MICHAEL SWAN: ART OF MODERN ROCK >>>

Here’s a holiday gift for someone you really love. Released in 2004, Art Of Modern Rock is a $60, 20-pound book which traces the progress of the modern art rock poster. With work from more than 200 artists, Art Of Modern Rock is nothing if not complete.

Devotees will recognize the names of Art Chantry (Tacoma represent!), Ames Bros., Frank Kozik, Lindsey Kuhm, Mark Arminski and the many other artists; others will only recognize the style.

Selected from 8,000 submissions, the posters in the book capture an era (1989-2004) where rock poster art went through a transformation and once again became fine art. It’s in its fifth printing.

There’s entire pages devoted to psychedelic jam band posters; String Cheese Incident receives its own section, in fact. But non-hippie bands are well-represented too. There’s a lovely Tori Amos poster in which John Lennon, from beyond the grave, endorses the red-haired singer. Graphic designers go nuts over this sort of thing; and it’s easy to see why.

Non-artists can appreciate the varying styles of poster art and how Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others help resurrect it as an artform in the 1990s.

You’ll need two hands to carry it and a ton of paper to wrap it, but any lover of art and popular music, especially jam band music, will love this book. Click here for more info.