a few more ROCKIN' automotive-themed gigposters to round out '07

(above) by artist Jeral Tidwell, Louisville, KY
(above) by artist Gregg Gordon, San Francisco

(above) by artist/studio Rhyfer Ink (UK)

(above) by artist Kathleen Judge, Chicago

(above) artist unknown, (UK)

(above) by artist James Bender, Tacoma, WA

(above) artist unknown (Italy)

(above) by studio Aegrisomnia Design

(above) by artist Mark White (Italy)

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As 2007 comes to a close tonight, I'm once again reminded that artistic passion for creating automotive-themed gigposters (advertising concert and club music events) knows no bounds. And so ROCKIN' DOWN THE HIGHWAY continues to make friends worldwide, with continued thanks to the publisher, Voyageur Press, a division of Motorbooks, for keeping the book front-and-center and sponsoring this blog (which began in November, 2006!!).

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My best to everyone for the new year . . . and please continue to watch this space for breaking news about ROCKIN' becoming a television documentary series.

thinking about "Duel", here are some more ROCKIN' big-rig truck flix

(above) DUEL (1971); this is the poster released in Spain
(above) DUEL, 1971, US poster
(above and below) CONVOY (1978); above, the German poster

(above) BREAKDOWN (1997)

(above) HELL DRIVERS (1957)

(above) MAX MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981)

(above) SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977)

(above) SORCERER (1977)

(above) WHITE LINE FEVER (1975)
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Just thinking about DUEL (below blog) got my mind racing about all the other great big rig pix I've seen over the years. Here are some of my favorites, working back thru time:
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BREAKDOWN (1997). In this suspense thriller, a man (played by Kurt Russell) discovers the unexpected danger of trusting a good Samaritan big rig trucker. Very gripping, even upsetting.

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THE TERMINATOR (1984). Amongst all the mayhem, Arnold Schwarzennegger climbs into a big rig tanker and lets 'er rip.

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THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981). Mel Gibson drives the oil tanker thru the Australian outback hell. The word great doesn't even come close.

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CONVOY (1978). The CB radio fad had nearly run its course when this action film was made by director Sam Pekinpah, based on C.W. McCall's song of the same name. Starring Kris Kristofferson (of course) and Ali McGraw (unfortunately). Kinda cheesy, but fulla big rigs.

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SORCERER (1977). A William Friedkin suspense thriller, starring Roy Scheider, an update on the Henri-Georges Clouzot film THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953). Once again, it's about hauling dynamite through the South American (Central American) jungle. Hugely suspenseful, but saddled with an unfortunate title.

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SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977). Well . . . it's about trucks.

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WHITE LINE FEVER (1975). Trucker Carol Jo Hummer (played by Jan-Michael Vincent) borrows money to purchase a rig of his own, only to discover that part of his "payment plan" includes smuggling goods. Maybe this one is for truckers only.

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KILLDOZER (1974). Ok, maybe not a pure big rig thriller, but trucks and construction equipment pretty much go together. Here, as a made-for-TV movie, a dozer strikes a buried (radioactive) meteorite while unearthing an ancient native temple on a South Pacific island during WW II . . . and all hell breaks loose. A kult klassic.

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DUEL (1972). Man and big rig are pitted against one another in a motorized duel to the death. The screenwriter, Richard Matheson, conceived DUEL after a similar experience with a reckless trucker. The story first appeared in Playboy magazine, then was picked up for adaptation by the producers of The ABC Movie of the Week. The director chosen was a bright 23-year-old who'd shown promise on such series as Night Gallery and Columbo . . . Steven Spielberg. First telecast on December 18, 1971, DUEL was so popular that a somewhat longer version (with added violence, extra scenes, and profanity throughout) was prepared for theatrical release in 1983.

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NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959). Starring Cary Grant, the bad-luck-encountering New York advertising exec takes on a cropduster and a georgeously vintage Freightliner COE big rig in the middle of nowhere, before ending up climbing the noses of the Mt. Rushmore sculptures.

