Kings of Concert Posters: Chris "Coop" Cooper

Devil is in the details for this renowned and rebellious "Lowbrow" artist
By Peter Lindblad

Steel Pole Bathtub 1995 Jabberjaw
Original Concert Poster
Silkscreen by Coop

To say the irreverent artist known as "Coop" – his real name is Chris Cooper – has a way with women is a massive understatement.

With devilish glee and an appreciation for bold colors and kitschy imagery, he seems to relish creating titillating scenes of scantily-clad, voluptuous women in lascivious poses, although he's also widely known for works featuring a smiling Satan chomping on a cigar.

In the forward to Coop's 2001 book "Devil's Advocate: The Art of Coop," Robert Williams writes, "Coop doesn't exploit the occult metaphysics of satanic malarkey. Why should he? This gifted wonderboy is the devil himself."

Those wanting to see more of Coop's art should hunt it down, seeing as how it boasts a treasure trove of reproductions of his posters and stickers and other assorted memorabilia. Or, to own one or more his pieces, which generally range in price from more than $100 to $500, check out http://stores.ebay.com/Rock-On-Collectibles/Coop-Posters-/_i.html?_fsub=3340762&_sid=70220124&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Born in Tulsa, Okla., in 1968, but now living in Los Angeles and working as a hot rod artist, Coop fashions himself as the "Insensitive Artiste." With a wicked sense of humor, Coop made his bones coming up doing ads and illustrating album covers for the similar-minded indie record label Sympathy for the Record Industry and its leader Long Gone John Mermis. Other artists whose work graced Sympathy for the Record Industry material included Williams, Todd Schorr and Mark Ryden.

Green Day The Riverdales 1995
Original Concert Poster Silkscreen
Art by Coop

Eventually, Coop made a connection with famed concert-poster artist Frank Kozik, whose influence on Coop's work is fairly evident, even as Coop developed his own unique style. Along the way, Coop became a go-to artist for some of the biggest alternative-rock acts of the '90s, doing posters for Green Day, Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Reverend Horton Heat, Lords of Acid and the Foo Fighters. Those signature "femme devils" he's so fond of are often seen on various stickers, usually plastered on cars. That, more than anything, has made Coop's art a cultural phenomenon.

Again, in that same forward, Williams writes, "It is with this kind of exposure that the name Coop has come to typify art for many people who like visual stimuli." Often, Coop is associated with the revolutionary visual art movement referred to as "Lowbrow," also called "pop surrealism," which exploded in the Los Angeles area near the tail end of the 1970s and is laced with a sardonic sense of humor that gained favor in underground comix, punk rock and hot-rod culture. And he is held in high esteem in the Kustom Kulture community.

In 2004, Coop released another book titled "The Big Fat One," which contains more than a thousand sketches. Another one, "Idle Hands," was published in 2012 by Baby Tattoo Books and is a collection of his fine art created between 2001 and 2012. For Hot Wheels fanatics, Coop recently collaborated with the toy car maker on a series of miniature "Coop-Customized" hot rods.

To get a taste of his style, here are some examples of Coop's work:

Unsane Steel Pole Bathtub
1995 Original Concert Poster
Silkscreen by Coop S/N

Go Nuts 1995 Jabberjaw Silkscreen
Art Concert Poster Original by Coop S/N

Gas Huffer Clawhammer 1996 The Whisky
Concert Poster Original by Coop S/N

Dave & Deke 1996 San Francisco
Kilowatt Original Concert Poster
Art by Coop

Book Review: Greg Prato – Survival Of The Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's

Book Review: Greg Prato – Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's
All Access: A-

Greg Prato - Survival of
the Fittest: Heavy Metal in
the 1990s

The party was over for glam-metal and more traditional metal acts weren't having such a good time of it either, their days in the sun darkened by dour, flannel-clad hordes from the Pacific Northwest intent on making everybody as depressed as they were.

Once and for all, a new lengthy examination of metal in the '90s by author Greg Prato completely eviscerates the wrongheaded party line that grunge was some kind of powerful insecticide that wiped out the entire genre as a whole, even if it did seem to, at the very least, harsh headbangers' buzz for a time. Still, after grunge's cleansing purge, heavy metal – beaten to a pulp in the press and, for a time, left for dead in record label boardrooms – miraculously recovered and even thrived, its durability enhanced by its own evolution.

