By Rachel Belle

Listen to Music by Numbers

In a world of iPhones and MacBooks, I appreciate a little bit of old school charm. Which is why I was so excited to see an actual person painting an album cover mural outside of Easy Street Records in lower Queen Anne. Glenn Case paints all the album covers outside both of Easy Street Records’ stores, as opposed to just putting up vinyl posters.

“The idea is to let people realize that things are still done by hand and we’re not just slaves to buttons, even though it seems like that sometimes,” Case says. “The owner of Easy Street is very interested in getting that message across; that it’s sort of old school and nostalgic, when things still come from people.”

Case is currently up on his ladder, painting big, colorful flowers on a 12 x 16 foot space for the new Mark Lanagen album, Blues Funeral. In a country that bows down to the newest technology, he’s pretty lucky to have steady work.

“Thank God for Pearl Jam, here in town, I’ve done probably five or six [murals for them]. Blink 182 was pretty fun, pretty optically challenging. U2 of course, all the great classics. Lots of local bands, Death Cab [For Cutie].”

He says it’s especially fun work when he gets to create an album cover for an artist he really loves.

“The most exciting, high profile, one was when I was doing a mural on the doors, here at Easy Street, for Lou Reed’s album, Transfomer. He was coming to the store to do a little in-store performance, and he came and we met and shook hands and he was really excited about his mural. That was pretty exhilarating.”

Besides having the beauty of hand-painted artwork, Glenn says it also creates a bit of a show for people in the neighborhood.

“It’s shocking how many people gather around to watch or comment how surprised they are that it actually is done by hand. People tell me that they just assume that it’s just another vinyl print. People get excited about this.”

Record companies or movie studios pay anywhere from $800 to $2,000 for Case to replicate their album cover or movie poster on the wall.

Case says it’s nice to add a splash of color in an otherwise gray and cloudy Seattle.

You can see more of his work here.

Who is Rachel Belle?