Best ROCKIN' automotive-themed concert posters for September '08

(above) RANCID, by the Firehouse
(above) NICK CAVE, by the Firehouse
(above) PERTH DANCE MUSIC, by Ed Shepherd (Australia)

(above) MELVINS, by Bobby Dixon

(above) SOCIAL DISTORTION, by Jimbo Phillips

(above) CONOR OBERST, by Print Mafia

(above) COLUMBUS DUO, by Adam Bogusiak (Lodz, Poland)

(above) STEREOLAB, by Matt Terich

(above) DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, by Gary Houston

(above) DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, by Jeff Wood / Drowning Creek Studios

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As you can readily appreciate, September was a great month for seeing the release of new automotive-themed rock concert posters, as well as one unearthed from Jeff Wood's Drowning Creek Studios archives and one done by Jimbo Phillips earlier this year for Mike Ness' Social Distortion.

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But I'd have to say that the silver championship cup goes to the Firehouse, for their two fabulous entries. Sometime later this week I'll be picking up my own copies!

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Especially nice to celebrate: posters from Australia and Poland.

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Poster lovers and collectors, heads up: the annual poster artists showcase produced by TRPS (The Rock Poster Society) will be held on Saturday, October 11th at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco (10:00 am - 5:00 pm). You'll see Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan from the Firehouse, Gary Houston (who'll have traveled down from Portland, OR), Jimbo Phillips (who'll have traveled up from Santa Cruz) and one of ROCKIN's all-time heroes, Stanley Mouse--among many other notables.

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Many of you will note that Gary's DEATH CAB poster again uses his scratchboard technique that he employed to such great effect on the "State Trooper" full-page meditation in ROCKIN'. That technique also has graced Gary's work for posters he did for Willie Nelson, Alejandro Escovedo, BB King, and other notable musicians.

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The featured guest postermakers at the TRPS event will be Malleus, a hugely imaginative design-and-screenprinting collective from Italy, who've just released their first retrospective book, THE HAMMER OF GOD. They also will have a special show the night before at the ArtRock Gallery in San Francisco, and a book signing event at the 540 Gallery (also in SF) the day after, before heading up to Portland and Seattle. Readers of this blog may remember my sharing their snowscene-on-the-street poster done for Sonic Youth, which is absolutely stunning.

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It still amazes me, and happily so, that after all this time--forty years after Randy Tuten's Cadillac-centric Led Zeppelin poster produced for Bill Graham for their Fillmore West appearance with Country Joe McDonald--that such imagination can still be brought to bear on automotive-themed rock posters.