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Music

Good Idea Prove That Not All Band Parody Shirts Are Dumb Ideas

Any shirt that includes Sade and Discharge is a good shirt.

This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.

Good Idea shirts was actually born from a smart ass idea. Over the years John Sharkey, Sean Gray and Kevin Niemann have come up with a bunch of smart ass ideas but this particular one combined their two loves; music and taking the piss.

All three are involved in music. Sharkey made and then sullied his name in bands such as Clockcleaner and Dark Blue, Gray runs Fan Death records and Niemann has played in Hive Bent and CP/M.

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Their first series of Good Idea included a Totoro take on the Black Flag bars logo, a Sade/Discharge combo and the Oasis logo covering the infamous 1981 Strength Through Oi compilation. All quickly sold out through word or mouth, friends and the power of Facebook.

A new series of shirt that includes Kate Bush, Nirvana and Moby has just been released.

We had a chat to the guys to see how the garment game has been treating them.

Noisey: What was the impetus behind the shirts?
Kevin Niemann: Sean asked me to be the designer for these shirts. I assume because of how much I work with him, making him stupid logos for his Facebook cover photo, which is where the Black Flag Totoro came from.

Sharkey: I came up with the silly name. How simplified can you get? I have some good ideas for shirts, what should we call it? Good Idea Shirts. I guess the se logic could be applied to my musical output, as well. I could've names any one of my projects Good Songs Band.

There are the Black Flag parodies and the Bob Marley/Jimi Hendrix joke but I like that your shirts are a little more subtle/random.
Sharkey: I hate Black Flag shirt parodies. They are for the weak. I feel like ours are far superior partly because I don't understand the reference. Most people feel disdain for things they don't understand. I pretend to have knowledge and then become arrogant.

Sean Gray: I think it's a reflection on both Sharkey and my sense of humour and what we like. Making an easy joke is cheap. Those Bob Marley shirts are the equivalent of Jet and Wolfmother guitar riffs being called punk and getting best new music on Pitchfork.

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Discharge had one of the best band logos ever. Sade was a babe. Combine the two and of course you are going to have a rad shirt.
Kevin Niemann: I’m hoping this article doesn’t lead to us getting a cease and desist from Sade. Knowing that Sade doesn’t like me would be one of the biggest disappointments of my life.

Sean Gray: You really think they're gonna sue a cripple?

Who are your typical customers?
Sean Gray: The typical customer has a good standing PayPal account and 20 dollars to their name. I'm sure if Chaos in Tejas aka Rare Punk Shirt Fest was still happening they'd more than likely be our biggest demographic.

Do you think Noel would be up for grabbing a medium Strength In Oasis shirt?
Sean Gray: I hope so. Noel is the only real voice of reason left in the "music industry". Noel you'll always get free shirts from us.

Sharkey: I wonder if rather Nerlens Noel would a skinhead oasis shirt. He was the real Rookie Of The Year. Pure development. Fuck Andrew Wiggins.

I know you are sports fans. Would you consider a sports series? Maybe something featuring Detlef Schrempf?
Kevin Niemann: We initially talked about doing a sports series. Something for all the baseball teams we really hate (Red Sox, Nationals, Giants, etc). Sharkey likes footballand I know he did some Eagles shirts a while back so I’m sure we’ll do some of those as well. I grew up a Sonics fan so Detlef could probably get the hook-up. I’m thinking about doing something with that picture of Shawn Kemp holding the umbrella in the all yellow raincoat.

Sharkey: Kevin and I were talking about doing a series of shirts that are simple line drawings of prominent baseball parks, as well.

Sean Gray: I’m a big Orioles fan. I’d do a Charm City Suicides/Chris Davis shirt.

Good Idea shirts are available here.