Utilizing the oral history format that served him so well with other tomes, such as "Iron Maiden: '80, '81," "The Eric Carr Story" and "Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music," Prato covers a great deal of territory here, interviewing close to 90 subjects – Eddie Trunk, Riki Rachtman, Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, Overkill's Bobby Blitz, Les Claypool from Primus, Phil Anselmo, Cinderella's Tom Kiefer, Scott Weiland and others too numerous to mention – for over 600 pages of candid, insightful observations and memories from those who experienced one of the biggest sea changes in rock history. Along the way, Prato chronicles the splintering of metal and hard rock into seemingly a thousand sub-genres, as metal seemed to merge with "alternative rock."

In his forward to Prato's work, ex-Pantera bassist Rex Brown writes, "Back in the '90s, us and quite a few of our peers were doing something that was off-the-cuff, and you had to make it your own brand and style." Innovation was the order of the day, as bands like Pantera, Nine Inch Nails,Sepultura, Fear Factory, White Zombie and Kyuss expanded the possibilities of a genre that had gone stale, and Prato takes great pains to chronicle the onset and development of stylistic shifts that resulted in prog metal, extreme metal, funk metal, industrial metal, stoner metal and, of course, nu metal.

At the same time, Prato attacks the subject from all angles, painting a well-rounded picture of just what the hell happened in metal's most perplexing decade. It explores, in depth, Guns 'N Roses' increasingly grandiose aspirations and precipitous decline, the explosion of Nirvana, band break-ups, changes with KISS, Rush and Aerosmith, the "Gary Cherone Years" of Van Halen, and other earth-shattering events. Even with such a prodigious page count, "Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's" flies by, the conversational tone of the book resulting in a fairly quick read. Because of that, and the massive amount of interview material it contains, it's a work that owners can go back to again and again and still find it worthwhile to do so. For ordering information for paperback and Kindle, go to http://amzn.com/1512073067 and for Nook, visit http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/survival-of-the-fittest-greg-prato/1122273381.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Bl'ast! – Blood!

CD Review: Bl’ast! – Blood!

Southern Lord

All Access Rating: A-

Bl'ast! - Blood! 2013

As was made abundantly clear while waxing nostalgic about Sound City in his feel-good documentary film about the place, Dave Grohl plans to put the famed studio’s grand old Neve console – the one that brought to life the magic of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors and Nirvana’s Nevermind – to good use.

Breathing new life into some long-lost vintage master tapes of Santa Cruz hardcore heroes Bl’ast was one of his first orders of business, and he takes a flamethrower to material that was already highly flammable, his remastering and mixing work enhancing the already concentrated violence and red-eyed fury of these unpredictable punk-rock seizures. And he’s just a bit player in this drama, as was William DuVall – now plying his trade with Alice in Chains.

Blood! is reportedly the only document of DuVall making sweet fiery hardcore with Bl’ast. Industrious rhythms and rampaging guitars that are thicker and wider than one would expect are what cause the sudden impact of Blood!, but don’t mistake activity for a lack of musicality. Still, raw power and unbridled fury course through its veins, as the aptly titled Blood! packs enough explosives into these combustible tracks to attract the unwanted attention of the ATF. From the first bruising, urgent rumblings and building momentum of “Only Time Will Tell” to the sharp turns negotiated throughout the blazing “Something Beyond,” the high-octane action of Blood! is breathtakingly fast, aggressive and relentless.

Even while Bl’ast cultivates a resonant, animalistic growl in guitar tone, something most old punks cared nothing about, on Blood! they engage in dizzying shifts of dynamics in “Ssshhh,” “Sometimes” and “Winding Down” while driving impossibly fast, but never recklessly, as they brake and stomp on the accelerator through the stop-start traffic of “Sequel.” Knowing exactly what direction they want to go, Bl’ast feverishly tears through the 1:38 “Poison” – tied for the shortest song on Blood! – as if they have three strikes against them and they’re being chased by California cops, but they never seem desperate or self-destructive.

Then again, jail might be preferable to the unsettling psychology of “Your Eyes,” made even more deliciously disturbing by heavy, almost sludgy, metallic riffs that rise up and look to the heavens for deliverance. If Minor Threat took more of a liking to Black Sabbath and explored slightly longer forms and staged more angular sonic ambushes, all while maintaining its muscular torque, they might have made the tempestuous, biting and brawny Blood! As it is, there are only a few hardcore acts with this kind of DNA, Black Flag being one of them. If Henry Rollins needs a transfusion, he might want to give Bl’ast – these raging sonic contortionists of the highest caliber – a call. http://www.southernlord.com/

– Peter Lindblad