Kings of concert posters: Frank Kozik

First in a series on rock artists who shook up the modern-rock underground
By Peter Lindblad

Frank Kozik Unsane
Guzzard 1995 Concert
Poster The Whiskey
Hollywood S/N

Often shockingly bloody and unapologetically violent, the grisly album art for New York City noise-rock merchants Unsane was never for the faint of heart.

Seeing two cuddly bears, one carrying a bucket of PCP, on a concert poster promoting the band's 1995 show at the Whiskey in Hollywood with openers Guzzard and Lowercase in what looks like an otherwise innocent scene from an illustrated children's book certainly subverts expectations. Artist Frank Kozik is notorious for doing that.

Born in Spain and raised during the reign of fascist dictator Franco, before his family settled in California, Kozik has parlayed his delightfully twisted world view, fearless cultural commentary and incredibly bold use of color and clashing textural elements into worldwide fame. His works are highly sought-after by collectors.

Until Kozik arrived on the scene, the art of making concert posters had, for all intents and purposes, gone the way of the dodo bird. Many believe it was Kozik – his Unsane poster one of hundreds he's made over the years – who was responsible for bringing it back from the dead. (To view a really good selection of his works you can check out prints available for purchase on eBay: Frank Kozik Posters

Zeni Geva Original
Concert Poster by
Frank Kozik S/N

In his zeal to spread the word about the early '80s underground punk scene in Austin, Texas, where he was stationed while in the Air Force, the self-taught Kozik's first forays into the world of rock art involved making black-and-white fliers for friends' bands and splashing them all over telephone poles. Soon, people began taking notice of his provocative, in-your-face designs and unique treatment of , noting how the oddly compelling imagery made subtle and not-so-subtle cultural statements.

Eventually, Kozik moved on to developing the vivid and almost surreal silkscreen concert posters that gained him world-wide fame, creating artwork for the likes of Green Day, The White Stripes, Neil Young and Nirvana and lesser-known acts such as Hammerhead and others, and then going on to direct various music videos, including Soundgarden's "Pretty Noose."

Hammerhead Liquor Bike
1996 Original Concert Poster
by Frank Kozik X/N

After moving to San Francisco in 1993, Kozik established his own record label, Man's Ruin Records. Most of the posters and album art he produced back then were hand silkscreened and numbered at his studio. More than 200 singles and full-length albums were designed and released by Kozik – among them a Sex Pistols record and the first Queens of the Stone Age single.

In 2001, he shuttered Man's Ruin and moved on to other artistic pursuits, including throwing himself into the exploding art toy movement. He has designed more than 500 different limited-edition figures. Living in San Francisco today, Kozik also designs products and campaigns for a wide range of major companies. But, it's his wildly imaginative concert poster artwork – with pieces ranging in price from as little as $12 all the way up to $500 and beyond – that are his crowning achievements.

Here are some examples of his best work:

Groove Merchant 1997 Original
Silkscreen Gig Poster by
Frank Kozik 9737 S/N

Frank Kozik Man's Ruin Records
The Hammer of the Gods 1996
Concert Poster S/N

Butthole Surfers Pigface Bad Livers
1991 Original Concert Poster
by Frank Kozik 

Smashing Pumpkins Garbage 1996
Original Concert Poster by
Frank Kozik S/N

Soundgarden 1996 Mesa, Arizona Gig Poster
by Frank Kozik 9654 S/N

Grammys not showing their "metal"

Awards show gets it wrong ... again
By Peter Lindblad

AC/DC gave a commanding
performance at this year's Grammys

For just a second, let's forget about Kanye West and his weird obsession with getting Beyonce a Grammy. Can we talk about the Grammys and their "heavy metal problem?"

Why can't they ever seem to get metal right? Smartly, the Grammys kicked off their soul-sucking awards show with AC/DC doing "Rock Or Bust" and then following it up with a galvanizing performance of "Highway to Hell."

Katy Perry – yes, that Katy Perry – had plastic devil horns on her pretty little head and was flashing signs. Lady Gaga was losing her mind over it. Everybody was on their feet, from clueless industry executives to Dave Grohl, celebrating the survival of battle-scarred veterans rocked by a founding member's debilitating health problems and another's bizarre legal battles.

Oh, Grammys ... we knew you cared. This was a magnanimous gesture, one that would surely lead to peace between an institution that either had no clue about metal or was intentionally dismissive.

Metallica's ... And Justice for All
lost the Grammy to Jethro Tull

And then came the award for Best Metal Performance. The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences first recognized metal in 1989 with a category known as Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental. A lot of people forget that "Best Hard Rock" part, because that year, the Grammy inexplicably went to Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave. over Metallica's ... And Justice For All.

