Denver Music Blog

Flier by Taylor Marsh

​Can you say "disco"? That's what jumps out at here, due largely to the slick Savoy logo and the supporting typography (love that silly dotted display font, designer!). The image here is arresting, even if it isn't communicating much beyond "Gasp!" I guess that means Savoy is an exciting and possibly scary band? We'll give you exciting, anyway. The color scheme is also of particular note, especially the way the pink tones from the image are carried throughout. Even if we didn't know a thing about the bands, we'd be intrigued if we walked by it and at least halfway to guessing this should be a dance extravaganza, just by looking. That's a successful design in our book! Have a look at a bigger version by clicking on the small one.

​You might get a little sense of deja vu from this week's top flier -- we've featured the previous two Houses EP release fliers, both of which sport similar designs, in past flier of the week slots. But what can we say? These fliers are just beautiful examples of design -- as long as they keep knocking them out of the park, we're going to have a hard time resisting selecting them. The Fall entry in the series has a beautiful, muted color palette that just screams, well, fall. Fallen leaves, wood fires and home for the holidays are seeping out of every inch of this poster. We also really like the subtle color effects and gradients on the typography -- and though it doesn't really affect the design, can we just say, what a killer lineup! As usual, if you click on this image, you'll get a larger version of it in a popup for your perusal and enjoyment.

​This week's flier breaks most of the rules of good design -- there are too many fonts, it's busy and, arguably, cluttered, the color palette is all over the map -- but that just goes to show that sometimes, the rules are meant to be broken. Because even though this crazy-quilt collage might make your design teacher's head explode, it also pretty much explodes off the page. Or screen, in this case.

From the weird, wooden-looking, Escheresque Hearts of Palm logo to the tiny little fishes next to the ancient-Greek-philosopher type dude, this glorious mess is just a pleasure to behold. Maybe it works because it draws on the same kind of "madcap mix of too many elements that shouldn't work together but do" energy made the band so great, thus evoking them subconsciously. Or maybe we have swine flu and the fever is messing with our perceptions. Whatever the case, we dig it. And you can click on it to see a bigger version.

​This week's flier is so freaking awesome, it wasn't even close. Just look upon the freakish majesty of this five-eyed, skull/owl beast and weep in the face of its power. There's really no other option. The fact that it's a flier for the return of d.biddle to these shores (metaphorically speaking, we know this is the mountains) for its Dia de los Muertos show is just the cherry on top. Fantastic show. Fantastic flier. Fantastic. What else is there to say? Click on it to make it bigger and bask in its glory.

​The aesthetics of this week's flier match the aesthetics of the band so well, we couldn't help but pick it as our top design of the week -- that, and the dude with the pipe reminded us of our stint in the Church of the SubGenius (all hail Bob!). The old-timey, yet slightly off-kilter graphics and background print are a pretty solid match for Hello Kavita, a band that embraces the folksy, Americana sound but isn't afraid to get a little weird. The font choice and type placement is excellent, too -- it not only doesn't get in the way of the design, it genuinely acts as part of it. The sum total is not flashy, but manages to catch the eye, draw you in and communicate effectively -- well done! To have a look at a larger version of the flier, just click on it.

​It's rare to see a flier for a dance-music event that's this elegant and understated. Fliers for what used to be called raves relied heavily on abstract CGI imagery, eye-scorching color schemes and faux-clever drug/pop culture references to grab one's attention. None of that is on display here. Instead we get an almost classical image, repeated in mirrored symmetry, of a nude reclining on a couch. Backing that is some abstract trees and squiggles that put us in mind of Japanese art. The use of text is minimal and unintrusive, highlighting just the date and location of October 16 at b.side in Boulder and saving the lineup (that'd be Les Freres Courvoisier, Brandon Brown, Ivy and Papyrus) and other info for the back of the flier. Combined with a muted color scheme, what you have is an attractive flier that catches the eye and attention without resorting to cheap tricks or seizure-inducing imagery. Bravo, Libra, bravo.

