Jacques K. Vig. of Montreal Canada posted this nicely done photo collage on our Facebook page. Notice the ridiculously sweet custom White Luggage Strap with Dark Red 80′s Mercedes Backing we made especially for him. Thanks Jacques for the photo!
Cool Photo Collage
November 23rd, 2011The Muffs Still Going Strong!
November 23rd, 2011It was by a random act of Facebookness that we ran into these profile pictures of The Muff‘s Kim Shattuck with her Racer X Couch Guitar Strap the other day!
Kim Shattuck rules.
We’ve been fans of The Muffs since we were little kids so it’s always brilliant at Couch when we see people we love and admire choosing to use our stuff! The Muffs started way back in 1991 with US singles on indie labels Sub Pop and Sympathy For The Record Industry that led to the band getting signed to Warner Brothers Records. They’ve had something like 4 albums since then and have licensed songs in the film “Clueless“, video game Rock Band 2, TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and even a national Canadian Milk Commercial.
The Muffs have a new studio album out soon.
We saw the Muffs play in LA a while back and they sounded as great as ever! The band is still going strong, they just played a show with Seattle power pop legends The Fastbacks, and The Muffs are finishing work on their 6th studio album as we speak.
Rock! Oh and that's bassist Ronnie on the left too.
Kerrang Metal Mag Features Rise To Remain
November 15th, 2011We were stoked to see that UK’s biggest rock/alt/metal magazine Kerrang! featured Rise To Remain on a recent cover.
Rise To Remain Cover Feature Fall 2011
Like the cover says, EMI Record‘s Rise To Remain are “Leading the rebirth of British Rock”. They have toured with Iron Maiden, Funeral For a Friend, and done the Soundwave and Sonisphere Festivals. They’ve received airplay on BBC Radio One and Total Rock and the band was voted “Best New Band” at the 2010 Metal Hammer “Golden God Awards” (YEAH!!!!) which is and award decided by 400,000 votes across the world.
Nice shot! Rise To Remain with Black Byloos, Racer X, and maybe even a Black Seatbelt Strap too?
Rise To Remain Guitarist Will Homer was nice enough to message us recently and mentioned that in addition to the Black Byloos and Black & White Racer X Straps featured here, Will also wears a Plain Black Vegan Belt and bassist Joe Copcutt has a Plain Black Black Vegan Strap. Kick ass guys!
New Lady Wallets Coming Soon!
November 7th, 2011
New Couch Lady Wallet Prototypes In The Works
We’ve been working hard since last summer patterning and designing a version of our girlfriend’s favorite old wallet from days gone by and we think we finally got it. These wallets have a zipper pocket for change and keys and drugs and stamps and stuff, and are large enough to hold a checkbook if you’d like. There is also a full sized billfold area for cash and plenty of spaces to hold ID’s, cards, receipts and stuff. The snap enclosure and zipper keep everything secure too. So yeah now that we’ve worked out the functional kinks, we need to choose 2 or 3 of these samples to actually make. We need your help, which vintage vinyl is your favorite? From front to back we have: Vintage 60′s Blue-Green Diamond, 70′s Yellow Plaid, Late 60′s Chevy Barracuda Bronze, 60′s Flowers, Dark Red 80′s Mercedes, Red 60′s Ford Truck, and Grey 60′s Ford Truck. Tell us what one you like and why.
The Patterning and Custom Dies and made, now we're just looking to choose a vintage vinyl.
Remember, these are designed for the girls and women in our lives, so if you’re a dude like us that’s okay feel free to vote, but we’d love it too if you passed this link on to a lady friend so we can also get some opinions direct from the source. You can vote on our Facebook Page.
Mastodon On David Letterman!
October 8th, 2011Metal gods Mastodon rule. It’s pretty cool that a couple of the guys are wearing Couch Racer X Straps.
And that other thin strap on the flying V is cool too! We’re not haters, other people make good straps too you know.
Blondie on Jay Leno!
October 8th, 2011Blondie was just in Los Angeles for a show at Club Nokia in LA Live. Before heading out of town the band stopped off at NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno to play their new single Mother.
Blondie on Jay Leno
We were stoked to see Blondie guitar player Tommy Kessler was wearing his Dark Red Skullphone Guitar Strap. We gave Tommy a ride earlier in the week from Hollywood out to Orange County to the Bad Cat Amplifier guys so he could buy an uber-limited-edition 1990′s purple Vox ac30. He tested out some of their amps too, which sounded great by the way, and then we even gave him a quick tour of the Couch Factory here in Long Beach.
