Razorcake Issue #19

Send all zines for review toRazorcake, PO Box 42129,LA, CA 90042. Pleaseinclude a contact address, thenumber of pages, the price,and whether or not youaccept trades.104AD INFINITUM, #8, free, 44 pgs.While I am probably going to stickwith Noam Chomsky andMultinational Monitor, it’s good tosee what people in your backyardare saying about politics.–Speedway Randy(www.aimmag.com)AVOW, #17, $2,5 ½ x 8 ½, copied, 28 pgs.Based on the artwork alone, Iwould highly recommend this, butluckily it goes beyond cool lookingdrawings. It’s a bunch of short storiesabout the author’s daily life; it’skind of like a personal zine, onlyAvow isn’t crappy like Ration orsomething. Instead of whining ortrying to emulate Morrissey, Keithjust writes simple stories about stufflike standing up to a schoolyardbully, going to a lame party, andeating glass to impress a girl. Hedoesn’t try to make people thinkhe’s really articulate or poetic oranything, he just writes. It’s thekind of unassuming writing thatyou get sucked into. And I know Ialready said this, but there are lotsof cool drawings thrown in betweenthe cool stories. –Josh (KeithRosson, 20 NW 16 th Ave. #306,Portland, OR 97209)BARRACUDA, #18, $3.50,8½ x 11, 48 pgs.I don’t want to sound like I’mblowing smoke up publisher JeffFox’s ass, but Barracuda’s scienceis tight. The layout looks great, thewriting is excellent, and there’ssomething else that I’m forgetting…Oh, yeah. There’s pictures ofscantily clad ladies, which is definitelynot a bad thing. This issue’sgot a story about winning sixteendollars in a drunken spelling bee, atrip to Ben Franklin’s grave, tips onmaking an oversized beer cozy, anda great article about Antarcticexplorer Ernest Shackleton thatmade for some fine toilet-time reading.A wise purchase. –Josh(PO Box 291873, LA, CA 90029)BIG TAKEOVER, #53,$4.95, 320 pgs.Aging punk rocker meets the newindie parade, where some of thosesame idols are anyway. Huge introsand in-need-of-editing conversationalinterviews make me wonderwhy the editor isn’t in the bandphotos. The two histories of seminalband The Bags by Alice and PatBag is worth the cover price.–Speedway Randy (249 Eldridge St#14, NY, NY, 10002)BLACK VELVET, #37, $6,8 ½ x 11 ¾, glossy, stapled, 40 pgs.With thirty-seven issues under theirbelt, Black Velvet head mistressShari Black Velvet (natch!) covers awide range of punk and metal thatspans the years. This issue has skacoreband Less Than Jake but alsoincludes Bon Jovi’s European tour,LA Guns and Silverchair, as well asThe Ataris, The Movielife, The All-American Rejects and just aboutevery other whiny faux emo “The”band. So there’s lots of insight butunduly dripping in a bad-hairsprayday: like the bands they cover,you’ll find plenty of attitude andenthusiasm but little substance. TheBritish answer to RIP, completewith the Back Page Babe (this issuefeatures Midtown’s Rob Hitt sportinga cheesy devil lock). Take it forwhat it is and you’ll enjoy it. –GregBarbera (Shari Black Velvet, 336Birchfield Road, WebheathReddich, Worcs B974NG, England)CHINMUSIC, #6, $4, 8½ x 11,52 pp., glossy cover,two nicely-spaced staplesLess interview and more article-orientedthan i recall the last issuebeing: interviews include (but arenot limited to) the Weirdos, RubberCity Rebels, and Marlins pitcherTim Spooneybarger; the Murderer’sRow of columnists includes (butalso is not limited to) Mike “Zisk”Faloon, Tim “Dagger” Hinely, andBen “FIND A TV” Weasel. And,since Weasel tagged Field ofDreams as the worst baseball movieever, and co-columnist Johnny VanPassenheim, however, rated itabove the Mendoza Line as far asbaseball films go (anyone notfamiliar with the term “MendozaLine” is likely reading about thewrong zine), i’ll stick my unsolicitedtwo bits into the fray and statethat i’m not really sure about Fieldof Dreams either way, because i’venever seen the whole thing, but i’dsay i saw about 60% at Miller Parklast summer, because i was comingback up from Chicago one Sunday,and noticed that my filled AmocoC’mon Back Club card was goodfor a ticket to the Brewers-Piratesgame that afternoon, and i know aplace to park for free on the streetabout a mile or so from the stadium,then you gotta walk down somerailroad tracks and cut through theVeteran’s Hospital grounds andANYWAY i got a four-pack ofMilwaukee’s Best Ice beer at aconvenience store just off thetracks, and figured whatever icouldn’t suck down on the waythere i’d pitch by the side of thetracks and pick up on the way backto my car, but then i rememberedhow sometimes during AmocoC’mon Back Club games (five fillupsof eight gallons or more at anyparticipating Amoco? dealer andYOU shall receive a FREE TerraceReserved seat! Offer good whilesupplies last!), if you get therekinda late, they claim all the freetickets are “gone” (offer good whilesupplies last!) and only offer yousome lame “upgrade,” so i stuckone of my two remaining cans ofbeer in my pocket, and anotherdown my pants – JUST IN CASE –and, yup, as i reached the ticketwindow, lo and behold, no moreAmoco C’mon Back Club cardtickets are available to me, AlFranken. But yet, i have my tworemaining beers (not to mention abit of a chilly willy), and they pumpthe Bob Uecker/Jim Powell radioplay-by-play of the game out of stadium-mountedspeakers to the greatoutdoors, and if one positions onesselfin front of the correct glasspaneledwall of the stadium, onecan see through the concourse, thruthe outfield bleachers, and have apretty good line of sight of pitcher,batter, and catcher, crowd trafficpermitting. It’s like some manner ofelegant 21st-Century taxpayerfundedknothole. So anyway, i gotmy own beer to drink, i got Bob andJim calling the game for me, i cansee the pitcher, catcher, batter,umpire and maybe the third basemanif i wiggle around just right –i’m actually having a better timewatching the game from outsidethan i would have were i in the stadium.Eventually, however, somekindly guy on the inside who had aspare ticket motioned me over tothe turnstile, and i was grantedaccess to the game proper. After theconclusion of the game, for whateverreason, the Milwaukee BrewersOrganization invited us all to stickaround for Field of Dreams on theJumbotron, and i watched aboutthe first hour or so, then surrenderedto the call of the wild, returninghome, where i made a lovelysupper out of a bag of Jack LinksCarne Seca Beef Jerky and a sixpackof Bud Ice, eventually wakingup Monday morning on the livingroom floor, awash in a large,aromatic puddle of regurgitatedJack Links Carne Seca BeefJerky and a six-pack of Bud Ice.Field of Dreams may fare no betterthan a one-off September callup,but i’ll give it a .201 for tenacity.FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIAFACT: The logo in the lower-righthandcorner of the cover is a clevertakeoff of the post-1922 Bauhauslogo. Extra bases for that one!–Rev. Nørb(PO Box 225029, SF, CA 94122)COMIXVILLE, #8, 50 cent(just like the rapper), 5½ x 4¼If you’re looking for some coolcomic books that probably won’t bemade into crappy movies any timesoon but don’t know where tobegin, Comixville is the way to go.It’s mostly one-page samples ofsome pretty rad-looking comicsalong with contact information foreach one. This issue’s also got an