Already up to issue number 3! Issues #1 and #2 are already sold out, but it looks like we can look forward to the regular appearance of many future issues. Editor Eric "Anomalous" Lanzillotta (with the able assistance of Patrick Marley, Rob Millis, Allan MacInnis and others) has really got a 'zine on his hands.
He explains that the main purpose of Bixobal is to be "delving deeper into the worlds of the musicians behind the music" in the form of articles and interviews. The music, in Bixobal's case, being that of the more experimental, psychedelic, folky, obscure international, or otherwise usual variety. Thus, this ish we find an extensive interview with Peter Stampfel of legendary NYC hippie folk outfit the Holy Modal Rounders (his ex-wife, Antonia Stampfel, is also interviewed separately). Whether discussing his theory of the importance of 1957 in the history of rock n' roll, or the effect of recorded sound on musicians' use of vibrato, or the unfortunate inter-band personality conflicts that apparently plagued the Rounders, it's pretty interesting even for those not already Rounders fans. There's another, briefer interview this issue as well, with Gerd Kraus of '70s cosmic krautrockers Limbus 3 (and 4). It's interesting as well.
And then there's the usual 'zine things like reviews and ads. Oh, and Rob Millis has another "Talking Machine" column wherein he tells of searching for rare shellac (78rpm records) over in India... yet he doesn't find exactly what you'd think he'd find, his "Victrola favorite" this issue is by the Beatles... or is it?
Issue #4, already! Good grief, this 'zine comes out so frequently, with such regularity, that's almost not 'zine-like. We mean, in our experience it's pretty standard, obligatory even, for every 'zine to begin with an apologetic note from the editor giving excuses for the current issue being late... instead, the best Bixobal's editor and publisher, Eric Lanzillotta (of Anomalous Records fame) can manage is to explain that he had TOO much material for this issue, so we can expect #5 to show up even sooner than ever!
Otherwise, however, Bixobal perfectly fits the old school 'zine mold... it's digest sized, black & white zeroxed, devoted to obscure, out of the mainstream subject matter, and full of true fannish (though expert) enthusiasm for said subjects, which should appeal to quite a few AQ customers, into the musical margins from the experimental to the ethnological. This issue is indeed packed, 55 pages dense with articles, overviews and reviews... specifically, an in-depth guide to the works of Japanese avantgarde percussionist and prog/jazz composer Stomu Yamash'ta, a look at the films of '60s/'70s Spanish auteur Fernando Arrabal, a rundown of the many limited edition releases from noisnik Raymond Dijkstra, and a tour diary from Japanese sound artist Akio Suzuki! Even if some of these folks aren't familiar to you, you'll probably become interested in 'em from reading these pieces.
We're looking forward expectantly to Bixobal #5... and #6, and #7, etc.... as there's always much that's intriguing and unexpected to be gleaned from this excellent 'zine (and at a bargain price).
Lotsa 'zines, in the old days, tended to peter out after just a couple issues or three. But Bixobal, which debuted about a year ago, is going strong, and on schedule, up to issue #5 now. If you missed the first few issues, you just need to know that Bixobal, published/edited by Eric Lanzillotta of Anomalous Records fame, is a 'zine dedicated to all sorts of interesting, obscure culture (experimental music, psychedelic stuff, weird film, ethnographic research, etc.). And it's well worth your $2, this issue consisting of 56 digest-sized pages packed with good readin'. On the cover, a happy Djinn Aquarian of Ya Ho Wa 13, heralding an article by David Nuss of the No Neck Blues Band about his trip to Hawaii to visit with the Source Family. Also in this issue: Rob Millis further adventures in the world of shellac 78 rpm record collecting, an interview with Belgian noisemakers Onde, a remembrance of late Noggin violinist Michael Griffen, an interview with Canadian '80s art-punks Tunnel Canary, a feature about the output of new "jazz" label Assophon Records, and several pages of record reviews... Again, $2 well spent!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
What can be more jarringly psycohallucinotransic than the music of Black Dice? Why a book of fucked up collage, video game patterns, zig zagging lines and other artwork created and inspired by their warped rhythmic forays into karmic electronic levitating hipness. Fuck You Art School!!
Fuck yeah, another awesome new metal mag (new to us at least, they're on currently on issue three), this one hailing from Chicago, and BMoTA is full on old school style classic zine action, folded 8 1/2" x 11" paper, stapled in the middle, photocopied, and brimming with cool underground shit, most notably, a super lengthy interview with SF eco-terrorist drum and dulcimer black metal one man band Botanist! There's also Alaskan (!!) black metallers Bound By Entrails, aQ fave electro-black metal / black noise weirdo(s) Jute Gyte, Kentucky black metal horde Merkaba (who recently released a split with another aQ fave, Wheels Within Wheels), Canadian black metal duo Skagos, a Sutekh Hexen show review, and a handful of record reviews. Fans of Oaken Throne, Chips & Beer, Rape & Honey, Convivial Hermit, Gallery Of The Grotesque, etc. can now add Black Metal Of The Americas to their essential metal mag reading list!!
LIMITED FIRST RUN OF JUST 55 ISSUES!! Each one hand numbered!
A while back we reviewed issue number three from this awesome Chicago zine, focusing on, as the title suggests, Black Metal of the Americas, and while we first discovered that third issue (we missed out on the first two) via a big piece on local weirdo black metaller The Botanist, we ended up digging pretty much everything in that ish, some stuff we already dug, but some new discoveries as well. So here we are, a couple years later, and we've got not one but TWO new issues, and like the first, both are classic old school folded 8.5" x 11" style photocopied black and white, cut and paste, and like #3, tons of stuff to dig.
Issue IV features an extensive interview with aQ faves Book Of Sand, there's an interview with Canadian black metal horde Aesahaettr, a piece on another aQ fave, Servile Sect, as well as pieces on one man, Velvet Cacoon related project Queen Of Heathens, Bastard Sapling and Cara Neir, plus loads of reviews! Issue V features more aQ faves, like Deafheaven and Dressed In Streams, as well as new to us names like Aksumite, Chrome Waves and Yellow Eyes, there's also a piece called "Intersections Of Discontentment In Black Metal And Emo" and another batch of reviews. Both issues essential metal mag reading, that again, belong on your shelf next to Chips And Beer, Rape And Honey, Convivial Hermit, Decibel, Terrorizer and all the rest...
A while back we reviewed issue number three from this awesome Chicago zine, focusing on, as the title suggests, Black Metal of the Americas, and while we first discovered that third issue (we missed out on the first two) via a big piece on local weirdo black metaller The Botanist, we ended up digging pretty much everything in that ish, some stuff we already dug, but some new discoveries as well. So here we are, a couple years later, and we've got not one but TWO new issues, and like the first, both are classic old school folded 8.5" x 11" style photocopied black and white, cut and paste, and like #3, tons of stuff to dig.
Issue IV features an extensive interview with aQ faves Book Of Sand, there's an interview with Canadian black metal horde Aesahaettr, a piece on another aQ fave, Servile Sect, as well as pieces on one man, Velvet Cacoon related project Queen Of Heathens, Bastard Sapling and Cara Neir, plus loads of reviews! Issue V features more aQ faves, like Deafheaven and Dressed In Streams, as well as new to us names like Aksumite, Chrome Waves and Yellow Eyes, there's also a piece called "Intersections Of Discontentment In Black Metal And Emo" and another batch of reviews. Both issues essential metal mag reading, that again, belong on your shelf next to Chips And Beer, Rape And Honey, Convivial Hermit, Decibel, Terrorizer and all the rest...
