I really don't remember what turned me off about the official Motion City Soundtrack merchandise the time that I saw them play back in 2007, but then I don't remember much about the night in general. That is to say, the set was awesome, naturally, but all I can recall was ordering some excruciatingly disappointing sandwich from a questionable Subway outlet afterwards (which at the time I'm sure was the greatest delicacy I'd ever experienced), whilst stewing in my own sweat stained attire. The details prior to that are a mass of alcohol soaked uncertainty.
I can't even recall the street vendors whom I obviously approached in the wake if the set to buy this quandary of a souvenir tee.
For years I've had a love/hate relationship with this T-shirt. I love the colour combination; the stark black and white screen print against the dark green canvas makes for a fantastically striking visual and the composition is a winner as well - the horizontal alignment of the band member portraits off-set against a haphazard "stamp" of the band logo sits beautifully together across the chest. However I hate that this design was cobbled together an hour before the show, in the back of someone's bedroom, from a template carved out of low-res screen grabs from the Internet using the ever-treacherous and unwieldy Magic Wand tool.
The final output is so poor that I can barely make out what the design is suppose to be; identifying the band members is purely a process of elimination and the what is supposed to be an array of intriguing illustrated objects bursting forth from the tops of their heads, actually appears as rejects from a really rubbish Afro-Caribbean Easter bonnet parade. Or the portfolio of Sweeney Todd if he'd actually cut hair.
In conclusion - great design, rubbish execution. Don't play with the pirates, kids.