​It's all about the image. This week's flier sports a warped, neo-psychedelic visual that takes us back to the days of drawing out our drug-inspired visions on our high-school math notebooks. Except, we weren't nearly this good, and we drew a lot more dragons and shit. In any case, the guitar (or ukelele?) spewing out flowers and stars, the singing, winged amplifier and the sardonic, slightly evil sun are definitely eye-catching and groovy. Design wise, this flier is hurt a bit by the rude intrusion of the text at the bottom, but hey, I guess you gotta tell us somehow that in addition to Box Elders, we'll get the Fresh & Onlys, Pacific Pride and Bluebelle at Bender's on October 13, so we forgive you. Especially because we're still staring intently at that sun, waiting for it to melt. Click on the image for a bigger version and join us in our intense staring.

​It's not always artful images or striking use of typography that catches our eye for a flier of the week. No, sometimes it's just something simple, comforting and downright inviting -- something like this grade-school arts-and-crafts flier for Paper Bird's upcoming date at the Boulder Theatre this Friday, October 2. Crayon on construction paper is not a medium that's widely explored in the design world, but sometimes it's just the right thing to do. It wouldn't work for all bands -- we can hardly imagine it working to hype Iuengliss's sci-fi lullabies, for example -- but it definitely clicks with Paper Bird's bright-eyed, soulful Americana. It's like something one of their nieces might concoct and give to them to hang on their refrigerator. Only, instead of hanging up with a magnet, they've used it to advertise a show. Very nice, PB, very nice indeed. Click on it for a slightly larger version.

Flier by Matt Benson

​The kind of quasi-military design seen here seems to be gaining popularity these days. Perhaps that's a reflection of the militaristic times we live in, or maybe it just fits the feel of dubstep, which is also gaining popularity. Or maybe it's just that big-ass guns and the heavy metal thunder of shock and awe kick ass. Hard to say. But we kind of dig it, even though we're peace-loving sorts here. Must be the steady diet of GI Joe cartoons and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies we grew up on. In any case, the sharp looking design here really caught our eye, what with that helicopter doing a massive bass drop over the mountains -- kind of appropriate for the biggest dubstep event in the region to date! Sub.Mission is bringing in Skream and Caspa, both shit-hot DJ/producers in the style, plus a slew of other fine entertainers, for a two-day event this weekend at Cervantes'. Even if you aren't headed down, you can enjoy this fine flier's lovely stencil work, military iconography and spot-on appropriate imagery. We know we did. Enjoy it even larger by clicking on it.

Flier by Gemma Bayly

​Bold abstraction is the order of the day on this week's top flier design. The interlocking lines and squiggles on this bold, largely black and white flier come together to strongly suggest circuit boards, computer parts and other high-tech concerns. The big circle puts me in mind of a record -- obviously appropriate for a DJ night. And that bright-green splash of spot color works wonders against the otherwise monochromatic design, really helping the whole thing pop and catch the eye. We're told this Lipgloss flier by Gemma Bayly should be around and used for a while, and this week it gets our nod for flier of the week.

​Once we saw this flier, there was no question as to whether it would be our flier of the week. I mean, come on! If you think there's any way we could resist that image of a disco ball transformed into a UFO, clearly you have no idea how we feel about either disco balls or UFOs. The sexpot alien silhouette and super-groovy retro-styled type that comprise the Fabulous Boogienaut's logo didn't hurt a bit, either. And although the fonts used to display the tagline of "We have returned" and the time-date-place-price info clash a tiny bit, we forgive them since they both have a sci-fi flair that digs into the nerdiest parts of our nerdy hearts. As usual, if you want to see this fine image larger, just give it a click.

​Summer is almost over, but it's not gone yet. That's why this week's flier caught our eye -- it grabs that last little bit of summer firmly and has a bit of fun with it. The show is Dressy Bessy at the Gothic this Saturday, September 5 and the poster captures that group's sunny, slightly goofy aesthetic just about perfectly. That's probably due to the fact that front woman Tammy Ealom did the design on this one herself -- bravo, Tammy.

The image here appropriates and re-purposes a vintage toy ad (the kid with the M-16), adding the rocket pops and remixing the whole thing into a surreal vision of summers past -- could there be a better way to send off summer present? It seems the rocket pops are some kind of recurring motif for the band these days, since they also play prominently in the video posted yesterday. No idea what that means, but hey, we're not complaining. The days are still hot and who doesn't love a good frozen treat on a hot day? Oh, and this time you can't click on the image to make it bigger -- well, you can, but it won't really do much good, as the size limitations and the proportions of the flier made posting the bigger version next to impossible. Feel free to press your face closer to the monitor and squint if you need to.

