Blog: 10 Things Zine

This flyer, not only rules because it's for an old Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees and Mudhoney show, but it also contains so many elements of Seattle's old music scene. The show was presented by Bombshelter Videos and KCMU (click the links for the old articles on them). It was at the old train station, Union Station, which I think only hosted this show and the Butthole Surfers/Nirvana show (and some raves and shit later). And look where you could buy tickets, at Time Travelers (an old record store downtown I need to do a write [...]

After catching the Murder City Devils reunion show a few weeks I was a bit nostalgic for the band, playing their old records and remembering them in their prime. It prompted me to dig through some old photos and find this one my pal and longtime 10 Things and Tablet photographer Diona Mavis shot back in 1998 at The Velvet Elvis. This is by far my favorite photo of the band I've ever seen, which is funny because you can't see the face of either Spencer or Derek in it, but somehow it captures the emotion and energy that the [...]

Backlash was a music fanzine published by Dawn Anderson from 1987-1991. Dawn was a local music fan and writer, I remember seeing her articles in Seattle monthly music magazine The Rocket back when I was in highschool in the mid-'80s. In 1987 she dove into self-publishing with Backlash, focusing on the dirtier, heavier, more underground and rock side of Seattle's music scene that The Rocket barely would touch on. Backlash covered punk, metal, underground rock, grunge before it was called grunge and even some local hip-hop. It was the first magazine to cover this young [...]

As Ken Dirtnap pointed out in yesterday's comments, the CMJ story was wrong about the death of Touch & Go. While they are planning on shutting down their distribution wing, downsizing and letting staff go, they will focus their efforts on just the label aspect of their business and continue to release albums. Corey Rusk, founder of Touch & Go, explained in a press release yesterday, "Touch and Go will be returning to its roots and focusing solely on being an independent record label. We'll be busy for a few months working closely with the departing labels [...]

From CMJ today: Touch & Gone Feb 18, 2009 Story by: Lisa Hresko Following online rumors, long-time indie mainstay Touch & Go has confirmed that it will cease releasing new albums and become a catalog only label. The Chicago label that that has produced seminal albums from Slint, the Jesus Lizard, Big Black, TV On The Radio, Shellac and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and later garnering fame for its losing copyright lawsuit over a "handshake" deal with the Butthole Surfers, has met its demise after nearly 30 years. The label, who's recent roster includes [...]

I just wrote about Shat Upon zine, probably the best zine coming out of Montana during the 1990s. But it would be unfair to overlook another zine that was much smaller and personal, but always a great read. Spaghetti Dinner & Dancing was a perzine published by Randy James out of Missoula, he published it from 1994-2002. The publisher and sole writer was obviously from the punk scene, he'd occasionally feature a band photo, zine reviews, or small write ups on a live shows, but the bulk of each issue was filled with stories about hiking, [...]

Shat Upon was a great zine published by Andy "Rusty" Smetanka and friends out of Missoula, Montana during the 1990s. I think I scored my first copy through a touring Missoula band like Sasshole or Humpy. I was kind of amazed from the get go because I always thought of Montana as a punk rock wasteland. Granted the aforementioned bands, along with a few others like The Fireballs of Freedom proved Missoula had a music scene happening, but it was big enough to support a large zine? Shat Upon usually clocked in at at least 40 full-sized pages. [...]

Check out the Dead Vampire's music and webpage here .

Just in case anyone doesn't think the recession is going to get a lot worse and we should delay government action (i.e. the Republican position), here is a list of American lay offs so far in the first six weeks of 2009. Now, I'd love to get more taxes back, but realizing where the economy is heading I will not spend it. It's going straight to savings and paying bills, it will not stimulate the economy in any way. And we should know by now that reducing taxes on corporations and the wealthy has continuously failed to help the economy, [...]

It's been a year since ZineWiki got hacked and the wiki was knocked out of functionality. I put a lot of time into scanning in zine covers, adding entries for a ton of old zines and zinesters, as well as editing all the poorly written entries from 18 year old zinesters. The result paid off, it became the largest database of information on zines both past and present, as well as zine publishers, writers, artists and more. So it was sad to see all that work just abruptly end and the information disappear. I bugged Alan, ex-ZineWiki admin, fairly [...]

