Check It. The Walkmen x Etsy.

Call me shallow, but it's really disappointing to me when a cool band has awful t-shirt or album designs. Yeah, I judge books by their covers.

The Walkmen, an indie rock band known for its scratchy, careening vocals and jangly guitars, aren't one of those bands. Their cover for their 2008 album You & Me is one of my favorites of all-time, and I honestly couldn't even tell you why. There's something so aesthetically beautiful about it--the text, the image. And it helped that the music was great too; it's a great dark and seductive fall album.

But The Walkmen are on to the next, and although I haven't given it a good listen yet (stream here now on NPR!), Lisbon's album cover, at least, is promising. What I'm also digging is their new collaboration with online craft website Etsy, in which the band called upon three Etsy artists to help create limited edition items to go along with Lisbon's release. The exclusive items include a silkscreen print insert for 7", a T-shirt and silk-screened poster, and all were inspired by Lisbon, Portugal (which in turn, was The Walkmen's inspiration on the album). Definite must-have for any fan, but still nice and creative enough for anyone who likes cool art.

Be sure to order your Walkmen x Etsy items soon, though: you'll want to do it before Sept. 10 to ensure delivery by Sept. 14, when Lisbon is officially released, and it's all limited-edition.

Check out the items here.

-- Chau Tu