Current Projects

I have been busy with a bunch of stuff lately, and tend to forget how many things I am actually undertaking at any given time. So, I figured I would list them out here to help wrap my head around and let you know what I am up to.
Also, because I am bad at regular updates, this is my semi-regular info purge.

- POCKET BOOK V
Pocket Book V is finished. We just completed printing and binding them. Akina hand-stitched every single one.
http://andrewjamescox.bigcartel.com/product/pocket-book-v

- ANDRAUS
New band with my brother Austin. Thrash/doom/ambient/psych/electronic/metal
We've started recording. It's the first time I have been satisfied with the sound quality of drums I've recorded myself.

We also printed shirts:
andraus.bigcartel.com

- Helms Alee / Young Widows split
I did the cover art for the forthcoming split from my pals Helms Alee and Young Widows, to be released by Sargent House.
http://hellomerch.com/products/helms-alee-young-widows-split-lp-12-vinyl

- AXED CROWN
Axed Crown is my solo musical project. I've had a debut LP languishing in near-completion for a couple years now. I finally recorded drums for one song, "Overturn," that's been almost done for a while, and I think it is finally complete. Just need to tweak and add a few bits, and the record will be good to go. It's tentatively titled "Amnesty."
axedcrown.bandcamp.com

Here is the rough demo for "Overturn"


- HENRY & GLENN FOREVER & EVER
I have a short comic in the upcoming Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever TPB. It's basically Henry as Hellboy, and they fall through the floor of their house into a forgotten practice space. I'll post a preview soon. Also, the book's foreword is written by Rob Halford. ROB HALFORD. of JUDAS PRIEST.
Pre-Order It Here

- CHEAP EATS
I'm also working on Cheap Eats, a short cooking show featuring delicious recipes for the broke and lazy. It's for KCHUNG TV, KCHUNG's entry in the Hammer Museum's Made in LA 2014 Biennial.

- HEAVY DUTY
Oh yeah, I also have a monthly show called Heavy Duty on KCHUNG radio. It focuses on hevay music for lightweights, and airs the fourth Sunday of every month.
kchungradio.org

- I'm in the middle of writing a short script about a metal band putting on a show at their parents' house. Hopefully I'll finish it this month and have it shot and edited before summer is over.

- I already wrote a feature length script for a post-apocalyptic ghost movie called Mountain Ghost that's influenced by The Road, Princess Mononoke, Red Dawn, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Intending to but not really working on pre-production (designs, storyboards, etc). Might produce it as a comic first.

- On the far back burner is a short zine/riso book called Black Days. Black metal days of the week. Sunday is a burning church, Monday is black coffee, etc.

- Probably some other stuff I am forgetting/procrastinating on. For some reason I still feel unproductive a lot of the time. Let me know if you need a video, or a drawing, or music. Because I am not busy enough.

I blame the internet.

Hydra Head Poster + T-shirt

I designed this poster/t-shirt for Hydra Head Records.
The poster is a 4 Color screen printed 18"x24" poster on 100# "Berrylicious" Pop Tone Paper. Hand-numbered and limited to 50.
Buy it here

The shirt is limited edition pre-order only, so order it now if you want one ever!
Buy it here


They are part of a series of prints for Hydra Head by a bunch of awesome artists that I helped curate, including:
- Faith Coloccia
- Michael DeForge
- Julia Gfrörer
- Tom Neely
- Sophie Penrose
- Aaron Turner
and more!

My First Tattoo

Well, not on myself (I swear it's not me, despite the similar body type and apparel), but the first tattoo of my art on someone else's hide.

Tebbles emailed me out of the blue with only the words "Keep up the good work sir!" and these two photos:

He is sporting permanent ink of a modified version of my design for the limited Hydra Head poster (see previous post). This is still blowing my mind a bit.

