In 2001 Manhattan band The Strokes burst onto the scene with their debut LP Is This It. The album cover featured a tightly cropped shot of a nude model wearing (presumably) only a black glove. And now, finally, after all these years, we get to meet that model. In the below video she speaks out about the impromptu cover shot. According to the sometimes accurate Wikipedia, "the album cover [non-US version] has been ranked as......

It's been quite some time since our last installment of NYC Album Art, and today we look at a controversial one that never actually saw the light of day. What you see pictured was the planned cover art for The Coup's Party Music album, designed in June 2001. Boots Riley, the guy in the forefront holding what looks like a detonator, explains his...unfortunate idea: "I came up with the idea with the photographer. We took......

The Smashing Pumpkins have officially made their return. The comeback (yeah, we're gonna call it a comeback) appears to be met with little fanfare. The new album, Zeitgeist, came out Tuesday - and was met with a lack of good reviews. The cover art is what we're concerned about here though. Bill Corgan chose (recent interviewee) Shepard Fairey to design the album art for the new album, saying: “Like a great artist can do, Shepard......

"Some Time in New York City" was released in 1972 as John Lennon's third post-Beatles album (and his fifth with Yoko Ono). Critically and commercially the album didn't do well, especially compared to Lennon's previous albums. "Imagine" had just come out in the 1971, and comparatively this one was brash, loud and more reflective of his political and new geographical surroundings at the time, in Greenwich Village. As documented in The US vs John......

The Dictators 1978 album Bloodbrothers was shot by Chris Colln in a New York City school yard. The front is shown at right, the back can be seen here. The New York punk band is said to have taken "booze, testosterone and attitude (all attributes necessary to survive in the NY scene)" to a "legendary" status. Even Bruce Springsteen is a huge fan, and can be heard counting "1-2-1-2-3-4" during the album's opening track, "Faster......

In the past we've told you about New York album art from The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Ramones and more. You can read the past posts here, and now we move on to The Allman Brothers Band: Live at Fillmore East. The album was recorded at a show in 1971, the year the venue shut its doors. With the cover art shot by Jim Marshall, it looks like the photo shoot took place in the......

This just in: the New York Dolls are playing the Seaport Music Festival on August 18th. We can't imagine what it's like to see the Dolls in daylight, but we're sure looking forward to finding out. The above is the trailer for an early 70's documentary by rock photographer Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya, who in a period of three years shot over 40 hours of New York Dolls footage. Early performances in......

Get ready for more NYC Album Art posts, in the meantime, check out some non-digital photos at the Morrison Hotel Gallery. The gallery recently had an event at the Apple Store with rock photographer legend Joel Brodsky. He shot the Strange Days album cover we wrote about. At the event he shared his work and the stories behind it. Brodsky has recalled of the Morrison shoot, "The shot on the inner sleeve of the......

The owner of an art gallery that works with George DuBose (as a dealer of his photographs) emailed us to clarify the debate that was going on in the comments of this post. That debate being: was the cover of The Ramones Subterranean Jungle a real photo, or the handywork of a retoucher? Conclusion: The photo is real (except for the grafitti that was added on to the cover, of course). Above you'll see......

There's suspicion lurking in this thread about the reality of the Ramones Subterranean Jungle album cover. Some seem to think there's a possibility the band was just cut and pasted in to that subway train. However, here's the alternative album cover - which would make us believe they were really there. That graffiti was totally photoshopped though (or whatever it is they did in the 80's). Further proof that it's real...George DuBose photographed that cover.......

We're really challenging ourselves with this one, since we don't know too much about this genre of music, but the album cover is just too amazing to pass up. Laba Sosseh, the master vocalist of Senegalese Salsa, was an early pioneer of the tradition of Africans travelling to New York to record with Latin musicians. Aboudou Lassissi (a producer) brought him over to record in the 70's, here's a little background on their history: "Laba......

The New York Dolls first album cover was shot in New York. In this case, the back cover is more interesting than the front. It features a photograph of the band in front of Gem Spa, the legendary newsstand that is said to have invented the egg cream. As for the front of the cover, Sylvain Sylvain explains: "That first album cover was because of me. Mercury had taken us to an antique shop, and......

According to the album, Paul's Boutique is in Brooklyn...but we all know this photo was taken in the Lower East Side. With a Paul's Boutique sign hanging up on the Lee's Sportswear storefront, the shot was taken at 99 Rivington Street, where Rivington and Ludlow intersect. Currently residing in this exact spot is a restaurant called Paul's Boutique, named in honor of the album. This shot looking down Rivington Street from the intersection of Ludlow......

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album cover features a photograph of a 21 year old Bob Dylan and his girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo (an artist who teaches at the Parsons School of Design). History will tell you Rotolo inspired the songs "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Boots of Spanish Leather." It will also tell you that Dylan wanted to (add a girl and) recreate this shot of James Dean. The photograph was taken......

With tapes, cd's and now digital music...the art of the album cover has sadly gone ignored. We used to have a small stack of albums, some of which had covers shot here in New York. Our favorite of those: Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album (at right, photographed by BP Fallon). The cover shows two buildings, located at 97 St. Mark's Place. The original album jacket included die-cut windows in the building shown on the cover......