from kickstand #10
Zine Reviews
Here are the zines! If you’re feeling lazy about getting out some envelopes and stamps and ordering these, stop it right now! You will be so glad you wrote these people, ‘cause soon you will be getting nice packages in the mail and having nice things to sit around with on your couch in the sun. I still love zines. This time, in case your laziness knows no bounds, I’m putting alternate ways of contacting these people in here. If the zine has a webpage, I’ll give you the URL for it, and if they print their email addresses in their zine I’ll give you them. That way you’ll have no excuse for not checking them out - just a click of a button! "E-zines" are absolutely no comparison to real paper-&-staples friendly zines, though, so you’ve gotta go for the real thing here, okay?Boiled P-nuts #1 by Polly Hanson (& Jessica) letter, 40 pp. - $2? Whoo, I like this! Its general theme is food, but there’s a lot of other stuff in here. Interviews with East River Pipe, BBPTC, Orange Cake Mix, Beth Aberdeen, Fantastic Records, Ribboncandy, Kissing Book, and The With-Its. I like this thingy ‘cause Polly has spunk and says things like, “It’s all great I say,” and, “I tell ya.” Instantly charming! There is all kinds of good sense and good taste pouring out of this zine, and we’re not even mentioning the stuff about seaweed, vegetables, and their chicken. Yes, these two girls are Gritty Kitties, showing that they have way too much talent for just two people. (160 Barber St., #2 | Athens GA 30601) boiledpnuts@yahoo.net Carryout #2 by Seo Hui Han 1/2 letter, 20 pp. - 75 cents This issue of Carryout has an interview with Laura from the Autocollants, a short story, some reviews of other zines’ record reviews (ack! Including me! But he kept his promise and only called me a fool once, and in a jesting manner), some weird cows taking over the world and a little thing about going to Yellowstone. Not much more in here, but it’s only 75 cents, so quit your complaining. The next issue sounds extremely promising: great interviews galore and riotous fun! (PO Box 1440 | Santa Cruz CA 95061-1440) Daffodil #15 by Emily Lyon 1/2 letter, 40 pp. - trade/$1 Ooo, nice. It's another Daffodil, with very awesome blue covers and insert. Emily has been getting more personal lately, and this zine has stuff about why do a zine?, friends who leave, people you don’t want to know, and mostly a bunch of almost-fiction stories about people she knows and things she does. Daffodil is always good, and I’m quite happy with this one. (PO Box 124 | Willington CT 06279) Death and Tortillas #15 by Erin McWilliams 1/4 letter (tall & skinny), 28 pp. -$1/trade? Erin appreciates overalls, analyzes her desires, gets put in jail (suck!), and seems to always be noticing her life going by, seeing people and appreciating them for being people. Some people don’t notice all the inconspicuous details of being alive, but Erin does. And hooray! This came in a popcorn bag! (PO Box 137 | Fairview Vlg. PA 19409) Esoteria #4 by Melissa 1/4 letter (small & fat), 24 pp. – stamps/trade? There have been two issues of Esoteria since my last zine, and this brand new one is beautiful. It’s got a wonderful cover and its own sense of style and is generally a very nice packet to get in the mail. This one has some craft-type things you can do, a list of silly boy dances, paper dolls, and little comic-y things, and some music reviews. There is also a tiny little tiny zine about a summer fling. I would be so proud of this zine if I was Melissa, ‘cause dang, take a look at the cover. It is a little bit of art. (C-891 Bryn Mawr College | 101 N. Merion Ave. | Bryn Mawr, PA 19010) mkramer@brynmawr.edu Highest Population of Rock Stars #10 by Amy Greenan 1/2 letter, 40 pp., $2 So I’ve found a new great zine since last issue, and it’s HPRS! I totally like it. It has a very crisp, clean, consistent style, and a bold honesty - almost like a journal, but meant to be read and well written. #10 is: love, places, apathy, drinking, the band, HIV test, attitudes, and luscious desserts. Makes me feel good just to flip through it - very artistic. Please get this. (1357 Sullivan Rd | Alden NY 14004) Incite! #30 by Tim Alborn 1/2 letter, 44 pp. – free Why yes, there is a new Incite!. Harriet Records is no longer, and Tim is celebrating by having another letters issue of his zine. This is mostly letters from people who’ve been affected by the Harriet phenomenon, mostly band members. If you were into the label at all, this will be a treat. There is also a bit of reminiscing and some record reviews. At least we still have Incite! (PO Box 649 | Cambridge MA 02238) alborn@fas.harvard.edu Jiffy Squid #1 by