Awhile ago I went to see Nada Surf (with Rogue Wave and Inara George) at the Metro. Afterwards, I headed down to the merch store to get a poster of the gig. Unfortunately they had sold out before I could get one (they were talking about the posters during the show.) Dejected, I decided to try and find the poster artist online. I turned to the wonderful Gigposters.com and found that the artist was Diana Sudyka and there it was. That site is a great place to go if you just want to look at some awesome concert poster art.

Anyway, I e-mailed her and she said that I could stop by her office and buy one of the posters. Score. So a couple of days later I headed out on an expedition to find the office. On the train I decided to call my friend Shannon and have a chat about how life was going. She was great, helping me keep my mind off of how I didn't have a clue where I was going while getting lost in the back alleys of Chicago. We chatted about the recent Glen Hansard gig in New York and she dropped the bomb that the reason they were in NY in the first place was to mix their new album!!! *Framesgasm* Sadly, I was informed, it wouldn't be out until after Lollapalooza.

Moving on, I finally found the office I was looking for, but I couldn't remember the company name. So I started by pressing the buzzer for ATS Design:

Me: Hello?
ATS: Hello?
Me: I'm supposed to pick up a poster. Do you know if this is where I am supposed to pick up the poster?
ATS: WE DON'T HAVE POSTERS!!!
Me: Um... do you know if there is a company in the building that does have posters?
*silence*
Me: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Me: Sigh.

So then I tried buzzing a company called The Bird Machine because it sounded familiar.

Me: Hi, I'm supposed to be picking up a poster. Am I in the right place?
TBM: You're here now?
Me: Um...yes.
TBM: You're fired.
Me: Excuse me?
TBM: Come on up. 2nd floor at the end of the hall. *Buzzz*

So up I went to a freakin' awesome office filled with cool looking people making cool looking art. They hooked me up with my poster and were extremely friendly. Jay Ryan, who has been designing bad ass stuff for over a decade (including the cover of a Michael Chabon novel and a different art print for every song off of Andrew Bird's most recent album) was particullarly kind and allowed me to look through the office drawers at a lot of their old posters. There were a lot of great posters in there, like the Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie. In one drawer I found a poster of the cover of Andrew Bird's album, "The Mysterious Production of Eggs."

Me: Wow. Did you design the cover of Andrew Bird's album.
JR: Yeah.
Me: I love that album.
JR: If you like that one you are going to love his new album...it's even better.
Me: He's got a new album coming out? That's great. Will it be out before Lollapalooza.
JR: No, they're still finishing it up.
Me: That's so funny, I was just talking to a friend on the way over here about the Frames who are also playing Lollapalooza and she said they have a new album being mixed too, and it also won't be out before Lollapalooza.
JR: You like the Frames?
Me: Oh yeah, they are great.
JR: I'm friends with the guitarist.
Me: Rob?
JR: Yeah, just a second.
Me: *Waits*
JR: Here's a shirt I designed for their last tour.

So I ended up leaving with a poster as well as a shirt from a tour that I went to! Which is great because I had been kicking myself for not getting a Frames shirt. So thanks to Shannon for keeping me company and to the people at The Bird Machine for being so wonderful and life for being so crazy sometimes. You can check out their stuff and buy stuff here.

Here is the graphic from the Frames shirt

Here I am pretending that I didn't just wear the shirt for a day, sleep in it, get up, shower, and put it right back on all wrinkled and gross because I love it that much.