We here at Aquarius Records can be proud that we have an audience who is just as passionate and devoted as we are to a broad spectrum of musics. As much as we would like to, we just can't completely cover every amazing genre, sub-genre, regional dialect, and radical enclave of the world's musical community. We definitely try our best, but just imagine if we did somehow manage, those biweekly email lists would easily triple in size with our fingers spread even further than they already are. While it would be nice to expand our little aesthetic fiefdom, we have to admit that there are plenty of shops around the globe that fill in the gaps. One of those is London's Sound 323, whose niche market emphasizes all things dealing with academic composition, free improv, electro-acoustics, and in particular the pristine aspects of what has been dubbed the "New London Silence." In fact, one of chief protagonists of this London circle of Feldman-esque composers is Sound 323's proprietor Mark Wastell. He along with The Wire's scribe Brian Marley are the editors of a brick of a book published by Sound 323, handsomely designed as an art edition monograph and filled with articles by David Toop, Clive Bell, Brian Marley, Dan Warburton, Andy Hamilton and Will Montgomery as well as texts expounding upon the eroding distinction between improvisation and composition from the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Bernhard Gunter, Phil Durrant, Steve Roden, Jerome Noetinger, Mattin, and many many other. The book also features a DVD of concert footage from the likes of Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, John Tilbury, Tetuzi Akiyama, Eddie Prevost, John Butcher, and more. Hmm, curious that all of the latest members of AMM make appearances, but no footage from the ensemble that pretty much started the whole push toward the decentered notion of what is composed beforehand and what is created in the moment.
With sound art becoming more and more of a cultural force in the art world (perhaps that should be art with a capital 'A'), Blocks Of Consciousness And The Unbroken Continuum is bound to be one of those historically important documents, detailing one particular cultural phenomenon as it happens by those who are making it happen. At 350+ pages bound in a hefty hardcover book, this is no easy tome to digest; but is well the effort you'll put into it.
A book chronicling the American hardcore scene, mainly 1980-86. Written in an engaging oral history collage style (a la Please Kill Me -- the book about the NYC '70s punk scene), this covers everything from the straight edge scene to Black Flag, Dead
We were blown away by this, the most recent issue of this totally DIY travel / music / metal magazine. It's their 8th issue, and it's overflowing with amazing stories and killer interviews and reviews, with plenty of aQ faves. Metalheads will probably want to check this out for the interview with Erik from Watain, or John Gossard from Dispirit / Weakling / The Gault / Asunder, and there's also a bunch of killer in depth reviews of records by Necrite, Dispirit, Barn Owl, Walknut, Horna and others. Which on it's own would probably be enough. But the bulk of the magazine is about travel, specifically of the DIY type, even more specifically, with a focus on train hopping. From Traveling on freight trains in Mexico, to various expeditions throughout China, Mongolia, Finland, Norway and Nepal, there's a history of railroads and railroad operations in Maine, where the author is from, and there's tons of crazy stories, encounters with other travellers, loads of photos, it's pretty incredible, and besides getting a vicarious thrill from reading about all of these amazing places, and the amazing journeys to and through and back, it definitely gives us the bug, to tour, travel, explore, get lost, the sort of thing that the best travel writing does. We've been reading this like crazy, but it's HUGE, so are only partway through, but you'll find yourself riveted, and probably will have trouble putting it down. Also has us hankering to check out past issues as well! Total photocopied, cut and paste old school zine radness, and obviously WAY WAY recommended
Edited by West Coast sound artists Brandon LaBelle and Steve Roden, "Site of Sound" is a compendium of theoretical discourses within conceptually based sound art. Along with the rather dense and at times poetic texts, the book also features a cd of work by the authors. Featured both on cd and in print are Achim Wollscheid, Christina Kubisch, RLW, John Hudak, Toshiya Tsonuda, Christof Migone, Steve Peters, m/s, and others. Text only contributers include Loren Chasse, Giancarlo Toniuitti, CM von Hausswolff, Leif Elgrenn, David Dunn, etc.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's rare when an underground music "zine" becomes so regular (and good!) that you can really look forward to an issue every few months, but that's the case with this international journal of psychedelic/drone/pop/folk/cosmic/etc. sounds. We mean it, it's always a pleasure to spend some time with the latest issue of Broken Face. As usual, editor Mats Gustafsson and his international cast of contributors seem to be pretty much on our musical wavelength, selecting quite a few Aquarius faves to feature in this ish, from Avarus to Steffen Basho Junghans to Sunburned Hand Of The Man to Mikami Kan (not an interview, but still an interesting article). There's even an in-depth interview with Djin Aquarian of the legendary band/commune Yahowah 13!! Wow. The Time Lag and Idea record labels get profiled as well, and of course there's also lotsa reviews, and more! Pretty much an essential read/resource if any of the above names rock your world (and a great way to get acquainted with any that may be unfamiliar, as long as that you're into that psychedelic/drone/pop/folk/cosmic/etc. realm).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Editor Mats Gustafsson (no, not the improvising saxophone player, although THAT Mats gets interviewed by BF's Mats in this ish!) comes through with yet another issue of his psychedelic indie folk pop journal, packed full of reviews and interviews as usual. There's talks with Piano Magic, Six Organs of Admittance, Double Leopards, Rafael Toral, New Zealand's Metonymic label, and others, quite a few AQ-fave artists among 'em. The Broken Face has always had a bit of the Ptolemaic Terrascope about it (they have many contributors and readers in common) but BF tends to focus more on the current scene rather than delving into the psychedelic past, although this issue does include a rare treat -- an interview with Bill Holt, the mastermind behind one of our favorite early 70s psych pop records, The Dreamies album! (You'll be interested to learn that Mr. Holt is running for Congress now...). The zillions of reviews, of everything from Kemialliset Ystavat to Kilowatt Hours, from Acid Mothers Temple to Simon Wickham-Smith, will allow you to while away many pleasant hours. There's a rating system but since everything seems to get between 3 and a half and four and a half stars, I'm not sure why they bother. A good source, though, to find out about a bunch of obscure releases, especially those on specialized cd-r labels like Last Visible Dog and Jewelled Antler!
Another fine installment of what's on its way to becoming an institution, and, as we said, definitely one for Terrascope fans.
Mats and Co. are back with another great issue of Broken Face, always a cause for celebration 'round these parts. Issue #15 is packed with all the psych-indie-folk-pop-drone music writing you'd expect, from an international array of contributors (BF is published in Sweden). It's kind of like the venerable Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine -- the audience is more-or-less the same -- but with a bit more of a contemporary and experimental bent. This ish they do delve into the past for an interview with the amazing Swedish psych outfit Parson Sound/Harvester/Trad Gras Och Stenar (we're all huge fans, so that by itself makes this essential). Then there's chats with SF's own Thuja, Japan's Nagisa Ni Te, Philly's Fursaxa, and local faves Tarentel, among others. A pretty fine line-up indeed! Plus there's a report on this past fall's Terrastock 5 festival in Boston, and the ususal plethora of reviews. Oh yeah, you'll also find Top Fifteen lists of the best of 2002 from a bunch of BF regulars in this issue. Yep, one of the music mag must-reads wethinks.
Into weird psych/folk/drone/indie stuff? Well if you didn't know it already, for you The Broken Face is just about as essential as a magazine could be. From Sweden, with many contributors far far afield, Mats Gustafsson's The Broken Face interview and reviews all your favorite underground artists, whether you know 'em already or not. In this issue: Reynols, Devendra Banhart, Tim Barnes, Birchville Cat Motel, Climax Golden Twins, Sandoz Lab Technicans, Armpit, and more. The reviews section is massive, and will add quite a few cds and cd-rs to your 'want' list for sure. Need we repeat: essential?
