If Zoolander were talking about multi-media artist Brock Davis, we’re sure he’d say “he’s so hot right now”. Brock won “Newcomer Of The Year” on the hip indie t-shirt design site threadless.com we users vote for their favorite artist’s work to be made into t-shirts and the artists get up to a couple grand for the honor. Brock has had something like 14 designs turned into shirts and many of them are in multiple printings and sold out. He also just does cool work:

Our favorite is his “Wildlife: antlers” design featuring a deer and the words “Wildlife” in spelled in the horns. We guess we’re not the only ones who liked it, it’s been on various musicians including:
Isles and Glaciers, Ra Ra Riot! , The Duke Spirit, and Jay Reatard

in fact Jay wears it in his video here:

http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/episode/2057-jay-reatard/1

In any event, The Couch Brock Davis Artist Series Wildlife Strap has arrived!

Our friend Dave just emailed us yesterday this Youtube screencap of Sublime bass player Eric Wilson wearing a Brown and Orange Racer X Couch Guitar Strap in front 30,000 plus people at Cypress Hill’s Smokeout Festival on October 24 in San Bernardino, California.

Nice!

We had heard a number of years ago Eric had purchased one for his bass at World of Strings here in Long Beach, probably around the time he was playing with the Long Beach Dub All Stars, but we didn’t know he was still wearing it, or, for that matter wearing it the other week with a reformed Sublime at The Smokeout Festival on October 24 in San Bernardino, California. The festival also featured performances from Kottonmouth Kings, Slipknot, Deftones, Bad Brains and Pennywise.

Below is the actual video of them performing their mega-hit “What I Got” here that’s pretty awesome. We grew up in Long Beach so we saw the original band back in the day at so many small clubs and house parties and they really were great for their time. What’s crazy about this video is this kid “Rome” who is filling in for the departed Brad Nowell really is amazing and even weirder, he REALLY reminds us of a young Brad in is mannerisms, build and just how he looks in general.

Another interesting thing about this song “What I Got” is that the acoustic guitar solo made Rolling Stone Magazines‘ “100 Best Guitar Solos of All Time” list and was credited to Brad Nowell, but it was actually performed by part time member and full time manager and Skunk Records founder Miguel Happoldt. Miguel actually has a studio here behind us at Couch is and is a cool guy. He rocks a “i am 8 Bit” Couch Strap on his Telecaster.

In any event, it’s a shame to see that there seems to be some wrangling over the use of the name “Sublime” with a new singer. A quick watch of this video and it just seems like everyone enjoying hearing the music so much, band and audience. Let the guys keep the name please- or at least just use another version of it, but keep playing!

The other day our designer friend Jay from Whodini Handbags asked us if we knew what the word “upcyling” meant. He said he was seeing the word a lot on that indie-designer craft super site etsy.com and was curious about its meaning.

Upcycled Guitar Straps, pictured above from left to right: Vintage 80’s Mercedes Upholstery Straps in Red, Beige, Blue, and Brown, Ford Mustang Plaid Trunk Liner Guitar Straps, and on the very end “Brady Bunch” vintage recycled furniture upholstery vinyl.

It’s always good to start with Wikipedia on stuff like this so we opened up our iphone and took a look to find that upcyling involves the “re-use of a product with crippled functionality for alternative purposes, to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production, with the intent of creating a product of higher quality design and artistic value.”

Nice! We’ve been doing that all along here at Couch Guitar Straps with our vintage vinyl straps, glad to know there’s a name for it! We took a look further around the web and it seems like it’s everywhere, even modern design leaders Dwell Magazine are in on the action declaring “Upcyling is the New Recyling” recently on dwell.com. Cool we’ll take it.

We first got this idea back in the early 2000’s when we were roaming through this old automotive upholstery warehouse where there were just tons of old 30 and 40 year old vinyl just sitting around gathering dust, most probably never to be used again. We mean, only so many people are going to reupholster their 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit bucket seats or that Brady Bunch sofa you grandmother had really isn’t going to get re-upholstered with that same neon green flowered vinyl is it?

Since then we’ve turned tons of vintage deadstock vinyls that probably would still be still sitting on the shelf in another 30 years into some pretty cool guitar straps including our Black Victorian Byloos Guitar Strap (with the Brady Bunch neon yellow backing), our Vintage Green Vines Strap made of an old vintage furniture vinyl, and our kick ass 80’s Mercedes Vintage Guitar Straps and 60’s Ford Mustang Trunk Liner Straps.

We have to admit though Jay really got us to thinking about how we could upcycle in new and different ways at Couch beyond just sourcing materials. As a vertically integrated design company that also manufactures our guitar straps, we realized we have A LOT of strap vinyl laying around- raw pieces, cut pieces, sewn strapping of less-than-guitar-strap length, you get the idea. What could we make with all this stuff that otherwise might get stored or thrown away?

Hey man, some trends are good and for a good reason and we’re down with upcycling at Couch, so we’ve introduced our Couch Beta Camera Strap, and
our Couch Slimline Wallet because like Wikipedia says, we’re always looking for new ways to “prevent waste of potentially useful materials [and] reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials”.

Upcylcing is cool, especially when you get to make your girlfriend a cool camera strap for her Canon Rebel EOS camera or a cool recycled (upcycled you say!) racing stripe wallet for your friend Rueben, or for that matter, for all our friends at Couch. The future is this way. Upcycle. Rock. Couch.

We get a lot of questions about whether our guitar straps will work with acoustic guitars, and the answer is yes, Couch Vegan Guitar Straps, any guitar straps for that matter work with acoustic guitars. The question arises because many acoustics have only one “button” on the back side of the guitar to attach to a strap, but none on the the front side.

Basically all you need is a piece of string, a shoe string works fine, and you use this to connect the front of your strap the the headstock of your beautiful new Taylor Guitar (or our old junky Fender solid top we keep around the office pictured here)  and you’re ready to go.

If you buy a strap from us, and you need to attach it to an acoustic, just put in the comments section at time of order that you need the “acoustic string” and we’ll try to throw one in for you for free.

In any event, here’s some quick pics to go with a more detailed explanation on how to do this. Yes it’s really easy:-)

Start by taking your string, about 25 to 30 inches works will give you extra, and running through the keyhole on the front of your strap. Tie a knot close to the hole.

run your string through the front tab and tie a knot just below, you can even go closer than the one here.

Next run one side of the string through the headstock of your guitar and tie a knot on the other side.

run one side of the string through the headstock of your acoustic guitar

tie a knot on the end. you can cut off the extra string if you'd like

That’s about it, basically just attach the back to the back button on the guitar and you’re ready to go. Again we use a special waxed string often used in making beaded necklaces, but any thing will do as long as it’s thin enough to fit under your strings at the headstock. Easy!