Join us at Get Hip for
Weird Monsters Art Show Opening Reception
Thursday, April 2, 2026
Continuing by appointment through Thursday, April 30, 2026
Sliding Scale * $10 Suggested Donation * All Ages * Signed books, posters, & records for available purchase
Garage, punk, & rock ‘n’ roll DJ sets by Peter Aaron and Mike Gabriel starting at 6pm and throughout opening reception. First performance 7pm (approx.)
Featuring performances by:
Tuff Sunshine
from Brooklyn, Johnny Leitera (solo) of Boogie Man Smash, Low Water
Count McKinleys
with Joe Morrison and Kurt Edwards of Mount McKinleys/Denalis
Plus a reading by:
Peter Aaron
from New York, author of Moving in Stereo: Rick Ocasek: The Driving Force of The Cars; Chrome Cranks, Stabbing Jabs
Contact 412-231-4766 or email barbara@gethip.com for more information.
Get Hip Records, 3rd Floor
1800 Columbus Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15233
More About the Artists
MIKE GABRIEL:
Mike Gabriel is a San Francisco-based artist/graphic designer, who unhappy and despondent with the political landscape in the run-up to the 2020 General Election, digitally merged 50 classic Hollywood movie monsters with an astounding number of corrupt and malfeasant political figures for a Bay Area “artist challenge” group show. Influenced in equal parts by Famous Monsters of Filmland and 1950s EC Comics, he created one new Monster per day for 50 days, exhibiting the results to rave reviews and selling out three complete iterations of the series. Now, distressed and completely vexed by the political landscape of 2025-26, Gabriel has revived and updated the “Monster” series to include new political fiends, despots, and creeps previously unseen lurking in the shadows of a corrupt Administration.
Gabriel has designed LPs/CDs for Sub Pop, Get Hip, Alternative Tentacles, Yep Roc, and Sympathy for the Record Industry, working with artists such as Chuck Prophet, Kelley Stoltz, Andre Williams, and the Jim Jones All Stars. Since 1999, he has been employed by advertising agencies such as BBDO; Duncan-Channon; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; creating print and online ads for clients such as Chevrolet, Intel, AT&T, Dickies, McDonald’s, and Stanford Children’s Hospital. As lyricist/singer/thereminst with garage-punk band, The Sermon (Alternative Tentacles), songs he wrote were featured in commercials by Levi’s and Indian Motorcycles, and included in Jonathan Demme’s “Power of Rock” exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Between 1996 and 1999, Gabriel recorded and toured nationally with the Pittsburgh-based garage band, Mount McKinleys (Get Hip Recordings).
His main art making focus is on print detritus and the discarded by-products of popular culture. Working primarily with repurposed wheat-pasted billboards and posters, he combines techniques of collage, décollage, and assemblage to invite a reconsideration of the organic strangeness of the distressed, weathered, and discarded. He has exhibited artwork in group and solo shows in the Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Pacifica, and Point Reyes Station), and further afield in galleries in Laguna Beach, CA; Norfolk, VA; Traverse City, MI; Elmira, NY; and Baton Rogue, LA.
Gabriel was raised in Pennsylvania and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.A. in English and Film Studies. Before moving to San Francisco in 1999, he was active in independent filmmaking, working as a film projectionist for Pittsburgh Filmmakers and in 1994, represented a low-budget feature film that he shot and co-wrote at the Cannes Film Festival.
Largely self-taught as a visual artist, he draws inspiration from the Nouveau Réalisme Movement, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bruce Conner.
ADDITIONAL INFO AND ARTWORK:
Famous Monsters of America
Homepage // Mike Gabriel
Instagram // Mike Gabriel
TUFF SUNSHINE:
Tuff Sunshine is an American rock band based in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Led by former New Castle, PA native, Johnny Leitera, he is backed onstage, on tour, and in the studio by numerous guest musicians. They include notable artists such as Linda Pitmon (The Minus Five/The Baseball Project/Filthy Friends) bassist Turner Stough (Shilpa Ray/I Am The Polish Army) and founding member Ani Cordero (Os Mutantes/Rasputina), among others. Leitera and Tuff Sunshine have shared bills with such diverse artists as Tim Rogers/You Am I, John Doe, Jonathan Richman and The Dead Boys. Leitera also tours as a solo musician, doing shows across the United States, the UK, and Australia.
DISCOGRAPHY:
• Half-Mast/Steadfast (EP, 2012)
• Kids Know (EP, 2014)
• Fire in the Hero Building (LP, 2015; re-issued by Brooklyn Arts Press, 2017)
• Dig Deeper, Peanut (LP, Declared Goods, 2019)
• Yesterday Suit (LP, Declared Goods, 2021)
• Vanity Matrix (LP, Declared Goods, 2024)
ADDITIONAL INFO (AND DOWNLOADABLE PHOTO):
Wikipedia // Tuff Sunshine
PETER AARON:
Peter Aaron is the author of If You Like the Ramones and The Band FAQ; the coauthor of Richie Ramone’s autobiography, I Know Better Now; the arts editor for Chronogram magazine; the front man of influential New York band the Chrome Cranks (Crypt Records, Sympathy for the Record Industry); and a member of the Stabbing Jabs and other musical projects.
In the 1980s, he promoted early concerts by Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, and others. His writing has appeared in the Village Voice, the Boston Herald, the Kingston Daily Freeman, and other publications, and online at AllMusic and All About Jazz. Host of the popular Go Go Kitty radio program, he lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He will read excerpts from his latest biography, Moving in Stereo: The Life of Ric Ocasek, the Driving Force of the Cars (Bloomsbury Academic, Sep 18, 2025, 264 pages).
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Chronogram // Peter Aaron
Radio Kingston // Peter Aaron
Facebook // Peter Aaron
COUNT McKINLEYS:
The mysterious and unpredictable Count McKinleys feature current Denalis Kurt Edwards (guitar, vocals) and Joe Morrison (drums, vocals), formerly of equally mysterious and unpredictable Pittsburgh garage band, Mount McKinleys (Get Hip Recordings). When pressed for a statement, a spokesperson for the outfit replied, “It is best not to spend much time considering what strange wind and cruel twist of fate has brought thee Count McKinleys and their psychedelic stay-off-the-moors sounds back to Pittsburgh.” Who knows what befalls these McKinleys when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is bright? Theoretically strong-armed by Mike Gabriel into performing at this show (with or without black capes), expect fuzz-damaged sounds emanating from hollow body guitars, punishing drums (sometimes played standing up), and howling, distorted vocals (possibly looped and running through an analog tape machine, you never know.) As Denalis (with bassist/vocalist Eric Vermillion (Gumball, Steel Miners)), their debut album will be released sometime later in 2026. As the Count McKinleys, they’ll probably never play again. So, catch this show while you can.
MOUNT MCKINLEYS SELECT DISCOGRAPHY:
• Portrait of a Mindbender (LP, Get Hip, 1995)
• The Indescribable High Rise Sounds of Today! (LP, Max Picou Records, 1997)
• Stacked Up (and Get It!) (LP, Get Hip, 1999)
• Thrill Thrill Thrill (EP, Mummified Sounds, 1992)
• No Come Down, Genius in Modern Music, Vol.2 (Single, 360 Twist! Records, 1997)
• Left Hand/Right Hand (Single, Anthracite Records, 1998)
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Facebook // Mount McKinleys
Discogs // Mount McKinleys
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh