Indie Rock Poster Book
by Andy J. Miller
Chronicle Books
Before you even get a chance to check out The Indie Rock Poster Book, you’re probably imagining that there’s a lot of that hand-drawn font – you know, the sort of stuff you’d decorate your Trapper Keeper with back in middle school that is now being used by like, Monsanto and GE and whatnot in an effort to appeal to the kids. You would be right.
However, as the old adage goes, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. The Indie Rock Poster Book contains 30 11”x14” individual posters on nice card stock inspired by recording artists ranging from TV on the Radio to Elliot Smith to the White Stripes to Daniel Johnston, created by a world-wide selection of visual artists. The art ranges from assemblages to altered photocopies to hand-drawn whimsy overload. Each poster gets a description by the artist on the back of the work, which can lead less-perceptive readers (like your reviewer) to get confused, wondering how a little girl with pentagrams on her head has anything to do with The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” until figuring out that the information is on the back of the poster, and pentagram girl is for “Galaxies” by Laura Veirs, which I suppose makes more sense. The artists’ descriptions of their inspiration for the songs and how they chose to illustrate the songs is interesting. Some artists, like Tad Carpenter, go into great detail about technique and inspiration, others, like Yehteh, go for a more poetic description. With such an abundance of different styles, there’s sure to be something you’d want to frame in order to class up that dingy apartment of yours. All royalties go to a charity of the artists’ choice, too, so you can feel good about it as well.
Yellow Bird Project: http://yellowbirdproject.com • Chronicle Books: http://www.chroniclebooks.com
