MRR #453 • February 2021

Zine Reviews

  • Star 67 #1

    I have a preview copy of this nicely put together poetry chapbook, and the blurb reads.. “Crank calls, cat calls, call-outs and close calls are just part of the make-up of this brave and surreal collection that examines the enactment and denial of American violence. Gina will drag you through the dirt and you’ll thank […]

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  • SportsbÁ¤r New York Part 1

    This comic is really fuckin silly. It’s like if a bunch of background characters from Futurama had someone follow them for a week and diarize their lives as they descend into this kind of angry paranoid mania. There’s a couple of rabbits, who I think may be the unwitting stars of an alien reality TV […]

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  • $pare ¢hange #38

    The subtitle to this edition of Tom Foote’s long-running Chattanooga punk zine is the very apt “Self publishing during wartime.” Bristling with rage and merging personal reflection with a wider politics, the zine compiles three texts, two from 2016 and one reflecting on the first half of 2020. This is my kind of zine—meandering through […]

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  • Sluice #6

    High production value on this one, but with a pure DIY spirit! You can tell the author has thought thoroughly about their work. They explain at the end that they have tendonitis from the meticulous (and aesthetically excellent) handwriting, and unfortunately the next issue will be typed. Sluice is an in-depth guide to the Huntsville, […]

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  • Punk Life vol. 26 issue #50

    Punk Life is a zine dedicated to DC hardcore, founded in 1992. 26 years is a pretty good run, and this was the Anniversary issue. It is almost wrong to say this issue is a DC hardcore zine though; the author brings up the Stone Roses, Lamb of God and the Beach Boys, and just […]

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  • Out From the Void #2 / Encyclopedia of the Missing

    This issue is kind of a split zine. One half is the second part of mental health nurse and journalist Brenton Gicker’s ongoing series on Eugene, Oregon’s dead, missing, and unidentified people. The second is a profile piece by Jeremy Lybarger on Meaghan Good, the singular figure behind the Charley Project, a community database that […]

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  • Not Like You photo issue #2 / photo issue #3 / issue #8

    So, you have the photo issues 2 and 3—those are spin-off zines from the regular Not Like You zine. Let me start with the photo issues. Both the covers are full color, the inside is black and white. Issue 2 is full-sized while issue 3 is half-sized. I don’t like the different formats. My collecting […]

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  • Magical Spaces #1

    This issue, “an incomplete history of long-gone illegal punk venues in Boston from 2000-2015 or somewhere around there” is designed for three types of people. 1. Someone who went to illegal punk shows in Boston from 2000-2015 or somewhere around there. 2. Someone who is interested in documenting their own local scene and needs an […]

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  • Getting Get in the Van

    A clever concept for a project: the author lost a friend’s copy of Henry Rollins’s now out-of-print memoir, Get in the Van, and is selling these zines to raise money to purchase another. The text of the zine recreates conversations with the author’s friends about this endeavor, imagined emails to and from Henry Rollins, reviews […]

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  • Drivel #1

    It’s about new things, new treats, new romances, new friends, new homes, all kinds of new stuff. This is a sweet little zine that covers quite a lot of ground. I actually read this whole thing in one sitting (which is unlike me) and there were times when I thought I was getting bored… but […]

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  • DisturbancE Oct. 2019

    DisturbancE. With a capital D and E for Delaware. A local scene zine, with a classic off-center cover and the photos, interview and reviews you’d expect. Well done and essentially perfect for what it is. DIY till I die production value. Good fun photo layout inside, and well balanced with a decent interview with Erin […]

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  • Chasing the Night #7

    I should disclaim at the outset that the compiler of this zine and some of its contributors are pals and I received a copy hot off the Xerox. It’s a great document of Portland in early quarantine, back when the government was trying to kill us passively rather than actively. Contributors describe their lockdown routines, […]

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  • Boothaeven’s Magazine #5

    Boothaeven’s has that very specific cut and paste layout. Now don’t go categorizing—Lowie is the best at this style, he mastered the cut and paste! So you get a full sized zine, black and white (and I really mean high-contrast black and white, there’s no grey in here) cut and paste. It’s great! Content-wise you […]

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  • Baited Area

    This is chiefly a collection of interviews with multidisciplinary artists, musicians, and writers, touching on a laudably broad range of topics from vaporwave to Liberace. The interviews are lengthy without feeling rambling or unfocused, punctuated with large illustrations and quotations from influential writers and artists of the past. The production values of this publication are […]

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  • Background Paper #1 / #2 / #3