In other news, I am 75 pages deep into writing a post-apocalyptic ghost movie. Influences include Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Stanley Kubrick, Red Dawn, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and probably a lot of other things floating around in my mind.

Hydra Head Records poster

I designed this poster for Hydra Head Records.

Limited edition
18"x24" 
hand screen printed on a matte offset background 
100# white paper 
Signed and numbered 

Pre-Order here

It's being sold as part of the larger Hydra Head Rehabilitation Project HYDRA HEALTH

I've been working at Hydra Head for over 5 years now. I started as an intern (technically Isis' intern, but I quickly rolled over to HH duties). There has never been a time when I didn't believe in the projects we were involved in, or the way we have approached them. We probably could have pressed fewer quantities of certain CDs, but we also could not have predicted such a precipitous drop in CD sales. This endeavor was never about making money, though. If it was, there would have been a lot more corporate sponsorship and licenses, shittier touring bands, and pandering advertisements. Everyone who does and has worked here has foregone any delusions of luxury (or even healthcare). I don't remember anyone besides Aaron having a car made within the last 10 years. 

People occasionally complain that our records are expensive, but if you are going to make a physical artifact of the music, you should make it well. Heavy vinyl, sturdy jacket, and quality printing. We have compromised very little on that. Maybe we should have made flimsier LPs and required our bands to tour relentlessly. Maybe we could have been rich. Except that it hasn't just been our choices that have led to our current financial peril. We only control our ship, not the entire sea.

The music industry has changed drastically over the past decade, and especially over the past few years. For better or worse, the internet has destroyed the old model of music distribution. Once it's released, artists and labels don't really have control over the dissemination of their own content. The new streaming services pay pennies, and even through proper channels, music is used as content to drive services and advertisements that benefit those providers vastly more than the artists themselves. Even if a band is the type to tour, gas has gotten expensive. I don't have any scientific data to back it up, but it feels like there are less touring bands coming through than there used to be. I think because the overhead of being on the road has become prohibitive for acts that don't have a large following.

Maybe Hydra Head is dying. I still don't believe it. Maybe it will be saved by the generosity of those that appreciate earnest, challenging music and aesthetics. Maybe the whole world really is ending and the rumble of the earth falling will match the rumble of the records we have released.

I am humbled and honored to have been directly involved with a lot of groundbreaking records, and a few masterpieces. I am grateful for all of the friends I have met, to know that there are other people that care about things like I do. I am proud to be part of this family.

Cut one head off...

OLD MAN GLOOM - 9/3/2012 poster

I designed a poster for OLD MAN GLOOM's upcoming show at the Echo. It will be available as an 18"x24" signed and numbered screen print at the show. I will probably have a few available online.

If you haven't given OLD MAN GLOOM's new album NO a listen, you should. It will put hair on your chest. And your face. And your arms, legs, back, and everywhere.

pencils

inked

color mock-up

Torche - "Kicking" music video

I directed a new music video for my pals Torche. The song is "Kicking," from their new album Harmonicraft. It premiered today on Stereogum. Here's a quote:

"Director Andrew James Cox manages to hit all the inspirational sports-movie beats while making fun of them at the same time, and that hallucination sequence is a thing to behold." - Stereogum


Torche - "Kicking" (Stereogum Premiere) from stereogum on Vimeo.


Thanks to everyone who helped out, and to Volcom for making it happen.


Also, congratulations to my best friend Jesse Rueter (that's him adjusting his hat in the preview image above) and Caroline Chen on their wedding on Sunday. This has been the best week of my life. I'm working on making it the best year.

HELMS ALEE - "8/16" music video premiere on VEVO

So, the video I directed for HELMS ALEE's "8/16" is finally out. Not only that, but on the front page of VEVO, which means it is getting millions more impressions than I ever would have imagined.

I had a lot of fun making it, especially going up to Seattle and shooting with the band (total DIY friend-fest. We owe a bunch of people hugs and favors.) It was stressful at times, but I was always sure we were working on something awesome. I am extremely proud of how it came out.

