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Press
BOOKS
Cardiacs: A Big Book and a Band and the Whole World Window MVP008 |
PUBLISHED: January 3, 2025 | ISBN: 979-8-9911862-0-9 | Assets |
The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 2 MVP007 |
PUBLISHED: August 11, 2023 | ISBN: 979-8-218-12250-8 | Assets |
Butthole Surfers: What Does Regret Mean? (Paperback Edition) MVP006 |
PUBLISHED: March 4, 2022 | ISBN: 978-0-578-97854-3 | Assets |
The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1 MVP005 |
PUBLISHED: January 7, 2022 | ISBN: 978-0-578-92935-4 | Assets |
Lil BUB: The Earth Years MVP004 |
PUBLISHED: May 21, 2021 | ISBN: 978-0-578-74428-5 | Assets |
Ministry: Prescripture MVP003 |
PUBLISHED: December 6, 2019 | ISBN: 978-0-578-56212-4 | Assets |
Butthole Surfers: What Does Regret Mean? MVP002 |
PUBLISHED: March 8, 2019 | ISBN: 978-0-578-41625-0 | Assets |
Face to Face: 25 Years of SoCal Punk MVP001 |
PUBLISHED: December 1, 2017 | ISBN: 978-0-692-78681-9 | Assets |
COMPANY PROFILE
Melodic Virtue is a small, artist-friendly independent publisher dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacies of underground bands through limited-run coffee table books. Originally founded in 2004 as a graphic design studio by Aaron Tanner, Melodic Virtue produces fully authorized books that offer an immersive, and definitive, visual history of bands outside of mainstream music culture. Each authentic and unusual story is told through compelling design, rare photographs and artwork, and gripping first-hand anecdotes from their fans and contemporaries.
Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Dangerous Minds, Pitchfork, Kerrang!, Revolver, SPIN, FACT Magazine, LA Weekly, Texas Monthly, Paste Magazine, MOJO, KQED, éTapes Magazine, PRINT, BrooklynVegan, Gestalten, Punknews.org, The Quietus, Austin Chronicle, Dying Scene, Exclaim!, New Noise Magazine, Los Angeles Daily News, Graphis, and more!
AAF National Awards Gold 2013 • AAF National Awards Silver 2016 • AAF District 6 Awards Gold 2020, 2015, 2013, 2001 • AAF Evansville Awards Best In Show 2022, 2013, 2001 • AAF Evansville Awards Gold 2024, 2022, 2015 • AAF Evansville Awards Judge's Choice 2024 • AAF Evansville Awards Silver 2022, 2020 • AIGA Louisville Best of Show 2022 • AIGA Louisville Best of Editorial Print 2022 • AIGA Louisville Gold 2008 • EDG Awards Best In Show 2018, 2012 • EDG Awards Silver 2015, 2013 • Graphis Design Annual Silver 2014
AARON TANNER
Aaron Tanner is a graphic designer, musician, and underground music archivist from Evansville, Indiana.
From a young age, he displayed an interest in bold and expressive design. Growing up in the Midwest, he drew inspiration from logos on railroad cars, advertisements on matchbooks, and other imagery from his surroundings in Middle America.
In his formative and collegiate years, Tanner showcased his early design skills by creating flyers, album art, and other visual accompaniments for the many bands he played in and wrote music for. As a visual learner, his largely self-taught approach to design was honed through summer courses at Indiana University, Ball State University, and Franklin College while attending high school. Despite a late introduction to countercultural figures like The Residents and Butthole Surfers, Tanner found his creative vision profoundly impacted by their fearless art and music. Years later, he branched into his own musical collaborations with other luminaries like Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Joey Santiago and David Lovering (Pixies), Rob Crow (Pinback), Roy Mayorga (Ministry), Zach Hill and Spencer Seim (Hella), and Ryan Grisham and Heath Metzger (Mock Orange).
Tanner’s mastery of design earned him recognition within the underground music community and ultimately led him to become Ween's resident designer, a position he has held for over 20 years. He founded Melodic Virtue in 2004, a design firm catering to bands and regional businesses. While maintaining a diverse client roster that included Explosions in the Sky, Pinback, Mono, Juliana Hatfield, Tanya Donelly, Epitaph Records, Secretly Group, Temporary Residence Ltd., Joyful Noise Recordings, and pet celebs Lil BUB and Doug the Pug, Tanner created PIXIES: A Visual History, Volume 1 with co-author Sean Rayburn. The acclaimed publication received multiple national awards and propelled Tanner's career in publishing.
Inspired by visually focused books devoted to mainstream artists, he recognized the absence of similar works for important yet underrepresented bands with their own rich visual histories. Determined to rectify this, Tanner delved into creating coffee table books that seamlessly combined his two passions: visual art and underground music. His unconventional design work with The Residents, Butthole Surfers, and Ministry has received critical acclaim, and each publication has earned a place in the permanent collections of esteemed institutions such as the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Punk Rock Museum, the Archive of Contemporary Music, and the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science.
Tanner brings a DIY ethic to the books he creates, incorporating a hands-on approach into his design and production process. That, along with his enduring commitment to underground artists, has opened a window into their unique legacies through his visually captivating books, combining compelling design, rare photographs, artwork, and firsthand anecdotes from fans and contemporaries. With each project, Tanner provides a deep and genuinely authentic glimpse behind the curtain, leaving an indelible mark on the world of design at the intersection of art and music.