The Witzard

The Clash - Combat Rock "Punk Note" Cover By: John Yates for Stealworks (@stealworks) I've, admittedly, been on a Clash kick lately during quarantine... well, pretty much all things even remotely Clash-related: I've recently re-visited 1977's The Clash, as well as Combat Rock, Big Audio Dynamite/Big Audio Dynamite II's sample-laden discography, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros' early 2000's Hellcat Records albums, 2018 career-spanning comp. Joe Strummer 001, and, of course, Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer's "Redemption Song" cover/duet from CASH UNEARTHED. It's pretty amazing to me, while primarily Punk Rock/New Wave-based, how much sampling exists within The Clash and its members related projects' music. For example: "Rock The Casbah" features an electronic sound effect beginning at the 1:52-minute point of the song. This noise is a monophonic version of the song "Dixie." The sound effect source was generat...

Last week, we saw an Instgram post by Scott Crawford (@saladdazed) which read, "Not sure who's doing these beautiful Blue Note-inspired Punk Rock album cover re-imaginings, but I love them," along with a blue-hued image of Hüsker Dü's Flip Your Wig. Crawford added the hashtags #bobmould, #granthart, #gregnorton, and #flipyourwig, along with the additional commentary, "looks like it's art by @stealworks." So, with a little bit of our own digital sleuthing, we learned @stealworks was, in fact, graphic designer John Yates. Stealworks: THE DESIGN PORTFOLIO OF JOHN YATES further details, "Stealworks is the nom de plume of graphic designer, trouble-maker, and tea drinker, John Yates." Yates owned and operated his very own label imprint, Allied Recordings and a sub-label, Dakota Records, between 1990-99 and served as the in-house graphic designer for one-time Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles. John Yates has designed ic...