Oct 31, 2025 - Culture

1970s "anti-rock" band gets new exhibition

Annalise Frank

Two posters featuring collages of artwork with creepy faces and women playing music — Destroy All Monsters art. Images: Courtesy of Cary Loren

An edgy "anti-rock" band formed in Ann Arbor is being celebrated in a Cranbrook Art Museum exhibition.

The big picture: "Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters" tracks the group's origins and inspirations as it straddled the "post-hippie, pre-punk era." It evolved over the years and shifted focus among music, art, zines and film, per Cranbrook.

The exhibition features key moments in the band's history as well as posters, photos and drawings.

Flashback: Members Cary Loren, Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Niagara formed the band and artist collective in 1974. They named it after a Japanese monster film.

With avant-garde creativity and rebellious spirits, they sought to counter the empty pop culture they witnessed around them.

If you go: The exhibition runs Sunday through March 1 at the museum's Bloomfield Hills campus, 39221 Woodward Ave.

It opens with a preview party for the fall exhibitions 5-8pm Saturday. $20 for non-members.

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1970s "anti-rock" band gets new exhibition

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