#copy scams

[spiralhouseshop]

Copy Scams - Copy & Destroy 10" record and zine! $5!

Happy International Zine Month! have you heard The Copy Scams? It's an all zine themed band! All the songs are about zines! All the people who are making the music also make zines!

For the month of July we are offering the album half off! For $5 you get one 10" vinyl record of Copy Scams - Copy & Destroy, a zine, and a digital download code that also includes our live show from the 2012 Leeds UK zine fest!

What's the music sound like you ask? lo-fi mid-90s pop punk, like something you would have heard on Lookout Records with @alexwrekk of Brainscan Zine and Stolen Sharpie Revolution screaming about trading zines, how to steal photocopies, and the sadness of leaving all your friends after a zine fest.

[upthewitchypunx]

Less than a month until I leave for Australia and New Zealand! I almost have everything in order. I want to have another zine done by then but we’ll see if that happens. It’s going to be a rough week. I leave Portland on Monday, Tuesday doesn’t exists due to the date line, and I arrive in Melbourne at 8am Wednesday and need to stay away as much as possible. That evening I have band rehearsal with people I have never met as well as Thursday and then Friday Copy Scams play a show before the Festival of the Photocopier. I’m going to be so wrecked.

The Copy Scams is the zine themed band I’m in. You can listen to our nonsense here. It started as a joke while @stevelarder was visiting from the UK and we started a band with people who also make zines in 2010. We’ve had member from the US, UK, and France and now we are adding Australians to the mix making it even more international. My life is strange.

This weekend I’m headed to Seattle for the Seattle pop punk fest. I’m SO EXCITED to see Lisa Mar doing Cub songs. I never got to see Cub and it’s just one of the best bands ever, cuddle core forever! I’m also  pretty stoked to see the Smugglers again.

[alexwrekk]

The follower count of this blog has now reached the old school Kinko’s copier factory default number for the admin that would make it possible to turn the counter off. So, I thought I would post the song we wrote about it.

Thanks for the follows!

[wearepioneerspress]

LOOKING FOR A BOOK ABOUT TEACHING PEOPLE ABOUT ZINES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM?

Meet Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture by Alex Wrekk

$8

Order here from Pioneers Press

Since 2002, Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture has been the go-to guide for all things zine-related. This little red book is stuffed with information about zines. Things you may know, stuff you don't know and even stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know! Stolen Sharpie Revolution contains a cornucopia of information about zines and zine culture for everyone from the zine newbie to the experienced zinester to the academic researcher.

[alexwrekk]

Listen to: Copy & Destroy by the Copy Scams

Feels like a Copy Scams day! Did you know that I sing in a zine themed band? All out our songs are about zines and zine culture and the members of the band are from 3 different countries!

In 2010 my buddy, Steve Larder, was visiting from England and staying in our basement. He said “let’s start a band!” So we did! We wrote 4 catchy lo-fi pop-punk songs in 3 weeks and played a show that ended the 2010 Portland Zine Symposium.

In October of 2012, Paul and Marc and I headed over to the UK and met up with Steve and our zine friend from France, Giz. We wrote 3 more songs, recorded them, and played a tiny tour. It was awesome!

Last year we put out a 10” record, novelty size vinyl for a novelty band. It comes with a zine full of lyrics and awesome collaborative art between Steve and I plus a digital download code. You can listen to it free online here. Or, you could buy a copy that is currently 20% off in my Etsy shop until the end of October.

Working on the Copy Scams was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I have ever worked on. Steve, Paul, Marc, and Giz are such talented musicians that I was a bit intimidated but they were really fun and encouraging to work with and we made some music that makes my 90s pop-punk heart smile.

[alexwrekk]

buttons! hair dye! Screeching Weasel! Copy Scams! stuff! Things!