I'm going to do a proper write up one of these days on Gee-Zuz, my favorite British Columbia zine from the '90s. Probably sooner than later since I stumbled upon a pile of back issue in my zine collection tonight. In the meantime, I scanned in one of the publisher's (who went by Krazyman and Rev. Rot'n'Hell) awesome comics. This guy was a fantastic artist and had a pretty funny sense of humor to boot. This is an illustration of the song "Bob" by NOFX:

Found in the Post Alley of the Pike Place Market near the entrance of The Alibi Room: I'm particularly amazed by the wall that's completely covered with bubblegum, click it for the larger version and full effect. Has anyone notice it before? It has to be decades in the making and I've walked through that alley dozens of times and never noticed it. The other night it kinda stood out, because as I rounded the corner into the [...]

From yesterday's Editor and Publisher: Hearst Corp., which is looking to unload its Seattle Post-Intelligencer, signaled it has no intention of buying its joint operating agreement (JOA) partner Seattle Times, or staying in the JOA if it decides to continue the P-I as an online-only paper. In a letter to the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, Hearst Vice President and General Counsel Eve Burton disclosed the company did not make the final $1 million payment that would have preserved its right to buy the Seattle Times from its majority owners, the family-owned Blethen Corp. [...]

The Daily Swarm is reporting Lux Interior of The Cramps has died . I can find no confirmation anywhere else on on the Web, so I think everyone should treat it as a false rumor. But like all Internet rumors, this one is spreading like wildfire. Seriously, don't make me cry 96 tears from 96 eyes...

Reuters is reporting a possible merge between the nation's largest concert promoter and the nation's largest ticket seller here . Granted, one of my New Years wishes was that places like The Showbox would stop using Ticketmaster.... The Showbox is owned by corporate giant AEG, Live Nation's only real competitor, a merger would likely force them to use a different ticket vendor... but this will only further consolidate the corporate music industry network into the hands of just a few controlling companies. In the short run, AEG-owned or associated venues like The Showbox, Bumbershoot and WAMU Theater [...]

This is a chart from a December 2008 Pew Research Center study on where Americans get their news. For this first time, the internet overtook print newspapers as a news source for Americans. Both online and print news still lag behind television, which is American's primary source for news. However, this is not so for younger generations, where the internet equals television as a news source, and will soon overtake it, much as it has with newspapers. From the same study: "For young [...]

This week the Seattle City Council made it their business to address the possible closure of The Seattle PI. Cory Bergman from Lost Remote , a great media blog I just stumbled upon this morning, has a fantastic summary of the public city council forum about this very topic here . Beyond the summary, Bergman adds his own viewpoint, which is very similar to what I've been saying all week: While I applaud Licata for tackling the complex topic — and giving people a forum to talk about it — I about fell out [...]

I've been blogging all week about the death of daily newspapers and how I'm firmly convinced Seattle can no longer be a two-paper town. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale and if it isn't bought, Hearst has threatened to shut it down. In yet another twist, The Stranger's blog Slog is reporting The Seattle Times may be filing for bankruptcy soon: On Wednesday, worries that the dominant Seattle daily may soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection crept out into the open when an administrator for the union that represents Times employees mentioned the possibility [...]

I read a lot about the publishing industry, the media and the so-called death of print, that's one of the reasons I really think Seattle can no longer support two daily newspapers in print. Too bad it can't be the Seattle Times that's failing, rather than The Post-Intelligencer, but some day soon, one of them will have to go. For some historical perspective, here's a pretty funny news story from 1981 Icki posted a link to. It gives the newspaper's perspective of the coming online revolution very early on. Their outdated computers, modems, use of old school technology [...]

This is Seattle band Def Con Burly playing at Funhouse last month. I don't know much about them beyond they are a Hate City band, with their crowd of a dozen guys all up front going apeshit over them. They were super sloppy and drunk and played fast punk, I'd like to hear an actual recording to have a clue what they actually sound like. The singer was entertaining for a few songs, he gave himself a wedgie and ripped his own underpants off, jumped around a lot, and a birthday cake was thrown everywhere at some point, covering the [...]