We're always happy when a new issue of Mats Gustafsson's excellent fanzine The Broken Face shows up. It's THE place to read about indie/folk/drone/psych stuff, especially if you're into the burgeoning cd-r micro-label scene, i.e. Jewelled Antler, Lal Lal Lal, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and so forth. But this time around we're a bit sad as well, 'cause Mats says this will be the FINAL issue of BF. He loves doing the 'zine, but just can't manage the time commitment. And he's been real committed, as BF had a frequency of publication that far surpassed most 'zines with which I'm familiar! Oh well. But of course, ish #18 is a fine one, with the usual plethora of reviews, and features this time around on the likes of Jewelled Antler's Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana/Thuja/Mirza/solo), AQ faves The Necks, Crevice, Michael Gira, The Ponys, Simon Wickham-Smith, Rollerball, Lovely Midget and more, including an overview of the Finnish underground from the 1960's to the present, from The Sperm to Bad Vugum to Kemialliset Ystavat. And as well, Mats and co-conspirator Lee Jackson provide a retrospective look at some of their favorite music released over the past six year lifespan of The Broken Face. We've compared this 'zine in the past with The Ptolemaic Terrascope, but by now it has earned its own place in the 'zine pantheon, and certainly will be missed.
Nothing Painted Blue frontman and Extra Glenns member Franklin Bruno digs deep into the making of Elvis Costello's classic Armed Forces. You think Bruno's lyrics are dense and wordy, wait until you have a look at his prose!!!
"A Quarterly Journal of Post-Rock Cultural Pluralism". In other words, a xeroxed, stapled zine from the fevered rock crit mind of editor Byron Coley, continuing the column of reviews Coley & Thurston Moore did for Arthur magazine, Bull Tongue. But for this zine, a lot of other folks have been invited to chip in with reviews too. Yup, these 46 pages are ALL reviews, and not just of music, either. One guy reviews his own 52nd birthday!
There's critiques (loosely put, like the birthday one, some are just excuses for amusing creative writing) of books, movies, live shows, restaurants, furniture, towns, all sorts of things. But of course plenty of crazy underground records and cds get covered too.
Besides Byron and Thurston, the all-star cast of contributors includes: Joe Carducci, Alan Bishop, Sharon Cheslow, Dylan Nyoukis, Gary Panter, Bruce Russell, Chris Stigliano, Brian Turner, Naomi Yang, Lisa Carver, Mats Gustafsson, Marc Masters, Hisham Mayet, Phil McMullen, and a whole bunch of other cool cats. Oh, we should mention Steve Albini, his piece here being the first part of a two part review of a fancy restaurant in Chicago, but he doesn't even get to the restaurant in the first part, it's all about his attitude towards rich people, and also about a friend and former coworker of his who ended up founding Groupon. Interestin'. As is the whole issue, a good mix of the high and low, of serious cultural commentary and just for laffs stuff.
Here's a 2013 Record Store Day release that we just discovered we still had a small stash of! Well known collector/musician Joe Bussard doing a couple of acoustic guitar songs on an old-timey 78 rpm 10" record, packaged in a plain manilla sleeve like in the old days. Bussard's been collecting jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, etc. 78's since the 1940s and so he sure knows how it ought to sound, the two tracks "Guitar Rag" and "Screwdriver Slide" (yep, played with a screwdriver) coming off like authentic dusty (but lively) old tunes indeed.
For fans of John Fahey (who's first recordings came out on Bussard's own Fonotone label), Jack Rose, and all the old-timey down-home stuff those guys were fans of, too...
LIMITED TO 625 COPIES.
The summer issue of Bust magazine is dedicated to motherhood. Articles about helping your friends in the delivery room, visiting your mother in jail, being a cool punk mom, how Rufus Wainwright much loves his mommy, when the father of your child is an anonymous donor, and much much more. I happen to have a lot of punk liberal moms around me lately and I kept feeling the desire to buy them a copy of this issue. Bust is always so good, and the hip mom is often under-represented and under-appreciated. (And gals, the one handed read is a juicy one.)
Subtitled: The Collected Lyrics Of Bill Callahan.
Not really gonna "review" this, 'cause it would be like reviewing just the lyrics to 70 different Bill Callahan/Smog songs - that's what this is, a collection of Callahan's lyrics from over the years, accompanied by his own simple and evocative ink-wash drawings, 116 of them, outnumbering the songs.
Now, of course, sometimes rock lyrics do not equal poetry and don't belong in a book, but Callahan's we think just might make the grade, fans will know for sure, and that's really who this is for, after all. And his art is nice too.
Perhaps, reading through, even the uninitiated could become fans, curious to hear just how such lines as "And though you were / just a little squirrel / you understood every word" and "But hey / what would my wife say / what would my wife say / if I were married" are delivered on record.
This 196 page paperback is definitely something for every serious Callahan-fan to have on their night table.
Another super limited sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music, knows that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, CL is no longer whispering, instead he's breathing fire, his guitar a newly minted incendiary device. A sonic flame thrower, each track a layered assemblage of thick peals of sound, glowing tongues of distorted flame. A sonic assault more similar to Total or Sunroof! Than CL's usual output. Makes sense that the first song is dedicated to Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans (who also mastered it).
But all of this talk of fire and flame shouldn't scare you off, there is still plenty of delicate beauty to be had, it's just wrapped in thick sheets of sonic napalm, the guitar effulgent and glowing white hot, the chords washed out and the distortion crumbling. Melodies are jagged and dripping with hissy buzz, each track a glacial guitarscape turning your speakers to ash.
There are a few tracks, almost half of the 8 here, that drift in a soporific haze, and hew closer to CL's usual aesthetic, but here, they sound less like individual pieces, and more like interludes, brief moments of tranquility, a chance to catch your breath, let your ears heal, allow time for your speakers to re-solidify, before launching the next buzzing crumbling divinely distorted salvo of gorgeous blown out guitar bliss.
Fans of stuff like Nadja, the Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, will be quite pleased with Cantu-Ledesma's visit to the sonic dark side.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in full color cardboard sleeves, with printed inserts.
Finally got a new batch of these amazing books, tailor made for us music geeks. Super in depth examinations of some of our favorite records! The cool thing is that they're not just the same old rehashed stories about the bands or artists, and who they slept with and where they grew up (although we like those too!), instead they're about the creation of those specific albums. The writers go really deep into every facet of the creation. The writing is often quite dense and sooo informative. Like a Mojo article expanded a hundred fold! We wanted to give each one an in depth review, but they are all so good and they keep coming fast and furious so we figured we oughta just list 'em. Basically, if you love the record, you're definitely gonna want the book! Also got the Joe Pernice Meat Is Murder book back in stock as well as Andrew Hulktrans's book about Love's masterpiece Forever Changes. And if you're anything like the music geeks here, you're gonna want all of em! Future volumes include My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, Radiohead's OK Computer, Jethro Tull's Aqualung.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Listen up nerds!! So, a few weeks back we reviewed a compilation tape called the "Cave Evil Radio Mix", that was created as the soundtrack to this truly bizarre "Necro-Demonic dungeon crawl" fantasy boardgame, in which the players take on the role of evil Necromancers, vying for domination in a dank subterranean necropolis, invoking creatures, excavating tunnels, collecting resources (metals, gore, and shadowflame) and battling the other Necromancers & their hordes to control The Pit at the center of the board. Last Necromancer standing wins.
Be warned, it's not an EASY game, there are a LOT of rules (the entertainingly written and illustrated rulebook is over 40 pages long) so this isn't for folks who find anything more advanced than Monopoly challenging. It's more complex than Settlers Of Catan too (though way cooler to deal in metals, gore, and shadowflame rather than sheep, wood, and bricks...). You kinda have to be a real gamer to get with this. But if you are, and like fantasy-horror concepts and creepy artwork (amazing stuff mainly by Fort Thunder comic book artist Mat Brinkman, also by Commode Minstrels In Bullface, and others), then this might be up your alley! For you hardcore gamers out there, we'd say Cave Evil is like a MUCH more complex (and totally black metallized) version of the classic game Wiz-War. You draw cards (spells, weapons, monsters, events), move your Necromancer and the 'squads' of minions he controls, and attempt to defeat the other Necromancers before the even-more-evil-than-thou denizen of The Pit awakens and murders you all.
