The Art of Noise

Call ’em advertisements or collector’s items, but gig posters are music for the eyes. A new book assembles the decade’s best.

While album art just keeps downsizing—from 12-inch board to five-inch paper to digital thumbnail—full-size, hand-printed posters advertising live gigs continue to deck the walls of crumbling concert halls, dingy record shops, and cramped dorm rooms. like the psychedelic art nouveau of the ’60s and the hypersexual devil-toons of the ’90s, the work of the aughts’ standout designers

will define how we visualize our nostalgia.

For Gig Posters, Volume 1 (Quirk, $40), Gig- Posters.com founder Clay hayes culled the best work from his online marketplace’s archive (the world’s largest) for a bound volume of 101 posters from the past decade—all of them perforated for easy removal and accompanied by an interview with the artist. We selected seven choice graphics and asked the musicians themselves to talk about being captured in ink. ABIGAIL EVERDELL

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NEKO CASE
Artist: Judge
Postscript: “Judge and I
work closely together,” says
Case. “She’s a master at cap-
turing movement in her
drawings. This one made me
think of a giant river of
chewed gum. In a good way.”

ISIS
Artist: Tara McPherson
Postscript: “I always save the
posters, good and bad,” says
singer-guitarist Aaron Turner.
“They’re like tattoos I got as a
kid; I don’t always like them,
but they remind me of an
important moment.”

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MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.
Artist: Mark Pedini
Postscript: “These special
pieces can set a real tone for
the show,” says singer Jason
Molina. “I remember seeing
this poster the moment we
got out of the van, and we
grabbed one right away.”

ERYKAH BADU
Artist: Emek
Postscript: “A poster is a
living manifestation of what
the music is,” says Badu.
“When I met Emek, he made
that real for me. I fell in love
with the idea that my music
could have a face.”

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BUILT TO SPILL

Artist: Hero Design Studio
Postscript: “We usually just let artists do what they want,” says frontman Doug Martsch. “But sometimes
you’ll end up with a naked devil lady on a hot rod. It’s like, ‘Maybe save that for the Reverend Horton Heat.’”

FLOGGING MOLLY
Artist: Print Mafia
Postscript: “This is what
makes American poster art
great,” says banjo-mandolin
player Bob Schmidt. “Flags,
voluptuous women—with
glasses!—in fishnet bodysuits.
All inside a giant matchbook.”

THE BLACK KEYS
Artist: Dan Grzeca
Postscript: “Dan’s work is
weird as fuck and meticu-
lously made, using, like,
seven colored screens,” says
drummer Patrick Carney. “We
specifically request him to
do a majority of our posters.”

CLOCK WISE FROM LEF T: COUR TES Y HERO DESIGN S TUDIO; COUR TES Y JUDGE; COUR TES Y TARA MCPHERSON; COUR TESY EMEK; COUR TES Y DAN GRZECA; COUR TESY PRIN T MAFIA; COUR TES Y MARK PEDINI

36 JUNE 2009 / GET ALBUM REVIEWS FIRST AT SPIN.COM