Trash Is Truth
The idea for this site started in the early 2000s when Joseph Pope (Instants, Angst) and I were working on documenting Colorado’s underground music scene from the late-1970s for the compilation, Rocky Mountain Low. We had both been contacting people about their involvement, tracking down recordings, photos, flyers and stories to help us build the most accurate and comprehensive audio and visual history of the scene that sprung up here in 1976/77. During this time I was also reaching out to friends to scan their flyers, photos and fanzines, most of which were from the 1980s. I cobbled together my own website utilizing what little HTML coding skills I possessed and launched it a couple of years before we released Rocky Mountain Low in 2009.
The name Trash Is Truth is an obvious homage to one of my favorite Colorado Hardcore records released by Boulder’s White Trash in 1983. I felt the name held a double meaning in terms of the history I was trying to document through gig flyers. I absolutely love flyers as an artform. They were created to advertise an upcoming gig, given out at shows, record stores, passed around at school and plastered on walls and stapled to telephone shows. Once the show happened, they were essentially Trash, but preserved they provide a window to some version of Truth. We know a show was planned for a specific date at a specific venue and with a lineup of bands. Sometimes the bands that played were different that what were advertised on the flyer. Sometimes the out of town band didn’t play or the date or venue were changed, or occasionally the gig was outright cancelled.
What I’m attempting to convey with Trash Is Truth through gig flyers is what is advertised on the flyer, as well as any additional information that I get from those who were there; people who put on the shows, played in the bands or people who attended. Since I’ve started collecting images of flyers I’ve kept track of who I got the flyer from, who did the artwork and any other relevant information, and I’ve added it to each flyer listing. I am indebted to the dozens of generous people over the years who have allowed me to scan their flyers and other ephemera and provided context for the gigs that happened.
Photo (Peter Duray-Bito): Steve Knutson performing with the Front at the Broadway on March 11, 1978