Today is pretty pointless. Due to me being gone from the shop a few days last week and UPS not delivering on Friday I'm out of 1" button shells. It has been a Looong time since I have had this problem. I've been so good with ordering lately. This is really frustrating. Luckily people seem understanding about this, but I still have about 3,000 in queue and all the buttons of other sizes are made. I do have a few Etsy orders to pack so that's good.

I also have a bunch of zines to add to the online PBW catalog that I can't seem to make myself sit down and take photos and add them. It is so tedious. I have almost assembled all of the Copy Scams records that I have the pieces for. Soon I'll send a big box of records over to Steve so that they will be available in 3 countries and soon 4.

last night I bleached the underlayer of my hair. I was going to cut it but then I started drinking a 2nd King Pin and somehow that turned into a 3rd. I told Paul not to let me drink 3 of them. they are 7.2% and don't taste like it. It was the only good beer in the house. Anyway, it's pretty light and not too orange, which is good because my hair is pretty dark.

We ended up listening to Screeching Weasel - Wiggle. I bought Paul the original Lookout! Releases of Wiggle and My Brain Hurts for his birthday. Then we started dissecting Screeching Weasel lyrics for the fully actualized horrible person (and Chirstian) that Ben Weasel is. Then we listened to The Copy Scams record. I always feel silly about it but I really love the music we made. We were hoping that Steve could come over and that we might be able to play at the Chicago Zine Fest but that doesn't look like that is going to happen. The we joked about who we could get to play guitar for us (Max? Ben?) or Paul could just play guitar and we could Aaron Cometbus to play drums? I sent him a tape and he says he likes it.

I've been scouring plane tickets to the LA area. It's still a bit more than I want to spend. Prices chance on Tuesdays so I'll see what that is. I might be flying into Long Beach instead. We'll see. I'm def going to LA Zine Fest, just gotta make the plans.

This afternoon my sister, Paul and I are going to see the Descendents movie, Filmage. Descendents used to be Paul's favorite band. There is a photo of me and Paul sharing our fries with Milo at the SLC Warped Tour in 1997. So funny. I think I was even wearing a Descendents tank top in the photo. I was pleased to hear the last time we saw them that they changed up some of their questionable lyrics. I hope the movie is good. I still have the rental car so I can pick Paul up and bring his clothes to change into that don't smell like doughnuts.

[alexwrekk]

Paul has a driver's license! Stoked to not be the only driver. Stoked to not be the only driver from SLC to ABQ next month. After we go that done this morning I made him drive me down to SE and eat at the Paradox for some reason. I hadn't been there in ages. I missed the gravy and herb and onion bread.

My head feels more soupy today, but less soupy than 2 days ago. I can't wait until the rain this weekend to get all the crap out of the air.

I started working on the layout for the Copy Scams liner notes zine and finally got my copier/printer hooked up to my computer. I'm not satisfied with the print quality so I'm going to have to print with my better printer at the shop. I feel like I should get some stuff done tonight since I pulled my copier home on a red wagon and it would be silly if I didn't get something done out of it.

My new way of yelling at OJ is to just look at him and say "dude!" He sat on all my zine stuff until I fed him.

[alexwrekk]

Worked in the yard long enough to fill the huge yard debris bin. I cut back most of my spindly lemon balm, cut the shit out of two overgrown rose bushes, cut out some of the wisteria that is trying to eat my house, trimmed back the day lillies and irises in front. Then filled the rest of the bin with the never ending fallen needles from our Himalayan Cedar. I live on a corner and my yard is only cleaned up from the edge to the gates on both sides. By the time I get to the middle I'll have to start all over.

I harvested a bunch of tomatoes, gonna make oven roasted tomato and eggplant pasta sauce tonight as well as some plum muffins with the last of the plums from the tree. before that I need to head over to the shop and get my little photocopier so that I can work on the Copy Scams zine. I was going to use some of our photos from the UK tour but then thought I'd just let us exist as cartoon characters instead and just fill the rest of the space with my usually high contrast imagery. Having my own photocopier makes it a lot easier.