Los Angeles · since 2003

2003 – now

The story

A crew in Los Angeles made posters, shirts, stickers and parties under one name. This is the short version, with a link to the site as it looked at each point.

  1. 2001

    Before us

    The address belonged to somebody else, a humor blog signed Booda. Those pages are kept here as found.

    see 2001 →
  2. 2003

    We take over massdistraction.com

    MassDistraction, LLC. Articles for clothing. The seal, the scrawl and the logotype show up for the first time.

    see 2003 →
  3. 2004

    Sunset Sessions and the first shirts

    Sunset Sessions Vol. 1, a launch party for the first round of tee graphics, with bands, DJs and video projections. Then the Flash site and the shirts.

    see the flyer →
  4. 2005

    Paper on walls

    Character Assassin, United We Sit, pea©e / wa®, the star, the eagle. Wheatpaste across Los Angeles: downtown, La Brea, La Cienega, Sun Valley, the high walls mid-city.

    see 2005 →
  5. 2006

    MassDistraction is Revolting

    Magenta, black and silver. Hire / Enjoy. The crew starts making videos and taking on bigger projects.

    see 2006 →
  6. 2007

    The creative collective

    Pink stars and white eagles. The name becomes a studio working across art, entertainment and technology.

    see 2007 →
  7. 2011

    A tumblr

    Studio walls, music, the dragon. Then quiet for a long time.

    see 2011 →
  8. 2026

    Back on the walls

    New posters about screens, feeds and pictures nobody made by hand. Same seal, same scrawl.

    see the new work ↓

The marks

What went up

The art as it was drawn for the shirts and the posters, straight from the original files.

The twin dragonsThe dragons
The scrawl
The starThe star
The eagleThe eagle
United We SitUnited We Sit
LibertyLiberty
pea©epea©e
wa®wa®
The man with the pipeThe man with the pipe
Character Assassin
The seal
MassDistractionThe logotype

2005 – now

The walls

The posters sell nothing and ask for nothing. They go up at night, they stay until someone takes them down, and then they go up somewhere else. If you saw one and wondered who paid for it, nobody did.

The originals

Photos from the walls, 2005 – 2006

character assassin
character assassin
the star, the bolt
character assassin
the seal
sun valley
sun valley
sun valley
la brea
la cienega
politi©o
peace out
downtown
pea©e / wa®, downtown
downtown
united we sit
night run
the troubadour

The new ones

2026

doom scroll
ghostwriter
privacy setting
screen time
high wall highland park
stencil el sereno
laundromat window koreatown
storm drain echo park
mattress north hollywood
city notice lincoln heights
ghost outline boyle heights
windshield shade mid city
free will
royalty free
self ie
star struck
street sign cypress park
taco truck pacoima
shopping cart arts district
rain shreds west adams
buff elysian valley
rooftop boyle heights
chain link sun valley
dumpster lid fashion district
free speech
reel
sin is in fomo
watch party
bootleg newspaper box westlake
fridge sticker lincoln heights
plywood row glassell park
hand drawn reply eagle rock
bus shelter mid city
payphone el sereno
newer ad on top atwater village
stairwell east hollywood
attention span
sin is in autoplay
spitting image
terms and conditions
moving blanket highland park
freeway gantry echo park
tow yard fence north hollywood
rolled up gate dawn chinatown
billboard catwalk hollywood
inside elevator historic core
torn in gutter silver lake
drag on
feeding time
secondhand screen
tag youre it
chain link windshield pacoima
buff one corner cypress park
rain shreds el sereno
over intersection bus window elysian valley
dumpster lid flash burbank
at your own risk
be content
infinite scroll
no comment
ghost outline lincoln heights
city notice security cam koreatown
sticker pole flash highland park
laundromat window boyle heights
storm drain mouth sun valley
from nobody to everybody
hello my name is
the eagle has loaded
we the users
stranger reply echo park
pasted over flash westlake
bus shelter shop glass west adams
street sign bus window atwater village
newspaper box edge of frame wholesale district
all ears
face value
pay attention
this poster is not here
rooftop overpass lincoln heights
windshield shade boyle heights
elevator zine arts district
gutter flash mid city
rollup gate bus window glassell park
made by hand
not a robot
pipeline
prompt art
bootleg gantry highland park
laptop sticker eagle rock
city notice stairway silver lake
parking stairwell flash hollywood
laundromat window north hollywood
free trial
gluttory
once a week
republica de algoritmo
payphone flyer koreatown
ghost outline tow yard sun valley
buff windshield arts district
dumpster lid security cam chinatown
shopping cart edge of frame pacoima
full stop
in food we doubt
power hungry
republica de compute
bus shelter windshield lincoln heights
newspaper box security cam echo park
rain shreds el sereno
pasted over wholesale district
stranger reply boyle heights
charged by the token
lights on nobody home
the cloud
we eat less
plywood grid mid city
high wall boyle heights
utility box koreatown
sticker pole burbank
meter over intersection glassell park
poster on a cloud arts district
swap meet bootlegs pacoima
alley stencil hollywood
boarded storefront eagle rock
fence row north hollywood
hunger
still hungry
thirst party
united we stream
windowless wall alameda
plywood grid echo park
utility box chinatown
sticker pole north hollywood
fork and knife highland park
river surface elysian valley
zine laundromat west adams
buff substation el sereno
alley stencil historic core
bus bench sun valley
believe
crown sourced
feeddumb
sekil
plywood grid hollywood
high wall mid city
cutout cluster highland park
sticker pole boyle heights
hanging crown west adams
tower north hollywood
the buff burbank
closed theater downtown
shutter stencils wholesale
loading dock arts district
character limit
left on read
rate this wall
trigger happy
plywood row silver lake
high wall koreatown
cutout cluster glassell park
sticker pole lincoln heights
hanging stars cypress park
gravel pit sun valley
swap meet bootleg south la
stencils by the tracks
boarded storefront east hollywood
sound wall atwater
united we scroll
high wall
in feed we trust
plywood row
verified human
buffering, abroad
buffering
over the intersection
be product
scaffolding
made by hand
the feed, abroad
terms apply
downtown, up top
liberty
tv in concrete
original copy
railway arch
the seal, on tile
phone taped to wall

2001 – 2013

Go back in time

Every version of this address that survived, rebuilt from what the archive kept. Some images are gone. The Flash still plays.

swipe →

Los Angeles, 2003 – 2007

The scene

The posters lived inside a scene: a blog that logged the sightings, a zine, a party, a label, a shop, a pirate station. Those sites went dark around 2007. They are coming back online one at a time.

From us

Why it's back

We took over this address in 2003 and used it for everything: the shirts, the parties, the posters, the studio. Then life got busy and the site sat.

This year I pulled every version I could find out of the Wayback Machine and put them back up the way they were, broken images and all. The art at the top comes straight from the original files.

The new posters go up the same way the old ones did. If you see one, that's us.

— md

Go back in time