The metal community has never forgiven the Grammys for that disaster. Still, there is that nagging feeling that at least they were taking into consideration the "Best Hard Rock" part of the equation in making the decision. Still, hardly anybody mentions Crest of a Knave anymore, except when people want to talk about how out to lunch the Grammys are when it comes to heavy metal.

Over the years, the title of the category has changed, and Metallica has ended up with their fair share of Grammys. Controversy has dogged this area, with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell wondering why Dokken was nominated in the heavy metal category a year later. Many, including yours truly, had a beef with Soundgarden winning a Grammy for "Spoonman" in 1995.

Here's the rest of the entrants that year: Rollins Band's "Liar"; Pantera's "I'm Broken"; Megadeth's "99 Ways to Die"; and Anthrax's groundbreaking collaboration with Public Enemy on "Bring the Noise." Little did Cornell know that he'd be living in a newly furnished glass house five years later when he made his remarks about Dokken.

Anyway, the point is, there have been good choices and not-so-good picks in the past 15 years, but surprisingly, the Grammys had generally avoided making complete fools of themselves in that time. That is until last year, when the show cut off a performance from Queens of the Stone Age, Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham before it was finished – a sort of musical coitus interruptus, if you will.

Reznor declared a self-imposed exile from the event forever. They were insulted, and it stands to reason that aside from Grohl, who always seems to want to play peacemaker, none of them will ever do the Grammys again. Black Sabbath's win aside, this was not a good moment for the Grammys and metal. This was Vladimir Putin defecating in Obama's corn flakes. And that doesn't even take into the Grammys' In Memoriam snub to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman, repeated again this year with its overlooking Gwar's Dave Brockie.

So, we come to this Sunday's event, filled with the usual ridiculous drama and lame thrown-together collaborations it's always had and awards handed out to the undeserving – Beyonce, I'm looking at you!

But here comes Best Metal Performance. In this category are Anthrax's "Neon Knights," Mastodon's "High Road," Motorhead's "Heartbreaker" and Slipknot's "The Negative One" – all worthy candidates. But, when that envelope was opened, the award somehow went to ... Tenacious D's remake of Dio's "The Last in Line."

Okay, Tenacious D are great at what they do, and Jack Black and Kyle Gass came up with an amazing version of "Last in Line," doing Ronnie James Dio proud. But choosing a slap-sticky acoustic comedy duo over four incredible bands like that? It's a, pardon the pun, joke ... and it smacks of the Grammys consciously and with malice of forethought again spitting on metal. What it comes down to is this: whatever you think of the Grammys, at the very least, they are supposed to recognize sublime artistry in music. By that yardstick, it's hard to even fathom why Tenacious D was nominated in the first place.

And lest you believe this is rampant paranoia or an oversensitivity as to how metal specifically is mistreated by the Grammys, do you think for a moment they'd ever choose somebody like Tenacious D over their precious Taylor Swift or Sam Smith in any other category? Not in this lifetime. This was a decision made carelessly and deliberately so, and because of that, it's a slap in metal's corpse-painted face.

I don't buy the notion that the Grammys are simply lorded over by old geezers who somehow just don't get metal and make decisions based on a lack of awareness. That argument didn't hold water then and it doesn't now. They've had all this time since the Jethro Tull debacle to figure out how to give metal the respect it deserves. And time and time again, they prove they just don't give a shit about it. This is the Grammys saying, "Hey, I've seen those guys in the movies. Forget all the rest of those clowns. Let's give it to them. I liked 'The Pick of Destiny.' Hell, 'Nacho Libre' was a work of cinematic genius!"

And if the Grammys really and truly were paying attention to metal, wouldn't they stop trotting out the same old acts to reward retroactively for sins of the past? Wouldn't they include newer acts in the Best Metal Performance category, like Revocation, Periphery, Animals As Leaders, etc., etc.?

Trashing the Grammys is dumb. It's like a vegan trying to get McDonalds to give up beef for tofu. They'll never change. I hate talking about them. And yet, here we are. Damn it, Grammys ... you've won again. Visit http://www.grammy.com/ and tell 'em what you think. At least Brann Dailor got to show off that cool suit.

CD Review: John Garcia – John Garcia

CD Review: John Garcia – John Garcia
Napalm Records
All Access Rating: B+

John Garcia - John Garcia 2014

The name John Garcia still carries a lot of weight among glazed-over dwellers of the desert/stoner metal community. People there will never forget what he did with the archetypal Kyuss, having blazed rough trails through the most unforgiving of sonic terrain.

There are cults that would kill for the kind of devotion Garcia and the rest of Kyuss have inspired. And although Josh Homme has gone on to bigger and better things with Queens Of The Stone Age, his Kyuss co-founder has not so quietly built an impressive and remarkably consistent catalog of recordings with projects such as Slo-Burn, Unida, Hermano and, most recently, Vista Chino.

