Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 43-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.

Funny story. In the ’90s, I worked at a tiny record label in New Zealand for a few months. I was putting together distribution deals with small Canadian and U.S. labels (in a gloomy basement in the middle of summer, which was a bit disturbing).
In a flash of inspiration, I had a stamp made that said “disturbed by [record label]” instead of “distributed by [record label],” and I stamped all the outbound export albums and paperwork with it (old-school stamp-and-ink pad).
The record label owner, who was a bit of a square, went into a rage when he saw it! I think I quit and sensibly went to the beach, but some years later, I noticed the label used it as the title of a compilation album. Presumably feeling pretty clever. Sheesh.
All of this can be filed under adventures while attempting to maintain relationships with men who didn’t live where I lived and never would, which is what “Throw Silver” is about.
“Throw Silver” from Dovetail (K, 1992) (download):








