I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to stick all of these up on the web so that people could see them?" This led to further insight. "Wouldn't that be a hell of a lot of work? I wonder if anybody else has done this?" So, I present to you, the Netpunk guide to punk rock flyer archives (and perhaps other archival stuff) on the web.
A lot of my flyers are from the early days of Boise punk rock, circa 1983-1986. This was a period when Pushead was doing most of the Boise shows, and therefore, doing most of the flyers for those shows. Fortunately (for me, so I don't have to do it), an ex-Boise punk, now living in Chicago, has already stuck most of these flyers up at the website of his online record store. Check them out at http://www.uhfrecords.com/flyers.html . Not just Boise or Pushead stuff here, either. Well worth a look.
Another page of flyers is at Monkey Boy's Flyer Page (http://www.homestead.com/affenpinscher/monkeyboysflyerpage.html). Unfortunately, this site takes forever to load, as the thumbnails of the flyers are actually the full images. Not recommended unless you have a fast connection, you'll find flyers here of most of the classic early-80s punk bands.
The Seattle Music Web Poster and Flyer archive at http://seattlemusicweb.com/flyers/ has a lot of flyers from old Seattle punk bands of the early 80s, and grunge bands of the late 80s / early 90s. There are also a few non-Seattle flyers here. Some classic stuff.
In my search for flyers, I also ran across several sites that did flyers and more. One such was Brian Sayle's home page at http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~gammy/ . Brian has a pretty extensive flyer archive, with flyers from the US and England. In addition, Brian has a record and tape trading section, and a 7" picture sleeve archive, with sleeves from all over the world. Very cool.
Weirdotronix (http://members.tripod.com/weirdotronix/) is site that bills itself as having "Relics from 70's/80's So Cal Punk". This site has a handful of photos, some absolutely classic flyers, and a "gig diary", which is basically a bunch of reviews of shows from the early '80s. Fans of SoCal punk will definitely want to visit this one. A word of warning, though -- the flyer and photos pages take a long time to load. Skip the photos if you have a slow connection and go directly to the flyers.
That is it for the flyer sites. One thing I noticed, both while looking through my box of old stuff, and while perusing the online flyer archives, is that the quality of flyers has gone downhill nowadays. This is probably due to the use of clip art and computers, and it is a real shame. If you put on shows, and you want your flyers to be classics, consider visiting these sites and learning how it is done.
I want to mention a couple of other archive sites I ran across while doing research for this column. First is The Jr. Zero Archives at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/9665/zero.html . Not as extensive as I had hoped, this site gives bios and discographies of quite a few of the more well known early punk bands. In addition, there is information about punk labels, and a bit about well known punks. Still growing, you'll probably find some interesting, if incomplete, information at this site.
The Punk Imperative is an interesting site. The site is one person's idea of the most important bands of the pre-punk, punk, new wave, and post-punk era, as well as recommendations for the essential albums to acquire from those periods. Interesting idea, if not essential. Find out if you agree by visiting http://members.tripod.com/~punkimperative/ .
That is gonna have to do it for this month. A reminder that you can e-mail me at netpunk@diehippiedie.com, or visit my website at http://www.diehippiedie.com/ . Maybe I'll even have some sort of a flyer and/or old sticker archive up by the time you make it by. If all goes well and the world doesn't end before next issue, I'll see you next month.