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HELL DRIVERS (1957). This is a very efficient British crime drama starring Stanley Baker, in an exposition of a crooked trucking company. Keep yer eyes peeled for supporting performances by Patrick McGoohan as "Red," Sean Connery as "Tom," and David (Man From Uncle) McCallum as "Jimmy."

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THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953). Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring Yves Montand, this is the original on which SORCERER was based. Based on the great novel by Georges Arnaud. Here the truckers are transporting highly volatile nitroglycerine. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. "A relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses."

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HIGHWAY 301 (1950). Showcasing the bloody exploits of the notorious "Tri-State Gang" which preyed upon truck drivers. The bad-ass gang leader, played by Steve Cochrane, leads authorities on a grim chase through Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland.

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THIEVES HIGHWAY (1949). Set in San Francisco and the surrounding counties, an American GI returns from WW II to find his father Yanko in a feud with crooked truck driver Mike Figlia (played by Lee J. Cobb of "On the Waterfront" fame), buys a truck himself, and falls deep into racketeering.

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THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940). The great one (or at least for truck buffs, the first half). George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are truck driving brothers in a true working-class pic. Beautiful Ann Sheridan is one of the love interests but the film is almost entirely focused on the nefarious Ida Lupino. The trucking scenes--up to the point where the Raft character becomes a successful truck line manager and suddenly the film takes off in an unexpected melodramatic direction ending up in a courtroom with Lupino dramatically falling apart--are magnificently gritty. These are the Lincoln Highway trucks, the Chicago stockyard trucks, the New York docks trucks, the real deal.

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Did I miss any? Lemme know . . .

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the most ROCKIN' truck ever . . . played a bit part in a David Lee Roth video

(above) the great one, from Steven Spielberg's telemovie DUEL (1971)

(above) a movie program from Yugoslavia, found on eBay

(above and photos below) the 1960 Peterbilt model 281

(DUEL's second truck) now owned by Dan Bruno

these photos were shot at the American Truck Historical Society's

annual convention, here held in SoCal in 2004

(above) finally we get to see the driver!!!

(above) resting, but just until its next attack!

at Dan Bruno's St. Louis Dump Trucks yard

(above) Dan takes the beast out for a spin

(above) lurking, biding its time

(above and two below) from David Lee Roth's "She's My Machine" video (1994)

(above and two below) from David Lee Roth's "Hot for Teacher" video

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I was doing some personal research on a movie I greatly admire, Steven Spielberg's DUEL, released in 1971, when I came across an odd bit of information--that the 1960 Peterbilt model 281 with its 1948 Fruehauf tank trailer, played a bit part in David Lee Roth's 1994 video "She's My Machine." You can see a few of the sequences in the stills above (sorry for the lousy reproduction quality).

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"She's My Machine" was the first track on Roth's YOUR FILTHY LITTLE MOUTH album. Roth of course was the lead singer in Van Halen for a long period, and has recently rejoined the band for their current tour. This was one of his solo albums.

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DUEL, you'll remember, was about a nameless, faceless trucker harassing a motorist (played by Dennis Weaver) on a remote and lonely road. It was directed by Spielberg and written by Richard Matheson based on his own true story. You can read the entire plot at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(film). It still stands up on its own, a real thriller.

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Of course you know I'm into trucks and have been pretty much a lifelong member of the American Truck Historical Society. You haven't lived until you've gone to a ATHS convention (it's held each year somewhere in the US), where over 500 big rigs from the 1920s - 1970s stand proud and tall.

Above, you see some of the photos I took at the 2004 ATHS convention at the California Motor Speedway, where NASCAR holds its SoCal events. The DUEL truck takes awesome photos from every angle--it's a real bona-fide Hollywood star. Great curves, awesome face.

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The Peterbilt truck Spielberg employed was indeed chosen for its "face." For each shot, several people had the task to make it uglier, sponging on lots of "truck make-up." The shots of the truck were composed in such a way as to make it seem "alive" in terms of its attack on Dennis Weaver's character, David Mann, driving a red 1971 Plymouth Valiant. What's central to the picture's success is that the script refused to resolve the central mystery of the truckdriver. The final shot of the truck falling off the cliff had to be completed in one take. For the film's theatrical release, at least two additional trucks were purchased to complete additional scenes that were not in the original made-for-TV version.

