Archivism

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Archive.org is an underrated resource that more people should explore. Let's share some of the cool stuff you can find on there.



The John Peel show was a BBC radio program that primarily showcased independent, underground and otherwise eclectic music, selected by its DJ, John Peel. It was oftentimes the first bit of mainstream exposure for a lot of smaller artists.

Archive by year:
1967-1975
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999

Sadly the years 1982-1986 appear to be missing along with any episodes from 2000-2004.

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Attention K-Mart shoppers:
This is a collection of rescued cassette tapes a guy who worked from K-Mart in the 80s and 90s stole and later archived (they were apparently supposed to be thrown out every week but he just took them home) that would have been played over the PA system in store.



https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers
https://archive.org/search.php?query=cr ... -A-Thon%22
https://archive.org/search.php?query=cr ... cations%22

Here's the man himself talking about it:


I think I read an interview with him where he said he recorded every episode he could of Headbanger's Ball on MTV in the 90s but for copyright reasons hasn't uploaded.

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Here's an interesting bit of early 90s curiosa "Future Sex", a short-lived magazine that launched in 1992. Definitely more erotica than porn. Even then, the tone is more similar to a magazine like Wired (which back in the 90s and 00s was actually pretty good). The idea was clearly to create something classy, highbrow and thought-provoking that was sensual but also a bit raw. It's got a lot of characteristic graphic design and photography, you'd expect from the time, but in an application you would rarely see it used. The market they were aiming for was clearly for sophisticated, open-minded and sex-conscious yuppies, it's a very Hey, it's the 90s kind of affair. 1992 was also the year that Madonna's album Erotica and book Sex came out. It folded after 7 issues so I guess the world wasn't ready, and may not ever be, I guess selling the more cerebral stuff to people who just want to beat off might not work.







Pages like this are much more exciting to me than the sex stuff though.

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Muzik was a UK magazine that ran from 1995-2003 and covered dance music. It's full of artist interviews, reviews, articles on different aspects of the culture and fascinating ads for everything from new records to upcoming events to DJ equipment. What's interesting about magazines like this is the amount of hip credibility they consciously of cultivated. The music press had a symbiotic relationship with labels and clubs because access to important artists (both in the mainstream and underground) and exclusive events gave credibility to the magazine. And of course a cutting edge, popular magazine was an important point of exposure to the public for artists. Muzik in particular read as a who's who of mid 90s to early 00s dance music, I always feel like I learn something when I browse through it.

I like how bleeding edge magazines from this era appear, or at the very least present themselves. Since you still mostly had to rely on conventional media channels and the printed word at this time there was a degree of exclusivity and importance a print magazine could boast that a web publication can't really compare with. These days you can just follow your favorite artists now on twitter and instagram, and hear more from them than you'd ever want to. The rare exclusive tell-all interview on recording the next hit record is now something common. Highly image-conscious publications like Vice or Vox try to present themselves like they're on the cusp, but more or less everyone has exclusive access now

Regardless, a pretty cool first hand document during a (really the) dynamic era of electronic music.

I first found it on archive.org but their website has a faster download, I think the scans are the same.

http://www.muzikmagazine.co.uk/
https://archive.org/details/muzikmagazine/

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Not an archive.org find but cool nonetheless. Scans of early Games Workshop White Dwarf magazines:

https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/202 ... ite-dwarf/

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Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu

(1978) 30m, dir. David Loeb Weiss. On July 2, 1978, the last hot lead edition of the New York Times rolled off the presses. Weiss, a proofreader for the Times, documented the phasing out of this historical process, and what impresses us now, beyond the Ludlow machine (which casts the lead at 535 degrees), the Linotype machine (operated for the last time by Carl Schlesinger, who also narrates the film), and the presses, is the incredible noise generated by all these people and devices. The process is fascinating and sad, and the new computers seem baleful in the fluorescent lights of the new composing rooms. The film is as much about the passing of the mechanical age as it is about the newspaper biz, as told by those who were there that day...

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From 1987 to 1993, artists Craig Silver and Lynn Seeney produced Downtown Tonight, a weekly arts-oriented public access TV show. They interviewed and profiled visual artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers and documented the cultural scene of New York's Lower East Side. They also presented original experimental video work. The videotaped programs were aired on Channel D on Manhattan Cable TV, which evolved into Manhattan Neighborhood Network.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=cr ... +Seeney%22

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I changed the title to broaden the scope of the thread.

Anyway here's a pretty cool and completely forgotten show. Think I'm going to need to download these off of youtube in case they ever disappear.

Sunday Night, later named Michelob Presents Night Music, is a late-night television show which aired for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 as a showcase for jazz and eclectic musical artists. It was hosted by Jools Holland and David Sanborn, and featured Marcus Miller as musical director. Guests included acts such as Sonny Rollins, Shinehead, Sister Carol, Sonic Youth, Richard Thompson, Jo-El Sonnier, Joe Sample, Slim Gaillard, Elliott Sharp, Pere Ubu, Pharoah Sanders, and many others. In addition, vintage clips of jazz legends like Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, and Billie Holiday were also featured. The show also featured a house band of Omar Hakim (drums), Marcus Miller (bass), Philippe Saisse (keys), David Sanborn (sax), Hiram Bullock (guitar), and Jools Holland (piano). The show often allowed its guests ample time to explain the origins of their sound, meaning of songs, etc. It also provided a national audience for lesser-known acts (such as Arto Lindsay's band, Ambitious Lovers). Hal Willner was the music coordinator, responsible for the interesting musical mix-and-matching that took place on the show.

