Paper Scissors ROCK: EMP flyer exhibit, Seattle

Thrasher Magazine, Sept, 2003 by Wez Lundry

ON THE MOST BASIC LEVEL, they are purely for informational purposes: which band is playing with who, where, when, and how much. Show flyers, gig flyers, concert posters--whatever you want to call them, they convey the essential information one needs to get to the right place to see the right band. Some are that and no more: The bands' names, the club, the cover charge, written or typed onto a piece of paper, photocopied, passed out or stapled to telephone poles. Most, however, surpass the basic layout; some have become "fine art."

THIS IS REALLY NOTHING NEW Folks like Rick Griffin were doing it (psychedelically) in the '60s for bands like the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, etc. But when punk hit, bringing with it a new aesthetic, the rules of the game changed, right down to the flyers. And since punk is a relatively new phenomenon when one considers the big picture, there have been creators and collectors of punk-flier art from the get-go. Seattle's EMP museum has an installation dedicated to punk flier art (and the movements it spawned) entitled "Paper Scissors ROCK," that is part journey-back-in-time nostalgia, part serious art appreciation, and part pop-culture display.

Legendary bands played legendary clubs, both now long gone but forever immortalized in a fucked up and photocopied piece of paper on which someone had the bright idea to put a picture of Ronald Reagan, or a nun, or a skateboarder. As punk evolved so did its aesthetic, taking jabs not only at Reagan but subsequent administrations, religion, the mainstream, Madonna, disco, racism, sexism, out of control "political correctness," you name it. And it is all reflected in the street art of flyers.

Soon folks were putting more effort and time into the flyers. They became art, incorporating more than one or two colors, or silkscreened, or even other media forms besides paper. They were sold in pop culture galleries months after the show had already taken place (commodification took root). Remaining to this day, however, are the bands with little money or luck, but who continue to photocopy their flier, pass them out at shows, and staple them to telephone poles.

The exhibit is small and focused (and sits next to another small and focused exhibit, 'Yes Yes Y'all" on the birth of hip-hop, that is killer and even somewhat complementary in a DIY-kind-of-way) but says a lot, especially to someone like myself who grew up seeing those flyers stapled to telephone poles and taped to record store windows. The early days: bands from LA and San Francisco would play (The Dils! The Nuns!) and the struggle to find a reliable venue began (Wrex! The Met! The Central! Gorilla Gardens! Velvet Elvis!). Seattle bands began playing opening slots and soon headlining their own shows (The Fags! The U-Men! Mr Epp!). Venues came and went. And then came Seattle's Teen Dance Ordinance that all but banned all-ages shows. Then was the poster ban, when the city declared that stapling posters onto telephone poles was hazardous. Despite it all (and both bans being repealed or lessened), poster art thrived. The labels that made the Northwest before the "grunge" "hype" sponsored their own mini-festival s--K in Olympia, Estrus in Bellingham, eMpTy and Sub Fop in Seattle.

Flyers as mass communication dates back to BC. Some of the artists who made their reputations doing flier and album-cover art have gone on to fame and perhaps fortune, while others remain undiscovered, under-appreciated, and assed out. Regardless, flyers remain--and seeing 25 years of them in one spot chronicling one movement in which we took part leaves an impression.

RELATED ARTICLE: BAN THIS!

Posting flyers on telephone poles is a long-standing method for announcing everything from labor rallies to lemonade stands--the niche information not suited for costly newspaper ads and television spots. Unfortunately, local politicians are often less enamored of the practice and sometimes contrive to eliminate it, citing safely hazards to telephone-pole workers, the obstruction of storm drains, an general unsightliness. Mid-1980s Seattle mayoral candidate Doug Jewitt failed to pass an anti-flyering rule, but in 1984 the City Council did enact a ban against posters on telephone poles, severely hampering the local music scene. Three years later, alternative weekly The Stranger published an issue protesting the ban, and with it came a provocative cover image--Art Chantry's "Post This," provided with instruction for sympathetic readers to do exactly that. The ban was finely struck down by a 2002 Washington appellate court decision that declared telephone poles to be a "traditional public forum" protected by the constitution.

-- from display at EMP Flyer Exhibit