The Beasts of Bourbon – The Axeman’s Jazz album art
UK release on Hybrid Records, 1985
Mystery Caps is bizarre display typeface from the phototype era, featuring pictorial letterforms and numerals made of bowels, with an eyeball as i dot. It appears in several type catalogs: under the name Grog Caps in Solotype’s Special Effects and Topical Alphabets (Dover Publications, 1978), in Castcraft’s Encyclopedia of Phototype Styles (1978), and also in an undated German Typeshop catalog, always without further information. The earliest appearance that I’m aware of is in the 1970 catalog by Californian phototype manufacturer Lettergraphics, there as Mystery Caps, and likewise without designer credits.
Despite the wide dissemination, it’s difficult to find this gutsy typeface in use. One notable exception is the cover of The Axeman’s Jazz, the debut release by Australian garage rock band Beasts of Bourbon, which was the best-selling Australian alternative album for 1984. Grog Caps is used for the band name, and is combined with art – credited to singer Tex Perkins – that depicts various ominous items, like a bone, a coffin, an axe, and daggers. The (poorly printed) band photo is by Tom Takacs.
The coarse roman used for the album’s title is another design of unclear origin. In the early 1990s, FontBank offered digital versions both as Ticonderoga and Parchment – but it apparently existed already in 1984 under some name. [edit: Ticonderoga is shown in two weights in the 1976 catalog by Lettergraphics.]
There are various international variants of the cover, printed in different colors.
Original Australian release on Green Records, July 1984
Scandinavian release on Big Time, 1985
US release on Big Time, 1985
Grog Caps as shown in Special Effects and Topical Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged by Dan X. Solo from the Solotype Typographers Catalog, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1978.
The release on Big Time Records from 1984 (as well as several later reissues) features a different typeface on the cover: instead of Grog Caps, the band name is set in Caslon Antique. This eroded roman has similar qualities as Ticonderoga.
1 Comment on “The Beasts of Bourbon – The Axeman’s Jazz album art”
Here’s something I didn’t realize previously: Mystery Caps is drawn over the same basic letterforms as Burst Caps! And it doesn’t stop there: Lettergraphics carried three more effect typefaces with the same build, Maps Caps, Flash Caps, and Flame Caps. The snow-capped Mammoth Caps has more bounce and angled terminals, but judging from its weight and proportions, it belongs to this series, too.
Burst Caps was used already in 1967. With the exception of Mammoth Caps, the others were around at least in 1970.