Here’s a link to NBC’s site to see the video.
Tommy freakin’ shreds on the guitar and when he’s not touring with Blondie be found in New York City on Broadway tearing it up on the musical Rock Of Ages. Go Tommy!
Cool article on Couch in The New Issue of Alternative Press Magazine
September 23rd, 2011Thanks go out to Alternative Press for the full page interview with Couch founder Daniel Perkins in the brand new issue of Alternative Press Magazine. We are stoked the guys and gals there at AP put is in their mag, (October 2011 issue with members of Blink 182 on the cover). This magazine is huge and on newsstands and malls across the country, so it’s exposing us to a whole new generation of super young kids, many who are in their first bands. That rules. Thanks AP!
October 2011 Alternative Press Cover
Alternative Press full page feature on Couch for their vegan products section.
Blondie is Still Going Strong in 2011!
September 14th, 2011It’s 2011 and Blondie has a new record? Cool, this band of rock-and-roll-hall-of-famers has had some amazing songs so it’s nice to know they have a new record out and the video to their new single Mother already has over 200,000 hits. Guitar player Tommy Kessler is screen-capped here in their new video next to Deborah Harry and Clem Burke with a Couch Black and White Racer X Strap and we must say it’s looking sharp. Tommy has a few other Couch Straps, further back in this blog his pictured with a Dark Red Skullphone strap on stage in front of tens of thousands at Ilse of Wight or however you spell it…. Thanks Tommy!
Tommy Kessler next to Debbie Harry and Clem Burke with Couch Racer X Strap.
Wallet In Front Or Back Pocket?
August 15th, 2011A lot of people ask us- a) does your wallet snap get in the way? b) are your wallets designed to be kept in your front or back pocket? The short answer is “no”, and “both” respectively. Pretty much everyone at Couch has a Couch Wallet- some of us use them in our front pocket, some of us in our back, but we all love them. The thinline snap enclosure keeps our stuff secure and stays out of the way as far as thickness goes, and the auto upholstery material we use is strong, so we can leave the wallets un-lined for the thinnest overall profile and these babies last years.
Wallets go great in your front pocket man, try it!
Our pro-skater buddy Chet Thomas once told us his chiropractor said that simply sitting down with a wallet in your back pocket is one of the #1 ways to get your spine out of balance and cause wallet back pain. That was enough for us and we’ve been thoroughly enjoying our Couch men’s vegan wallets in our front pocket ever since. Besides, your wallet is safer from a pickpocket in your front pocket. But then again others of us here just keep em in the back and are perfectly happy so what can you do? To each his own. Whichever pocket you use, our wallets hold up to about 12 cards plus bills and receipts and still stay surprisingly slim…..
Nice and Slim- The Couch Dark Red 80's Mercedes Wallet
All of this said some people have been asking us to leave the snap off, which we just started to do on our Vintage 80′s Mercedes Wallets by special request on the drop down. We like the security of a snap, but if you prefer your wallet with no snap enclosure you now have that as an option at Couch Guitar Straps with these wallets!
New 80's Mercedes Wallets without snaps by special request.
Rival Sons Play The George Lopez Show
August 15th, 2011It was awesome to see Couch friends Rival Sons rule the The George Lopez Show the other night.
Rival Sons on The George Lopez Show with Couch Deadstock Flowers Guitar Strap center stage.
That’s bassist Robin Everhart there in the middle between George Lopez and singer Jay with his Fender Bass and Couch Limited Edition Deadstock Flowers Guitar Strap. Nice!
Sorry these Deadstock Flowers Straps Robin has are now all sold out.
Most of these guys are actually from around Long Beach where we live and are all solid players- we’ve been enjoying hearing them in various bands for years. It seems like all’s clicking with The Rival Sons though, they are signed to EMI’s Earache Records, Classic Rock Magazine just called them “America’s Best New Band”, they’ve toured with Alice Cooper, licensed their music for Izod and Jeremiah Weed, just played Center Stage at The 2011 Indianapolis 500, and even the dude who did their album art also did the epic Pink FLoyd The Wall cover art. These rockers are currently in Japan and will be touring all of Europe with Judas Priest and Queensryche most of the fall. Metal! BTW have you heard Rival Son’s singer Jay sing? It’s pretty insane, check the video here. BTW, The George Lopez show just got canceled, reportedly due to a weak lead-in by Conan O’Brien, so these guys had one of the last performances on the show.