Elena Johnston {Brian Krista, b}

Like sweaty, multicolored time capsules, show posters are cultural snapshots, giving you a genuine sense of where a town’s scene was for that moment in time, authentically exuding the energy of a place in a way that can’t be captured in any other medium.

However, aside from being prime dorm décor, posters are perceived by many as a disposable medium, not intended to serve much of a purpose outside of an event’s life span.

Yet when you lay down a collection of posters spanning a 15-year period in Baltimore’s music scene, the culmination of disposable moments suddenly solidifies into one hell of a visual education.

2006 Maryland Institute College of Art illustration graduate Elena Johnston, author of “Paper Kingdom – A Collection of Baltimore Music Posters,” states: “The poster represents the fusion of local art and music.”

As comprehensive as the book is, it started out as a mission of personal necessity. “I basically wanted to do something after I graduated that validated me staying in Baltimore. I got really into the music scene here and the posters, and I wanted to make a book about it,” Johnston says.

The 190-page retrospective spans the early ’90s to the present, with everything from Tonie Joy’s 1993 minimal black -and-white collage, featuring the likes of post-hardcore giants Unwound, to Wzt Hearts’ drummer Shaun Flynn’s 2006 silk-screened poster displaying a rainbow-bearded Dan Higgs, as well as the more tongue-in-cheek, high-concept work of Double Dagger frontman Nolen Strals, who amongst other visual offerings gives us a 2005 silkscreen consisting of Japanese noise makers Guitar Wolf, and de-activated Baltimore rockers Fascist Fascist, all compressed into a red circle at the center of the page, an obvious nod to Japan.

Through a combination of offering pre-orders and getting a little grant money, Johnston was able to piece together just enough of a budget to put out a humble first run of 55 books. At $38 a piece, it wasn’t easy on a DIY budget, Johnston says: “I have to do pre-orders. Otherwise I can’t afford it.”

The order of the book is purposely not chronological. Johnston seems to be going for something that erases the usual genre-specific walls that separate the many pockets of Baltimore music culture, with a poster from 1996 on one page, and one from 2008 on the next.

The book also features some great conversations with previously mentioned poster makers Nolen Strals and Shaun Flynn, as well as Beach House’s Victoria LeGrand and my Wham City cohort Dan Deacon, to name a few. As you skim through the book, it really dawns on you that where we’ve come as a music scene is very much intertwined with what came before, and the transfer of that passion through bands, good times and posters.

The books are more or less produced based on demand, so if you want one go to LuLu.com!

The next edition of “The Ed Schrader Show ” is Thursday at the Metro Gallery.

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