The game is a limited edition, DIY production (but really nicely done!), and it's more or less out of print but we were lucky enough to get a few extra copies of it from Commode Mistrels In Bullface. We also recently finally got a chance to actually PLAY the game. And now we know that not only does it look amazing, but it's a lot of fun as well. Actually, a really good game, deserving of the high score the users of BoardGameGeek have given it (7.9 out of 10).
We were learning, so it took a few hours to play, like, ten turns, and we didn't come close to actually finishing the game, but are looking forward to our next session. Allan is still talking about how his Black Wizard managed to escape certain death when attacked by an Undead Dragon by using his special ability to split into two Mini Black Wizards so that one of them could run away... An ability that we thought might have been inspired by the Emperor song "I Am The Black Wizards".
For more info, check out www.caveevil.com, there's even a short trailer there showing what life's like in the cave, for real. You'll also find a more thorough (and also positive) playtest review of the game via the folks at The Comics Journal, at http://www.tcj.com/reviews/cave-evil/, which also shows lots of the cool black/white/grey artwork found on each card in the game, and the gameboard and tiles and game box itself.
While we're still wringing a lot of reading enjoyment out of the 120 pages of the most recent issue of this cult metal 'zine, #3, reviewed here last list, we also have been excitedly perusing the two back issues we got in as well, #1 and #2, collect 'em all! As we said in our review of the latest, this is a great 'zine - the kind of 'zine that makes us wanna do 'zines again, actually. Edited by the inimitable Stewart Voegtlin, whose drunken hesher gone grad school writing style is the standard for all the magazine's enthusiastic & clever contributors, Chips & Beer's non-ironic love of underground metal past and present, the real good stuff, is abundantly evident throughout these first two issues.
#1, at 96 pages, features the likes of Manilla Road (an interview AND primer), Pentagram, Christian Mistress, Negative Plane, Cauchemar (with cocktail recipes), Vanhelgd, gore artist Matt "Putrid" Carr, and more! Buy this to read about the time Bobby Liebling met Iggy Stooge...
Issue #2, is up to 120 pages, crammed with stuff on Twisted Tower Dire, Thrones, The Mentors, Deceased, Midnight, Obsequiae, and much more, including a chat with our pal Ian Christie, of Bazillion Points Books. Plus, the primer this time is on King Diamond/Mercyful Fate.
And both issues of course feature editorial rants, peurile cartoons, clever comix, and plenty of opinionated, if sometimes cryptic reviews. We don't always agree with 'em (when we can even figure out if they like something or not) but find their viewpoints worth considering, and certainly amusing to read.
Blogs are great and all, but, well, screw 'em. Nothin' like a real 'zine! And especially nothin' like Chips & Beer.
While we're still wringing a lot of reading enjoyment out of the 120 pages of the most recent issue of this cult metal 'zine, #3, reviewed here last list, we also have been excitedly perusing the two back issues we got in as well, #1 and #2, collect 'em all! As we said in our review of the latest, this is a great 'zine - the kind of 'zine that makes us wanna do 'zines again, actually. Edited by the inimitable Stewart Voegtlin, whose drunken hesher gone grad school writing style is the standard for all the magazine's enthusiastic & clever contributors, Chips & Beer's non-ironic love of underground metal past and present, the real good stuff, is abundantly evident throughout these first two issues.
#1, at 96 pages, features the likes of Manilla Road (an interview AND primer), Pentagram, Christian Mistress, Negative Plane, Cauchemar (with cocktail recipes), Vanhelgd, gore artist Matt "Putrid" Carr, and more! Buy this to read about the time Bobby Liebling met Iggy Stooge...
Issue #2, is up to 120 pages, crammed with stuff on Twisted Tower Dire, Thrones, The Mentors, Deceased, Midnight, Obsequiae, and much more, including a chat with our pal Ian Christie, of Bazillion Points Books. Plus, the primer this time is on King Diamond/Mercyful Fate.
And both issues of course feature editorial rants, peurile cartoons, clever comix, and plenty of opinionated, if sometimes cryptic reviews. We don't always agree with 'em (when we can even figure out if they like something or not) but find their viewpoints worth considering, and certainly amusing to read.
Blogs are great and all, but, well, screw 'em. Nothin' like a real 'zine! And especially nothin' like Chips & Beer.
This is super cool. Chips & Beer is a real 'zine, on newsprint for goodness sakes, 120 pages, chock full of more metal than thou madness, deeply nerdy, enthused about an aesthetic that most ordinary metal fans let alone regular folks don't 'get', but if you do, this is for you!!! Not sure how this rag got all the way to issue #3 without us knowing about it, it's totally up our alley, being all about the type of truely cult, truly METAL stuff we dig. Fortunately we got a clue and got it in, with this brand new ish hot off the presses. It's just the thing to be reading when cranking the great new Dawnbringer album (which we just got in, to be reviewed next list) loud, 'cause there's a big interview with 'Professor' Black in here. It's also good readin' to go with crankin' just about ANY old school (or new wave of old school) metal: thrash, death, doom, true, etc.
Along with the interview with Dawnbringer/High Spirits mastermind Chris Black, in this issue Chips & Beer also kicks back with Finland's Krypts and Swallowed, Australia's Cauldron Black Ram, and others... The historical side of things is also well-represented, one of the features being a lengthy piece on the epic '80s metal legends known as Cirith Ungol. And the issue's centerpiece is a massive "New Yawk Street Metal Special", a lovingly in depth look at NYC's (and Long Island's) contributions to the majesty of metal, including interviews with Twisted Sister's Jay Jay French, Manowar's Ross The Boss, the band Frigid Bitch, Dan Lilker of Anthrax/SOD/Nuclear Assault/etc.; also there's a run-down on all the KISS albums up through Music From The Elder (just like we did!), a piece about the movie Maniac, and more.
Plus, Chips & Beer's got all the other usual stuff you'd expect in any self-respecting 'zine: tons of uber opinionated album reviews (we don't always agree with 'em, but they're fun to read), a letters page, ads from underground labels, and even some comix! And C&B boasts an excellent stable of headbanging writers, including noted scribe Stewart Voegtlin, the editor in fact, whose fevered writing is always abstruse but amusing, a hesher beatnik academic hybrid. Recommended!
So, not only are we looking forward to issue #4, we've also gotta hunt down the back issues...
Man, there's lots of good reading material on this week's list. But this 'zine is, for underground metal fans, one of the best. Embarrassingly, we came late to the Chips & Beer party, catching on circa issue #3 and then catching up with #1 and #2 (both now out of print). We've been waiting eagerly for #4, and now it's here. Even better, it's the "Satanic Panic Special"! Which encompasses everything from a comic (there's always a lot of comix and art in C&B) about the supposed Satanic cult freakout of the '80s, to features on such Satanic bands as Teitanblood (yeah!) and a HUGE section all about "Sinister Cinema" (cult, occult horror flicks of '70s mainly) accompanied by an equally HUGE section wherein such left hand path luminaries as Dennis Dread, King Fowley, Justin Bartlett, and members of Moss, Hooded Menace, Impetigo, etc. discuss in depth their favorite horror film soundtrack music. Rad.
There's also a lot of interviews this ish, including chats with betrayed Blizzard Of Ozz bassist Bob Daisley, a band we gotta hear just 'cause they're called Skullshitter, and the (kinda weird old) guy who painted the cover to Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy. Also, a piece on Possessed's seminal Seven Churches lp, and one about Roky Erickson's Satanic side. And a hell of a lot more, including of course C&B's trademark cryptic & confusing record reviews. 128 newsprint pages, everything written (and drawn) with anti-trend attitude and true underground enthusiasm, a crazy combo of elite intellectual interest and dumb headbanger humor, both. Highly recommended, for Satan's sake!
