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This first randomly selected (we're not aware of any particular order) flier effectively sets the tone for the rest of what you're getting -- a splattery, exploded portrait of one of the members. It's like Jackson Pollock decided to explore portraiture and printmaking without giving up his core style. Or something like that -- we didn't do that well in our art classes.

It's a cool image paired with some solid design. What really pushes it over the top, though, are the other two pieces. On their own, any one of them is cool enough to earn flier of the week honors most weeks.

As a set, there was no contest. It's a rock and roll triptych of awesome magnitude. Click through to see the other two in almost-full size and remember you can click on any of them to get a bigger version.

Flier by Nathan Gross

The cascading boxes are the key to the whole thing. If you were to scrub the text off this, leaving just the twist of colored shapes, we could totally see this hanging on the wall in the lair of some '70s movie reclusive rocker, supervillain or swingers club. It has that quality of groovy, slightly self-indulgent pop art we associate with the period, meaning it would look totally at home behind a guy wearing some white, hip-hugging bell bottoms.

The placement of the boxes and text works well to draw the eye down the page, from one artists to the next, finally depositing one's attention at the time, date and place info at the bottom. It's bright enough to get your attention and simple enough to read when drunk -- always a winning combination in the flier world.

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The fractured typography used to display the headliner and the weird sketch seem fitting to the music, which is a nice touch -- even if you've never heard Hunter Dragon, it's attention-getting and effective.

The use of multiple layers in the collage gives this poster a weird sense of depth that, even on a computer screen, gives the impression you could lift the individual elements off if you wished to do so. The division of the bottom third of the poster via color reinforced that, and also helps put the emphasis on the Hunter Dragon while allowing the rest of the lineup and vital stats to be displayed clearly. The total effect is well balanced and eye pleasing.

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The flier definitely turned our head when we walked by it the other day, prompting us to head straight the computer to find a digital copy for inclusion in this week's Pole Position.

The design here is excellent. We like the use of the band's name in giant size at the top -- as we said, it's kind of a big deal, so the name should be dominant. The use of "bubbles" placed in a symmetric pattern around the image works well and seems suggested by the image itself.

And the image. Yeah, that's freaking cool. Is it a astrological design? Something from an alchemy text? Whatever it is, it's both eye-catching and well-fitting in terms of "feel" with Snake Rattle Rattle Snake's style. Muscular, mysterious and just a tiny bit magical or not-of-this-world.

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Apart from the universal appeal of attractive women in skimpy clothing and festishistic footwear, this flier is really taking some chances. Look at that color scheme, for example -- it's like it's puking directly into our eyes. The fonts are a little jumbled too, and didn't that faux cut-and-paste thing lose its luster long ago? In other words, hottie aside, this shouldn't really work.

But it does.

Somehow this flier takes one sure thing and a lot of disjointed elements that not only shouldn't work together, they shouldn't work at all, and manages to coalesce them into a cool piece of stylish Warholian pop art. We're not sure what kind of alchemical process the designer undertook to get there, but bravo: it worked.

Nathan Gross

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The Buddha-bellied, dog-eared, blank-eyed demon is certainly attention-grabbing. Also, the elephant feet. And why is he holding a fly swatter? It's like something from a particularly cartoonish yet seriously twisted Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

And if you'd never heard Andrea Ball's music, you might wonder what it is about her work that would call for such a creepy image. Honestly, we have heard it, and we're not sure. But the picture stopped and made us look, and in the flier world, that's call for unfurling a great, big "Mission Accomplished" banner.

The design elements are functional and serve to leave the focus squarely on the image itself. and that's fine, because frankly, it would take some kind of horrible, clashing color scheme and flashing type to draw our attention away from this evil little bastard's vacant stare... It's like he's looking into our souls.

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It looks like a minor Dario Argento rip-off that might have played at second-rate grindhouses and a few Midwestern drive-ins around 1976. We would have totally went and seen that movie.Something about the twin bird/snake faced sisters with the tentacular hair is quite fetching. And their zombie/vampire guardian/buddy down below is just a nice bonus.

Now, the layout of the text more or less destroys the movie poster illusion, but we forgive it because it actually works quite well as concert flier text, which is what it actually is. The colors are also just about perfect. All told, another great flier.

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Seriously, WTF? Are we looking at some kind of yogi practicing the arcane arts? Or perhaps a peculiar sex act that obscures most of person No. 2? It's very confusing. But it makes us think. And we like thinking.

And we like the flier, which is the kind of thing that stands out among a stack of too-similar fliers you might see stacked at a coffeehouse or taped to lamp posts around town. For that, we give it our nod as the top flier of the week. And if the artist wants to tell us exactly WTF is supposed to be going on here, that'd be cool too.

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At first glance, it might not seem like there's a whole lot going on here, but the more you look, the more you'll see. A variety of inconspicuous textures are used to give the poster greater depth and complexity.

The bold, striking typography is set off and balanced by the simple, primary shapes used in the lightning/cloud image. The use of multiple color gradients draws the eye from the top of the poster down to the bottom. And the color palette used is simply inspired.

All told, a wonderful flier, perfectly suited to send off these bands to their SXSW adventures.

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And as to what "it" is, we've determined it's a dog (we're no dog experts, but it looks like a boxer, right?) hanging upside down. Presumably the upside-downing was done via Photoshop, because we know every time we try to hang our dogs upside down like that, they totally freak out, despite how cool they look while doing it. Dogs just don't care enough about looking cool.

Anyway, this week's top flier takes that bat/monster/dog image and mates it with a muted color palette to excellent effect. It's hard to take black, white and a few shades of gray and create something so evocative and eye-catching, so this definitely earns bonus points for the success there.

The use of that dotted pattern adds a subtle depth as well, and the typography is near-perfect in font choice, color, layout and the subtle curvature used both at the top of the flier and in the date/location info wrapped around the line-up. Add it all up and you have one excellent flier and an easy choice for our pick this week.