​Our top flier of the week comes to us from Sub.Mission's Thursday residency at Sutra. This one's been floating around for a while but somehow escaped our attention until now. No matter, we caught it just in time before it expired. From the weird, abstract, "virtual-reality walkthrough of the Parthenon" line art laid over gathering storm clouds to the cute touch of a hand grenade surrounded by flowers, the image is a winner -- saying nothing yet somehow suggesting everything. That visual element and the vibe of this lovely flier recall the halcyon days of rave fliers, without the jumbled, overly busy layout that most of those "classic" fliers suffered from. To the contrary, the clean, understated, minimalist layout and typography on display here are the very model of restraint -- and of good design. For this, it gets the nod this week. As usual, you can click on the flier to see a bigger version.

​This week's illustration inspiration exists to inform us of a visit August 19 (that's tonight) to Rhinoceropolis by Hot Springs, Arkansas band Church of the Snake -- along with contributions from Color Club (another Arkansas band) and locals Hot White and Crack Magik. It earns its nod as top flier by the simple virtue of combining form with function in the functional form of a snake man wearing a suit -- what else would a snake-man wear to church (of the snake)? You'll also not that they've cleverly placed the venue name on the tie. The rough and ready vibe of this poster might not be everyone's cup of tea, but we happen to like the occasional throwback, DIY-vibed flier, especially when they sport a cool, school-notebook inspired image like this snake guy. If you want a better look, you can click on it to see an enlarged version.

Flier by Nate Gross/AJ Dimarucot

​This week's top flier is for what's sure to be a lovely hi-dive evening with masters of metal Tauntaun, plus Lions and the Bronze, next Tuesday, August 16. No matter ow the show goes, we already have this incredible poster in our (virtual) hands, so we've already won. The stark, high contrast black/white design with a minimum of gray tones that's used both in the poster and the actual image just make the whole thing pop even more, really allowing the image to dominate. And this week, it is all about the image. Sure, the type is fine, the layout is clean and balanced, blah blah blah. But just look at that fucking panda! You could put that fierce, bad panda in the middle of a jumbled mess of alphabet soup and it would still be the most awesome image you'd see all week. Bamboo? Hell no, this panda wants blood. Preferably yours. It is, by far, the most metal panda we have ever seen -- a nice fit for Tauntaun. Click on it and you'll get it even bigger.

​The Houses' approach to music may be "more is more" (aren't there like forty of them in the band?) but their approach to design is definitely "less is more" and it results in some striking, beautiful design work such as this flier for the group's Summer EP release at the Meadowlark this Friday, August 7. Juxtaposing the simple, abstract art from the EP with a new, slightly loopy approach for the band's logo and some nice, clean typography for the supporting acts, this flier is a nice example of simple elements in perfect balance adding up to great effect. Its net impact is greater than the sum of its parts and that earns it a nod this week. As always, click on the image for a larger version.

Flier by Nix

​Another week, another badass flier. This one is from a fine designer named Nix, who does a lot of work for the promoters Zombie Rock here in town. This classic and classy looking poster, advertising Three Bad Jacks and Mad Dog & the Smoking Jays at Benders this Saturday, shows some excellent little touches that put it over the top. The rocker/monster girl's voluptuous curves are set off by her bad posture. Her skull face manages to convey a creepy come-hither look that we'll be seeing in our nightmares. The delicate false aging lines in the design suggest this is a relic from a bygone era. Add all that up, throw in the excellent typography and you've got one nice looking poster. It caught our eye, anyway. Check out the larger version by clicking on it.

Update: If you're wondering what a house show in Highlands Ranch looks like -- uh, like, say the one mentioned below -- wonder no more. Video after the jump.