Hell yeah! Break out the chips and the beer - and crank the metal music LOUD - 'cause it's already time for the fifth installment of Chips & Beer, our favorite idiosyncratic underground cult metal (and more) 'zine. If you've got the earlier issues you know what to expect, if not, how do we explain the charm of Chips & Beer? Well, imagine a metalhead version of the old Bananafish 'zine - cryptic, creative, obviously intelligent, often absurd, and sometimes (especially when it comes to the comix) quite crude. Chips & Beer's writers, whether being straightforward or pseudo-intellectual or just plain weird, always manage to amuse, confuse, and (sometimes) enlighten, and definitely fulfill the FANzine's chief imperative of being enthusiastic admirers of whatever subject they chose to celebrate - in this issue, ferinstance, you get a piece on original Saint Vitus singer Scott Reagers ("Reagerding Reagers") that's practically a prose-poem in its effusive praise of that neglected vocalist's one of a kind talents (sentiments with which this writer can only agree).
This issue is the "Italian Metal Special", and as you may already know, the Chips & Beer crew don't half-ass these "specials", nope, you'll find stuff here about every damn crazy Italian metal band you've ever heard of and many more you hadn't, the big features being on Death SS, Bulldozer, Dark Quarterer, and Mortuary Drape, but lots of obscurer Italo HM obscurities get covered too, from Adramelch to Zess - plus there's even an interview with truly obscure AQ fave and former Record Of The Weeker, Tony Tears! The Italian theme continues into in-depth coverage of Italian '80s Z-grade swords & sorcery cinema, and the works of erotic auteur Tinto Brass.
But that's not all - also this ish: Betsy Bitch, Morbus Chron, Borrowed Time, Bone Sickness, Moss, Blue Oyster Cult (sort of), Lester Maddox, Longmont Potion Castle (yeah!!) and plenty more, including lots of hard-to-grok music reviews, and also reviews of modern straight to video (well, dvd) horror films, that part including a sidebar interview with director Ti West whose films Triggerman and The Roost we just listed the soundtrack to. 136 action-packed newsprint pages all in all, and recommended - nay, required - for anyone into this shit.
Alllllllrrriiigggghtt! What you've all been waiting for, a new issue of everybody's favorite hesher-oriented journal of cult stuff, Chips & Beer. 128 newsprint pages packed with all kinds of obscure writing about obscure things that dudes & dudettes with extensive metal vinyl and horror VHS collections will want to read about. Crude drawings too. Main themes as the cover states: Metal, horror, and humor. Well, about 18 of those 128 pages are inexplicably filled with information about the movie Bad News Bears, or reviews of various hot dog brands. Humor we suppose. But elsewhere, more than enough metal and horror - and more humor.
A good portion of this ish is devoted to an appreciation of German metal godfathers the Scorpions, from their early '70s krautrock-y origins to world wide heavy metal fame. Going album by album, It's part primer (with facts & figures) and part perplexing prose poetry, as you might expect from Chips & Beer (a magazine wherein at least one writer likes to spell the word "folks" as "foax" for some reason). This section includes lengthy, lively interviews with both former Scorps guitarist, the great Uli Jon Roth (who as always manages to be both hippie mystical AND surprisingly down to earth) and also former Scorps drummer and lyricist Herman "Ze German" Rarebell, who provides frank talk about groupies, among other subjects.
Also in #6: Finnish retro-thrashers and Ektro recording artists Ranger, Texan crossover upstarts Power Trip, underground '80s American metal masters Omen, and plenty more, including a chat with the director of an upcoming documentary about the early years of Twisted Sister (can't wait to see it!). Also worthy of note, highly entertaining interviews with two Chris's: Chris Reifert of death metal legends Autopsy (a funny guy!) and Chris Bruni of the Profound Lore label (who is asked to respond to the following wtf? question: "You ever watched Raiders Of The Lost Ark in black and white? How fuckin' hot is Karen Allen in that? She's like Amelie for dudes that listen to early Mudhoney and work in sanitation"). On the horror front, Chips & Beer #6 provides a big feature about the classic monster movies of Lon Chaney (aka "The Man of a Thousand Faces"), as well as latter films & performances in the Chaney tradition, by Karloff, Lorre, et.al. Oh and of course there's the music reviews section, rating records on a six-point scale with associated cartoon icons that range G.G. Allin (worst) to flying tits (best). The new Watain rates a G.G., but they give flying tits to the not-so-new Black In Black by AC/DC!
Sometimes we wish it was easier to make sense of some of the more stream-of-consciouness-ish material in Chips & Beer, but possibly we just need to get drunker when we read it. But even sober, there's plenty that's funny and/or interesting if you share their sensibilities regarding cult metal, horror, hot dogs, etc.
Oh boy, oh boy it's another issue of Chips & Beer, The Magazine. 128 newsprint pages packed with esoteric wisdom pertaining to cult metal, movies, and more� Humorous and irreverent, cryptic and confusional, enthusiastic and informative, pretty much a must read for anyone into heavy shit that's not bullshit.
#7 continues Chips & Beer's run as one of our favorite 'zines. This issue contains a massive special section about everybody's favorite '70s Irish rockers, including a primer on their discography, a Thin Lizzy comic strip, and in-depth interviews with former Lizzy guitarists Scott Gorham and Eric Bell. Fascinating for any fans for sure! That should be reason enough to get this, but of course there's more: stuff about other cool bands old and new like Riot, At War, Cemetary Piss, Helstar, Holocross, Ritual Chamber, and more. Even a chat with Nocturnus drummer/mainman Mike Browning.
Meanwhile, on the cinematic side of things, you get a big section all about Chips & Beer's favorite Westerns, yippie ki-yay! Oh, and then interspersed throughout there's funny bits like the page filled with "100 words & phrases to be retired from music journalism" (no chance there, we couldn't do the list without most of 'em!) and the page heralding "the most important sub genres to watch for in 2014" (among our favorites: "Non-Violent Death Metal" and "True Detective Machine Gun Arsenal Cache With Jameson Stash Metal"). Plus, no issue of Chips & Beer would be complete without the completely hard-to-grok reviews section; we don't always agree with 'em, or understand what they're even trying to say, but still they're fun to read.
Heck yeah, another issue (these guys have a work ethic, though hesher burnouts they might be) of this magazine of metal and movies and comix and other underground culture. Chips & Beer can be counted to to be a) funny b) metal as fuck c) confusing and d) informative. Elements c) and d) often conflict, but a) and b) never failing. Headbanging and headscratching go hand in hand here in other words, but you hopefully know that since we're up to issue #8 and they always sell real well. So, what's in the 128 pages of this one? Special-issue-theme-wise, these guys nerd out on Chinese horror movies, and also Vietnam war movies too. If you're read other issues, you know they go deep. In fact, the Chinese horror movie section includes an illustrated bestiary of monsters commonly appearing in such movies, like the Devil Baby and the Pissing Woman, complete with D&D style stats (though, where's their Hit Dice? Apparently "Advanced Chips & Beer" doesn't use Hit Dice).
As for musical content this ish, it ranges from, you know, punk to death metal and beyond (or before), there's chats with the MC5's Wayne Kramer, Danzig guitarist John Christ and AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd (the Chips & Beer guys were STOKED!), also bands like Impetigo and Dead Congregation are featured, and lots more, including an interview with John Carpenter soundtrack collaborator Alan Howarth! Wow. Oh, yeah, there's also a big feature on various types of scary knives favored by the Chips & Beer staff, for all you Rambos out there. Do 'zines get more badass? Finally, there's the reviews section, as always opinionated and amusing and fairly cryptic. It gets really meta by including a review of itself - issue #8 of Chips & Beer magazine. Really. Go read it and see what they think!
