Any former punk zine readers (MRR, Flipside, etc.)

[vi5]

Any of you on here? I was wondering if anyone would be up for a discussion of what happened to a lot of the old guard zine columnists in the mid to late 90's in zines like MRR and Flipside and such where a lot of the older dudes started railing against the whole "PC" thing and started adopting more conservative apologist tones in their columns. I'm not talking the right wing streak that had always been in punk (with bands like Fear and whatnot) which always seemed more designed just to shock and piss people off. Dudes like Larry Livermore and Jeff Bale, and guys like that who took off on the "poor persecuted white male" shtick.

It made me wonder where most of those older guys stand now on stuff. While I hated the more conservative apologia of those early 90's columns and zines (like Jeff Bale's Hit List) I more shrugged it off with the idea that they were probably more reacting to the overly serious and dogmatic elements of the younger punk rock police. It still annoyed me but I don't think I ever actually believed those dudes had turned into full blown conservative republicans with what has happed under the Bush admin, or if they tilted back to the left. But since I haven't read anything by most of those guys in years what made me think of this was seeing a link to Ben Weasel's (former MRR columnist/screaching weasel sing) page and him talking about politics. He talked about how he's voted for many democrats, a socialist, Nader, and never ever voted for a Republican and how he definitely has more in common with liberal democrats than he does anyone on the right or republicans. But there was still something about the overall tone of it that made me scratch my head in bemusement.

I still read zines on occassion but none of the same writers are involved and it's definitely a younger lot (as it should be).

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. I used to read Flipside all the time.

I think it's more of an iconoclastic, "you can't tell me what to think" aesthetic more than anything. As far as a conservative bend, zines are the first places I heard of such things as "riot grrrls" and "homo-core," and the like. My favorite Flipside moment: in the 1989 year-end poll when Ray Cappo of Youth of Today beat out GG Allin as Asshole of the Year. :D

[vi5]

2. No doubt the bulk of zine leanings are left/liberal...

..for the reasons you mentioned. Anti racism, anti-homophobia. That was the case for the 80's and most of the 90's. Like I said, it was mostly the old guard which in the 90's got curmudgeonly and bent out of shape at the whole mythical PC monster that the punk scene had become.

[jonnyblitz]

3. I still pick up MRR on occasion but with less interest....

I like reading the letters . also it's the first place I ever saw Ted Rall stuff. I also like Lefty Hooligan.

I also used to read Outpunk, a queer punk zine that went defunct in the 90's.

[vi5]

4. I have a slew of old issues of MRR from the 80's and 90's...

It's amazing to go back and see all the bands championed by MRR that went on to become huge. And all the ongoing debates in the letters sections and columns were definitely something to behold.

[jonnyblitz]

16. yup, the letters section was always interesting to read,

:hi:

[myrna minx]

5. On another note...

I recently saw a current issue of Profane Existence and I couldn't believe my eyes. It had colorful, glossy pages! I remember PE when it was photocopied and mailed out via SESE's. Wow. I use to hang out with Felix from Destroy, who used to publish PE back in the day. Ah, memories. MRR is still around? I've been out of the loop for so long. OK, shall I post in the "what makes you feel old" thread now? :-)

[vi5]

6. I haven't read PE in a few years...

Last I read it it was not photocopied but was still dull newsprint.

Felix still writes an MRR column, focusing mostly on record collecting. Havoc records is actually pretty big for their genre/subgenre/whatever. He's bought a lot of great bands to America from overseas.

[myrna minx]

7. It's great to hear that he is still hard at work.

The last time I saw him was around 1996. I was never an anarchist, but all of my friends were, so it was logical that I would orbit that scene. I fled the whole Mpls punk scene back in 1990, when an acquaintance of mine was stabbed at Felix's birthday party by a pack of skinheads. When Adrian was stabbed, I just left the scene entirely. The violence was rapidly escalating between the skins and the punks, and I wanted out. Krishna was ready for war, armed his home and was prepared for anything, which never, mercifully, never materialized. I was the bleeding heart Wellstone liberal, hanging out with nihilists. :-)Felix/Krishna and I hung out for about a year after that, but then we drifted apart. I'm glad he's doing well. Wow. I just had a huge rush of memories.

[vi5]

9. Here is his website

http://www.havocrex.com/

Some of his writing is on there as well. He's a very good writer and his columns are very interesting.

[myrna minx]

10. Thank you so much.

Wow. I'll have to get back in touch. :hi:

[no name no slogan]

11. That was a messed up scene then

I had a college roommate who was a non-racist skinhead in the mid-late 80s in Mpls and got out for the same reasons. The violence was getting bad and ruined the whole scene. :(

[myrna minx]

12. Hey NNNS.

:hi: Was your friend a Baldie perhaps? My friends had no problems with the Baldies, it was the skinheads that were the main rivalry. That era was a horribly violent time in Mpls. Ugh.

[swag]

8. I used to read me some of that. And Jersey Beat was another good one.

on edit: Jim Testa was the guy who published Jersey Beat. He always had lots of photos of GWAR and articles about these New Jersey and Pennsylvania Ugly American type punk bands whose sweaty boys played with their shirts off. A very nipply zine.

I liked the regional or local punk zines the best. Gordon Gordon who used to publish WDC Period in DC lives in Seattle now. He published this great little zine called Teen Fag for a while. I saw him at a photo exhibit opening up there a couple years back, but don't know if he's still publishing anything. I suspect he is. Zine publishing is very addictive. Something about holding the self-produced product that having a web site or a blog can't touch.

Gordon Gordon told me a funny story once, while giving me free drinks at Food for Thought in DC (because I was blue), about when he first published WDC Period. He was writing reviews of all the local records and a Minor Threat show he happened to go to. And then he wrote an article about taking drugs and put a bunch of jokes and a fake Family Circus cartoon in that were all related to tripping or getting stoned.

Then some guy he knew who knew Ian from Minor Threat came up to Gordon and said, "Ian's really mad at you" (for all the drug references in the zine, of course). And Gordon's reply was, "Who's Ian?"

I think Martin Sprouse used to write for MRR once in a while. Then he did that great book Sabotage in the American Workplace (out of print, but you can sometimes find a copy at powells.com) with stories about what disgruntled or disaffected workers have done to fuck with their employers. He is a great social critic, but I haven't seen anything by him for quite a while. I walked around the disgraceful Portland Building with him once and was fascinated by his ability to befriend people almost instantaneously and elicit all sorts of information from them (in this case, information on how this grand architectural project had become a worker's nightmare).

I read something about Byron Coley, the Forced Exposure guy, recently. He was doing some publishing project with Thurston Moore, I think.

Tom Jennings who did Homocore is discussed here.

[flamingyouth]

13. I used to have a ton of old MRRs & Flipsides from the late '80s

and early '90s. Actually, I think I probably still have a few of them. My late husband wrote for Hit List and was friends with Jeff Bale - he definitely isn't a big conservative.

I always liked Ben Weasels stuff (both writing and music) - I'll have to check out his page.

Hadn't thought about this stuff in a while. :)

[vi5]

14. Do you mind if I asked

Did your late husband write columns or interviews (don't want to be too nosey or personal)? I quite enjoyed Hit List and read I think every issue cover to cover. It was a pretty great cross section of scene elder statesmen.

[Lautremont]

15. Cometbus (nt)