That arid, distant voice of his a dagger cutting straight through the sonic haze, vague menace and hypnotic pull of a sub-genre he helped establish, Garcia goes the lone-wolf route on this his first solo album, out on Napalm Records. Leaner and more clean-shaven than other works his name's been attached to, although some of the fuzz remains, John Garcia is a record with a strong pulse and an undeniable affinity for the brawny riffs and catchy hooks of '70s classic rock, as "5000 Miles" sounds like ZZ Top trying to swim its way out of quicksand and the steely, acoustically sketched closer "Her Bullets Energy" reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's brushed folk supplications, with a little Spanish guitar thrown in for good measure.

And while "Argleben," heavy and trance-inducing, is deep-fried in distortion and stuck in great, thick groove ruts – the album is full of them – "My Mind" rides with Steppenwolf into dark skies rumbling with heavy-metal thunder, all the while brandishing guitars wrapped in barbed-wire. Every song on John Garcia is sinister and seductive, sounding mean as hell on the agitated, pounding post-punk engagement "All These Walls." He swims with especially strong currents in the rugged, mid-tempo, swinging hammer "Rolling Stoned," the deliriously infectious "Saddleback" and the spellbinding, serpentine "Flower," as a sense of unease pervades the throbbing "His Bullets Energy," its slashing guitars and unpredictable bass counter melody stalking its prey with murderous intentions and practically begging for a restraining order.

Notwithstanding the sluggish blues of "Confusion" and its equally sedentary "The Blvd," John Garcia crackles with energy and brands its deep, dynamic grooves into your brain. Guests like Danko Jones, Nick Oliveri and Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger – his intricate work can be found on "Her Bullets Energy" – go with Garcia on this vision quest and help him discover his true nature.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Vista Chino – Peace

Vista Chino – Peace

Napalm Records

All Access Review: A-

Vista Chino - Peace 2013

The names have been changed to protect … well, the brand. After stoner-metal giants Kyuss called it a day in 1995, the group’s following grew exponentially and calls for a reunion grew louder and louder as the years passed.

In 2011, John Garcia, Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri toured as Kyuss Lives! Conspicuous by his absence, Josh Homme, having long ago moved on to Queens of the Stone Age, wanted no part of the much-anticipated reunion. More than that, however, he didn’t want anybody else using the Kyuss name either, and he, along with another former member, Scott Reeder, set in motion legal action to stop them from using it. Evidently, Homme was going out of his way to make damn sure this version didn’t tarnish the Kyuss legacy with some half-baked cash-grabbing nonsense that failed to include him.

Being the hardy desert folk they are, Garcia and Bjork, who played with Sabbath-influenced, muscle-car fanatics Fu Manchu for many years, have decided to carry on under a new name. Say hello to Vista Chino. Tuning down their guitars to deeply resonant levels, while still allowing shape-shifting melodies to drift in and out of a fuzz-toned haze, Vista Chino concocts a murky and strangely intoxicating brew on the musical sweat lodge that is the surging Peace, with the grumbling malevolence and guitar witchcraft of “Dragona Dragona” casting a particularly irresistible doom-laden spell.

Crispy around the edges, Peace is not the work of burnouts living off their past reputations, even if the record’s dank atmosphere is as smoky and close as any seedy drug house. A swirling maelstrom of burrowing, evil guitars, pummeling drums and splashing cymbals, rumbling rhythms and Garcia’s strong, illuminating vocals cutting through the sonic fog, Peace is thick, heady stuff, indeed, but it’s not exactly pretty.

Insidiously infectious and utterly compelling, “Adara” and “As You Wish” ride on hypnotic, writhing movements and grimy riffs into dark, scary places, while the dirty bomb of distortion known as “Planets 1 &2” drives Hawkwind’s space-rock aesthetic down to bad interplanetary neighborhoods and slides into a slow-motion slipstream that drowns all who follow it there in sludge and bong resin. There’s a bluesy feel to Peace that is inescapable, but it’s a dangerous, rough-and-tumble mutation of Cream’s heavy psychedelic visions, as the jazzy “Dark and Lovely” swings and tunnels ever deeper into a disordered mind, its grooves becoming more engorged as every second passes.

It all leads up to the tempest-tossed, mythic 13:25 closer “Acidize … the Gambling Moose,” a gloomy, gathering blues-rock storm whose immense winds blow trash and paper all over a lonely highway, some of it getting stuck in a dead tree’s spindly branches. Portending doom, it’s like a soundtrack for a Day of the Dead march in Mexico, as Vista Chino slows to a seductive crawl and a guitar solo pierces the gloaming of a truly evil-sounding love song. Vista Chino’s fevered imagination has finally gotten the best of them in the most surprising and interesting ways. They let songs and arrangements unfold organically, whereas Queens of the Stone Age seems hell-bent on making incongruous ideas fit, even though they never will. Vista Chino has its revenge. http://www.napalmrecords.com/

– Peter Lindblad