Rush “Fly by Night” 45th Anniversary Screen Print by Ames Bros x Collectionzz

Collectionzz has teamed up once again with popular artists the Ames Bros for the next poster in their Iconic by Collectionzz screen print series commemorating another legendary moment in music history! Check out this striking Rush screen print celebrating the 45th anniversary of the acclaimed band’s second studio album, Fly by Night. Vinyl aficionados may recognize this design featuring a snow owl with piercing eyes, which was inspired by the original album cover.

In December 1974, Rush recorded their second album Fly by Night with their new drummer, Neil Peart. With the addition of The Professor, “suddenly, it was a very different band” said Geddy Lee. “Once we had Neil with us, so much changed in the way we wrote music and the way we presented it. And from that point on, it felt like we could do anything...” Alex Lifeson agreed, “in many ways, the second album felt like a new start for the band.” Rush supported Fly by Night with a 70 city US and Canadian tour from February to June 1975 opening for rock behemoths Kiss and Aerosmith, which also included their first major headlining shows.

Rush “Fly by Night” 45th Anniversary by Barry Ament of Ames Bros is an 18”x24” signed and numbered screen print. The Main Edition ($75) is a 5 color screen print on French white 100lb cover and is limited to 125 pieces. The Swirl Foil Edition ($125) is a 6 color screen print on Oil Swirl Foil Paper and limited to 75 pieces. Both Editions will go on sale at noon EDT this Tuesday, August 11th, at on iconic.collectionzz.com.

The Who “Live at Leeds” 50th Anniversary Screen Print by Ames Bros x Collectionzz

Collectionzz has teamed up with artist the great Coby Schultz of Ames Bros for the next poster in their Iconic by Collectionzz screen print series commemorating another legendary moment in music history. Check out the rad The Who “Live at Leeds” by Ames Bros! As Collectionzz explained, “If you don’t know about Live at Leeds, it is widely considered to be the best live album of all time, capturing The Who at their absolute pinnacle as a band. It would unfortunately be the only live album that features Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle.”

The Who “Live at Leeds” 50th Anniversary by Ames Bros will go on sale at 12pm EDT on Friday, May 15th, at Collectionzz.com. There will be two editions of the poster available. The Glow in the Dark Editions an 18”x24” signed and numbered 3 color screen print on Cougar Smooth Opague 100lb Cover paper. It is limited to 165 pieces and will retail for $75.

The Black Metallic Edition is a signed and numbered 4 color screen print on Metallic Black Ore 105lb Cover paper. It is limited to 75 pieces and will retail for $125. Plus, as always all orders have the chance to land one of five extremely rare chase Lava Foil Variants, which is limited to just 10 pieces.

Pearl Jam Gigaton Screen Print by Ames Bros

As a diehard Pearl Jam fan, The Blot was really excited to learn the band had teamed up with artists the Ames Bros, Ken Taylor and Krzysztof Domaradzki to create fine art prints inspired by PJ’s first new album in seven years, Gigaton! These prints were originally to be released at a New York City pop-up shop the day of the album’s release, but those plans were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I guess New York’s loss is our gain as all three artists will be releasing their Pearl Jam Gigaton art prints online instead today, Monday, April 20th.

The Ames Bros Pearl Jam Gigaton art print is a large format 30”x30” signed and numbered 7 color screen print on 100% cotton archival paper with hand deckled edges. This screen print is limited to 200 pieces and comes hand numbered. The Ames Bros’ copies will be the odd numbers and will come signed, while the Pearl Jam fan club, Ten Club, will be selling the even numbers at a later date and those will be unsigned. The 80 artist copies will go on sale at 10am PST on Monday, April 20th, at AmesBrosShop.com for $250.

Batman & Seattle Seahawks Inspired “Pearl Jam Bathawk” T-Shirt by Ames Bros

Pearl Jam and Ames Bros are teaming up to support the Seattle Seahawks Kick Hunger Challenge and fight to end hunger. All of the profits from the sale of this awesome “Pearl Jam Bathawk” t-shirt designed by Ames Bros, and inspired by Batman and the Seattle Seahawks, goes straight to the Food Lifeline to help feed the hungry. This killer design is currently available in a variety of styles (including mens, womens and youth t-shirts, a hoodie and a zip-up hoodie) in sizes S-XXL at the Ames Bros online store for $26-60.

