Website of the Week: AZ Punk Flyer Archive!
I’ve been meaning to do a write-up about this website for a long time but every time I go to “research” it, I get caught up in all the cool shit there is to look at and listen to and I forget why I was there in the first place… I guess I’m a sucker for regionally-based zines and websites. While technology like Google street view or any other virtual reality type crap tries to make you feel like you’re really “there” in some real or imaginary place on your computer screen, I feel like there’s nothing like looking through the historical archives (or current show reviews) of another town or country and letting your imagination and experience transport you there. Enter shavedneck.com, a.k.a “Arizona Hardcore Punk Rock Flyer Archive 1982-1984“…Sure, there are quite a few of these kinds of websites out there but most of them have a certain air of fetishistic early HC worship or a “you young kids don’t even know how fuckin’ cool it was back in the day” kind of attitude. But in his About page for this website, original CONFLICT guitarist Bill Cuevas actually got me a little choked up with the story behind his flyer collection, how he nearly lost or got rid of it on several occasions before the possibility of sharing it with the world via the internet was ever an option, and this wonderful sentiment at its conclusion: “It’s with this in mind that I ‘tip my beer’ to the present generation who instead of wallowing in the past use it as a foundation upon which to build bigger and better things.”
This website was built in 2004, so it has a clunky feel to it compared to most newer sites, but in a weird anachronistic way that adds to old-school feeling of digging through these archives, and the joy of stumbling on new things you didn’t see before. The site’s main focus is flyers from Tuscon, but you can also find a bunch of flyers from Phoenix and LA, as well as photos by Ed Arnaud, stickers, fanzines, and some awesome music downloads. The coolest things I found on my most recent visit were an excellent live recording of HÜSKER DÜ just after they recorded Metal Circus, and the Youth Manifesto comp tape out of LA… And of course there are downloads from Tuscon greats CONFLICT and CIVIL DEATH as well. Surfing this website feels like digging through someone’s old boxes of flyers and tapes. It’s a real joy! Check it out — I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
