Daily affirmations from a time before this: a fanzine trawl
July 2, 2014 9:47 AM Subscribe
Do you miss the music fanzine culture of the 1980s and 1990s, when publications like Forced Exposure, Bananafish, Conflict, Superdope, Crank, Siltbreeze, Matter and Lowlife cataloged the under-the-counter culture? Fuckin' Record Reviews brings you highlights from all of these zines and more!
Check out the early writings of musicians like Steve Albini, Bill Callahan, Alan Licht and David Grubbs, as well as veteran rockcrits like Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Tom Lax, etc.
Check out the early writings of musicians like Steve Albini, Bill Callahan, Alan Licht and David Grubbs, as well as veteran rockcrits like Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Tom Lax, etc.
Oh, this is a treasure. The dawn (okay maybe mid-morning) of the age of talking back to popular culture.
posted by lumpenprole at 10:00 AM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by lumpenprole at 10:00 AM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Just scrolling through the first page, I got a little twinge of the record panic I used to feel regularly back in the late 80s / early 90s - especially when reading "Forced Exposure". Wanting records, feeling like the good stuff was raining down around me, but never having enough money. I'd feel a little queasy every time I got a new issue.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:17 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ryanshepard at 10:17 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
There was a time in my life, where my only view into the underground music world was through zines, where I had a lurking suspicion that Byron Coley and Steve Albini might've been the same guy. The easiest way to tell them apart was Coley's advocacy for psychedelics contrasted with Albini's relative straight-edgeness. And, I guess, because Coley would never admit to liking somebody as unhip as Cheap Trick unless he could win a fight by doing it.
posted by ardgedee at 10:37 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ardgedee at 10:37 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
What's funny is I just read through porn in the wood's excellent Spin magazine post yesterday, through the serendipity of searching for doubles. Quit with your excellent music magazine posts and making us all look bad, you jerk.
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wow, I asked for this site when I first joined MeFi, 12 years ago. No one had an answer.
After waiting 12 years for it, it turns out to be exactly what I wanted. It's just as stupid now as it was when I was 18, and it still makes me laugh just like it did then.
posted by fuzz at 5:48 PM on July 2, 2014
After waiting 12 years for it, it turns out to be exactly what I wanted. It's just as stupid now as it was when I was 18, and it still makes me laugh just like it did then.
posted by fuzz at 5:48 PM on July 2, 2014
Man I hate Coley.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:46 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:46 PM on July 2, 2014
Just scrolling through the first page, I got a little twinge of the record panic I used to feel regularly back in the late 80s / early 90s - especially when reading "Forced Exposure". Wanting records, feeling like the good stuff was raining down around me, but never having enough money. I'd feel a little queasy every time I got a new issue.
Oh I can relate to that, especially going through my Exile Osaka issues with the latest Japan Overseas mail order catalogue by my side...
posted by Theta States at 11:36 AM on July 3, 2014
Oh I can relate to that, especially going through my Exile Osaka issues with the latest Japan Overseas mail order catalogue by my side...
posted by Theta States at 11:36 AM on July 3, 2014
« Older How can you do justice to all? You can't. | "Local films for local people" Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by josher71 at 9:52 AM on July 2, 2014