Shoshanna Love 1/2 letter, 20 pp. – a stamp This little squid is full of nice comics, neat handwriting, and answers to life’s probing questions, such as: “if vegetables could dance, which would be the best dancer – and why?” Slim and unassuming, it will rock your world. Perhaps if you write to Shoshanna, she will draw us some more comics. How does she draw so cute? I may never know. (130 Canfield Ave, Apt. A | Santa Cruz CA 95060) Kelp #9 by Mary Phillips-Sandy 1/2 letter, 32 pp. - $2 There’s no need for me to go on at length here, because I’m sure you’ve read gushing reviews of Kelp in here before. It is good, okay? This one made me laugh out loud more than once, especially the airplane fiasco. Excellent! (Box 2180, Holy Cross College | 1 College St. | Worcester MA 01610-2395) King-Cat Comics & Stories #52 by John Porcellino 1/2 letter, 44 pp. - $2 When Chris and I got our zines all arranged in our bookcase, the first thing I did was read all of his King-Cats in a row. I love them! I had to go and get myself some, and the most recent is this one, #52. What if I had all of ‘em starting with number one? That would be pretty awesome. Anyway, what this is is a lot of very simply illustrated stories about all kinds of things. This one has a long teenage story. I also really like the one where he takes a walk and wonders about the root hog. The way he draws his dog breaks my heart. (Spit and a Half | PO Box 18510 | Denver CO 80218) Kitpaw #1 by Hikaru bit wider than 1/2 letter, 60 pp. - $3? Bunnygrunt, Kumari, The Haywains, Peek-a-Boo Records! Live shows, recipes, reviews, Hello Kitty comics, an overall great sense of style - too bad it’s all in Japanese! Well, too bad for me, mainly. I’d really like to read it! Still totally worth having just to look at - lots of pictures. The “Hell Kitty” comic is in English! (5-129 Kurosawa-dai | Midori-ku, Nagoya | 458 JAPAN) Mad Girl’s Love Song #5 by Shari Cooper 1/2 letter, 60 pp. - $2/$1 + 3 stamps/trade This is usually called Baa!: I’m a Sheep, but this time it’s not. This is about love. Shari’s got a good sense of style and her drawings are rad. There is a lot of stuff in here. I can’t even begin to do it justice. And hey! The title is a Sylvia Plath reference. Just know that you’ll be getting your money’s worth here. (100 Milani Ct. | Los Gatos CA 95030) Memorytown U.S.A. #1 by Emily K. Larned 1/4 legal, 32 pp. - $1 + 2 stamps/trade This is one of my favorite zines, just from the first issue. Emily of course did Muffin Bones and this is her new zine. I like everything about it: the perfect size, the way the drawings complement the words, and all the travel. This is not really a departure from MB, but the new name, size, and theme (at least for this issue) make everything feel new and fresh. I almost got run over by cars trying to read this on my walk home from the post office. And strangely enough, Emily saw quite a few of the sights I saw on my Texas trip, and has drawn a lovely picture of the windmills that makes me all nostalgic. I want to carry this around with me everywhere. (178 Farms Rd. | Stamford CT 06903) elarned@wesleyan.edu Muzzled Misanthropy #3 by Emily & Caitlin 1/2 legal, 40 pp. - $2/trade/mix tape This issue is a big step up from last issue, which I didn’t really like. There are occasional hard-to-read fonts and the cover is fairly psychedelic, but mostly this has an attractive layout and it’s got some crazy stuff in it. While I’m not sure I could relate to these girls in person, it’s pretty fun to read stories about them punching each other out in public, and about Emily’s dad, Gene Simmons of Kiss! I don’t dare ask if that article is really true, ‘cause I want it to be so much! Ha! That would be awesome. Also, there are such things as: a clever way of reviewing albums, a hairless teacher, and meeting Eldridge Cleaver. Strange small stories. Stuff. Not bad. The next issue should be good, and perhaps they’d be able to afford to print it if they didn’t have a print run of 1000! (Surrender Dorothy Press | 01960 SW Palatine | Portland OR 97219) Surrender_Dorothy@hotmail.com Next Year We’ll Be Robots #1 by Mark Roberts, et al. 1/2 letter, 84 pp. - $3? Mark’s zine is finally done! This is a very large zine that has a lot about Canadian music, lots of reviews, and clutter, and . . . SUPER DUCKS! Don’t ask me. Interviews with Julie Doiron (of Eric’s Trip, Broken Girl, and Julie fame), El Taco Supreme, the Dinner is Ruined, Granted Passage Tapes, and, yes, even more. Plus the cover has some kind of crazy pasted-on robot. Also it comes with a 90 minute tape with bands such as Silver Scooter, The Boyish Charms, The 1.4.5s, Metronome, SuperXXMan, Broken Tree Fort, and the proverbial “more.” It's nearly enough to knock your socks off. Has an amateur feel, but duh - it’s a zine. (Box 742 | Uxbridge ON L9P 1N1 | CANADA) robinhoodrecords@hotmail.com Opposites Subtract #2 by Keren Richter 1/2 legal, 32 pp. - $1/trade + 2 stamps The look of this is sort of that old-school look of photo backgrounds with words pasted over, but it has its own style, being mostly glamorous pictures of women and girls. Keren cuts up a lot of magazines! This has stuff about high school, skateboarding, liking dorks, her scary dad, and running around. The tone is kind of young sometimes, but she lets us know a tiny bit of what it is to be her. I just like zines, you know? Even when a zine is crappy (which this one isn’t), I will usually read the whole thing, ‘cause I sincerely love to have these little windows into people’s lives. Signing off, Arianne the corn-man. (377 Castle Crest Rd. | Alamo CA 95407) Pink Tea #2 by Keight Bergmann 1/2 letter, 36 pp. $1? Keight is clever and amusing, so naturally Pink Tea is, too! I think this zine is my favorite of all the many different monikered zines she’s done. It’s quite pleasant to look at (with a big dose of Comic Sans, which I thought was my own personal font ‘til I saw 100 other people using it) and just sort of gives you a feeling of what Keight is up to. There is a funny story about hiding in a closet. I like this and Keight and I seem to have similar tastes (Astor Station PO Box 231150 | Boston MA 02123-1150) Popgirls by Amanda 1/2 letter, 60 pp. - £1 This is Manda’s new zine, though I can’t compare to the old one, having never seen it. This one, though, is quite cool, focusing on girls in music. Amanda gets her points across clearly and well, and all the pictures and spunk make this a fun read! There are more interviews than you can shake a stick at in here, including Michelle Mae, Jen Sbragia, Lois, Vyvyan, Budget Girls, Mambo Taxi, Amelia Fletcher and more! As close to comprehensive as you can get in 60 pages. Surprisingly little Bis content, but zines that are solely advertisements usually aren’t good. While you’re figuring out how much a pound is worth in American money, keep in mind that there are also reviews, and stuff about Glasgow, her computer, turning 21 and much more. It's quite good. My only real gripe with it is I hate the phrases "popgirls", "popboys," and most of all "popkids." (PO Box 3821 | Glasgow Scotland G46 6JY | UK) Power Toot #4 by Brian Winters & Heidi Anne-Nöel Silvanic short & fat, 60 pp., short & thin, 54 pp. - $3? This Power Toot is two little zines - one with interviews (Red Sleeping Beauty, Archer Prewitt, Push Kings, Mocket, Bis, and more...) and one small one that’s all reviews. Both come velcroed inside a cloth bag with a little surprise. Very attractive, all in all. I do like zines to have stories and stuff, but the interviews are all pretty silly and interesting. I love the part in the Push Kings one where they scare Heidi and Brian by talking about sex and waiting until Chelsea Clinton comes of age. Er, yeah. The reviews are sure to help you make a shopping list! (PO Box 639 | Prince St. Station | New York NY 10012) Quench #1 by Edith Abeyta bigger than 1/2 letter, 44 pp. - $5 Now why is this five dollars, you ask? Well, let me tell you. It’s made like it’s an actual book, kind of, with a very tough cover made out of cardstock covered with a beautiful arrangement of flattened and cut up pop cans (soda, to those of you who mock my NW roots!). Also, it has a crazy Coke ad thing on the cover, stamps, an origami cup and surprise, and a foldout creation in the middle. Oh man is it rad. Content? Quench bills itself as "a beverage zine" and this one’s about pop. Upcoming themes: Tea, Water, Juice, and Body Fluids. There are tons of good stories and recipes in here. And the weirdest thing was we were driving through New Mexico when I was reading this. We went straight through Albuquerque! I should have knocked on her door and asked for some root beer. (1710 Central Ave. SE | Albuquerque NM 87106) Velvet Grass #32 by Rebecca Dillon 1/2 letter, 36 pp. - $1 + 2 stamps This VG has Rebecca’s photo gallery, chat lines, Roanoke, and lots of comics. I’m sure a lot of the photos looked better before they were stuck in the zine and photocopied, but what can you do? As usual, I love the comics, and Rebecca has lots of interesting stories to tell. She spends a lot of time on her zine reviews. It seems like a lot of zines write these long extensive record reviews, and then toss in a couple sentences about each zine they’re reviewing, if they bother to review zines at all. So it’s cool to see in-depth zine reviews. Yeah! (828 Brownwood Dr. NW | Roanoke VA 24017) |