On the Discography Archives page for the
Washing Machine album only the origin for the front picture is explained:
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(in fact, the album's cover photograph was taken at the April 28th Amherst, MA show, indicating that the "Washing Machine" concept was already well under way)
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and
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PACKAGING
The image of 2 fans wearing "Washing Machine" shirts on the cover was taken after the April 28th, 1995 show at Amherst College in Amherst, MA. The shirts were signed by opening act Come. There was actually an MTV news bulletin a short while later calling out for the fans to contact the band to grant them permission to use the photograph for the album cover. The bulk of the album art is presented in polaroid photograph squares -- in fact, it all is! The CD back cover features 6 squares, one of which shows a card w/ a preliminary running order for the album (note that Saucer-Like is still titled "Thumb" at this point), with "Trouble Girl" and "My Arena" listed off to the side under "also"... The proper track list is at the bottom, w/ no listing for track 9. The CD insert folds out to 4 double-sided pages. One side has the album cover, portraits of the individual band members (and Coco, held upside down by Thurston), the house image used for the "Diamond Sea" single cover, and a page w/ 4 pictures, one of which was used for the "Little Trouble Girl" single cover. The reverse of the insert has 2 full-page pictures and 2 pages w/ 4 panels each, all photos except for one credits panel. The disc itself depicts a monogrammed roll of masking tape.
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Wikipedia has some more details on the cover photo:
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The album cover consists of a cropped Polaroid photograph of two unidentified fans taken at a Sonic Youth show in Amherst, Massachusetts in April 1995, during a short tour undertaken while the album was still in production.[11] The fans are depicted wearing T-shirts that were sold as merchandise during that tour; early in 1995, the band was toying with the idea of changing their name to Washing Machine.[11] Visible on the shirt on the left are signatures by Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw of the tour's opening band Come.[2] The photo was taken by Gordon, who believed it could be used as the album cover.[9] The band liked the shot, but the record label did not want to use it without permission from the fans.[11] Because the band did not have any way to contact them, their faces had to be cropped out.[9]
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according to IMDB the photographer listed in the credits
Lance Acord was also Director Of Photography for Lost in Translation, amongst other. I love that movie a lot, as I do this album.
The image I get in my head when I think about this album is Beck in Tilburg as support for Sonic Youth on the European leg of this tour, holding an album (LP) of Pia Beck above his head with two hands like a trophy as he walked on stage with a big smile on his face. I think to remember that he said he got it from Lee, but I don't know anymore