Pearl Jam Transformers Global Citizen Festival Concert Poster by Ames Bros

This weekend Pearl Jam, The Blot’s favorite band, will be performing at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park! To commemorate the performance, PJ is teaming up with Volcom to host a killer Pearl Jam Pop Up Shop at Volcom Soho (446 Broadway, New York, NY 10013) all week long. This Pearl Jam pop up shop is the only place where you purchase the full NYC PJ merchandise line dropping this week, including this epic Transformers inspired concert poster by the Ames Bros! I seriously love how the Ames Bros redesigned the entire band (including Boom) as Transformers for this release. Pearl Jam will be releasing four different screen prints commemorating this show by artists the Ames Bros, Broken Fingaz, Don Pendleton and David Hale. The PJ pop up shop at Volcom Soho will be the only place to purchase these prints as the only Pearl Jam merchandise available at the festival will be the show’s official Global Citizen X Pearl Jam t-shirt.

The Pearl Jam 2015 Central Park's Great Lawn NYC by the Ames Bros is a 20”x26” Transformers 6 color Screen Print. The version sold at the Volcom pop up shop will not come signed and numbered, however the Ames Bros have also released a signed and numbered version that was limited to 130 pieces and is now sold out.

Billboard’s 25 Best Rock Posters of All Time

This is one of the cooler “Best Of” lists I’ve seen in a while and it’s sort of a follow up to The Blot’s earlier Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros. post. Billboard.com has compiled a list of The 25 Best Rock Posters of All Time and the Ames Bros.’ concert poster for Pearl Jam’s September 15, 2005 show in Montreal, Quebec is ranked #12. Congrats to both the Ames Bros. and Pearl Jam!

The list seems to be pretty comprehensive and actually a lot more varied than I would have expected. Obviously the list is open to interpretation and I’m sure people have their favorites that didn’t make the list, but that’s what’s great with any “Best Of” list. The list actually goes back as far as 1956 and covers a crazy array of artist including the obvious ones (the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Coachella festival), classics artists (The Beatles, Elvis, the Rolling Stones, James Brown) and everything in between (Elvis Costello, Thelonious Monk, Pennywise, The Decemberists, the Family Values Tour).

My favorite one on the list comes in at #23 by the House of Blues Concerts. It is a poster for Ben Harper’s performance at the Sasquatch Music Festival, May 26-28 2006, at The Gorge. There’s just something about the way the poster captures Ben Harper’s facial expression in the tree's leaves that I really like.

Once again if you’re interested in purchasing the new coffee book Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros., you can do so here or here.

Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros.

The Blot can still remember the first time I ever heard Ten, Pearl Jam’s first album, over fifteen years ago. At that point I had never heard of the band and little did I know that only a few months later they would become one of the biggest bands on the planet, even gracing the cover of Time magazine. Who knew then that even after the fall of grunge Pearl Jam would still be touring as strong today as they ever did.

It’s almost embarrassing to admit this, but I still remember my camp counselor at sleep away camp putting in the cassette tape and telling us to check out this new band. I mean come on, a cassette tape? Does anyone even admit to using those anymore? I wanted to share that anecdote to drive home the fact that even though Ten may have come out during the birth of the CD, Pearl Jam is no longer the little alternative band that could. They are now officially elder statesmen of rock.

Needless to say, after that very first listen I was hooked and Pearl Jam has been my favorite band ever since. I bring this all up to let you know of a pretty cool new release from the band. It’s not an album though, it’s a coffee book titled Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters "a chronology of Pearl Jam's celebrated concert posters spanning 1995-2007. Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros features over 80 comments on individual posters from all five members of Pearl Jam and running commentary from the poster designers -- offering insight into the inspiration, concepts and process of poster creation." (Link)

Concert poster art dates back a pretty far way to the original handbill, which was nothing more than a listing of the artists playing at any particular show. As time went on these handbills became less a listing and more of an art form which incorporates the musicians playing at a concert into the artists’ work. Many bands throughout history have found their concert posters to be an extension of their music and worked with specific artists to translate their sound and message to the viewer.

Like many musicians before them, Pearl Jam takes their concert posters very seriously. The band releases an original limited edition poster for almost every single show. But they have been known in the past to combine shows into a single poster. They work almost exclusively with artists Brad Klausen and the Ames Bros., which is comprised of Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament’s brother Barry and Coby Shultz. I’ve really enjoyed their work over the years and always make it a point to get a poster from every PJ show I’ve been to. The coffee table book looks amazing and it comes in two versions, the standard green hard bound book, which sells for $50, and the limited edition orange which is retailing for $200! The limited edition version comes with a number of extras, including 32 additional pages and three limited edition silk screened prints from the Ames Bros. and Klausen. The orange version has a print run of 3,000 with 2,600 being signed and numbered editions and another 400 being artist proofs. This is a must have for any die hard Pearl Jam fan or fans of concert art in general. Check some sample pages below:

You can purchase the book ether at Pearl Jam’s official website PearlJam.com or at the Ames Bros. official website Amesbros.com.

You can find Brad Klausen’s official website at ArtilleryDesign.com.