Most of the record nerds and music obsessives we know (ourselves included of course), have shelves loaded with books full of album covers, total record porn. And we can't get enough, from old classic jazz lps to lost punk rock 7"s, crazy heavy metal jackets to arty experimental sleeve design, album artwork is as much a part of our musical love as the music itself, and thus pretty much everyone here wanted one of these, a collection of 7" single sleeves from the eighties, all presented in a gorgeous hardcover book, featuring lots of your favorites: Duran Duran, Adam Ant, the Romantics, Bow Wow Wow, the B-52's, ABC, Grace Jones, Gary Numan, Pat Benatar, The Cure, XTC and those are just the ones shown on the cover. There are loads of obscure singles, and even more obscure bands, beautifully laid out, a single sleeve per page, with the original designers/artists listed, and a paragraph about each, often telling some cool story behind the creation of the cover or the genesis of the artwork. Folks our age, who grew up in the eighties, will flip for this total nostalgia trip, but even folks around here to young to remember that decade have been pretty into this book as well. These are sealed, but we did get a glimpse inside one on Record Store Day, when one of our customers opened his copy, and it looked amazing. And while they last, we have the special Record Store Day version, which was LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, each one signed, numbered and dated by the author!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
If you're in the mood for newsy, chatty indierock gossip with a capital G, then you can do no better than Chunklet. We love it. The featured article in this issue is the "Asshole Top 100". First place: the Butthole Surfers; second place: Courtney Love; third place: the guys who ran Cargo Records/Distribution into the ground. Accompanied by extensive and catty explanatory footnotes, the thing is hilarious and no-holds-barred. Steve Albini is also interviewed on how he feels about showing up on the list (doesn't care at all). Other things Steve has to say:
"People are now concerned about how they are perceived by others far more than they used to be. Part of being in a band used to mean that you were self defining, and now it seems there's much more emphasis on being part of an economic base and being part of a scene or movement or whatever. That makes people sensitive to what other people have to say about them. People see this as sort of a career path and want to maintain a profile within that community. There are fucking punk rock publicists now."
Other articles on emo, Will Hart of Olivia Tremor Control, David Cross (Mr. Show), John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt), the infamous Band-A-Minute list (short band reviews a la: "A Minor Forest: We're only getting away with this because we're on Thrill Jockey" and "Modest Mouse: See a retarded boy singing Pixies songs"), and a big thing on Charles Bronson written by AQ-fave Andy Earles of the wonderful Cimarron Weekend zine (and when's a new issue of THAT coming out, we wonder with baited breath?)
Note: in great demand and selling super quick, consider buying this now before we run out forever.
Yet another amazingly alienating, mildly offensive, totally hilarious issue of the mighty CHUNKLET magazine. You may remember the last Chunklet and it's 'biggest assholes in rock' theme, well there's even more shit-slinging this time around as Henry Chunklet compiles 'The Shit List', a random assortment of shitty shows, shitty bands, and shitty people. And some bands contribute their
Here it is, the next in Henry Owings' line of increasingly hard-act-to-follow Chunklets (issues 15 and 16 were The Shit List and The Biggest Asshole). The cover story this time? Pay To Not Play. An unbelievably complex, stipulation-laden, sliding scale offer to pay bands to break up. Not in a band? No problem 'cause Chunklet's got an offer for you too. It's the Tattoo Challenge - select a band name from the long list they've provided, and they will custom design a tattoo for that band AND pay for it to be inked onto your body. Note: you *really* need to see some of their samples. But wait! There's more... truckloads! An extensive Mr. Show tour diary. An even more extensive Mission Of Burma feature (a whompin' 18 pages). Interviews with comedians Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garafalo, Dave Attell and Fred Armisen. All written with Chunklet's irrepressible biting wit. Whew! Hold your horses, we're not done yet. A full-color rock club safety fold-out - amazingly replicating those airlines pamphlets that you find in the seat pocket in front of you. Musings on punk rock action figures and hipster handshakes, a crossword puzzle, old faves Jaded Robot, Letters To The Editor and Whatever Dude, plus comics from our own Cup and her I Am Spoonbender bandmate Dustin. This hefty mag is even more astonishing with the knowledge that the entire issue vanished just prior to its completion when Henry's home was broken into and his computer stolen. An immensely engrossing and highly entertaining read.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Is there any better bathroom reading for indie-rockers? Chunklet's wise-ass mixture of music and comedy is always welcome in our WC. This ish is has "Overrated" stuff as its theme, which means you get lists of overrated musicans, bands, albums, trends, drummers, and other completely random things complete with snarky commentary. Now hopefully they don't really mean it when they say that [insert your favorite, canonically-accepted record here] sucks, but it's still funny. Or just turn the page, there's lots more in here: Rock sniglets. Bob Odenkirk. Sarah Silverman. Adopt-a-Gutter-Punk. Why student loans are for suckers. Chunklet's pie chart of potential major label droppings. Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Pen Rollings. The Chunklet Guide To Open Mic Comics. 10 Ways The Beatles Differ From Fountains Of Wayne. Offensive Bumper Stickers part 1. And so much more.
Hard to believe it's been THREE YEARS since the last issue of Chunklet. Since then Chunklet has expanded its rock empire to include all manner of comedy, sludge rock, releasing lps, hosting events, all that jazz, so it's no big surprise it took as long as it did, but hell, it's here now, so no more whinging. Just a quick run down of what you'll find in this lastest issue of the snarkiest, snottiest, band hating, hipster crushing music mag in the land!!!
An interview with Mr. Show's Paul F. Tompkins, hirsute comedian Zach Galifianakis, a drug awareness chart, so all you druggies can figure out what the heck you're taking and why, the online music journalist application form, an article on prank calls, the sport of gods, WHIRLYBALL!, comedian Jon Glaser, a Sublime Frequencies interview, and finally, page after page after pager after page of ridiculous shit, a brief list to follow now: How To Read This Issue Of Chunklet, Rocktoids, Rock Sniglets, Dear Rock Star..., Bro-Cabulary, Ten Things All Suicide Girls Have In Common, Silver Jews Lyrics I've Used As Pick-Up Lines, Know Your Rock Girlfriend Stereotypes, Yesterday's Southern Rock Today, Actual Protest Signs We've Seen, Nine Things About Canada We Politely Shun, Glad You're Dead!, We Will Not Listen To Bands That..., Things To Tell A Band Instead Of The Truth, Record Store Names, Music Mag Mix 'n' Match, Local For Life, Your City Really Stinks, Rockopoly and on and on and on and on, millions of tiny lists and jokes and disses crammed into every corner of every page, basically the ultimate bathroom reading for the hip rock household. We've had our copies for weeks now, and have barely cracked the surface. As always, funny as fuck, sure to piss people off and eminently re-readable...
Holy shit, this is a rare occasion indeed! A new issue of the beloved, wickedly irreverent Chunklet Magazine has arrived less than a year after the previous one! Normally a single issue might take years to make -- no exaggeration! C'mon, humor this scathing and subject matter this obsessively reported doesn't happen overnight! Henry Owings, Brian Teasley and co. have been busy lil' beavers honing their 'taking the piss' skills to new heights. The few occasions where their acerbic fount o' witty take-downs falters though is when they open up the floor to the bulk contributors forum (i.e, folks who don't quite get that there's more to the Chunklet magic than aggressive mean-spirited bile-spewing a la Vice Mag), then it has a tendency to come across as a bitch session. No, much like the late comedian Bill Hicks (whose dvd is also reviewed in this week's AQ List and whom we're sure is an old fave around the magazine's headquarters), the thing to take note of is that the core of the material is not just about negativity and shock value -- yes, there's a dismay and disgust towards the state of things, but there's also underpinings of hope and positivity lurking underneath it all. Aww, shucks.
