric Wizard, Jesu, Grails, M83, Sleepy Sun and Killing Joke!

And of course, once again, big thanks to Barry and D for their amazing hospitality.

When in Spain...

Onwards

http://jamesjarvis.blogspot.com/2009/04/onwards.html

For our British friends....

See you there..

We are still here...

Been very slow on the blog this year. Apologies for our slackness. Been busy as individuals. But still working on Amos projects too.

We've just launched a bunch of tees with a European Licensee. This should bring the price down a little in Europe, although the collapse of the GB Pound has meant that it hasn't made quite the impact we had hoped. Still, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick as they like to say around these parts.

From this weekend the Amos online store will go live with restocks on a few old favs and showcase one or two new designs too. These should be up from Saturday.

A place to take your LA Valentine...

Gone in a flash!!!

Our tiny Amos online store allocation of Will Sweeney's SU2CV scale model, sold out in less than 24 hours. Pretty impressive for such a big ticket item. We've had many enquiries asking for more. As far as we know the first production run is completely sold out at source. For all those who have been emailing and calling the store we can confirm that we are currently discussing with Three Zero about the timing and quantity of a second run. There will be more, but not for a while. We'll post more news as soon as we know what's happening.

Meanwhile, for those lucky handful that bagged a figure from the first run, we hope to ship these sometime in March. You'll be notified when they are on the way. Thanks!

Lux Interior aka Erick Lee Purkisher

(October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009)

Tales From Greenfuzz 3

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!

Available now from store.amostoys.com

...and it's freakier than ever...

It's back...

Happy New Year, love Amos!

We missed out on our customary Yule greeting. So instead, here's wishing everyone the very best for 2009.