My first thought upon opening this gem was a particularly eloquent “Holy crap!” as my eyes bugged out at the art. It recurred after pretty much every page turn, and then again when I started to actually read and not just look at the art.

All aspects of the wonderful art of rock poster ads are covered here: production techniques from silkscreening to Photoshop, interviews with the artists, legality issues involving limited run sales and run-ins with the merch companies, even inspiration sources. For you theme-fetishists out there, the book is organized both by artist and iconography.

The Art of Modern Rock is stunning, just stunning. Too much to digest at once, really. (I apologize if this review is too short—it’s just that the right side of my brain doesn’t write in verbal language and the left side that does can’t come up with much better than the first two words.)
I only hope that some day my musical efforts will be advertised by such fine, visceral, art.