#see hear

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Fanzine Friday!- Matter (#13, 1985)

I was totally late to Matter. Part of it is that I was a punk rock knucklehead during the years of 1984-1986 so it wasn't until a year or so later that I became interested in some of these bands. 

This was the first issue I saw of it. A friend of mine, Neko, had come out to NJ to visit during the summer of 1985 and brought this issue with her for me and my music loving pals to check out (akso Neko had a huge crush on Thurston Moore and talked about him incessantly!).

Matter had started in Chicago by Elizabeth Phillip and then at some point in there she moved to Hoboken and that is where the mag remained until it wound down. 

Aside from being a great looking mag (glossy which a lot of zines were not back then) she also had a great staff of writers contributing every issue. Just in this issue alone she has Steve Albini, Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Ira Kaplan (who was chief copy editor), Jim Derogatis, Jimmy Johnson, Jim Testa, Howard Wuelfing and many others That's a lineup of heavies if ever I saw one!

Anywho, as you can see on the cover it's got Sonic Yoof, Redd, Kross, Great Plains, Killdozer, Game Theory, the Hoboken scene and plenty more, 

I've got about 6 or 7 issues of Matter floating around here and I always enjoy randomly picking them up and paging through them. Another great one!

(posted 7/31/26)

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Fanzine Friday!- The Big Takeover (issue #21, December 1986)

I don't know if this was the first issue of Jack Rabid's Big Takeover, but it was definitely one of the first ones that I got. 

...and it is still going! Jack and his crew just published the latest issue which looks much different than this (now it's glossy, mostly color and 200 pages).

This one was photo copied (maybe offset printed) and 22 pages and you see the bands on the cover (bands that Jack still writes about to this day). 

In those 22 pages it's crammed to the gills with reviews, both records and live shows, and plenty of photos as well (in fact there's a pic of the Milo of the Descendents from their show at City Gardens in July of 1986....that I was at...it was first time I saw them). 

Jack's intelligence, knowledge, wit and sheer enthusiasm has always come through in his writing, and nothing has changed in the past 40 years. 

Oh,and you can still order the old back issue of the Big T. just go to the website below and see the treasure trove (and a photo of Felt!)!

www.bigtakeover.com

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Fanzine Friday! Flesh and Bones (#6, 1986)

Man, when I discovered this great New Jersey zine it changed my life! Such a great rag and a friend once described it as "Tiger Beat meets Flipside" and that's kinda tossed off but kinda accurate too 

It was published by a guy named Jeff, and as you can probably tell from the cover, the guy was definitely a character, and yeah, F and B was just sooooo entertaining, 

Jeff definitely liked the heavier stuff as you can tell and the interviewa with Dinosaur (pre-Jr) and Redd Kross are most excellent excellent! The layout is great and there's plenty of hilarious comics to peruse as well. 

There's also the handwritten records review section (Why do you think they call it dope?) and the page full of Nipsey's (which i ran in many issues of Dagger) and plenty more. I only have this issue and the two after it (7 & 8) before Jeff packed it in (purchased at See Hear, I'm thinkin'). I've never even seen copies of issues 1-5, but I would love to. 

Not much more to say, one of the all-time greats!

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Conflict (#45, August/September 1987)

I had started buying records on the Homestead label probably in late 1985/early 1986. At some point in 1986, my pal Bob mentioned, "Well, you know the guy who runs Homestead Records, Gerard Cosloy, does a zine called Conflict."  Well, I didn't know, but I do now! 

The first issue I picked up was issue #43 from January/February 1987 with the infamous GG Allin interview  ("God whips it out"). From there I started buying every issue, and I can't tell you how many bands that are still my favorites today that I learned about from reading the pages of Conflict (Beat Happening, Gibson Bros., Half Japanese, etc.) 

... and on the cover of issue #45 is none other than Mr Jad Fair from Half Japanese (Gerard: "Does King Kong Bundy know you've written a song about him?"

Jad: "No, I dont think so". 

Other than that, there's the infamous letters section (including a very pissed off one from Mr. GG Allin) and just a boatload of reviews, both record and live. There's very few ads, just reviews out the wazoo (and let's not forget the Lies column...basically scene gossip).

Some of the live reviews include Pagans, Scratch Acid, Honor Role, Celibate Rifles, etc. 

As for the records, you get to read about Vomit Launch, Sneaky Feelings, White Zombie (whom he had interviewed in the previous issue), Youth of Today, Redd Kross, Swell Maps, Scrawl, Angry Samoans, and plenty more. 

About the reviews, it's been said that Gerard didn't suffer fools gladly and that is certainly true. If he didn't like the record, he wasn't shy about letting you know it (and same with if he did like the record). 

One of my all-time favorite zines, and I've got plenty more issues to write about in the future.

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Fanzine Friday!- Disaster (#4, 1987)

Disaster was the zine done by Bill Callahan (who you may know also as Smog). Yes, before he started making music Bill did a hilarious zine called Disaster (and prior to this, he did a Replacements-only zine called Willpower).

This was the first issue of Disaster that I bought (again, probably at NYC's See Hear). Bill was still doing it from his parent's house in Maryland.

I was already a Halo of Flies when this issue came out but learned about fantastic Chicago band Green from these pages as well as Sex Clark Five (if you haven't checked out their Strum and Drum album, then do so), Peach of Immortality and more. 

The zine often got compared to Conflict though for me it was a different Kind of humor, but yes, both smart ass and intelligent in the most unique of ways. 

The record reviews are hilarious as are the handful of live reivews. There's some comics, some pics and in the back Bill asks some musician folks their top 10 desert island discs (something that I ran in Dagger for many years). 

LIke most of the zines I've i'll revisit some other issues of this one in the future as Disaster was always a fave.

(posted 7/24/26)

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Fanzine Friday!- The Pope (issue #2, April 1987)

This zine was published by Tim Adams, later of Ajax Records (which was a label, mail order, and then a record store in Chicago fo a few years). Prior to this Tim did a zine called My Summer Vacation, which I think only lasted one issue (with a Naked Raygun interview) when he was at Notre Dame.

I believe he did 4 issues of The Pope, the first three were digest-sized and then the final issue was a fullsize on newsprint before he called it a day.

The Pope was definitely an influence on Dagger as Tim had a good, smart-assed attitude, which I tried to copy (I copied it from other zines as well, though at the time I didn't have the perspective or wit to pull it off ha ha). 

In addition, Tim and I have very similar music taste too so that always helped. As you can see on the cover, there are four heavies inside: Squirrel Bait, Killdozer, Didjits and Happy Flowers plus who can resist a pin up of GG Allin?

In addition to all of that, there's plenty of record, zine and live reviews all crammed in (he gives Dagger #1 a pretty good review). 

I love and miss the old music zine culture of the 80's, and The Pope was another favorite. 

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Fanzine Friday (Saturday Edition)- Damp #4 (1989)

There were lots of fantastic music zines in America and beyond in the 1980's, and one of my favorites was Damp. Out of Connecticut and published by Kevin Kraynck and a bunch of his CT pals, these guys always did a great job.

They always had fab taste in music that they covered and you can tell from this issue they had a few of my personal favorites in the Gibson Bros, Vomit Launch, MOTO, etc. 

Their reviews were usually spot on (and at times totally hilarious).  In this particular issue, there are a few pages of cassette reviews by all-around good guy Mark Lo, and another thing about the Damp crew is that they weren't afraid to talk about sports. 

They managed one more issue after this one, the Captain Beefheart extravaganza, before packing it in. To Kevin and all of the Damp crew, thank you for the memories!