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Much of the movie was filmed in Southern California's "Canyon Country," in and around Agua Dulce and Acton. Many of the landmarks from DUEL still exist today, including the tunnel, the railroad crossing, and Chuck's Cafe.

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The dinosaur roar sound effect that's heard as the truck goes over the cliff is also heard in JAWS as the shark's carcass sinks into the ocean. Spielberg has said this is because he feels there's a kinship between DUEL and JAWS, as they are both "about these leviathans targeting everyman." He has also said that inserting the sound effect into JAWS was "my way of thanking DUEL for giving me a career"

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Dan Bruno, the truck's current owner, has this to say on his website http://www.stlouisdumptrucks.com/Duel/Trucks.html:

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"There are a lot of misconceptions about the DUEL truck or trucks. The surviving truck (the one that I own and exhibit) is what we refer to as Truck #2. There were four DUEL trucks, depending on what you count.

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"TRUCK #1: The 1956 Peterbilt 281 that was used for most of the movie had a 1674 270hp I-6 Cat engine. As those engines didn't come out until the mid '60s, that means it was re-power. That's also the reason for the Cat's horizontal air cleaner, which came from a 966 Wheel Loader. The truck had a 10-speed transmission originally, likely a Fuller RT-9510. The truck was on its last legs during filming, and therefore Spielberg ordered a second truck to be made to look like it. Thus, truck #2.

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"TRUCK #2: My 1960 Pete 281 was the second truck made as a double. At the time George Sack built it up, it had a 262 Cummins diesel engine and a 5x3 Spicer/Brownie transmission. This truck lost its DUEL make-up to appear in David Lee Roth's "She's My Machine" video, shot in Malibu. The truck was re-adorned in make-up for its cameo in the 2003 biker movie TORQUE. Neal Losasso bought the truck from George Sack in 2004, and I bought the truck from Neil in October, 2005, moving it from Los Angeles to St. Louis. TRUCK #3 was a 1964 Peterbilt 351 that was used to film the extended gas station/laundromat scene, the school bus push, and the railroad crossing push. It was returned to George Sack's lot and destroyed in some other production. TRUCK #4 was a mid-60s short wheelbase model 351 [used for some cutaways].

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"DUEL, like CONVOY, is filled with Foley overdub of the truck sounds (these were added in post-production). In DUEL you hear mostly the sounds from a Cummins diesel and a 13-speed."

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On Dan's site, he also lists the specs for both the truck and trailer. He notes that the truck has 1,013,000 original miles. It reached a top speed of 74 mph, paced on I-15 somewhere between Apple Valley and Barstow . . . allegedly. Fuel mileage on the open road is 5.1 mpg, and going up a grade like Frenchman's Pass it gets a tank-sucking 1.1 mpg.

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Dan notes he's currently reworking some of the truck's mechanical, air, and electrical systems to help it become more reliable. When Dan exhibits the truck, as he did at the 2004 ATHS convention, he sometimes includes what you "think" is a phantom driver, as shown above. But who knows??

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For those fans of Roth's "She's My Machine," here are a few snippits from the lyric:

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"It's gettin' late, I don't know, 'bout 3 a.m.

And I'm drivin' in my '57 dream

It's gettin' late, don't know just where I've been

And I'm comin' to you from all points in between.

She gets along, let alone, she's premium

And I love to feel her each and every night

Damn straight, she's wild in overdrive

Feels like something's getting right.

Machine, machine

She's my machine,

Machine . . ."

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There's also a very interesting Japanese 3" CD single currently on eBay with what appears to be a gorgeous illustration of that there dream machine in a four-part fold-out. Currently $15 bux and no takers . . . alas.

