It’s Fund Drive Season at Razorcake. There is no tote bag, but there are t-shirts! Razorcake provides consistent coverage of do-it-yourself punk culture that you won’t find anywhere else. They believe in positive, progressive, community-friendly DIY punk. DIY punk culture is often...
Read moreJohn Holmstrom Ramones Exhibit Opening September 5th
John Holmstom is putting together his first solo art exhibition since 1981! “All The Stuff I Did With The Ramones” is on exhibit at The Great Frog/72 Orchard Gallery from September 5th to October 17th. The focus is on all the work he did with the Ramones over the years (as you might...
Read moreMaximum RockNRoll To Cease Print Publication
Seen Sunday on MRR’s Instagram account and then circulated elsewhere. Wow Cool has been an occasional stockist of Maximum RockNRoll at various times through the years (and still are Right Now!), we were an advertiser for a chunk of the 90s and a beneficiary of a grant from them way back...
Read moreMemorial Weekend Music 1 – Unwound Peel Sessions EP
First in a series of highlights of music that has been released in recent months that you probably missed. Unwound Peel Session. yeah, I’d listen to that. YouTube bootleg version above. The official release on Numero Group is easily findable at most streaming or download places...
Read moreMaximum Rocknroll 383 the Comics and Art Special
It’s time for Maximum Rocknroll #383, April 2015, the Comics and Art special issue, guest coordinated by famed MRR columnist Monsieur Alex Simon. Featuring a cover by everyone’s favorite Mexican miscreant, Abraham Diaz, we threw over the written word for a full-on visual extravaganza, featuring...
Read moreOperation Ivy – Live 4/25/1988 – The Boilermaker in St. Louis, MO
I never got to see Operation Ivy play live either. Saw them lots of other times tho… Running from cops, drinking coffee, watching Sesame Street. Lint really did cruise around El Cerrito on a lo-rider bicycle… I think that is in a rock video somewhere. Didn’t know there was...
Read moreMaximum RockNRoll #363 August 2013
The latest issue of Maximum RockNRoll will be on newsstands any day now. It contains the expanded print version of the memoriam of Ramones creative director Arturo Vega that I put together with Punk Magazine guy John Holmstrom and photographer Godlis. You should go get that. There is a short...
Read moreVery Small Records Makes The Collector Nerd Sweat
Without David Hayes you would not have East Bay punk rock from the ass end of the last century as you remember it (or how it was for that matter). As of a few weeks ago the latest manifestation of his Very Small Records has solidified (or metastasized) into a three headed Mecha-King Ghidorah...
Read moreMeet Nick Papadimitriou Deep Topographer
There are a few strains of inquiry and activity that have been common to my work in Wow Cool, DeptEx, and the Brown Cuts Neighbors that may not be super obvious, given that much of the result is performance, music, zines, comics and such. When pursuing these obsessions with various collaborators...
Read moreLove Without Sound – The Death of Recorded Music
This has been an interesting new year… hell, an interesting week – for me, certainly – but also for the music industry. It’s possible some other things and people were affected by various other events as well. You know… maybe. Let’s see… Wow Cool turned...
Read moreWow Cool @25 CNN’s Boom or Bust 1994
Wow Cool was paid a visit by CNN in mid-1994 for a feature on the venomous werewolves of Generation X and their sinister plan to devour the sad old hippies and their filth. It was called Boom or Bust? and originally aired on Sunday, August 14, 1994. Baby Boomer Culture withering under the wave...
Read moreFluke Fanzine in Huffington Post
Words we never thought we’d be typing department! Yes indeed, Fluke Fanzine was recently profiled in Huff Post land. You can get your Fluke zine fix right here on Wow Cool, including the recent tenth issue with cover art by Nate Powell as seen above.
Read moreFree Pussy Riot!
Three young women are being detained by Russian authorities for allegedly performing a protest song in a cathedral as part of a feminist punk group “Pussy Riot”. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were arrested in March 2012 and charged with...
Read moreFluke Zine #10 Is Out And Links A-Bounding
Brand new zine in the shop – the long running Fluke drops it’s tenth issue with cover art by Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire). Steve Schmidt, Jason White and Matt started Fluke fanzine in North Little Rock, Arkansas in the summer of 1991. 21 years later and they finally hit...
Read moreErin Yanke Loves A Parade
Erin is my hero. Go listen to her awesome Life During Wartime radio show, which she’s been co-hosting for over 15 years. The shows used to be released on cassette back in the ’90s. This is the video of the week over on Maximum RockNRoll, where Erin and I are both fairly lazy...
Read moreDoris Zine West Coast Tour
Doris West Coast Readings!!! 2/26 Sunday at 5:00 at Rock Paper Scissors, 2278 Telegraph Ave, Oakland 2/29 Wednesday at 7:00 Modern Times Bookstore, 2919 24th St, SF 3/9 Friday at 7:00 Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak St, Portland OR 3/11 Saturday at Evergreen college, not sure of time. This will be a...
Read moreThe Stupid Pages 30: King Andy Comics
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...
Read moreThe Nostalgia Zone: Comic Relief Zine Buyer Flyer
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
Read moreAndys Chair #4 Video Zine 1993
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...
Read morePreorder the Doris Encyclopedia
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...
Read moreThe Stupid Pages 29: Johnny Flatline
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.
Read moreI Cover the Waterfront South Bay Punks
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...
Read moreQuick Hits for a Thursday
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...
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