Anyways, for the faint-hearted, the overwhelming Issue #19 might be too much too soon, but for the steely hardcore fans of the mag, #19 is simply Part Two of Chunklet's exploration of all things over-rated. So, who and what are the crosshairs this time? Records that were released after 1991 (fyi: Issue #18 skewered pre-'91 releases), guitarists, drummers, music production techniques, record cover art, cities, actors, filmmakers and film genres. Elsewhere in the issue you get Chunklet's ever-loyal coverage of current comedians (Eugene Mirman, The Naked Trucker aka Dave "Gruber" Allen from the Freaks & Geeks tv series and David Koechner also from F&G as well as the movie Anchorman, and the comedy troupe Stella), a great article on the 'King Of Record Collectors' Joe Bussard (if you've checked out the awesome Down In The Basement compilation of selections from his rare record collection, you know who we're talkin' about!), the truly ear-punishing/spirit-crushing Torture Tapes Experiment, articles on Tim Kerr and his stuff, "Seven Degrees of Winona Ryder", "real" offensive bumper stickers, rock venue bathroom graffiti and unintentionally funny people. Oh yes, and AQ's own Chunkleteer Cup contributed her illustrated interpretation of a play written by Henry's eight year old niece Mary! Plus you get all the mag's regulars (Rocktoids, Whatever Dude, Rock Sniglets), as well as Chunkie's unconventional versions of conventional magazine sections such as Crossword and Letters To The Editor. Sometimes shocking, sometimes fucked up, sometimes downright caustic, but almost always hiiiilaaaariioooous! Another hearty fun addition to your bathroom library!
After reading this tome if you still haven't gotten your fill of Aaron's writings, he also wrote the extensive liner notes for the new Jawbreaker rarities cd. And who could ever get enough of one of the greatest zines ever. Cometbus has been around (sometimes pub'd under different names) for over TWENTY YEARS! Got all the issues? Me neither. For this book Aaron personally selected the best, and filtered what he thinks of as the worst, writing from Cometbus. The most recent issues aren't here, as they are still in print, but the best of the rest of it is. So great!
Finally! After how long? It's been years since we've heard from Aaron Cometbus, well, at least properly. There have been some collections in the form of books, but those were compiled from old issues of the zine itself. Anyway, we thought the last issue - which marked 25 years - was his swan song, but with this one we were apparently proven wrong. From squatting to love stories, from traveling to drugs and more, Cometbus has always centered around Berkeley, California, and has always been one of our favorite zines ever. This time around things are no different, as the story once again starts on Telegraph Avenue. A few things have actually changed a bit. Over time, we've seen Aaron's stories go from zine writing to something more akin to subcultural documentation. He collects stories and retells them for our reading pleasure. He goes back to Telegraph and decides to hunt down the stories behind the area's bookstores. To be honest, this is probably mostly for hardcore fans. You know, the ones that will be discussing the same parts with each other the next time they get together and catch up. If you like Aaron's writing style, his sense of humor, the way he observes and recounts things, then this will fit perfectly with your other Cometbuses...
Latest issue of one of our favorite metal mags (and definitely the one with the best name ever!), The Convivial Hermit returns with another massive issue, overflowing with all sorts of dark and mysterious music, metal and otherwise (with a definite focus on the blacker side of metal), from all over the globe, and as always, lots of familiar names, but even more unfamiliar ones. We've discovered so much cool music via the 'Hermit, and it doesn't look like this new issue will be any different.
So here goes, the groups we know first: Finnish black metallers Ancestors Blood, avant grade Austrian metal horde Angizia, Japanese black metalheads Cataplexy, German neo-folkers Empyrium, Cascadian BM troop Fauna, Japanese doomlords Funeral Moth, Austrian blackened goth metallers Golden Dawn, Humiliation, a death metal band from Kulala Lumpur, Tolkien metal duo Summoning, Greek pagan black metalheads Kawir, long running Finnish death metal crew (and recent Circle collaborators) Stench Of Decay, Swedish black metallers Nasheim, Norwegian BM legends Isvind, Rotting Christ from Greece, SF's very own Worm Ouroboros, the long running, and now metal again (after a brief foray into electro/hip hop) Manes from Norway, experimental / avant ambient black metal drone dude Mhonos.
Then there are a ton of groups new to us: Annwfyn, Asbaar, Dperd, Draco Hypnalis, Ectovoid, Raflum, Sacratus, Velm, Woodland Choir and more! And as if that weren't enough, the magazine is also packed with articles, travel diaries, reviews of shows, and records and zines, and all sorts of other cool stuff. It's no wonder this doesn't come out more often, as it seems like a massive undertaking to get each issue together, but it's well worth the wait. And it's big enough, that you could very well still be working your way through it, when issue 8 rolls around. Needless to say, HIGHLY recommended. Essential reading for all adventurous metalheads!
We're always on the lookout for new music metal magazines, cuz as much as we love Decibel and Terrorizer, it's the cool DIY mags that really cover the stuff we love, in a way that seems totally genuine, driven purely by a love of the music, whether it's the now defunct Oaken Throne, or Salt (not strictly metal), or Asgard Root, we can't get enough. Which is why we were so thrilled to discover the curiously named Convivial Hermit, while at the same time confused as to how we missed the first 4 issues of this incredible magazine. Based in Warmonster, Pennsylvania (!!!), TCH covers a wide array of dark and heavy underground music, black metal, doom, psychedelic folk, industrial, and pretty much everything in between, as well as artists and filmmakers and whatever the hell else they feel like. This is issue five, and it's a doozy, featuring legendary slowcore doomlords Skepticism, Chinese neo-folk outfit Baishui, USBM horde Nechochwen, Korean metallers Sad Legend, Norwegian metal outfit Wallachia, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, Orson Welles' film Mr. Arkadin, mysterious Russian black metallers Walknut, black metallers Algaion, symphonic neo-folk group Rome, longtime aQ fave Steven R. Smith, Russian doom metal label Solitude Productions, Lovecraftian metal weirdos Fungoid Stream, funeral doom outfit Helllight, an essay on the dying art of compilations and reviews of some of the editor's faves, French Illustrator Chris Moyen, death metallers Affliction Gate, Spanish black metallers Beelzeb, German black metal horde Drengskapur, Italian black metal unknowns Adversam, an essay on hermits (!), acid folk legends and ALL time aQ faves Comus, Czech black metal weirdos Master's Hammer, French black metallers Aorlhac, legendary dark ambient soundscaper Raison D'Etre, Chinese label Pest Productions (whose releases we have featured on the aQ list recently!), an thoughtful essay on record stores and the future of recorded media (for which this 'zine would get our recommendation alone, read this!), and then of course, TONS of reviews, records, magazines, shows.
The magazine is massive, beautifully laid out, fun to read, packed with old faves and new discoveries, just might be out 'new' favorite metal mag!
Latest issue of this massive metal (and more) mag, only number six, in maybe twice as many years, but we look forward to every issue, it's sort of like Ugly Things for metalheads, but as the 'and more' above suggests, CH pushes way beyond just metal, there's industrial, folk, experimental, psych, electronic, drone, in addition to all the various strains of metal, and each issue is packed with tons of reviews, great articles and interviews, and as for the bands covered, tons of old favorites and even more new discoveries. All that and some seriously excellent writing to boot!!
So this time around, long time aQ faves Blut Aus Nord, Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, as well as Russian pagan black metallers Vspolokh, Finnish black metal weirdos Funerary Bell, neo-folkers Larrnakh, Icelandic experimental electronic duo Gjoll, Russian neo-folk combo Neutral, folkish black metallers Falls Of Rauros, German black metal horde Bergthron, old school Lusitanian BM outfit Cripta Oculta, Italian trad black metal combo Movimento D'Avanguardia Ermetico, Finnish death metal outfits Purtenance and Rippikoulu as well as a killer retrospective of Finnish death metal.
There's also UK death metallers Cruciamentum, an awesome primer on Japanese experimentalist Aube, a live review of Merzbow and Charles Cohen, post diSEMBOWELMENT outfit Inverloch, ambient neo-folkers Trial Of The Bow, spaced out doomlords Monolithe, Belorussian folk ambient outfit Dalina, ultradoomsters The Sullen Route, Israeli black metallers Dagor Dagorath, German BM horde Infestus, French black metal outfit Christicide, the Temple Of Torturous label, Philly record store Digital Ferret, a killer compendium of the worst metal of 2009-2011 (which had us sort of wishing for a whole mag's worth!), a review of 2011's Killtown Deathfest in Copenhagen and an interview with the festival's organizer, fantasy/horror novelist Joe Abercrombie, several really great essays by Convivial mainman Yury, as well as a visit to St. Peter's Village in rural Pennsylvania, some train hopping action (excerpted from another zine we love, Bogus Rendition), a bunch of zine reviews, record reviews, book reviews and more more more!
