The Death of Local Music Series

THE DEATH
OF LOCAL MUSIC

THE ARIZONA MUSIC HISTORY ARCHIVE
Preserving the bands, musicians, venues, recordings, flyers, photographs and firsthand stories that built Arizona music history across every generation, every scene and every volume of The Death of Local Music.
Richard N. Ornelas
aka Reverend Black Jack McBride
Author · Arizona Music History Archive
Try: RUKKUS · Mason Jar · Small Paul · Surgical Steel
SMOKE WAGON PRODUCTIONS · PHOENIX, ARIZONA · KEEP LOCAL MUSIC ALIVE
Support The Arizona Music History Archive donations

Archive Finds — Arizona Music History

The Arizona Music History Archive

Archive Finds

The Paper, Plastic, Tape and Memory That Survived
A music scene leaves more behind than songs. It leaves handwritten cassette labels, battered flyers, club passes, photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine pages, demo tapes, letters and pieces of paper that once seemed disposable. Decades later, those objects can settle arguments, restore forgotten names and put exact dates back into stories that memory alone can no longer hold.
Flyers · Master Tapes · Cassettes · Photos · Passes · Press · Letters
The Evidence Behind the Stories

Sometimes One Flyer Changes the Timeline

Oral history is the heart of this project, but surviving artifacts give those memories weight. A flyer can establish a venue and date. A cassette can settle a song title. A backstage pass can connect two bands to the same show. A magazine clipping can reveal a lineup nobody remembered correctly thirty years later.

The goal is not to collect old paper for nostalgia alone. The goal is to preserve evidence before it disappears into garages, storage boxes, estate sales, dumpsters or simply gets thrown away.

Dates Matter Flyers, passes, calendars and newspaper listings can turn “around 1992” into an exact night.
Names Matter Cassette labels, credits and press can restore forgotten spellings, lineups and technical contributors.
Context Matters One object can show which bands shared stages, which venues were active and how the scene connected.
One of the Most Important Surviving Pieces

The Original Sacrificial Death Master Cassette

Original Master · 1988

Don't Take the M666

The original master cassette survives. Its handwritten track list preserves the four-song order from the 1988 demo and gives the archive something far stronger than memory alone.

The cassette is also a reminder of how fragile local music history can be. This was not a major-label release stored in a corporate vault. It was a home-recorded Arizona demo, duplicated onto cassettes, handed to people, mailed out and carried around for decades. The fact that the original master still exists matters.

The complete recording story, duplication process, surviving correspondence and deeper history belong in the book. The website preserves just enough to show why the artifact matters.

What Belongs in the Archive

Nothing Is Too Small If It Helps Tell the Truth

Cassettes & Master Tapes Demos, rehearsal tapes, live recordings, handwritten track lists, duplication copies and unreleased sessions.
Flyers & Handbills Concert flyers, all-ages shows, desert parties, club calendars, benefit shows and local bills.
Photographs Band photos, stage shots, backstage images, rehearsal rooms, venues, crowds and personal collections.
Passes & Tickets Backstage passes, VIP laminates, ticket stubs and admission wristbands that can establish dates and bills.
Press & Magazines Local music magazines, reviews, interviews, advertisements, newspaper listings and scene columns.
Letters & Correspondence Fan mail, radio requests, booking letters, label correspondence, handwritten notes and mailed orders.
Posters & Artwork Original art, hand-drawn logos, cover designs and promotional pieces made before digital graphics took over.
Set Lists & Notes Handwritten set lists, rehearsal notes, lyric sheets, song lists and scraps of paper that preserve working history.
Digital Survivors Old websites, MySpace material, scanned photos, archived videos, digital flyers and files that are now disappearing too.
The Website and the Books

The Website Shows the Evidence. The Book Tells the Whole Story.

The archive pages will show selected artifacts and explain why they matter, but the site will not dump every scan, every photograph or every piece of documentation online.

What the Books Preserve

Complete context, deeper artifact histories, disputed dates, full interview connections, additional images, recording stories, handwritten evidence, venue histories and the discoveries that change what we thought we knew.

Open the Boxes

You May Be Holding a Piece of Arizona Music History

If you have old Arizona music material sitting in a closet, garage, storage bin or photo album, please do not assume nobody cares about it. A single flyer, cassette or photograph may contain information that exists nowhere else.

The archive is looking for:
  • Original concert flyers and handbills
  • Band photographs and live photos
  • Demo tapes, masters and rehearsal recordings
  • Backstage passes, tickets and club calendars
  • Local magazines and newspaper clippings
  • Letters, fan mail and booking correspondence
  • Old websites, videos and digital files
  • Anything that helps identify a date, venue, lineup, recording or forgotten name