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Thanks to Aaron Stengel of Take No Prisoners for the Flint Artifact.

Documentary 432: Changing Flint One Band at a Time

The Joys of Punk and Deindustrialization

Flint's economy my have been in the death spiral in the eighties, but the punk scene in its various guises was exploding if you knew where to look. I've written before about Take No Prisoners, the all-encompassing Flint musical archive created by Aaron Stengel. But now he's adding amazing photos like these with the help of Joel Rash, Ty Shick, Blair Jones and the members of the Guilty Bystanders. Of course, Tom Wirt (Jar With Most) also helped out. Was there anything Tom wasn't taking a photo of in the eighties?

As you can see, deindustrialization and almost no curbs on underage drinking can be a lot of fun.

This is just a small sampling of shots Aaron has at Take No Prisoners. He's encouraging everyone to visit the site and comment on the photos. Just go here and click the "Photos" tab.

Merlin's Retreat revisited

I just ran across this interior shot of Merlin's Retreat in a box of old photos. It's from July 1985, just before I left Flint for good. (Can you tell I just bought a scanner?)

In an earlier post about the neighborhood around St. Michael's, Aaron Stengel recalled the scene at the vegetarian restaurant:

"It was a popular hangout for Flint music scenesters during 1981-1983. Many shows were held about a block away at 909 Detroit St. (MLK). The Touch Boutique (also about a block away) was a legendary head shop in the early/mid 1970s. It eventually became a home to members of Jesus Christ and the Superstars and Pincusion in the late 1980s."

The more recent photo is the work of Jar With Most.

Take No Prisoners

Brotherman in 1993 (Photo via takenoprisoners.info)

Do you miss the downtown Flint punk and alternative scene from the '80s and '90s? Do you hanker for Ben Hamper's "Take No Prisoners" show on the old, non-commercial WFBE? Do bands like Political Silence, Dissonance and Bloody Coup mean more to you than the corporate monoliths like Foreigner and Styx that once dominated Live 105?

Don't worry. Aaron Stengel has done you a huge favor:

For years, downtown venues like Churchill's and Flint Local 432 have nurtured a strong local music scene, providing a haven for plenty of eclectic bands and their fans," writes Timothy Flynn in The Flint Journal. While most of those groups are just memories these days, some of their performances were captured on tape for posterity. And now they've all been gathered in one place.

The Flint Underground Music Archive Web site is a treasure trove for those who've spent any time in the downtown punk and alternative scenes, and serves as a good primer for those who haven't. The extensive site...houses a seemingly endless collection of vintage band recordings spanning more than 20 years, as well as some recent live shows filmed by site creator Aaron Stengel.

A longtime participant in the downtown scene, Stengel was inspired to create the site after reading some online conversations about local music. When he found a general lack of Internet information about Flint favorites like the Need or Medulla Oblongata, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Flint-related discussion groups began popping up, and they were filled with references to obscure local bands that no one seemed to have any recordings of," Stengel said. "With my background in Web development, music collecting, cultural research and a natural tendency over the years to document the scene by recording the shows, I decided to follow through on the archive site as a pet project."