Similar to that short-lived erotica magazine I posted the other week, here's something that definitely was targeted at the sophisticated yuppies. As you'll see below there's an incredibly eclectic and high-brow selection of artists. Basically this show was too smart to really last for long. The hosts are kind of bad but it doesn't matter much (well Sandborn is at least a good saxophonist, he's played on a ton of smooth jazz records lol), the important thing is the performances. The house band is impressively tight and on the money as well.


(from episode 201)


(from episode 113)


(from episode 212)

I copied the guest lists from the youtube videos instead of wikipedia and they're incomplete, full list of music guests are here.

There are a couple episodes that are incomplete, for most I was able to track down individual performance clips, but the majority seem to exist in their entirety.

101 Ruth Brown, Ivan Neville, George Duke
102 Milton Nascimento, Nana Vasconcelos (incomplete)
103 Eddie Palmieri, Nick Gonzales, Phoebe Snow, Yomo Toro, Paul Simon
104 Dr. John, Mavis Staples, Jeff Healey
105 Dizzie Gillespie, Diane Reeves, David Peaston, Onaje Allan Gumbs
106 Randy Newman, Take 6, Mark Knopfler, Slim Gaillard
107 Marianne Faithfull, John Zorn, Aaron Neville, Rob Wasserman, NRBQ
108 Jack Bruce, Joe Walsh, Al Green, Billie Holiday, Highway 101, Nat Hentoff
109 Boz Scaggs, Betty Wright, Anson Funderburgh, Trio Bulgarka
110 Al Jarreau, Darlene Love, Johnny Clegg & Savuka, Bashiri Johnson
111 Earl Klugh, Patti Austin, Joe Sample, Donald Fagen, Muddy Waters, Sister Carol
112 Joe Cocker, David 'Fathead' Newman, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Judy Mowatt
113 Curtis Mayfield, Taylor Dayne, David Lindley, Shinehead, Coleman Hawkins
114 Squeeze, Sam Moore, Stanley Turrentine, Ashford and Simpson Joseph Joubert
115 Youssou N'Dour, Ambitious Lovers, Marcus Roberts, George Duke
116 Carlos Santana, Lyle Lovett, Hank Williams Sr., Fontella Bass, Wayne Shorter
117 Betty Carter, Branford Marsalis, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson
118 Take Six, Claude Jeter, Shirley Caesar, Ann Caesar Price, Dixie Hummingbirds
119 Leonard Cohen, Sonny Rollins, Ken Nordine, Was (Not Was)
120 Lou Reed, John Cale, Harry Connick Jr , Gladys Knight, Paul Shaffer
121 Robert Cray, John Hiatt, Nat King Cole, Tracy Nelson, World Saxophone Quartet
122 Little Milton Campbell, The Roches, John Lurie & The Lounge Lizards

201 Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Platters 1955, Van Dyke Parks, Maria McKee
202 (individual clips): Philip Glass, Debbie Harry, Pere Ubu, Loudon Wainwright III
203 Nona Hendrix, Pops Staples, Ivo Papasov, Adrian Belew, Elliott Sharp
204 Carla Bley, Bootsy Collins, Steve Swallow, Allen Toussaint, Karen Mantler & Band, Pretty Fat
205 Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal, Pat Metheny, Nanci Griffith
206 Ray Manzarek, Jean Luc Ponty, Chuck Jackson
207 Pixies, Al Green, Sun Ra, Syd Straw
208 Sting & Fareed Haque, Kinks Tape, Carla & Rufus Thomas, Bill Frisell Band, Mary Margaret O'hara
209 Miles Davis, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Djavan, Carl Perkins 1955 tape, Marcus Miller, Zahar
210 Diamanda Galas, Indigo Girls, Daniel Lanois, Aretha Franklin 1968, Sonic Youth, Evan Lurie & His Tango Band
211Eric Clapton with Robert Cray, Papa Wemba, Julee Cruise, Eric Burdon tape, Dan Hicks & Acoustic Warriors
212 (individual clips) The Residents, Conway Twitty, Aster Aweke, Kronos Quartet
213 (individual clips) Annabouboula, Nick Cave & Mick Harvey, Charlie Haden & The Liberation Music Orchestra, Toots Thielemans 1, Toots Thielemans 2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, sadly there's a Sister Carol performance on this one that's nowhere to be found
214 Graham Parker, Nrbq, Abbey Lincoln, Phil Woods, Son House 1967, Shabazz And His D J C E Just
215 Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Artis, John Lurie & Nana Vasconcelos, Bongwater, MJQ
216
217 Miles Davis, Hank Crawford, Abbey Lincoln, Kronos Quartet, Red Hot Chili Peppers
218 Eric Clapton and Robert Cray, Warren Zevon, NRBQ, Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Haden & his Liberation Orchestra, Dan Hicks & The Acoustic Warriors, Sister Carol, Steve Turre and his Sea Shells (incomplete?)

I ran out of steam trying to find the individual performances on ep 216, there were many repeat artists and a lot of clips don't have dates or episode numbers (and the wikipedia article doesn't have air dates either). Anyway, enjoy.

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The Pirate Archive

Archival site dedicated to preserving UK pirate radio broadcasts, primarily rave music from the late 80s to early 00s. The only way this stuff managed to be preserved was if listeners had a cassette tape handy and managed to hold onto it long enough to digitize it. While it is an incredible resource it doesn't keep archives of outfits that are still active such as KOOL FM, which was the main pirate Jungle station in London, and there's some puzzling lack of content for certain well known stations like DREAM FM, which got frequent mentions in Muzik Magazine. Both of those stations were also covered in a BBC documentary from the time. Still, an incredible resource.

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Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute

A catalog of a huge number of specific design languages, with the biggest emphasis being on trends c. 80s-00s. Tons of examples of each design style, some of which are extremely niche.