About

History

MRR #1, August 1982
Insert for “Not So Quiet on the Western Front” comp, 1982

Maximum Rocknroll is a widely distributed monthly fanzine dedicated to supporting the underground punk rock scene. MRR’s long history and large, obsessed, all-volunteer staff makes its punk rock coverage the most consistently up-to-date and reliable around. MRR maintains the values of the punk underground by remaining independent, DIY and not-for-profit.

“Maximum Rock & Roll” started in 1977 as a punk rock radio show—one of the first and best of all time. “Tim (Yohannan) and the gang” played the latest punk and hardcore sounds from across the world, the U.S., and from their home in the bristling San Francisco Bay Area punk scene. “The gang” included personalities like Jeff Bale, Ruth Schwartz, and Jello Biafra. Punk antiheroes regularly visited as guest DJs, and the roster of touring bands interviewed on the show reads like the track list on a classic old comp. The show was notable for the immediacy of the music, a dedication to international coverage (rare at the time), and for explicitly interjecting progressive politics into the dialogue of punk. The show became hugely successful in the underground, and eventually was broadcast from stations across the U.S. and abroad.

Martin Sprouse and Tim Yohannan at the MRR House, 1987

Maximum Rocknroll in zine form first appeared in 1982, as the newsprint booklet in Not So Quiet on the Western Front, a compilation double-LP released on Alternative Tentacles. The comp included 47 Northern California and Nevada bands, many of whom went on to ruin thousands of impressionable kids by releasing some of the best punk records ever. Today MRR has published over four hundred print issues. It’s still an essential read if you want to keep up with new punk records and demos from around the world, but MRR also reviews a large number of zines, books, films, and videos every month. The meat of the mag lies in tons of submission-based band interviews, where groups ranging from the latest buzz bands to the most obscure uncovered gems speak in their own words. Scene reports from across the globe (Dubai to Denver, Russia to Rio) keep the worldwide community connected.

The Maximum Rocknroll columns section has served as the punk scene’s gossipy party line for decades, but these days it provides a platform for the diverse voices of active punx with something to say, or at least an interesting way of saying it! The zine is also a vehicle for critical and engaged political though that responds to evolving global upheaval.

By remaining stable on the one hand and flipping the bird with the other, MRR’s controversial personality has affected—or infected—the history of punk rock for all time.

Discography

The very first time readers got their hands ink-stained with the pages of Maximum Rocknroll, it was through the zine insert for the now-classic Cali punk/HC compilation Not So Quiet on the Western Front. Right from the beginning, MRR wanted to have its hands in everything DIY punk: zines, records, radio, show spaces, politics, and more.

That locals-only double LP was released by then-MRR Radio collaborator Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles, and served as ground zero for both Maximum Rocknroll fanzine and Maximum Rocknroll Records. Just two short years later, MRR Records unleashed its first official release onto the world: the era-defining ripper Welcome to 1984, a compilation that managed to introduce some of the greatest global hardcore bands to a wider audience.

Always reflecting both the local punk scene around it and the happenings of the international punk world, MRR Records next released the Turn It Around double 7″ EP, featuring local bands associated with the nascent Gilman Street Project, and the Dezerter and Naïve records, both from behind the Iron Curtain. The ’90s saw MRR Records focusing on politics (Noam Chomsky), old and new punk classics (Bad Religion, Furious George), and the emergent garage punk sound (Spoiled Brats, et al.).

After a seven-year hiatus, MRR Records re-emerged with the monster 2006 international HC/punk comp Public Safety, followed by another SF/Bay Area comp, Noise Ordinance, an international HC/punk Sound the Alarms!!, and the US-edition of Los Crudos’s 2xLP Discografia. The MRR team began working on a new international compilation in early 2018—more info on how to submit soon!

  • Doble LP DiscografÁ­a Los Crudos

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 016
    • Release Date 2017
    • Out of Print
  • Sound the Alarms!! Compilation

    • Format Double-12"
    • Release no: MRR 016
    • Release Date 2014
    • Run of 1,000
    • Out of Print

    Out of print, but you can download it here!

    MÁ¼lltÁ¼te, Silla ElÁ©ctrica, Synthetic ID, Total War, No Statik, Dictadura, Permanent Ruin, Vivisektio, Giffords Treatment, Question, The Fight, Lotus Fucker, Ruidosa Inmundicia, Anti You, Verrugas, Orden Mundial, Kuudes SilmÁ¤, Nuclear Spring, Gutter, Entre Rejas, Estampido, Sietokyky, Hondartzako Hondakinak, I.R.A., Ν ανδημΝ¯α (Pandemia), DHK, Kvoteringen, Kontatto, Lei Do CÁ£o, CÁ¼lo, Maailmanloppu, Obediencia. 36-pg zine insert.

  • Noise Ordinance Compilation

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 015
    • Release Date 2011

    Out of print, but you can download it here!

    Morpheme, Needles, Rank/Xerox, NN, Shotwell, Black Rainbow, Surrender, Conquest For Death, Acephalix, Airfix Kits, Ruleta Rusa, Face The Rail, Ecoli, Migraine, Year One, Love Songs, Suicide Bomb, Hunx and His Punx, Acts Of Sedition, Fix My Head, I Will Kill You Fucker, Duck And Cover, The Fleshies. 32-pg zine insert.

  • Drunken Sex Sucks Bum Kon

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 014.5
    • Release Date 2008
    • Buy here

    Recordings from 1983; co-released with Smooch Records.