Ben told me about the idea for the video when the band was on tour with Boris around the time my video for Torche's "UFO" came out. Which means this was waaay before any of us knew that Beavis and Butthead was going to be back on TV.

So months go by, the band records Weatherhead and we pick up discussion of the video. At one point I proposed shooting them as live action versions of Beavis and Butthead, mostly because I was nervous about animating. We settled on the concept of the video pretty much as it came out, and I suggested trying out Kickstarter to get a decent budget to make the video (when I made the Torche video, what little money we spent came out of my own pocket). I'd do some things differently in hindsight, but mostly it went really well, and we got enough money to do the video.

Shooting the video and editing were smooth, and animating was too, but it is always a pretty slow process. I did all the drawings by hand then scanned, colored, and arranged them digitally. It took longer than I anticipated (as usual). When I gave the band an ETA I doubled how long I thought it would take and ended up being right on the money. It could have been done more quickly, but making videos isn't my full-time job (yet?).

So in the time it took to make the video, Beavis and Butthead returned to MTV, grunge returned to the fashion world, and at Trader Joe's I've started hearing the songs whose videos we re-created. 

Excellent timing.

video link: http://youtu.be/GmcX97Y3vE4

"8/16" comes from Helms Alee's second full length album Weatherhead.  Produced by Matt Bayles in the winter of 2011, and released the following July, Weatherhead finds the band expanding on what AVClub calls 'impossibly catchy heaviness'.  Tours with Torche, Big Business, Boris and Minus the Bear have helped the band, and now Weatherhead, put grunge right back on the map.  

The girls and boy of Helms Alee will be on tour this March with fellow Northwest resident, Thrones:

03/03 Bellingham, WA @ Jinx Art Space w/ Sloths, Tearamanapart

03/31 Seattle, WA @ Comet Tavern w/ Thrones

04/01 Vancouver, BC @ Iron Roads Studio w/ Thrones

04/03 Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown w/ Thrones

04/05 Arcata, CA @ Alibi w/ Thrones

04/06 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern w/ Thrones


Buy HELMS ALEE stuff in the Hydra Head Shop

Helms Alee "8/16" music video - Kickstarter

I am directing a music video for Helms Alee. I have been working on pre-production and animation for a few weeks, and we just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the budget.

There are rewards for pretty much any size donation, so please consider helping me realize my dream of making a music video without paying for everything out of my own pocket.

Watch this slightly embarrassing video, then please donate.

Torche - "U.F.O."

My directorial debut has premiered on Pitchfork.com !
See it on their site here, or watch it below. I'll have some behind the scenes / making of info up here soon!

Look at me eat ice cream and get free music!

I am on the bottom right:

Download your free music here

Village Voice mention

Justin Foley of The Austerity Program mentioned me and the shirt I did for them in their Village Voice interview. Baby!

"Tell me about the new anvil shirts. How did that idea come about?

We asked the folks at Hydra Head to pull together a shirt design for us. Four different people were kind enough to do something for us to consider. This by itself is very flattering. A bunch of our friends picked this as their favorite. It's hilarious and we take no credit for it at all. Thank Andrew Cox at Hydra Head and pay him money to design a shirt for your band."

This is almost as exciting as when I got my picture in the newspaper for lining up in costume for the Star Wars midnight screening (both times).

Also, I would like to thank James O'Mara for being good at adobe programs, because the shirt would have looked way stupid without his help.

Austerity Program T-shirt

I designed a shirt for The Austerity Program, who's new EP Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn comes out in a few weeks. If you haven't given these fellas a listen, get on that. Their full length, Black Madonna, is easily one of the best releases from Hydra Head, and probably the most under-appreciated.
You can download a song from the new EP, "Song 26" at Brooklyn Vegan.

Get the shirt here, and other Austerity Program stuff here.

http://www.austerityprogram.com