Gig Posters, Vol. 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century
by Clay HayesQuirk Books, 208 pp., $40 (paper)
GigPosters.com first posted in January 2001, and 100,000 images later its debut print catalog embosses the boast, "101 ready-to-frame posters." Make that a half-dozen, but get out an X-Acto knife for a few of the hundreds of rock show stamps filling the pages of Gig Posters. One hundred and one poster acts wrack up 11-by-14-inch spreads while listing city of origin (hotbed Minnesota), education, method ("If scratch and sniff were a way to make a poster ..."), and influences: Rick Griffin, Bill Hicks, Polish propaganda, Mad magazine, Bill Watterson, Frank Kozik, Picasso, Saul Bass, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Jack Kirby, Vivarin, etc., etc. And this tidbit from Austin's Billy Perkins: "And I'd say growing up in a post-Vietnam era in a trailer park in central Texas was an influence. I had a stepfather who'd done three tours in Nam and wasn't exactly loveable. That's the kind of situation that creates a need for some serious escapism." A lot of which gathers here in Andrio Abero's Sharon Stone-like Death Cab for Cutie, Brad Klausen's Queens of the Stone Age wolf, Dan Grzeca's swirling Explosions in the Sky, Dan McCarthy's skeletal love, Daniel Danger's New England noir, just plain Emek, the Eastern bloc existentialism of Jay Ryan, and Mat Daly's impressionism. And of course the ladies – Diana Sudyka's natural wonders, Eleanor Grosch's natural minimalism, Leia Bell's Sunday funnies, and Tara McPherson's space babes – plus favorite name brands: High on Fire, Wilco, Melvins, Spoon. Austin's aptly represented in Bobby Dixon, Decoder Ring Design Concern, Jamie Ward, Mark Pedini's 1950s animation subversion, Mig Kokinda, Rob Jones' White Stripes/Raconteurs ownership, and Todd Slater. Buda's Jared Connor and his inked metallurgy and Houston-bred Jermaine Rogers with his neo-classical futurism count too. Pictures of the artists are missed, and the stars' best works seldom equals their tearaways. One hopes for more internationals like Italy's Malleus Rock Art Lab for Vol. 2. Nevertheless, Alan Forbes' Sonic Youth/Fantastic Four eyeball, Cricket Press' dead-bee-off-ivy for Sufjan Stevens, and San Francisco's the Small Stakes' devilish Daniel Johnston tempt frames. Michael's awaits.
