12/15/08

The Original Punk Rock Art

I was a huge fan of Raymond Pettibon's work years before I even knew who he was. I first started listening to Black Flag in 5th grade when the only other punk rock kid at my school, who was a 10th grader, started lending me all his tapes. I used to wander the halls at my school as an elementary student when I should have been on my way to gym or lunch and that is how I met Tae. Whenever I would go wandering I usually found him sitting by himself drawing or with his headphones on. In hindsight it was pretty cool of him to hang out with me (some little kid basically) and let me borrow all his music, sometimes I called him on the phone after school and we would talk about music for a while. Most early 80s hardcore albums were pretty cool, but the Black Flag album art took it to the next level. Yes, Pettibon and Greg Ginn (guitarist) are brothers, but the art and music seemed to come from the same place. Sitting in my room listening to my boombox for hours after school I realized that what I felt when I listened to music I could also feel and express in art, and ideas and feelings are not limited to any particular medium. This music took over my life all through middle and high school and I have closets full of limited edition colored 7",zines, t-shirts and stacks of flyers. Here are some of Pettibon's flyers for Black Flag shows. And yes, Rollins killed Black Flag but his journals in Get In The Van are amazing.