This week's top flier is advertising a show for cutting edge sounds of local acts Solar Bear, Colors, So Yeah, We're Werewolves and Indiana-based Native at ... a house party in Highlands Ranch? Pretty strange place for this line-up (who knew people like this were even allowed into Highlands Ranch?) but hey, you go where the rock takes you. Anyway, this flier breaks probably every rule of good design except one -- it's eye catching. And sometimes that's all you need. For whatever reason, the bizarre "ransom note composed by a schizophrenic meth addict" aesthetic of this poster just captured the mood this week, earning this the nod over several other fine posters we saw out and about and on the Internets. Maybe it's the Where's Waldo-esque fun of picking out the elements that comprise the thing? I spot some Rolling Stone font use and I think I see Brad Pitt... anyway, as always, you can click on it to see it larger.

Our favorite flier of the week this time out goes to this gem informing us of a lovely show featuring Dead Confederate, The Overcasters and Hawks of Paradise this Friday, July 17 at the Bluebird. It received top honors this week for its vaguely steampunk vibe, reminding us of futures past that never will be (click on the image for a bigger version).

Some odd (and possibly unintentional) confluence of the image, type and names just put us in mind of the golden age of pulp fiction, when Flash Gordon, Tarzan and John Carter were busy having manly-man type adventures in space, the deepest jungles and various lost cities. Those oddball, antique goggles started it, but the vaguely art deco looking fonts and band names that sound like they could be story names from that era really cemented it. And sure, it looks to be a good show, but we'd buy that magazine in a heartbeat too, to read the tale of the lonely dead Confederate, learn the secret behind the mysterious society of weather-controlling Overcasters and catch up on the latest installment of The Hawks of Paradise serial!

Our favorite flier of the week is for yet another summer festival. This one is called Module Overloaded and it is happening August 1 at the Toad Tavern, featuring the lineup so clearly illustrated above. And it's the integration of the typography into the image above that caught our eye on this one. All too often the type and images on fliers are competing for attention. This lovely piece of work solves that problem by warping the text into its bold, line-art inspired picture. And it does it without compromising legibility -- no small task. It doesn't hurt that the image itself it so expressive -- we love the look on this guy's face. It's also very cool that he's holding a grenade with a pin between his teeth. We like things that go boom -- a side effect of being so totally metal, I guess. No need to click on the pic for a bigger version -- this is showing full size already.

Our flier of the week is a doozy this time around. It's for the Get Down party, which is moving to Beta this Friday, July 3, bringing a whole slew of talent including Whygee & Brikabrak, Input, 1984 and a bunch more. But most importantly, for FotW purposes, it gives us this incredible, candy-colored, tangerine-flake monstrosity of a show flier. What you see here is just a tiny part of the whole thing -- it was simply too big to fit in the blog, even in a reduced size/fidelity. The tiny slice you see here is full of pill bombs, graffiti-styled text, psychedelic sneakers ... it's like a hip-hop party on The Yellow Submarine! And lower down, you get AT-AT silhouettes, teddy-bear ghosts, pot leaves, and a dinosaur, among other fun stuff. That's good time in my book. To see the whole thing, click through to the jump -- but be warned, it's frigging huge and may take a while to load.

In this week's Pole Position, we've chosen to spotlight this intriguing design for Lipgloss's eight-year anniversary this Friday, June 26 at La Rumba. This typography heavy design is a little different from the usual flier, but that's what caught our eye. It's bold, stark, distinctive and packs a lot of information into a tight space with relatively high readability. It also reminds us a bit of the iconic, minimal design work from the heyday of Factory Records, which is never a bad thing in our eyes. As always, you can click on the flier for a larger view.

Oh, sweet monster-movie goodness! I'm beginning to think you all are designing just for me (not that I mind). This week's fancy-pants flier (click on it for a bigger version) pays homage to the movie-monster icons of yesteryear with a sweet mashup on the classic Bride of Frankenstein to promote the Inactivists with Mourning Sickness and Little Dead Things tomorrow night at the D-Note in Arvada. What's really cool about this, besides the impeccable taste inherent in ganking such a classic image, is the way that they integrated their own text so seamlessly. I mean, if you'd never seen this image before, would you even know they borrowed it from an old movie? The fonts are complementary, the layout is clean and now I want to go try and synch up Bride with the last Inactivists album, in finest Wizard of Oz/Pink Floyd style.

