This House Has Lions / Jason Malmberg

Front cover for This House Has Lions by Jason Malmberg. A bold, expressionistic illustration of a lion rendered in vivid orange, magenta, purple and teal brushstrokes against a dark background. Album title set in large italic serif type. A teal spine features the catalog number, a geometric mandala icon, and tracklist in clean sans-serif type.

Two Jason Malmbergs Walk Into a Jazz Bar

There are two Jason Malmbergs. One is a jazz musician based in Colorado. The other is the designer behind this page. They are not the same person, though they share a name, a mutual appreciation for each other’s work, and now a record together.

The two connected over Instagram after the designer had accidentally been receiving the musician’s PTA emails. When the musician mentioned he was working on an album of jazz reimaginings of punk classics, a collaboration was inevitable. Malmberg X Malmberg.

This House Has Lions draws its title from a quote by producer Joel Dorn, recalling a conversation with multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Kirk’s simple directive to get a house with lions became the conceptual anchor for an album that approaches punk the same way Kirk approached everything, with curiosity, intensity, and zero reverence for genre boundaries. The seven tracks reframe songs by Fugazi, The Clash, the Minutemen and others through an exploratory jazz lens that feels muscular and true to the spirit of the originals rather than trafficking in easy crossover kitsch.

The listener might be forgiven for assuming the Jason Malmberg credited for the music and the one credited for the design are the same person. They are not. The footnote on the back cover makes this clear: “a different Jason Malmberg.”
The cover design mirrors the album’s energy. A vivid expressionistic lion rendered in slashing strokes of orange, magenta, purple, and teal dominates the front panel, with the album title set in sweeping italic serif type that feels as much handmade as typeset. A teal spine carries the catalog number, a geometric mandala icon, and the tracklist in clean contrasting sans-serif, grounding the chaos of the illustration in something structural. The back continues the lion across the panel alongside the tracklist, personnel credits, and a personal essay by the musician about punk, jazz, and the thread connecting them

Volume 2 is currently in production. Released on Still Positive Records.

One day in the late sixties, I was on the phone with Rahsaan and mentioned to him that just that day I had bought a house. He responded by asking, “Does your house have lions?” I said, “What?” He said, “Lions. You know, like in front of a museum or the post office. You know, concrete lions. My house has lions. Get a house with lions.” –Joel Dorn May 1993 from the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology