Back in 1994, while on zine tour for Andy’s Chair #3, I crashed on John Porcellino’s couch when he was living in Denver, Colorado. Shortly after that, while still on the road, I did this strip, in a crude imitation of the King Cat style. It was printed in my tour zine puppydoglove.
Anyway, the real reason I’m dredging up this bit of history is to let you know that – after a 13 year gap – Wow Cool is once again offering King Cat Comics and Stories to the world. All currently in-print issues of King Cat that do not have their contents collected (or are about to be) will be available from Wow Cool. So, that means we have issues 69-71 in stock. John will be putting out King Cat #72 very soon. That, and the previously published King Cat collections will be available from Wow Cool very soon. The book he illustrated for the National Film Board of Canada about skipping out on suicide – The Next Day – is also available right now.
With Phoebe Gloeckner, Jessica Abel, The Hernandez Brothers, James Sturm, and Joe Sacco, plus a host of comics scholars and educators! Saturday Oct. 8 – Sunday Oct. 9
PITTSBURGH, PA Pittsburgh Indie Expo
I was looking for something else and found this. Since I and many other of the 90s Berkeley zine and mini-comics scene have been deep in the nostalgia zone for not the best reasons lately, this seemed a little more interesting than the last five times I found it instead of what I was looking for. These were quarter-size letter (mini-comic) sized flyers that were left on the back counter at Berkeley’s Comic Relief when I was the zine buyer, sometime around 1994-1995. As far as I know, that post was originated by Josh Petrin and was also held by Dylan Williams and Janelle Hessig in the mid-90s.
From 1993. Never before seen! Punk zine goes video with live performances by Doc Hopper, Nuisance, Drop Dead, Slave State and Lumpen Proletariat (Ottawa)!
Pay a visit to Reconstruction Records with Peter Ventantonio of Sticks & Stones! Tour Albany, New York’s Tulip Fest with Andy, Paul and Jason! See the members of Huasipungo scowling in back of ABC No Rio! Special appearances by Sam Henderson and Human Lard Dog!
Sadly this version is not the best quality. The raw footage was shot on VHSC… I want to go back and capture from that or the VHS dump of it. I did this edit on a crappy system at the old Schenectady public access. It chewed up the video and jumped at every edit. grrr. I was so disappointed that I never released it, and it was only shown a couple times. The encoding to get it on the web didn’t do it any favors either.
Additional camera by Darryl Kahan. Believe it!
Andy’s Chair was a punk and comics and such zine created by Marc Arsenault. There were three regular print issues and a tour zine half issue called puppydoglove released between 1991-1995. The second issue included the Sounds of Suburban Dance compilation tape.
Poster for the Nuisance & Doc Hopper show that was taped for the episode.
Cindy Crabb has just sent us a communique to announce that she is funding part of the printing on the latest collection of her popular Doris zine with a Kickstarter project. Her first collection Doris: An Anthology 1991-2001 is still available. The Encyclopedia of Doris is due the end of July, 2011. Between now and then Cindy’s band the Snarlas will be on tour. Check your local listings.
I started writing Doris zine in 1994, giving it mostly to strangers on buses. I wanted to break down barriers and break open secrets – the serious secrets and the simple ones. I have published the zine once or twice a year now, and it is distributed internationally. The Doris Encyclopedia is a book of the past 9 years of Doris, plus plus stories and articles that appeared in Maximum Rock and Roll, Slug and Lettuce, and other zines, including top secret zines I put out under a pseudonym. Subjects include: boating down the mississippi, coming out, farming, punk, girl gangs, overcoming shyness, survival, love, history, family, travel, ecological politics, building things, creating things, and way, way more.
Printing costs for the book are 14,000. I have 6,000 saved up, and have borrowed 4,000. I’m hoping I can raise the rest here on Kickstarter. The book is scheduled to be printed in the end of July!
Found randomly while repacking for Wow Cool’s move to new offices in San Jose. I have no recollection of drawing this. Readers of Maximum RockNRoll over a certain age (before internet comment troll-ness) will possibly find this pretty funny.
As of this Wednesday, I have officially rejoined the ranks of Maximum RockNRoll‘s crew of shitworkers. Yes, that is the official job title. I was a zine reviewer, shitworker and occasional illustrator for MRR in the middle 1990′s. I earned some notoriety for the occasional death-threat for my more scathing zine reviews and also re-introduced mention of John Crawford’s comics, which earned me a place as a character in the Queen of the Scene comic strip (More rambling about that episode here.). My first post is on the pretty seriously neglected exhibit of original art by Love & Rockets’ Jaime Hernandez in San Jose at MACLA. For reasons unknown, the gallery failed to promote the show much to the comic book or punk rock worlds.
Anyway… San Jose is the 10th largest city in the US of A, and despite the sad fact that you are never far from some warped American version of Ska here, the place is still pretty damned punk (as in rock). I’m going to attempt to pry open that neglected world with my camera and typewriter (oh, sorry, computer). You got something punk-ass awesome going on in the south bay? Please let me know. I will also be getting in some bits on DIY punk music practical goodness (like, is it really worth it to boil your bass strings?), real-life urban homesteading experiences, and maybe some digging into punk/hardcore history that I’ve been fortunate to have been a part of in various parts of the country over the last quarter century.
Previously I’d been filing these sort of posts under the category “Andy’s Chair” on this blog. A sort of continuation of my 1990s print and video zine of the same name.
Above all, I want to try to (re-?)discover what the hell is punk all these years on.
Some vital recent cultural moments you may have missed.
The multi-talented Mark Sunshine (singer of Monster Magnet splinter faction Riot God and an artist most awesome) has updated his site again. Minimal, bold, and links to greatness.
Sam McPheeters of Vermiform/Born Against/etc. fame has released a collection of his early 1990s Hardcore Punk Zine Dear Jesus, as a velo-bound collection. Wow Cool still has a few copies of the first of his Shooting Space zine available.
Dear Jesus was a hardcore punk fanzine I produced between 1989 and 1992. There were four full issues, and a mini-issue I made 50 copies of and sold at one show in 1990. Everything is included in this collection. The anthology totals 140 pages, with a new intro, color cover, and sturdy velo binding. More work by Sam is available on BuyOlympia.com.
These five issues include interviews with Jello Biafra, Richie Birkenhead (of Underdog & Youth Of Today), Doc Dart (this is the piece that led, 17 years later, to my Vice Magazine profile “The Troublemaker”), Econochrist, Lifesblood, CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, Ian MacKaye, Maximumrocknroll, Mike BS (of ABC No Rio), Mykel Board (of MRR), Nation Of Ulysses (pictorial), Nausea, Neanderthal, No For An Answer, Revelation Records, Rorschach, Soulside, Supertouch, artist Seth Tobocman, Swiz, and Tit Wrench. This collection also includes articles on the first Gulf War, punk in Latin America, an extensive Born Against tour diary, and many, many painfully opinionated reviews. Dear Jesus was one of the most consistent hardcore punk zines to document the early 1990′s ABC No Rio scene in New York. If this is a historical period that interests you, then this is perhaps something you will want to own.
It’s not a big secret that I am a huge fan of Nuisance. I booked them twice for shows in Western Massachusetts. Once at a spectacularly disastrous warehouse show in Florence (at the Arts & Industry building, now home to Ecstatic Peace/Father Yod, then the home to Wow Cool, Al Columbia and Sebadoh); and again at the Majestic Theater in Easthampton. The Majestic apparently burned down in 2007. The Arts & Industry show had a small getting busted by the cops problem which eventually cost me 50 bucks. I have several blurry black and white photos of the warehouse show and full video of Nuisance’s set at the Majestic (as well as some of Doc Hopper and Beef, who opened). I wrote about these shows a bit in Andy’s Chair printed zines numbers 2 and 3. Those photos and video are very likely to show up online sometime next year. In the meanwhile, today’s gem showed up online… coming to me somehow or other through the facebook. It’s a demo tape from 1987(?) with 5 songs. They are: Your House, Brighter Flower, Censorship Song, Waiting Room, and Days Of Sun.
So… you’ve read Rip It Up and Start Again, and Simon Reynolds follow-up Totally Wired, and are ass-deep in post-punk lore and legend and spend your days wandering the record stalls humming “She Is Beyond Good and Evil” by the Pop Group. And you start to wonder… “Can I plunge any teh further down thee rabbit hole” Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You really can. Somewhere while digging up some background for my few bits on the late Peter Christopherson the other day (see previous post), I stumbled across the impossible time-sink of a music blog Kill Your Pet Puppy. I was looking for a copy of the fanzine by CRASS, Toxic Grafity, and discovered KYPP. Strangely, or not so much, the worlds of CRASS and other anarcho-punk goings on, were not so far separate from the industrial goings-on by G. P’Orridge and crew. The signs are clearly visible in street art of that era and later. Further digging led me to find that M’Colleague at Maximum RockNRoll, Paul, had flagged it for blog of the week a few weeks back. It’s hard to encapsulate the wonders to be found within KYPP… You just need to dive in.
In the meanwhile, speaking of the Pop Group… I would love to see this full documentary – “Mark Stewart – ON/OFF – Pop Group to Maffia”. I contacted Monitorpop to try to find out what had become of this film, but have heard nothing back yet.
UPDATE: I somehow failed to mention that The Pop Group have reformed, and are playing two shows on the last two days of 2010, with Sonic Youth in Manchester and London. More info, photos, video and a history of the band are on the Pop Group’s site.
I have certain fascinations, passions, interests and obsessions. Always having a camera in my pocket means I now take thousands of photos related to them. Sometimes the meaning can only be demonstrated in sequence or juxtaposition. Most of the time they just sit undisturbed on a flash card or hard drive. Lately my love of language and advertising has been getting pretty aggressively scratched at random by things around me. Sometimes you need to look closely, at other times they are screaming so loud in your face that you are likely to ignore them. Draw your own conclusions.
Alternative Meat - a section in the frozen foods aisle at Whole Foods
One of the very few films that somewhat understood punk and that awkward time of someone being pretty sure they want to be punk, but not doing so hot at it. That part may be a little to familiar for many. The rest of it, hopefully less so. Genuinely disturbing.
Record Store Day is this Saturday. 3,000 Indie record stores have closed in the US in the last decade. “I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store” by guerrilla filmmaker Brendan Toller features interviews with Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye, Noam Chomksy, Mike Watt, Lenny Kaye and others. The film will be offered be offered exclusively via indie record stores for 90 days starting on Independent Record Store Day, this Saturday April 17th.
“An elegy for a vanishing subculture …a lively, bittersweet film that examines – with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection – why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade…” – Johnathan Perry, Boston Globe
or, I swear, I shall close every last one of these tabs.
Sorry it’s been slow blog lately. A casual look around reveals that most others are even lazier. Anyway. Been very busy getting a record out to press, a 2011 calendar started and getting a front yard garden put in. More on all that in the coming weeks and months.
In the meanwhile here’s the things I’ve found super interesting and want to share.
Many years ago, Alex Jordan Jr., in an inspired case of Frank Lloyd Wright envy, created the astounding mid-west tourist attraction, the House on the Rock. A few years later, acclaimed comic book writer Neil Gaiman created the astounding, and much recommended novel American Gods, which features a pivotal scene in the House on The Rock. On October 29th and 30th, you can join Neil Gaiman and other American Gods fans for literary panels, talks, presentations, a limited number of chances to ride the World’s Largest Carousel, and a costume party focused on all things American Gods. If you can’t make that, but love the book and own a camera, you can join my flickr group, American Gods House. The group description is highly entertaining.
I don’t know how I missed this for so long, but John Bergin has taken his classic self-published From Inside to the screen. Very much worth a look.
150 years ago – April 9, 1860: Phonoautogram made the oldest known human sound recording “Au Clair de la Lune.”
In case you missed Fluke on tour recently with Andrew Jackson Jihad, you can pick up the latest issue from me at Anno Domini’s Art of Zines show in San Jose this Friday. Published in Tucson, Arizona, 2010. 68 pages, half size, offset print, $2.00 by hand, $4.00 by mail. interviews with Christ on Parade, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Paige Hearn and Alan Short. Writings by Shane Halvorson, Tre Baker and Mark “Sledge” Howe. Artwork by Nate Powell. Photo credits: Siobhan King, Monycka Snowbird, Paige Hearn, Shane Halvorson, Lindsey Gaither, Meredith Bennett and Julie Halvorson. Stencil by stencilpunks.org. It’s been way too long since someone put out a quality punk zine like this one. Get yours from the source if you won’t be seeing me Friday: Send $4.00 to: FLUKE FANZINE, PO BOX 41931, TUCSON, AZ 85717-1931
I was sent a link to iO9′s write-up of Alex Cox’s recent Non-Sequel to his classic Repo Man film today by my nickname: Rebel cohort Michael Keegan. It was too early in the day to absorb. This was the first I had heard of any such sort of venture. I sort of peeked at it a couple of times. I sent it to someone else. Her response was “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Which seems to be the general reaction. I’m gonna say that’s a good thing. I want to see this movie.
Here’s the trailer:
Alex Cox has a blog. He talks a bit about the development and making of Repo Chick, as well as his repo turf war with Universal.
The Sci-fi grind classic, 1995′s cassette debut by James Kopta’s Exploding Corpse Action, has been made available to you, at no charge, by the delightful True Punk & Metal blog. It is the most devastating 10 minutes of metal ever recorded. Go get it!
American TV and movies have pretty much always sucked at getting punk right. This and an episode of Quincy tend be remembered as classic quotable examples of this from a certain era. As a side note, my brother had the nickname “After School Special” in high school. He wasn’t particularly punk. Now you can watch the whole thing online. (found a version with somewhat better sound) Share and enjoy.
It’s just become a blanket in the baby section at Target. Or, for the truly hardcore, TGI Friday’s has the Pink Punk Cosmo on it’s cocktail menu.
Slightly more mystifying is this t-shirt that is part of Shaun White’s (Olympic gold medalist snowboarder, sponsored by Target since 2002) fashion line. It sparked a small argument when I wondered why a Mat Brinkman T-Shirt was on sale at Target; which was quickly countered by ‘who the hell is that?, it’s Shaun White’. To which I replied ‘who the hell is that’. So there you go. It might be slightly more interesting if Shaun White did art like this than if it was Mat Brinkman, some other Fort Thunder related person, or someone unknown doing that style.
And now the punchline
While trying to find a usable photo of the Pink Punk Cosmo for this post I discovered that TGI Friday’s have been using the song Hayseed Rock by Tight Bro’s From Way Back When off their 2001 Kill Rock Stars LP Runnin’ Thru My Bones as their website theme-song since at least May, 2009. It’s still up there. Apparently the song also featured in a TGIF TV commercial that I’ve been unable to find a copy of on the interwebs. I’ve put the word out on the tweetsphere and friendspace and expect to provide some background on this amazing collision in the future.
Print
is still available. The Encyclopedia of Doris is due the end of July, 2011. Between now and then Cindy’s band the Snarlas will be on tour. Check your local listings.
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