Seven Inches To Freedom #8
48 pages, digest size, $1.00, edited by Joe Lachut, PO Box 457, Ft. Myers FL 33902-0457, USA + hiszeroisgone(at)yahoo.com + wtfhttapes.com
[Thanks to Jason Rodgers's review in Media Junky #14 for hipping me to this one.]
I mainly got this for the 'Zines vs. Blogs' piece, but immediately discovered that this issue is chock full of kick-fucking-ass content. This motherfucker is LOADED, baby.
First up, an almost-full-page letter from Jason Rodgers on the State of Hardcore.
Next up some columns, the first being by Bob Suren, who's had a few idea fragments floating around his head for a while. Here's the first of three: "What is it about punk rock/hardcore/underground music in general that attracts polar opposites? ... How is it that people as bright, creative and charismatic as Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra and Steve Ignorant are part of the same thing as a drunken, lazy, panhandling, glue-sniffing gutter rat named Booger?"
Krystina's column covers themes such as why thrash metal isn't dangerous anymore, and is it asking too much for women to be more accepted in the metal scene in this day and age.
Then editor Joe writes about growing up and doing 'adult things' like buying a house, yet still having punk attitude, but being cool with domestication, then admitting that he seems to be working his way, happily, to how he hoped he would end up: "that old guy with the faded ASSUCK shirt that you see at the grocery store."
'The Death Of The Music Industry (Awesome)' by Scott Bentz is reprinted from Scott's Grand Rapids Is Screaming site [ grscreamer.com ]. A savage, provocative and no-holds-barred assessment of the music industry, it ends with this advice: "The moral of the story is to keep stealing music. Don't even consider buying anything from a major label. It might be a great song but it's on the web for free. Go out there and do your part to finally dismantle the worst thing that ever happened to music. Strangle it, beat it, crush it, burn it, bury it and piss on its grave. And in celebration go to a small club and watch someone who loves what they do play to people who want to hear something."
Visaci Zamek, in a regular 'My First Record' feature, writes about the very first punk record in the Czech Republic and all the struggles punks, cut off from the outside world, under strict government supervision, had to endure.
The highlight of the issue for me is the 13-page 'Zines vs. Blogs' piece. Joe interviewed three blog makers and three zine writers, asking them all the same four questions (plus one more aimed specifically at them). Why/when did you decide to start your zine/blog? Favourite/least favourite thing about doing a zine/blog? Do you read blogs/zines? How do you feel about blogs? Would you ever consider putting your blog to paper? How do zines and blogs co-exist in 2010? Is the blog format replacing the zine? Interviewees: Kevin McCaughey - Fashionable Activism blog; Tom Mayhugh - Evil Minded zine; Travis Fristoe - America? zine; Christopher Sommer - Sacred Text blog; Adam - ICOULDDIETOMORROW blog; and Evan Dawson - Irradiated Corpse zine.
Joe is completely obsessed with a band called Rupture (for example their Cunt of God album [Rhetoric, 1998] - "...Killer, evil hardcore violence like you've never heard before. Buzzy, chaotic & fucking disturbing...") He wrote about them in his last issue but found out a bunch more info which he includes in this issue. (OK, of course I really want to check this band out now, but what I thought were my mad capable internet searching skillz are not turning up shit on these guys. How the fuck do I get a copy of this album then?)
There's also a Deathrats (Washington DC) interview, 'The Politics of Becoming Jaded', and rekkid, cd, and zine reviews.
Seven Inches To Freedom is so fucking great, it should be required reading for any snot-nosed junior burger punk brats revving themselves up to make their own punk zine.
Hardcore bitchin' awesome squared times infinity.
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