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Finally, I should note that Dan Bruno has restored one of CONVOY's Mack tractors and has recently purchsed its original surviving Trailmobile tanker, in time to run them in a 30th Anniversary caravan thru New Mexico in '08. As I get more info, I'll pass it along. Everybody remember C.W. McCall's classic song? 'Bout the Rubber Duck, and Pigpen, and all those other guys?

a ROCKIN' R&B pioneer, Ike Turner, dead at age 76

(above) pioneer urban bluesman and R&B innovator, Ike Turner, here in 2002,

passed away Dec.12, 2007
(above) with his wife Tina Turner, in the early '70s, courtesy Getty Images
"a bad man, a hard man . . . not unlike the Stagger Lee of blues legend"
(above) the handsome (but troubled) couple, 1966,
courtesy Chris Walter photofeatures

(above) the legendary, penetrating stare; photo taken in the 1990s

(above) in London, 1966, courtesy Chris Walter photofeatures

(above) a somewhat hokey pose, at the height of their success,

courtesy Getty Images

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From the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: " Rhythm and blues pioneer Ike Turner died yesterday at age 76 in his home outside San Diego. He will largely be remembered as the abusive husband of soul queen Tina Turner, sadly obscuring his crucial role in the birth of rock & roll."

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From Turner's biography at www.superiorpics.com/ike_turner:

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"Born and raised in Mississippi (born in 1931, Clarksdale), Ike Turner started his musical career while still a high school student. A trained pianist and guitarist, he founded a band called the Top Hatters and it was later renamed the Kings Of Rhythm. The group performed at small clubs throughout the Mississippi delta, and finally nabbed a recording contract with Sam Phillips' label at Sun Studios in Memphis, TN. Turner and the Kings of Rhythm soon enjoyed success with the No. 1-charting R&B hit "Rocket 88." Penned by the then 19-year-old Turner, the 1951 single is often considered the earliest rock & roll-styled record. However because of ambiguous contractual concerns, Kings' lead singer and saxophonist Jackie Brenston's name was put on the single, along with the name of Brenston's side band, the Delta Cats, and so both are credited with the song issued by Chess Records, without properly crediting Ike Turner specifically.

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"Already known as the premier boogie-woogie man in West Memphis' "blacks only" clubs, Turner next headed to East St. Louis in 1954 and his Kings of Rhythm went on to become a major R&B act in St. Louis in the mid-1950s. During that time, while fronting the Kings, Turner also made a name for himself as a key producer and talent scout. He played piano and guitar as a side man for countless pioneer blues artists including Elmore James, Otis Rush, Robert Nighthawk, and Sonny Boy Williamson II, in addition to collaborating with the likes of B.B. King, Johnny Ace, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Howlin' Wolf.

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"At a 1956 performance in St. Louis, Turner met his future wife Tina, then the teenage Annie Mae Bullock. Within a year she changed her name to Tina Turner, and Ike built a new act around the couple, including vocalists he named the "Ikettes."

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The rest, of course is history, through Phil Spector's "River Deep, Mountain High," the legendary "Proud Mary" rendition, and Ike & Tina Turner headlining at rock clubs and concerts, culminating with their opening for the Rolling Stones. Ike's many transgressions led to Tina fleeing from him,

and her becoming an internationally-respected diva. He redeemed himself greatly in his last years by returning to his musical roots.

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You can read much more about Ike's role in creating "Rocket 88" on pages 26-27 of ROCKIN'. And, I commend you to read Joel Selvin's full obituary in today's SF Chronicle (pg B-5).

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Another man done gone, down on the county farm, another man done gone. RIP Ike Turner.

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a ROCKIN (hip-hop) poster that's food for thought

