Louisville was lucky to have one of the earlier scenes not only in the region, but in the nation. You may be familiar that history if you have checked out a copy of the Bold Beginnings comp, the White Glove Test book, checked out the LUMA, tracked down early records, or seen some of the other great archives around town. And to that point, Louisville has always had people passionate about preserving a sense of what has been going on. Maybe it’s a desire to show our bigger neighbors what happens here. Maybe it’s just for the love of the music scene and the people that make it up. Maybe we’re a city of hoarders. Regardless, if you were online around 2010 or so, you may have come across a great digital archive of Louisville’s early punk and hardcore history – Louisville Punk – an incomplete archive 1978-84. Curated by Douglas Maxon (Dickbrains, Minnow, more) with help from many folks from those late 70s/early 80s years, the site was a great visual companion to the Bold Beginnings comp. The site had some of the great original flyers from Louisville, as well as photos, zines, artwork, and more. The content was definitely focused on the original 1069 Bardstown Road address that help kick off a lot.
Thanks to the churning nature of the modern internet, the site unfortunately disappeared for quite a while. But now, it’s back at a new URL hosted here on the Louisville Hardcore servers – https://www.louisvillepunk.com/ . While the server may be part of this site, the Louisville Punk site itself remains in Doug’s hands with control resting in those hands. But why worry about any of that, for now just jump over and check out some of the great things that have luckily been preserved, 40 years on.
