This site curates Henry Wild Dog’s legacy collection of 50+ years of Texas underground music and punk zine ephemera. We work with arts organizations, artists and archivists to preserve and share this collection through the digital archives/humanities effort known as “Wild Dog Archives.” View our projects on NeonArtifact.com.

MISSION AND VISION

Wild Dog Archives recognizes that the subcultural artifacts comprising this private collection have merit in the ranks of Texas pop culture and should be preserved for future generations to discover Houston’s underground arts and culture related to its music scenes.

Wild Dog Archives creates a narrative for Houston Punk through the collected artifacts of Henry Wild Dog, who launched the first anarchopunk fanzine in 1979 chronicling the emergence of the scene in Houston.

This online archive is a conduit for sharing rare and out-of-print materials connected to the national underground music scenes happening in the 1960s-’80s. Each artifact is researched to uncover hidden histories and historic information about the sociopolitical and cultural events of the time, such as AK 47’s “The Badge Means You Suck,” one of the most recognizable anti-cop punk songs, which openly defamed the Houston Police Department for its corruption and police brutality in the ’70s by referencing their victims, including Jose Campos Torres.

A sampling of the archive includes signed posters and day bills; punk zines from Houston and throughout the country; press materials for a wide variety of bands; letters and communications; past gigs on both audio and video cassette; interviews with a variety of local and national punk bands; a wide variety of ephemera from the Texas psych-rock scene of the late 1960s showcasing bands like Bubble Puppy, 13^th Floor Elevators, Moving Sidewalks and Red Krayola through Roky Erickson’s later performances at the Island; and volumes of most of the country’s major music magazines and recognized fanzines, including a full run of San Francisco’s Beat-funded punk zine Search & Destroy published by City Lights as well as a full run of Houston’s own Space City!, one the earliest alternative/underground newspapers (along with Austin’s The Rag) covering progressive politics in Texas. Cataloging is ongoing.

RECOMMENDED 

Culturcide’s experimental noise.

Lester Bangs recorded an album with a surf rock band in Austin and opened for the Talking Heads at the legendary Armadillo World Headquarters before it shuttered on New Year’s 1981.

There was a near lethal rivalry between the emerging Austin and Houston scenes as told by original wild man Jerry Anomie (Texas’ answer to Iggy Pop) from Legionaire’s Disease based on this resurfaced letter from Austin’s SLUGGO to WILD DOG Zine.

Henry Wild Dog connected with other Gulf Coast punk bands such as NOLA’s Red Rockers and the Normals as well as exchanged music and letters with Larry the Punk, editor of New Orleans’ FINAL SOLUTION (F/S) punk zine, as these sister scenes emerged in the late ’70s/early ’80s. Filmmaker and friend Al Champagne is documenting the New Orleans early punk scene in his film, “Almost Ready: The Story of Punk Rock in New Orleans.”

And the imagery of revolt artwork by Jimmy Bryan, son of John Bryan, who founded L.A.’s legendary alternative newspaper OPEN CITY.