Blag Dahlia (Dwarves)
SPB: How do you choose your album art?
Dahlia: Well, SPB, I could say that we didn’t choose the art, it choose us. Then again, that would be bullshit.
Our most famous cover is still the Blood, Guts & Pussy LP. The idea was mine, a direct parody of the Samhain ‘Initium’ cover. The iconic shot was taken by NY photographer Michael Lavine, before he began his current quest to get every conceivable angle on Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus. The late Chris Wetzel procured the models, Anthony Sarnacola did the makeup and I just drooled and smoked weed while history was made. It started as 13 naked girls, but most of them dropped out, especially when they saw the Dwarf himself, the great Bobby Faust, still going strong at age 83.
Although we were routinely accused of misogyny, the cover is a classic because it isn’t misogynistic at all. Quite the contrary, the hapless Dwarf is small and insignificant next to the strong Amazonian girls. Sure they are covered in blood, but you know it’s somebody else’s blood and that makes all the difference. Simply put, if you don’t like this cover, you don’t deserve this cover, and I hope you die soon.
Lavine went on to shoot more classics for us over the next 2 decades including The Dwarves Come Clean, The Dwarves Must Die and The Dwarves Are Born Again. My suggestion to budding rockers is to find a great photographer and stick with him (or in our case, her.) They’re easier to find than drummers, and far more tolerable!