While I'm on the subject of rock posters featuring automotive art, let's consider this puppy by the artist Scrojo, who's based in San Diego and does nearly all the posters for the Belly Up club which has venues in both San Diego and Aspen, Colorado. You can see more of his work at www.scrojo.com, and he's represented by the D.King Gallery in Berkeley, CA.
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Of course, this poster involves a Honda Element. But why?
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Here's the key, in online conversation among several prominent rock poster artists:
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Andy Vastagh: "It's an Element, but isn't Rahzel called the 5th element of hip-hop, or something?"
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VonDada: "It's funny because you see cars wrapped with rapper ads all over L.A. now."
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Scrojo: "Yep, t'was an easy pun on the whole '5th element" thing."
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El Negro Magnifico: "I dig this. Beatboxing is often recognized as the 5th element of hip-hop. If you ask KRS-One, there's like 47 elements, or something like that. And Rahzel definitely embodies that element, if you're not familiar with his work. Astounding skills. His Rhyme Battles are done with speed and experience."
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Stainboy Reinel: "Cool poster. Wussy ride."
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This distilled from www.starpulse.com: Rahzel is an MC who specializes in the "5th element" of hip-hop culture, called beatboxing (which comes after graffiti spraying, DJ'ing, MC'ing, and breakdancing). He is probably best known in the semi-mainstream workd as a member of the Roots. He actively discourages classification of his sound, attempting to remain on the eclectic edge of commercial music. Rahzel's influences include Biz Markie, Doug E Fresh, Buffy of the Fat Boys, Bobby McFerrin, and Al Jarreau. His goal is to gain respect for beatboxing as a true art form on its own merits.
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Growing up, Rahzel looked up to his cousin Rahim of the Furious Five and went to Grandmaster Flash's shows regularly. Rahzel has became a master of beatboxing, able to recreate full songs with accompaniment by himself without instrumentation, able to sing a chorus and provide a backing beat simultaneously--as well as able to invoke impressions of singers and rappers on a whim. Any fan of hip-hop should definitely invest in his "Make the Music 2000" album.
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Specifically, commenting on that album, Randy Silver wrote on www.amazon.com, "As the human beatbox for the Roots, Rahzel gives them an unmatched level of flexibility, and on his solo debut that's exactly what he demonstrates. Alternating between studio tracks and live cuts, Rahzel shows his vocal dexterity as a frontman, a backer, and all by his lonesome. Check out the jaw-dropping cover of "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F With" and the one-man Mortal Kombat duel. He really has earned the title Godfather of Noyze.
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For those truly interested in the Rahzel phenomenon, there's a documentary produced in 2002 entitled "Breath Control: The History of the Human Beatbox." It includes interviews with Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie, Marie Daulne of Zap Mama, and others.
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A second album by Rahzel ("a cocktail of freestyles, tributes, and covers") also is worth checking out: "Rahzel's Greatest Knockouts." One listener wrote Amazon, "He has apparently four different sounds going on at any given time, and can just flip the script and change the beat at the drop of a hat. The best parts of this album are the interludes (he usually does live interludes and/or radio show recordings as interludes, and his live performances are even better than his written songs). Thus, of note . . . the standout tracks may be (1) the DJ Funkmaster Flex interlude (four minutes of Rahzel doing his thing on Flex' show on Hot 97 in New York City) and (2) the tribute to Jam Master Jay, the late DJ of RUN-DMC, where Rahzel impresses a crowd live.