Easily one of the best, and more passionately put together music mags out there, metal or otherwise!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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One of our favorite magazines (and that's not just because it includes a metal column written by our very own Allan) tackles sports (haha) this time around. Articles on Deerhoof, Ben Weasel, Kevin Seconds, plus lots more sports, violence, bikes, caffeine, hockey and some golf haikus (?) from Kyle of Fuck. Plus, comes with a free cd with unreleased music from J Church, Dealership, Deerhoof, the Monitors, Three Day Stubble, Jim Yoshi Pileup, and more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
New issue of everybody's favorite caffeinated, truck driving, taxi cab, bicycling, indie-rock-music-and-life magazine. This time we've got an interview with our own Andee, on his label, his straight edge lifestyle, and his illogical and unfettered love of drug and booze soaked rock. Also Lee Ranaldo interviews William S. Burroughs, Rob Crow (Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, Pinback), Hood, and much more! CD includes tracks by Circle (2 really short, unreleased tracks), Burmese (doing a Brainbombs cover), Daniel Johnston, Hood, Xiu Xiu, Rob Crow, Mono Pause, Shut Up Little Man! and more.
Our favorite f*cker, I mean, tr*cker, Matt "Cool Beans" Kelly is back with another issue of his fab 'zine. It's the Truck Truck Truckin issue, based in part on Matt's recent employment experience, though he's no longer roaming the open highway now, being back in Berkeley doing less drivin', more strivin'. So, this ish includes Matt's truck driving memoirs (July-November 2001), a CB lingo glossary, truck drawings, a trucker-themed belt buckle pictorial, and more. Being an indie-rock/punk 'zine, theres also of course some music-related interviews -- Deadbolt, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, Foibles -- but don't worry, most of the questions are about trucks and trucking. And it wouldn't be Cool Beans without the bonus cd, which this time features truckin' music from a bunch o' folks, including Slow Poisoners, Deadbolt, Rhythm Pigs, Unbunny, Big Red Goad, Foibles, Dan Hayes, Bush League All Stars, and others... Jad Fair does "Phantom 309"! AND Matt thoughtfully provides instructions for how best to dub the cd on to 8-track, for a more authentic trucker listening experience.
All of these 33 1/3 books are emminently readable, revealing looks into a band, and their creative processes, always centered around the making of a particular album, and we have a feeling this is the one everyone has been waiting for, judging from how many of these we STILL sell every week, and the fact that In The Aeroplane Over The Sea may be the most revered of all indie rock artifacts. We know folks who would kill to find out what transpired during the making of this album, and to more deeply understand a record whose tracks have found there way onto millions of mixtapes.
One of the best album covers ever, for the Flower Travellin' Band's 1970 debut LP Anywhere, a photo of that band as naked Japanese hippy freak outlaw bikers ridin' free, adorns the cover of this book. Good choice! If that doesn't look cool to you, you don't need this volume. If it does, then queue up! The subtitle: "How The Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock 'N' Roll" is perfectly illustrated by that cover picture.
Let's back up, though. British author Julian Cope, originally best-known as something of a rock star (with The Teardrop Explodes in the '80s and his subsequent solo career) has also long been entertaining and informing us all as a writer, an expert on the heavy and the ancient: both the stone circles of Megalithic Europe, and the stoned rock n' roll of the psychedelic/progressive variety, yesterday and today. His happenin' website, Head Heritage (www.headheritage.co.uk) should be bookmarked by everyone who looks at OUR site. Way back when, over a decade ago, Julian Cope published a slim little paperback volume called the Krautrocksampler, one fan's obsessive, opinionated look back at the wondrous krautrock scene of the '70s. If you've got one, you're lucky, they're out of print and hard to come by these days, going for $$$ on eBay (er, anyone with a spare copy, please contact Allan at the store, he foolishly never bought it when we used to sell 'em and has regretted it ever since, maybe we can work out a deal...). Another reason to pick up this new Japrocksampler while you can!
It's about the same approximate dimensions as the Krautrocksampler, but thicker (over 300 pages!) and hardcover, with color plates depicting various rare album covers in the center of the book, and black and white graphics throughout. Nicely done, the paper stock and binding bringing back memories of a particular type of book we used to have in school.
And, as you have probably figured out, it's the Japanese '70s rock companion to Cope's krautrock treatise. But because the Japanese underground music scene of the same era is comparatively a lot more obscure over here in the West, Cope had to do a lot more in-depth research to give us all a real history lesson, starting off all the way back in the aftermath of WWII. Moving forward, he devotes much attention to the experimental composers of the sixties, like Toshi Ichiyanagi, and (for a time) his wife, Yoko Ono. All sorts of radical "actions" and conceptual sound art get their due. Other early chapters include include investigations of the homegrown "Eleki" scene (Japanese surf music, sort of) and the "Group Sounds" phenomenon (Japan's reaction to the British Invasion). Then Heavy Rock hits, with freaks and festivals, and Cope digs with utmost detail into the behind-the-music stories of such artists as cover stars Flower Travellin Band, Speed, Glue & Shinki, and, perhaps most crucially ('cause they're so mysterious and influential), Les Rallizes Denudes. In all cases, he reveals lots of stuff we didn't know. Regarding Les Rallizes, ferinstance, apparently their original bass player was involved in a JAL jetliner highjacking back in 1970, which lead to innocent Rallizes leader Takeshi Mizutani being trailed by CIA agents, which may help explain his legendary reclusiveness!
The Japrocksampler also provides plenty of info about important intersection between the avant-garde theater scene and rock n' roll in the early '70s, with a chapter on the brilliant J.A. Caesar. There's also pages and pages on the Taj Mahal Travellers, Far East Family Band, the Tokyo Kid Brothers, and much much more. It's exhaustive, impressively connecting all kinds of dots. Probably equally obsessed fanboys will have facts to check and nits to pick (we're thinking of our pal JW in particular) but really, where else are you gonna find all this info in English?? And so entertainingly written? Nowhere. Anyone who's read the Krautrocksampler, or visited Head Heritage, knows that Cope's got a knack for writing that's both enthused and erudite, a bit like Lester Bangs with footnotes. You don't even really have to know (or have heard) what he's talking about to fall under his spell, which is helpful 'cause the one big drawback to reading the Japrocksampler is the frustration most folks are gonna have trying to track down and listen to a lot of the music being discussed. We do our best to stock a good selection of '70s Japanese psych/prog/experimental reissues, whatever we can get by bands like the Taj Mahal Travellers and Flower Travellin' Band, but even we had to cry when looking over the section of the book devoted to lengthy reviews of Cope's top 50 favorite Japrock albums. Some we've got, others... someday we hope! Maybe this book will spur some more reissue action.
Can't come up with too many criticisms, other than that he slams some records we like (Foodbrain!), seemingly omits Flied Egg, and we guess we're not sure exactly how politically correct the term "Japrock" is, though it's not any worse than saying "krautrock" when you think about it...
Basically, this is a fascinating read for anyone curious about the effects of rock n' roll on the artsy underbelly of an "alien" culture. A must have if you're already into this stuff, of course, but also totally recommended if you're just a little bit curious about this "secret history" 'cause of being exposed to all the wild, freaky sounds currently being made in Japan by bands like the Boredoms, Boris, and Acid Mothers Temple.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Read about Karate, Silkworm, DJ Spooky, Mary Timony, Lozenge, Mighty Flashlight, Xiu Xiu, Oxes, Howard Hello, and more. Listen to The Feud, Casket Lottery, Lamplighter, Waxwing, Bottles & Skulls, Eyes Of Autumn, Small Brown Bike, Tekulvi and more.