    As far as I can tell, this zine is a collection of notes on various songs the author may or may not be listening to on YouTube. Instead of posting comments below the video, the author has done it on unlined paper. Yes. It is exactly as coherent as it sounds. Nevertheless, buried inside are […]

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  • An Interview With Some Draculas

    Don’t let the blood-red cover and gothic font fool you into a false sense of impending terror—this is a very cute and fun romp from MRR columnist N.L. Reynolds. Charting Nicky’s attempt to finally face up to their long-term fear of Dracula, it’s an illustrated story of run-ins with various “Draculas” a.k.a. bats, actually existing […]

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Reviews

  1. Zulu
  2. Wretched of the Earth
  3. USA Nails
  4. The Tissues
  5. Johnny Thunders
  6. These Things
  7. The Templars
  8. Stud Count
  9. Stimulant
  10. Spy
  11. Soulside
  12. Mr. and the Mrs.
  13. Midnite Snaxxx
  14. Litige
  15. Kohti Tuhoa
  16. Les Conches Velasques
  17. Human Gas
  18. Gentlemen Rogues
  19. Fugitive Bubble
  20. Familie Hesselbach
  21. Dropdead
  22. Cement Shoes
  23. Alien Boys
  24. Cartridge
  25. Wet Specimens
  26. Zygote
  27. Witches With Dicks
  28. Warm Drag
  29. Videodrome
  30. Urban Carnage
  31. Tumbas
  32. Tokyo Lungs
  33. Tentáculo
  34. Staring Problem
  35. Staffers
  36. Snooper
  37. The Smog
  38. Sick Thoughts
  39. Slugs
  40. Secretors
  41. Scab Eater
  42. Qlowski
  43. Power Face
  44. Pódium
  45. The Mark Vodka Group
  46. Loud Night
  47. The Lavender Flu
  48. Junta
  49. Inject the Light
  50. Honey Joy
  51. Giuseppe Carabino
  52. Gazm
  53. Exploatör
  54. The Ex
  55. Dick Move
  56. Daiei Spray
  57. Crutches
  58. Kontrasosial
  59. Collate
  60. Clear Channel
  61. Citric Dummies
  62. Black Button
  63. Billy & the Bad Peach
  64. Attrix
  65. Armedalite Rifles
  66. V/A
  67. Vis Vires
  68. Vex
  69. Ultra-Violent
  70. Termination
  71. Tantrum
  72. Solvent
  73. The Snakes
  74. Slumb Party
  75. Silicon Heartbeat
  76. SBDC
  77. R.M.F.C.
  78. Radical Kitten
  79. Public Opinion
  80. Preening
  81. Oxygen Destroyer
  82. Oh-OK
  83. Moor Mother
  84. The Lost Jobs
  85. Kool & the Gang Bangers
  86. Illegal 80
  87. If It Kills You
  88. The Haskels
  89. Gutter Knife
  90. Golpe
  91. The Fight
  92. Fastplants
  93. Excrement of War
  94. Earth Crust Displacement
  95. Heavy Nukes
  96. Decide It Yourself
  97. Dan Melchior Band
  98. Cuntroaches
  99. Guttersnipe
  100. Cult Mind
  101. Coldreams
  102. Carlitos Güey
  103. Fun Time Objects
  104. Bipolar
  105. Big Chungus
  106. Attic Salt
  107. The Ar-Kaics
  108. Algara
  109. Verbal Razors
  110. User Unauthorized
  111. TV Drugs
  112. Traps
  113. Svart Parad
  114. Squire
  115. Splitting Heads
  116. Speed Plans
  117. Somerset Thrower
  118. Shitload
  119. Squelch Chamber
  120. Scraps
  121. Salvaje Punk
  122. Repetitor
  123. Prisoner
  124. Powerplant
  125. Poison Ruïn
  126. Pariiah
  127. Omega Glory
  128. New Vogue
  129. Milk
  130. Maraudeur
  131. Lié
  132. Kontaminate
  133. Initiate
  134. The Hussy
  135. Horrid Red
  136. Hellish Inferno
  137. Gripe
  138. Good Cop
  139. Finale
  140. False Brother
  141. Education
  142. Dry Wedding
  143. Desolat
  144. Crutch
  145. Pavel Chekov
  146. Clock of Time
  147. Catalogue
  148. Blóm
  149. Bitpart
  150. Anxiety Spree
  151. Accidente
  152. A Culture of Killing
Read all MRR #453 • February 2021 reviews