1976 — 1985
British weeklies
Melody Maker. NME. Sounds.
8 ads →
a separate room · not the wall · no replies here
THE
MUSEUM
Bandmate-wanted ads from before any of us were online. Real classifieds from Melody Maker, NME, Sounds, MRR, the back pages of local papers. Sourced from band biographies and archive scans. Nothing in this room is an active listing. Read it and go form a band.
1976 — 1981
NYC no wave
Village Voice. East Village Eye.
3 ads →
1980 — 1990
DC hardcore
Flipside. Maximumrocknroll. Dance of Days.
2 ads →
1977 — 1989
Manchester post-punk
NME. Sounds. Manchester Evening News. Poly noticeboards.
6 ads →
1989 — 1995
Olympia riot grrrl
Chainsaw. Bikini Kill zine. MRR.
3 ads →
all years
Vanished
Ads where the trail goes cold.
curation in progress
why this exists
Before Spotify, before MySpace, before the internet — if you wanted a bassist you ran a four-line ad in the back of a magazine, paid for it in pounds, and waited for the post. Half the records you love started this way.
This museum is also a memorial. Most ads led nowhere we can trace. The Vanished wing is for those, eventually. Algorithms only surface winners; we are interested in everyone who showed up.