Gig’s Not Up Yet!

The sounds and graphics that communicated pun rock’s newness and urgency continues to inspire creativity today.

by

Local Music

Milwaukee's punk and new wave music of the 1970s and '80s shouldn't only be a source of nostalgic memories for those who lived it. 

So contends Tom Crawford, who lived through the fledging days of what some now call the city's alternative rock scene. The sounds and graphics that communicated its newness and urgency, he says, should inspire creativity today.

“It’s a blueprint. It shows what a city can do when people stop waiting for permission and start making,” Crawford, manager and chief engineer of WMSE, declares of “Gig's Up: 50 Years of Milwaukee Punk Posters.” The exhibition of show fliers is currently on display at Real Tinsel Gallery. The exhibit’s third and final panel discussion, “Notes from the Milwaukee Underground Music Scene,” will be moderated by local zine pioneer Clancy Carroll and include Crawford and fellow WMSE veterans Paul Host and Downstairs Dan, Shepherd Express cofounder Dave Luhrssen (Express began as a punk zine) and music reporter Blaine Schultz along with writer-musician Eric Blowtorch. They will speak at Real Tinsel 6-7 p.m. Friday,Nov. 14.  

Underground MKE

Crawford characterizes the exhibition as the third piece of a quarter-century of securing the ongoing importance of this era of Milwaukee underground music. It began with the 2001 release of the double-CD History in 3 Chords: Milwaukee Alterative Bands 1973-1982 compilation. The chronicle continued with 2017’s oral history book, Brick Through the Window: An Oral History of Punk Rock, New Wave and Noise in Milwaukee, 1964-1984. 

“It gives it a face,” Crawford says of “Gig's Up,” providing a visual identity to the music and its story, “The posters captured the look: the raw, funny, loud energy that defined the era. It’s the final layer of the Milwaukee punk mythology.” 

Luhrssen adds, “‘Gig’s Up’ grew out of the same impulse as Brick and History in 3 Chords, as a way to document a segment of Milwaukee history that John Gurda and academic historians tend to overlook. But as Paul Host, Clancy, Tim Noble and I planned Gig’s Up, we decided to include poster artists from the ‘70s through the present to show a continuum of visual art in Milwaukee influenced by the punk ethos."  

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Much of that the 2D representation of the music came from the same people making the tunes. Oil Tasters and Violent Femmes alum Guy Hoffman figures prominently among the artists featured at Real Tinsel. “Yeah, Guy’s a perfect example of that crossover," Crawford notes,” a musician with a visual streak. 

“But he wasn’t alone. A bunch of folks in those early bands wore multiple hats because someone had to. Sometimes it was the drummer who could draw, sometimes the bass player who knew how to work a Xerox machine. Nobody hired 'designers'; if you had scissors, glue and an idea, you were in business. That’s what gave the posters their edge. They were made by the same people making the noise, so the look matched the sound perfectly: rough, clever, and full of attitude,” Crawford continues. The handiwork of Hoffman's fellow Taster Richard LaValliere and the Femmes Brian Ritchie can also be seen at the Gig.      

Hunting for Flyers

Also rough at times was the hunt to secure the fliers comprising the show. 

“It was a scavenger hunt and a love letter,” Crawford recounts. “Posters were rescued from basements, scrapbooks, venue closets. Half of them still smelled like beer. The curatorial crew—with help from collectors and old-school scenesters—did the detective work and gave the pieces context. Considering these were meant to survive a weekend, the survival rate is a minor miracle.”

Not so miraculous is that some of those posters' creators went on to careers in visual arts. 

“A number kept the creative engine running. Guy Hoffman went on to nationally known bands and kept making visual work. Others,” Crawford offers, “slid into photography, commercial design, printmaking, advertising and gallery work. Even the folks who didn’t hang a shingle still carry that aesthetic into whatever they do. Once you’ve pulled an all-nighter kerning ransom-note letters, you don’t forget how to make something out of nothing.”

Crawford counts his FM station as a continuation of the same punk spirit embodied in “Gig's Up.” “I’ve been lucky to watch Milwaukee reinvent itself over four decades, and the common thread is that good ol’ Milwaukee DIY heartbeat. WMSE was built on it and still runs on it.”

As for following the blueprint of which he speaks, “If you leave the show inspired to form a band, start a label, design a poster, or throw a gig … then the past did its job on the future.”