Photos, flyers and memories: Two local music archives are IG havens for joy and nostalgia

What did we do without the internet, and more importantly, what did we do before Instagram?

Ugh. That really opens up a whole Pandora's Box of possible answers, but as much as I am not typically a fan of 'the 'gram' or 'Insta' or 'IG,' and clearly I have no idea what the cool kids call it, I've become a fan of two of its local music pages: Arizona Music Scene Archive and AZ Punk Rock Museum.

Both of these pages offer an awesome glimpse into the bands and shows of yesteryear here in the Valley of the Sun. I know some people don't enjoy looking back often, but these two sites are worth perusing if you're killing some scrolling time. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you might even remember a night you thought you'd forgotten.

The comment sections have become reconnection points for people scrolling the site, starting conversations and pointing out memorable moments from particular events.

First up, the Arizona Music Scene Archive was started by Javier Martinez and his wife, Anne Lasswell, at the end of 2024. The first post is a flyer for the Oh Shit! A Fest, a show that took place in downtown Phoenix on February 10, 2006. The lineup is a who's who of the local scene almost twenty years ago and even features bands like Landmine Marathon and Andrew Jackson Jihad in tiny print at the bottom of the flyer.Mauez and Lasswell started the page to share the images with friends, and over the past six months, they have added over 1,000 posts featuring flyers and photos from hundreds of shows.

"I started this basically on a whim. We've had our collection of hundreds of flyers in a box for years. I was gifted a scanner, and I grabbed a few flyers out of the collection to post on my personal account. I got a big response from my friends, and one of them asked me if they could see more. It hit me that I should make an Instagram account to have these in one spot where my friends and I could easily see them and enjoy the nostalgia," Martinez says.

Personally, I had to laugh at a few of the flyers because I had completely forgotten either attending or, in a few cases, playing the shows. I also had to cry at seeing some of the great bands I missed over the years when they were playing small places like Hollywood Alley and Modified. Case in point, a shot of the Hollywood Alley ad from the spring of 1997 that featured shows with Trunk Federation, Railroad Jerk (with the great Les Payne Product opening), and Built to Spill with Modest Mouse on April 30th of that year.

How did I miss that Built to Spill/Modest Mouse show? Not long after that show, Jason Sanford from Trunk Federation told me that Modest Mouse was going to be huge, and he wasn't wrong.
There are many other great things to see on the Arizona Music Scene Archive, but I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing.

"Looking at the posts on Arizona Music Archive is like stepping into a time machine. The early 2000s were a particularly pivotal, exciting time in my life, and I was going to shows all the time (with significant emphasis on the last three words). These posts take me straight back there, so much so that I even get a physical sense of what being at these shows felt like," says Dana Stern of locals JJCNV and Sturdy Ladies (latter band also includes Phoenix New Times music editor).

Not long after Arizona Music Scene Archive got rolling, the AZ Punk Rock Museum page by local musician Jonathan Kabir got started. While not as prolific in posting as Martinez, Kabir is posting 2-3 images a day on average, so the page is worth checking out on a regular basis.

While the two pages have a similar feel (identical cousins, maybe?), AZ Punk Rock Museum stays in its lane more than its slight predecessor. Kabir's tribute to the punk rock scene he loves and is part of gives nods to local and national bands alike and brings back a ton of memories along the way.

A recent post at the AZ Punk Rock Museum page featured a flyer from a 1987 show at Prisms (an old Chandler venue) for Die Kreuzen, Blast, and Boy Dirt Car. I was sixteen and at that show getting my mind blown, so seeing the flyer was fun as hell. You'll also find flyers for shows from other long-gone venues like the Mason Jar, Asylum, Stray Cat and many more.

Kabir played in the band Sigma for a decade in the early 2000s, so he experienced the Phoenix area punk rock community up close and personal.
"I had the chance to see and play many good shows with many good bands at some great venues, but unfortunately, most of this was not documented in pictures or videos. Because of that, most of the stories and memories from these shows just exist in my head and in the flyers," says Kabir.

Both Kabir and Stern mentioned their fondness for gathering flyers at record stores and venues in the past.

"Back then, the main way to find out about shows was from word of mouth and the flyers that were placed on racks at the venues and record stores, or online from the AZpunk message board. I placed most of these flyers in an old backpack, and it collected dust for many years. Earlier this year, I decided to create this Instagram account to upload these flyers to share them with the local scene," Kabir says.


"I always kept my eyes peeled for these flyers at Stinkweeds, Eastside, etc. because they informed how I would schedule my entire existence at the time. I wanted to see all the bands! (On the Arizona Music Scene Archive) I've spied a lot of bands I haven't thought of in forever and photos of people I haven't seen in years, which is kinda bittersweet, I guess. Definitely more sweet than bitter, but nonetheless, what a thrill to be keeping my eyes peeled for these flyers all over again," Stern says.

Please let us know if you have a similar page you'd like to share! There is room for more pages like the Arizona Music Scene Archive and the Arizona Punk Rock Museum. Celebrating our fantastic music scene is never a bad thing.

Here are a variety of band photos and show flyers from the Arizona Music Scene Archive and the AZ Punk Rock Museum: