If you think rock critics are self-important shitbags who believe their writing is as important as the music they're reviewing, then you should meet the hobbyist nerds who produce visually outlandish — and in some cases quite brilliant — silkscreen concert posters. Concentrated in such alterna-scenes as Boston, Austin, and Seattle, this repulsive bunch exude more counter-culture geek clichés than Comic Book Guy.
One dude says he creates "cultural artifacts" (rather than mere art); another believes his efforts are noble strikes against "a death of innovation in music." Here's the thing, though: such severe tools could have made for remarkable documentary fodder if director Eileen Yaghoobian had shown the least bit of spite for her loathsome subjects.
And bite is not the only omission: Died Young suffers from an unforgivable lack of substantial background on early punk-rock posters, and from Yaghoobian's failure to include a relevant soundtrack and interviews with any actual bands. They must not be important enough.
