The first thing about rock posters, that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle on the internet, is that the real purpose of a poster is street advertising. Yes, it’s cool to share these poster as art pieces on Expressobeans.com or on Gigposters.com or here on my blog; but their primary reason for being is to be seen on the street and get people to go to the show.

When The Firehouse was commissioned by Goldenvoice to make a silkscreen series of posters for the Warfield and Regency theaters in September of 2008, my first thought was, “Let’s get all of these posters ON THE STREET!”

There are a lot of ways to grab a person’s attention through design. I’m not going to get into that too deeply right now. I’ll save that for another blog. There’s a bright attention grabber like the last poster for Clutch at the Regency; that’s a poster with a sparkly metallic motorcycle to shoot a strobe flash into your eyes. The attention-grabbing effect of using bold legible yellow and red type giving you the info in a blast.

My Glasvegas poster has a different strategy to get you to look. I consider the visual environment of the street, and design a poster which is different than the dominant colors you’ll find there. And you can see, this one pops out like a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, enjoy these pictures taken by my lovely girlfriend Nancy.  Have a tour of my neighborhood, follow me while I take along some scotch tape and we put some posters up on Haight Street. I’ll take you to my favorite stores along the way…

Here’s my girlfriend Nancy with my newest creation for Glasvegas (in front of the Haight Ashbury Post Office)

First store – Pipedreams – always greeted with applause for the newest poster-treat!

Next – Anubis Warpus – You can see Anubis supplies the graffiti community and gives me a cool street gallery in their window!

Distractions – the owner is a big collector of psychedelic art and has a fantastic collection of rock posters from The Firehouse going back for years on the ceiling of the store!

Escape From New York Pizza – free pizza for life! Now how’s that for incentive to make posters? You can see they have a gallery of Firehouse posters too.

Murios – with a poster-run complete, time to get a poster hung behind the bar in the best blacklight in town – and sit back, enjoy and have a beer. Hope you had a nice tour of my hood!

Since returning from a massively successful UK Tour, Firehouse has been busy!

First and foremost – Station 4 Gallery is opening as The Firehouse’s exclusive representative in the UK.

Exclusive Art Prints for Station 4 Gallery:

• Series of art prints for Emory Douglas, Cultural Minister of the Black Panther Party – Produced by Firehouse – Exclusive at Station 4 Gallery – Edition of 150
• “Crude Reality” – a colaboration with Sam Newbury of Mission Prints, UK – Silkscreen Editon of 75
• “Orange Sunshine” by Chuck Sperry – produced in the UK by Sam Newbury – Exclusive at Station 4 Gallery – Edition of 150
• “Blue Meanie” by Chuck Sperry – produced in the UK by Sam Newbury – Exclusive at Station 4 Gallery – Edition of 150
• “Portrait of Joe Strummer, London 1975” by Julian Yewdall – Produced by Firehouse – Silkscreen Edition of 200

Here are some of Firehouse posters created recently and upcoming:

• Richard Price / Charles Bock Reading at the SummerStage in Central Park – New York City – Silkscreen Edition of 125
• Stevie Ray Vaughan – Fender Stratocaster “Lenny.” – Silkscreen Editon of 200
• Stevie Ray Vaughan – same poster in a mass offset edition
• Moonaclice / Tahoe City – offset edition
• Madjuana / SF – Silkscreen Edition of 150
• Power to the Peaceful / Ziggy Marley – Silkscreen Edition of 250
• Unidos Por El Arte / La Plebe – Silkscreen Edition of 150
• Rage Against The Machine / Denver Democratic Convention – Silkscreen Edition of 125
• Hardly Strictly Bluegrass SF – Silkscreen Edition of 1000
• Turbonegro / Oja Festival / Norway – Silkscreen Edition of 150
• My Morning Jacket / Amsterdam – offset edition
• Widespread Panic – Silkscreen Edition of 300

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Goldenvoice series for The Warfield SF / Regency Ballroom SF.
Firehouse is the exclusive creator of an official poster series for these new San Francisco venues:

• Bad Religion – Silkscreen Edition of 250
• George Lopez / Warfield Re-opening Party – Silkscreen Edition of 250
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Silkscreen Edition of 250
• Children Of Bodom – Silkscreen Edition of 150

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Additional Special Edition Art Prints recent and upcoming:

• “Nader / Gonzalez 2008” – worked in colaboration with Vice-Presidential Candidate Matt Gonzalez on a campaign poster inspired by the “Eldridge Cleaver for President” poster for the Peace and Freedom Party and Black Panther Party candidate of 1968.
• “From the Bottom of the Heap,” colaboration with Rigo – for Robert King of The Black Panther Party – Silkscreen Editon of 150
• “World War 3 Illustrated” by Eric Drooker – Silkscreen Edition of 200

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Art shows:

• “Yo! What Happened to Peace?” at Ogilvy’s Manhattan office from July 22 to September 17. Here’s a review:

• SIGNS OF CHANGE: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to the Present • ¨Guest curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee •¨New York, NY – Exit Art • ¨September 20 • “November 22, 2008 •¨Other venues: Pittsburgh, PA – Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University (January – March 8, 2009)
Here’s a review:

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Book news:

• Designing trade paperback book cover for “Beautiful Children” by Charles Bock (Random House)
• Cover for “Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks & Weirdos” by Bucky Sinister (Conari Press)
• Wrote Introduction to “The Blood of the Mountain is The Hammer of God.” Malleus Rock Art Lab produced this catalog of their rock art posters.

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Movie news:

Featured in the upcoming release, “American Artifact”

American Artifact chronicles the rise of American rock poster art since it’s birth in the ’60s. Director Merle Becker crosses the country interviewing rock poster artists from the different eras to discover that America is currently in the midst of a 21st century “rock poster art movement”, where thousands of artists around the country are doing silk screened rock poster art inspired by their local scene, the music of our time, and the spirit of our era.

Scheduled release for the film is 2009.
http://www.americanartifactmovie.com/