a bit more info on Jacknife, those ROCKIN' postermakers from the UK

After creating yesterday's blog on Jacknife (UK) and dX (San Francisco), I was very pleased to hear back from Jacknife's Chris Hopewell. Here's the update:
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"It was after getting your ART OF MODERN ROCK book as an xmas present that I started up Jacknife. The book was just so inspiring and very few people were doing that kind of thing over here. Doing those QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE posters has been the peak of a really cool year. So, here's the heads-up on what we do.
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"Three guys started Jacknife last November--Ben Foley, Bear Hackenbush, and me. Our first poster was for the British band THE YOUNG KNIVES. Jacknife is run from the studios of Collision Films (www.collisionfilms.com) which is my and Ben's music video company. Jacknife currently is Chris Hopewell, Bear Hackenbush, Sasha Morrison, and John Finch. (Ben is now too busy buying and messing around with Cadillacs). Between us we design, and all take turns at printing.
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"The inspiration for the Queens series was, I suppose, a pretty obvious one, really--those mid-to-late-sixties trashy B-movie posters for those cheaply produced, youth-oriented flicks. The more obscure the better! I just love the trampy look of them, the way the women are scantily clad but still very much in charge. I also love the way they use dottytone and limited spot colour--it's perfect for the screenprinting process. I wanted to do something that also had a contemporary feel, so I vamped up the colours and gave the girls a bit more of a modern / retro feel. The Queens are a band that lets the poster artist do his thing, so it was great just to let 'er rip with some kool looking vehicles and attitudey uber ladies!
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"Also, the band recently had done a video along the B-movie line for their single "3s and 7s," so I thought they obviously like this stuff too. We printed these posters as big as we could just because we wanted them to have the same impact as the original pieces done for the film promotions. So, ours are 32 x 19 inches (81 x 48 cm), in a limited edition of 300 each. These are 3-colour screenprints on heavy-duty off-white card stock. They look great!
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"We did a live print event at their Bristol show last Saturday. That's to say, we took along 150 posters and printed the final colour live at the gig as a kind of side show. The bandmembers all loved the poster, and signed a bunch to us and asked us to do some more for the next stage of their European tour. The people that run their shows really are the coolest people you could ask to work with, very appreciative of the time and effort involved and also genuinely interested in the art itself. We all love the band, so it was an honour to be asked to these shows. In fact, I'm taking the last bunch of posters to them at their Reading gig tomorrow.
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"We haven't as yet been to any hot rod shows, but Ben is going to some big rock & car thing in Holland early next year. It's his '73 Eldorado in the poster for the Reading tour date! His last Caddy got cut up for a Turbonegro (video) we did awhile back (you can see it on the Collision Films site).
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"Cheers, and all the best to our friends around the world--and especially everyone who's enjoyed your new book ROCKIN' DOWN THE HIGHWAY."
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Chris Hopewell

two ROCKIN' approaches to automotive-themed rock (and rockabilly) posters

(above and two below) by Chris Hopewell / Jacknife Studios

(all below) by dX

You know me by now, always on the lookout for emerging poster-artist talent in the conjoined rock music and automotive worlds. And, so, here are (drum roll, please) Chris Hopewell of Jacknife Studios (Bristol, UK) and dX of San Francisco. While Jacknife posters are screenprints and are printed as finite editions, dX' flyers are most often printed out of his home or over at the nearest Kinko's. Both guys have a style down solid.

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Here's what we know of Chris and Jacknife (from his MySpace profile and from their website www.jacknifeposters.com):

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They're a UK, Bristol-based poster studio which produces "some damn fine" hand screenprinted, limited edition gig and tour posters "for all kinda bands from all over the world." Their posters are printed on 320g high-quality 'art style' card-stock, and use Daler Rowney system-3 inks. Each poster is signed and numbered as part of a strictly limited print run. If Chris gets back to me I'll share more about his background with you.

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Now, about dX, I was able to track this elusive sucka down and pose some questions to him about what's essentially (in my opinion) highly imaginative, hand-drawn and typographically strong street art that draws you in, instantly, at first glance. You can intuit that he works mostly undercover, adding to the mystery of how these pieces originate and propagate (you have to scour SF regularly on an irregular neighborhood tour to find 'em).

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Q: Are you a native to these here parts (the Bay Area)?

A: No.

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Q: How'd you come by the moniker "dX"?

A: It came about because of a girl. You can figger out the rest.

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Q: Since you were a kid, always been scribbling?

A: Yes. I would watch my pop draw airplanes, cars, and stuff, then go to my bedroom and draw tits on the characters in my comic book collection.

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Q: When did you discover that you were a talented cartoonist?

A: I'm talented?

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Q: When did you start making street flyers?

A: (The first thing I did with poster art was to make) a giant backdrop painted on a bedsheet for a band in my junior high school, circa 1967. They were called "Mammoth." They went on to be come "Van Halen."

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Q: Always been into rockabilly? Punk? Latino? (the music I see from your flyers.)

A: I love all kinds of music, except hippty hop, which really bores me.

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Q: Ever attend rat rod car events, like Billetproof?

A: Yes, upon occasion.

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Q: Do you own a hot rod?

A: No car, no house, no tools, no dog.

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Q: What's the name of the club you own?

A: Oh, you mean our bar? It's called "THE KNOCKOUT."

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Q: Are you a musician?

A: No.

