20090830

Fanzines Holocaust
Against the haze #2 | Crucial zine!#3 |
I Don't Wanna Grow Up #2 | Just Say Yo #2
Do It Yourself
Fanzines, fanzines, fanzines.
I love fanzines and if it was possible I'd like to read fanzines from all over the world all day long.
Wish I spoke more languages in order to read fanzines written in other than english languages, too. It's 2 o'clock in a hot Saturday night, the last summer night actually, and even if my friends went out for a drink, I decided to stay at home and write this sweet review for you (or just for me...).
I bought around 10 new fanzines during this year's Fluff fest, so be prepared for reading a lot of reviews the next weeks.
For tonight I picked 4 fanzines that I read recently. All of them are written in English language.
Let's start, while listening to Naysayer and Strike Anywhere new 7"s.

First of, we have the 2nd issue (released mid July) of Against The Haze, an old school styled hardcore fanzine from Belgium. I've never read issue no.1 because is pretty impossible to find it in Greece ... Anyway, I bought this from Death Is Not Glamorous merch table, so thank 'em because the 'zine rules. The fanzine includes 48 pages, black & white, A4 format, photocopied I think. The guy uses a typewriter font and I really like this font (the same that The Effort fanzine guys use) because it's both classic and eye-catching. There are cool interviews with Oathbreaker, True Colors, Unbreakable, a Kingdom / xBishopx interview during their European tour in early 2009 and 50 Lions. Moreover inside you can find 2 pages with reviews (one for records and the other for fanzines), a Pressure Fest diary, a huge gig list (from 8th July to 12th September), a photo album and the usual ads. The zine costs 2,5 euros and you have to buy it now!

Next we have Crucial zine! #3. I know the guy that makes this one. I've uploaded a review of issue 2 a couple of months ago, if you remember. Issue 3 was released sometime in early July and was distributed in Greece during the Kingdom/Dead Vows show, so a lot of local scenesters may have already heard of this fanzine. An A5 format cute cut 'n' paste zine, black & white, based in Cambridge/UK and done by a greek dude, with 36 pages of weird punk and hardcore stuff, varying from crosswords and columns for Predrag Djordjevic (Olympiacos' soccer player...) to I.C.H. and Sam Russo inties and from gig reviews to a guide to hating shit! There are columns about skate spot liberation, a 3 page 'how to organize a show' (useful one, but not appealing to the greek standards...) article, one sentence reviews, full length reviews, zine/book reviews and a cool anti-nazi/poseur poster, ha! To be honest I got a bit bored when reading to some of the insert and this is definitely not my fav zine, but it's the weirdest one and similar to other English fanzines I got in the past. Go get this, it's for free, so no worries!

Then, we have I Don't Wanna Grow Up #2. Sorry, but I couldn't find the cover of the fanzine in jpeg to upload it here. And believe me, I searched a lot. Moreover, it's around 2.30 in the morning and my sister is sleeping so I cannot use her scanner! The only contact for this fanzine is an email address, how cool?! So wait for me to put a cool record in my stereo and I'm coming... Back. Converge's 'No Heroes' rules... Well, I Don't Wanna Grow Up is one of the best fanzines I got in the last couple of years. 52 pages (pro-printed, colored covers, black & white inside) in a great square size with a quality content and a great computerized layout! A girl called Ulrika is responsible for this, and it's done somewhere in Sweden. I think it was released in early summer. Cold World, Dirty Money, Gustav Brunn (Atlas Losing Grip fame, among others), Sloa Knivar and Rearranged are interviewed, while there are cool columns by Ulrika and Christin Malen (i think she's a designer, check it out yourself www.christinmalen.com). Moreover, there is a huge Go For Broke tour diary, an interview with Soia from TRC graffiti crew, a vegan waffles recipe and The Kicks List, where a bunch of hardcore kids state their favorite sneakers! All in all, an awesome zine that you will easily read it in a couple of hours. I'm waiting for the 3rd issue, I hope it will come out soon, but you never know with fanzines (16 months passed since the last Keep It Real issue was out, for example...). It costs 3 euros.

Last but not least, Just Say Yo issue 2 with an ultra used pair of old school Vans shoes on the cover! This cut 'n' paste hardcore fanzine is based in Toulouse, France and the 2nd issue was released a couple of months ago. Nab, the guitarist of A Bridge To Many (dude I know I've forgotten to review your demo 2008 CD, I'll do it asap, word) is the one behind Just Say Yo. Inside its 56 A4 black & white photocopied pages you'll find in depth interviews with Antillectual, Death Is Not Glamorous, Sink Or Swim, Get The Most, Nine Eleven (playing in Greece from 30th October to 1st November!), Comadre and Frank Turner (folk singer from the UK, former vocalist of the hardcore / punk group Million Dead). Moreover, there are a lot of record and zine reviews, a column about A Step Apart and how they changed the editor's perception of life, and ads as always. I found out a Keep It Real no.7 review, awesome, haha! You can get this fanzine in Greece from True To The Game distro (www.myspace.com/aristeos).

That's all for now. I'm going to finish reading The Heat #3, it fucking fucking fucking kicks asses.
'Night.
http://www.myspace.com/allagesflanders
http://www.allagesflanders.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/crucialzine
http://www.crucialzine.blogspot.com
idwgu.zine@gmail.com
http://www.myspace.com/papernab