It's the perfect job: Art and rock 'n' roll.

He laughs.

"But it was really just a reason to talk to the bands that we love," he says.

Byzewski and partner Dan Ibarra started the well-known company, back when rock posters were just starting to enjoy a huge explosion in popularity. Now the medium is bigger than ever - even bigger than its heyday in the 1960s psychedelic rock scene.

A new Howl Gallery exhibit features signed and numbered posters and artwork by Aesthetic Apparatus, legendary 1960s poster artist Bob Masse and many of the new crop of poster artists. Those include Leia Bell, Brandon Dunlap and one of the gallery's tattoo artists, Bridey Bowen (who has designed posters for Florida bands Against Me! and Fake Problems).

The reason for the poster explosion is obvious, according to the 2004 book "The Art of Modern Rock." The Internet helped poster fans establish an online community. And shrinking album covers (thanks to CDs) followed by nonexistent album covers (thanks to digital downloads) forced people to find other ways to visually represent their favorite bands.

"Sadly, this is the last generation to be influenced by eye-popping LP covers," writes Paul Grushkin in the preface to "The Art of Rock." "But the poster has rushed to fill the growing void.

"The CD, and what's already come to replace it - downloadable files - put no value on package art, for decades an essential part of experiencing rock & roll. Yet the human condition demands visual art to help interpret and promote the music."

The first rock poster was created more than 50 years ago, writes co-author Dennis King. Now there are more concert posters being made than any time in rock history.

The number of poster designers have probably quadrupled since 1999, Byzewski says. Web site gigposters.com displays more than 104,000 posters from more than 96,000 bands.

"It's pretty crazy," he says.

The artwork includes Masse's concert and promotion posters for Jimi Hendrix, Tori Amos, The Who, The Grateful Dead and more. Plus Aesthetic Apparatus's posters for The Submarines, The Deaths, The Boston Spaceships and other indie rock bands.

Rock posters are a powerful medium, Howl explains, largely because of their striking simplicity. "You want to grab people's attention, quickly. There's a pop sensibility, like in comic books."

The Minneapolis-based Aesthetic Apparatus has made hand-printed, graphic-design focused images for bands such as The Decembrists, Frank Black, The Roots, Spoon, Sage Francis and many more. Plus loads of even more obscure bands.

The Submarines posters, in fact, feature one of Byzewski's favorite designs: a pair of cartoon submarines, one with a sad face, the other with a happy face. One Submarines poster also features lush flower and scroll designs - a nod to the '60s poster era made famous by Masse and other artists.

"The band wanted us to do our take on psychedelic," Byzewski says. "Only we didn't quite know how."

There's a good reason rock posters are still around, Byzewski says.

"I think posters have kind of replaced that tactile feeling that you lose on that small CD," he says. "It's something people can hold on to."