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Q: You work is stylistically linked to a lot of great poster artists whose work appears frequently on www.gigposters.com. Those guys would include Johnny Crap, Alan Forbes, John Seabury, Mike Fisher (Maximum Fluoride), and there's a bit of R.Crumb in ya too. Do you feel an artistic affinity towards them?

A: They are guys whose work I respect, so, yes, I suppose I do.

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Q: Who are some other artists who've influenced your work?

A: Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth; Jack Davis; Andy Warhol; Christo; Johnny Dismal; Claes Oldenburg; R.Crumb; Bill Plympton; Frank Miller; Salvador Dali; Frida Kahlo; Gary Baseman; Maurice Sendak; Charles Burns; Stanley Mouse; S. Clay Wilson; ZAP Comix; Rick Griffin; Alton Kelley; Victor Moscoso; Frank Kozik; just to name a few . . .

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Q: Are your pieces ever screenprinted? Or are they almost always inkjet prints?

A: When I was younger, I worked in a small silkscreen studio and did have the opportunity to have some posters screenprinted. But that was a long time ago. These days, they're mostly inkjets or just plain ol' xeroxes. I got lots more stored as photoshop files too.

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Q: How large are your print-runs?

A: I print as many as I need to promote any given show. And I give 'em to the bands for them to do what they need to do.

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Q: Do you staple 'em to poles? Or wheatpaste 'em to buildings (in the time-honored urban tradition)? Or, tape 'em to the inside of store windows?

A: I pay a guy to hang 'em on whatever surfaces he can that won't get me fined.

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Q: Do your posters attract people to go to the gigs?

A: I don't know, actually. I think rather it's the cheap booze that brings 'em in.

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Q: There's a postermaking tradition going back to the '50s and '60s in the Bay Area. I'm intuiting that you feel you're working in that tradition (letterpress came first, then the psychedelic Fillmores and Avalons, then the punk flyers, then Kozik, then today's screenprints).

A: Yes, I do feel that. So, where can I get my hands on some of those old Tilghman letterpress prints??

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Q: Lastly (for now), what do you see as the relationship between car culture and music culture?

A: Both have always been about rebellious beer-drinking juveniles with something goofy they thought it was important to say. And (along the way) they discovered that art was an easy, cheap way to (say something about it).

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Prominent rock poster artists including Jim Altieri, Maximum Fluoride (Mike Fisher), Billy Perkins, Johnny Thief, Lil' Tuffy, and even Tanxxx from France are great admirers of dX' work. Here are a few comments gleaned from my several months watching his pieces slowly emerge and reading what what was said about it on www.gigposters.com:

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Billy Perkins (from Austin, TX): "Every time I look at his work my smile gets a little bit wider. Look carefully at everything he does . . . right down to the eyelashes he draws. I'd just love to see dX's sketch pad!"

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Richie Goodtimes (SF): "I had no business going to a rockabilly club but my friend Dustin is "Dusty Chance," and that's how I met dX. He's a true believer. His flyers are what they are and they work just fine for what they're intended to be. He has a bar and he can do whatever he hell he wants to promote it."

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Lil' Tuffy (SF): "His flying drumstick is his trademark; there's one in almost every one of his flyers. He's been doing this stuff for years, mostly for the rockabilly scene. He's an AMAZING illustrator."

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Steve Walters (Chicago): "To be this awesome with only a few colors takes a whole bunch of talent."

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El Negro Magnifico! (Calgary, Alberta, Canada): "It's good to see someone handle promotion for their own establishment and not suck at it."

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Johnny Thief DiDonna (Savannah, GA): "Sometimes you just can't beat that old-school flyer style."

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And, in response, dX (a modest guy), had this to say:

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"Yup, some of my work may look like it's been influenced by Charles Burns (not a bad hero to have), but I've been drawing in this spikey, razor style since way back in the mid-to-late '70s (it evolved from cutting rubylith at my shop). I like to make my work look as much as a greasy gorilla as I can. But in fact I'm just as much influenced by the woodcut illustrations of centuries past. So, thanks for noticing, everyone, and I'll try to keep puttin' stuff up."

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my two cents: dX (and Jacknife) . . . you rock! More please!