Somewhere in a sleepy section of Burbank, in between an office park and a nondescript strip mall with a CVS, I witnessed history.

Bryan Ray Turcotte, world-renowned collector of music-related ephemera and author of several books including the landmark Fucked Up + Photocopied (celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new version this year), has his office space here, and it’s packed to the gills with everything from flyers to records, shirts, buttons, and all manner of weird tchotchkes that were either a part of or changed history on their own. When I walk into the office, I see a pair of old punk friends—old in both age and years acquainted—fawning over an array of photos sitting on top of a stack of boxes. After the requisite niceties, I get the full story behind their slack jaws.