Looks like we've got dueling fliers in this week's pole position. Not that the one picked by our esteemed colleague this week isn't completely worthy, because it most certainly is; it's just that this particular one, hyping a Sunday, May 24, date at 3 Kings featuring Yerkish, Burn Sand Burn and the Limbs, is so freaking eye-grabbing. It comes as absolutely no surprise that the distinguished gentlemen of Yerkish -- or, more specifically, Ryan Eschenbach -- are responsible for this spectacular handbill. Eschenbach is considered by us to be one of the top designers in the scene (ranked up there right beside Eric Halborg, Jonathan Till and Eric Fletcher) primarily for his creativity and attention to detail. For instance, if you pay especially close attention to the barcode in the lower left hand corner, you'll notice a family of stick figures busting out of the, um, bars, above the words "escape" and what appears to either be "captivity" of "captives." Genius, we say. (Get a better gander of the barcode after the jump.)

Seems like just yesterday I was writing about the influence of horror movies on my musical taste (okay, it was two days ago) when along comes a flier sporting an image of the kind of thing I'd expect to see chasing some hapless victim in the next Silent Hill movie. Or maybe an exceprt from a book of the most bizarre medical aberattions ever. Supporting this groovy image is some nice, stark typography conveying just the minimum set of info needed to get you out to the show -- which I really appreciate, since I find a lot of great fliers ruined by too much text. And if you look closely, you might notice that hand has six fingers -- one for each month to live for the titular band. Deep, man. Real deep. And, as always, if you click on that image you'll get a bigger version in a popup window.

Our premier flier for the week advertises the upcoming CD release party for the Ideal Fathers debut EP on Saturday, May 16, at the Larimer Lounge. The Fathers are great live performers  who bring some serious energy, the EP kicks ass and this is pretty much a can't-miss show -- plus you get Accordion Crimes (great name, guys!) and the Get Down for the same low price. So it's only fitting that this flier is hands-down the most awesome image I've seen in weeks. Unicycle! Accordion! Ridiculously long waxed mustache that spells out "Larimer Lounge"! This illustration is just too freaking cool not to be our flier of the week, so it is. Click on it to see it bigger and head down to the Lounge next Saturday to have your head exploded by the awesomeness.

Admittedly, we clearly have a thing for Houses at the moment (if you've seen this band live or heard the new record, you understand why). Nonetheless, there's something striking about the flier promoting the band's EP release party this Friday, May 1 at the hi-dive. There's just something about the simplistic design and type face and the overall color composition that we find utterly compelling. Click on the image to the left to enlarge and get an eyeful for yourself.

I just caught sight of this excellent poster and knew right away that it was our flier of the week. In the course of advertising the sure-to-be excellent appearance of Dormir, Gloam, Portamento, St. Elias and Woodsman at the Meadowlark this Saturday, April 25, this flier makes a powerful statement for the power of design. Every element here works in concert, from the color choices to the typography to the eye-catching, abstract quasi-mosaic image. It's simultaneously aesthetically pleasing, spare and powerful. In short, it's a triumph of design. Me likey.

Today I woke up thinking, "Thursday already, and no Flier of the Week to light the way?" Then I saw this delightful work and knew the gods of graphic design had seen my plight and taken pity on me. The muted color palette and sea-creature graphic seem especially suited to this wet Thursday afternoon, don't they? The typograpy is great, too, and the whole thing is kind of cute, in a way that even dudes who don't go in much for cute (like me, for instance) can appreciate without feeling the need to throw up in their mouths a little. If you like it too, show your appreciation by going to the show April 24 at the hi-dive to catch the gentle country-kissed pop of Hello Kavita and the fine femme stylings of both Andrea Ball and the Autumn Film.

For reminding me of the Golden Age of movie lobby posters, this flier for local promoter Zombie Rock's show tomorrow night at Cervantes' has earned the nod for flier of the week. Its bold, stark colors, simple, line-illustrated style and suggestion of unspeakable horror proved to be an irresistible combination for me. With a slightly different layout, this could be a great movie poster for a Herschell Gordon Lewis flick and since the days when this kind of art graced movie theater lobbies is long since over, it's all the more exciting to see it repped in band fliers. And the bands fit right in with the style, which helps. The Henchmen and the Royal Dead (a local band currently touring with the Henchmen) are both fine, upstanding psychobilly rockers, and I'm sure the other bands on the bill trade in the same revved up, horrorpunk surf sounds. You can get more details at Zombie Rock's MySpace page.