Pop punk mainstays Gob are returning this month with a new album called Apt. 13, but does some of their new album art look a bit familiar? The group have responded to accusations that they lifted some of the artwork from another Vancouver band, beekeeper.
As you can see from the image above, the back cover of Gob's new album looks almost identical to the cover of beekeeper's 2013 EP Shout at People. The same masked figures from Apt. 13's back cover also appear in different surroundings on the front cover.
A couple of commenters on Twitter called the band out over the similarity, and Gob responded that the artists were both inspired by the same photograph of children wearing masks. They said that this was simply coincidence and posted the photo that inspired both of the drawings. Interestingly, it appears the artists had a fairly similar interpretation of the image, even cutting out the same figure.
"It's possible Gob's artist could have separately found the image, been inspired, and done the same 'hand-drawn by a kid' interpretation," Lougheed says. "Stranger things have happened! We used that image for the record and the entire tour after for about a year.
"I'm not mad at Gob... Is it possibly stolen? Sure. Is it possibly a coincidence? Sure. I'm going to side with the latter, throw some positivity out into the world."
UPDATE: It turns out that the image is taken from the back cover of the 1978 book Cut and Make Monster Masks in Full Colour by Michael Grater.
Check out the images above, and make up your own mind. Apt. 13 drops on August 26 via New Damage Records.
As you can see from the image above, the back cover of Gob's new album looks almost identical to the cover of beekeeper's 2013 EP Shout at People. The same masked figures from Apt. 13's back cover also appear in different surroundings on the front cover.
A couple of commenters on Twitter called the band out over the similarity, and Gob responded that the artists were both inspired by the same photograph of children wearing masks. They said that this was simply coincidence and posted the photo that inspired both of the drawings. Interestingly, it appears the artists had a fairly similar interpretation of the image, even cutting out the same figure.
@gobband Hey, so you ripped off the cover art of another Vancouver band, of an EP released in Jan '13. Shameless. pic.twitter.com/KGk1dhgOvV
— Brendan Black (@brendanrblack) August 19, 2014@ColinMcT Pure coincidence! Source of inspiration attached. Like @beekeeperBAND says- "Great minds think alike" pic.twitter.com/OnLd941i2e
— GOB (@gobband) July 26, 2014.@gobband looks like great Vancouver minds think alike -- check this out! Congrats on the new record :) pic.twitter.com/b7ilPDU5oF
— beekeeper (@beekeeperBAND) July 25, 2014"It's possible Gob's artist could have separately found the image, been inspired, and done the same 'hand-drawn by a kid' interpretation," Lougheed says. "Stranger things have happened! We used that image for the record and the entire tour after for about a year.
"I'm not mad at Gob... Is it possibly stolen? Sure. Is it possibly a coincidence? Sure. I'm going to side with the latter, throw some positivity out into the world."
UPDATE: It turns out that the image is taken from the back cover of the 1978 book Cut and Make Monster Masks in Full Colour by Michael Grater.
Check out the images above, and make up your own mind. Apt. 13 drops on August 26 via New Damage Records.