  • Public Safety Compilation

    • Format LP/CD
    • Release no: MRR 014
    • Release Date 2006
    • Out of Print

    Á„Á¤ritila, Career Suicide, Deadfall, Direct Control, Disease, The First Step, Formaldehyde Junkies, Framtid, Gorilla Angreb, Holy Shit, Look Back And Laugh, Limp Wrist, Nightmare, No Hope For The Kids, Observers, Pedestrians, Persevere, Regress, Regulations, Signal Lost, Sin Dios, Sleeper Cell, Smalltown, Smartut Kahol Lavan, Strung Up, Sunday Morning Einsteins

  • Born Too Loose Strychnine

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 013
    • Release Date 1999
    • Out of Print
  • The B-Sides The B-Sides

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 012
    • Release Date 1999
    • Out of Print
  • The Beast with Five Heads… and a One-Track Mind! Diesel Queens

    • Format 7"
    • Release no: MRR 011
    • Release Date 1997
    • Out of Print
  • I Gotta Gun/Burger King Is Dead Furious George

    • Format 7"
    • Release no: MRR 010
    • Release Date 1996
    • Out of Print
  • Hooked on Moronics Diesel Queens

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 009
    • Release Date 1995
    • Out of Print
  • Split 7″ The Spoiled Brats/Buttafuoco

    • Format 2x7"
    • Release no: MRR 008
    • Release Date 1994
    • Out of Print
  • Split 7″ Diesel Queens/Insaints

    • Format 2x7"
    • Release no: MRR 007
    • Release Date 1993
    • Out of Print
  • New World Order 7″ Bad Religion/Noam Chomsky

    • Format EP
    • Release no: MRR 006
    • Release Date 1991
    • Out of Print
  • Switch-Blade Knaife NaÁ¯ve

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 005
    • Release Date 1990
    • Out of Print
  • They Don’t Get Paid, They Don’t Get Laid, But Boy Do They Work Hard! Compilation

    • Format LP/cassette
    • Release no: MRR 004
    • Release Date 1989
    • Out of Print

    The Detonators, Amenity, Christ on a Crutch, Nausea, Apocalypse, Conspiracy of Equals, Screeching Weasel, Jawbox, Dissent, Downfall, Dead Silence, Cringer, Bazooka Joe, Libido Boyz

  • Underground Out of Poland Dezerter

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 003
    • Release Date 1987
    • Out of Print

    Reissued in 2010 by Nikt Nic Nie Wie.

  • Turn It Around! Compilation

    • Format 2x7"
    • Release no: MRR 002
    • Release Date 1987
    • Run of 3,000 (?)
    • Out of Print

    Compiled by David Hayes. Reissued as an LP in 1991 as a benefit “bootleg” for Gilman Street on Very Small Records (1,087 pressed). Corrupted Morals, Sweet Baby Jesus, Isocracy, No Use for a Name, Crimpshrine, Operation Ivy, Stikky, Nasal Sex, Yeastie Girls, Rabid Lassie, Sewer Trout, Buggerall

  • Welcome to 1984 Compilation

    • Format LP
    • Release no: MRR 001
    • Release Date 1984, Reissued in 2010
    • Buy here

    Terveet KÁ¤det, Olho Seco, Crucifucks, Electric Deads, Inferno, Kidnap, NOTA, Icons of Filth, RIP, Skjit-Lars, Rattus, Raw Power, Bristles, Depression, BGK, The Stalin, Frites Modern, UBR, Mayhem, Red Tide, Moral Demolition, HuvudtvÁ¤tt, Upright Citizens

Tim Yohannan

Tim Yohannan (spell it right!) was Maximum Rocknroll’s founder. He died on April 3, 1998, at the age of 52. If you have any more photos of Tim or links we can share, please send them to webzine@maximumrocknroll.com

  • Young Timmy (photo courtesy of Tim's brother, Tom Yohannan)
  • (photo by Murray Bowles, taken from Lawrence Livermore's website)
  • Tim on MRR Radio, ca. 1981
  • Jeff and Tim at Eastern Front, Berkeley 1981 (photo by Erik Meade)
  • Tim and Jeff — MRR Radio on the air at KPFA, Berkeley 1982 (photo by Dale Stewart)
  • Tim with members of Adrenaline OD at MRR house in Berkeley, 1984
  • Tim Yo, Murray Bowles, and hella Gilman punx (photo by Murray, somehow)
  • (photo by Tom Yohannan)
  • Tim Yo (from DocPatcheko on flickr)
  • "Tim and the Gang" of MRR Radio at KPFA 1979 (photo by Mark Berlin)
  • Tim Yo (from 924 Gilman's website)
  • Tim Yo (taken from Mike Lavella's website)
  • Tim with Gilman punx 1987
  • Martin interviewing Tim for Leading Edge zine at the MRR house in Oakland
  • Tim and Martin as skinheads, at Gilman (photo by Murray Bowles)
  • Tim and Martin at MRR house 1987
  • "How to get into MRR" Tim Yo with Grant Hart, 1983 (photo by Murray Bowles)
  • "How to get into MRR" Tim with Grant Hart 1983 (photo by Murray Bowles)
  • "How to get into MRR" Tim with Grant Hart 1983 (photo by Murray Bowles)
  • Article from Another Room magazine ca. 1981
  • Picture of Tim on 924 Gilman's basketball backstop, 2006
  • from Another Room magazine ca. 1981
  • Tim and Martin at Gilman, ca. 1993 (courtesy of David Hayes)
  • Tim Yo mural by Ariel Awesome and Julia Booze at Gilman, 2006
  • Tim at MRR HQ, 1987 (courtesy of David Hayes)
  • Tim Yohannan at Epicenter, 1992 (photo by Helge Schreiber)
  • Tim Yohannan at Epicenter SF, 1992 (photo by Helge Schreiber)