The Archive of St. Louis Punk was created by Greg Kessler and active participant in the STL Punk scene since the 1980s. The niche that the project is trying to fill is showing how the punk scene exists outside the east and west coast. As much of American punk is colored by the DIY California punk or the NYC more goth punk scene. This collection is for researchers and fellow fans alike to relive the glory days or see how St. Louis a historically musical city has changed its tune. St. Louis has base in Blues music which later led to the birth of rock, which led to punk, and then punk split off a bunch of directions being the grandfather of alternative music. The definition of punk is so varied by the scene and person, so instead of narrowing what kind of donations were excepted Kessler allowed the collectors decide what is punk to them.
Collecting pieces that may be important relics for a person is difficult which is why the online preservation works. Some pieces of the collection are being housed together but Kessler states that he is aware of the connection collectors have to their items and he is just as happy to scan items and return them to owners. Though the spirit of punk is being accessible to all people despite their socioeconomic situation as it centers on DIY, cheap shows, and leftist ideals the site can be seen as inaccessible. It is online so you would have to have a device to access, either of your own or from a punk rock resource like a public library.
The collections on the site are named after the people who collected them which may be nice for people to recognize the names from their scene but makes it hard to determine what it will include; the archive collects promotional material like posters for gigs, recordings, pictures, band merch like buttons and shirts, and clippings from publications inside and outside the scene. If one were to go through the items they have tags to help find other pieces from that category. This website also links to another project which focuses on making high quality scans of gig flyers from the St. Louis music scene focusing on rock, punk, and goth. The Saint Louis Flyer Project can be a helpful addition to research that can be done with this collection and see the bands of the scene.
In the new age of subculture many subcultures run online which can kill a scene quick. The older I get the more I see St. Louis skipped over by bands maybe it’s because our scene is dying, now if I want to see a larger artist I have to travel to Chicago or KC. Is it the danger of the city warding off both music enjoyers and bands or is punk dead? Is holding on to pieces of a community that was never into being brought to the surface going to preserve the scene? The thing I hear from elder punks is that the scene was supposed to leave no trace and that the archiving can be antithetical to the scene’s purpose. Is the death of the scene just as important as it’s life? I will leave you with a Fall Out Boy title “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows).”