Publications Received: Hand Job Zine #4

Publications Received: Hand Job Zine #4

The folks at Hand Job Zine sent me a wonderful note along with this issue of their lit-zine. It reads in part: "We are a UK zine on our fourth issue, and like to keep the righting very British so there may be a few dubious slang words in there for you. You seem to share our love for the printed word though, which is the main reason for sending this. We need to keep it alive instead of reading on migraine inducing machines."

Amen to that. Hand Job Zine is definitely keeping the tradition of underground lit zines alive and well. There's poetry, art, short fiction, and too much cool stuff to mention in this issue - made with real sweat and tears by real hands and real people. I love the anarchic feel that is captured in these pages. No gods, no masters. No shit. Hand Job is the kind of zine that stops talking about freedom and revolution and actually does something.

For more info try:
www.handjobzine.wordpress.com

Posted by DJ Frederick at 8:57 PM

Hiroshima Yeah! #108 Feb 2014

Hiroshima Yeah! #108 Feb 2014

• Apr. 23rd, 2014 at 9:26 PM

4 pages, 12" x 8.5". The Usual, contact HY! at donbirnam [at] hotmail [dot] com

A MEGA BIG thanks to Kapreles for recommending this zine.

I'm afraid this is another 'Somewhat Late To The Party, Fuckity-Fuck It! Dept.' deal, but as a wise frog once said, better late than never!

What we have here is two or three pages stapled in the corner, issued every month by Mark Ritchie and Gary Simmons from Scotland. It employs a nice small font so even though it's only four pages, it's really jammed with content, and that content is rich. I mean it's RICH.

You may not believe it when I reveal the following - this zine has poetry that does not suck ass. However! Read them and you will find it so. Really good poetry here! Example:

Minimum Amount
I prefer using
the self-service checkouts
in supermarkets now,
for the minimum amount
of human interaction.

In recent issues Gary has been contributing a column from prison, '1.5 Years Behind Bars' which is extremely interesting, not only for the fact that it was Gary's first time in the slammer and when he went in he was 52.

Mark writes really enjoyable-to-read album reviews [rare] spiced up with info like where he bought the album, and for how much, like one was in the bargain bin; another was given to him at a gig by a friend... He also writes about gigs he attends, and these include the whole night, from leaving home, stopping for a bite to eat and drink before the gig, and how much each pint cost at each place.

There are also book reviews and short fiction.

HY! is so great! I must not miss any more issues!

Unbelievably Bad #11

Unbelievably Bad #11

• Apr. 24th, 2014 at 9:28 PM

68 pages, 11.5" x 8.5", $8.00pp, excreted by Von Helle, 9 Ross Street, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203 AUSTRALIA + unbelievablybad [at] optusnet [dot] com [dot] au

Goddamn it was so GREAT to find out recently that not only was there a new issue of Unbelievably Bad out, but two new issues since the last one I read, which was UB9. [I was gonna link to it, but I now see that I didn't even post a review here. For shame! I'm an asshole - if you needed further proof, there's Proof #1,000,023... But here's my review of UB8...]

Loads of good stuff in this issue, like an interview with Chinese Burns Unit [retard metal art wizard Glenno Smith's current band]; Five Gross Metal Covers (including Carcass's exquisitely goretastic 'Reek of Putrefaction']; Part 11 of UB's Never-Ending Interview with the Wizard of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis; a piece about life in a travelling band by Mike IX Williams of EyeHateGod; interview with Sydney band The Warm Feelings (which contains a really great and funny LSD-taking anecdote); a really really great tour diary by Dead USA. I underlined and circled a bunch of parts of this, one of them is this, about band Norska: "I hope they make it to Australia sometime, they have that low-end punish vibe that makes tubby blokes in black T-shirts salivate." ... There is loads more in here, including an interview with Philip Hansen Anselmo, who I understand is and has been rather influential in the 'heavy music scene'. So, by now you should know if you need this or not. If you're still reading you probably do, comrade.

This zine also includes easily the most disturbing band photo I've ever seen. It gives me the CREEPS, man. Behold! Wait! Cover your eyes! >>>

Gladhand Comix #2

ADULTS ONLY! 32 pages, $4.00, 8.5" x 5.5" by Jay Bee >>> thecomixcompany.ecrater.com + thesach [at] gmail [dot] com More depraved tales of sick mutants and robots. And people too! Jay Bee himself even appears in one of the longer strips - 'Louisediseasy and Her Pal Weesee'. When Louise has sex with a kind of alien pancake, Weesee is shocked to meet Jay Bee, then proceeds to lecture him when Jay Bee admits to worrying about where this comic is going. "S'not like you're Crumb or Bagge. This' pretty lame shit. And putting yourself in the strip? Superlame!" Well, Jay Bee shouldn't have put himself in the strip because he subsequently gets brutalised by the robot thugs who left pancake alien for dead. Dev 12 ("The most original cartoon robot, ever!") is back. One strip is another one of his dreams, this time featuring a Manson Family type cult. The other one is Dev 12 with his friend who works at a... at a place where they look after giant scarabs. [This one really reminded me of William S. Burroughs.] The weird thing isn't the scarabs; it's the workplace relationship dramas that unfold. Here and there are one-pagers that take aim at selfies, and reveal what's on 'our' minds. We all know this stuff, it's just that Jay Bee has drawn it. Haw! Great job!

Toil #4 : Starting Over

40 pages, 8.5" x 5.5", 3 bucks or trade, edited by Kimberlee, Power of Paper, PO Box 27456, Albuquerque NM 87125-7456, USA + powerofpaperzines [at] gmail [dot] com This issue of Kimberlee's work zine has the theme 'starting over'. There are a bunch of contributors who tackle this theme in their own ways, but my favourite is Becky Wolf's 'No More Waiting', about her last day waiting tables in a restaurant. I really like the paragraph about the staff finishing up for the night and hitting the booze. "Waiting tables makes you drink. The schedule, the stress, the pace, the pocket money. Everybody's on the verge of alcoholism." Coming in a close second is teresaiswar's 'Stink', in which she admits to knowing "...the difference between the scent of standard shit and clostridium difficile shit. I know the smell of shit when a person has taken a ton of medications, the smell of the first shit after an elective knee surgery when the GI tract has come out of slumber, and I know the smell of shit when a person has blood in their shit, which I liken to wet aluminium foil on cavity-infested teeth." Also, not a bad cover from that bastard Stratu!

Midwest Mixtapes #2

28 pages, 9" x 5.5", The Usual, MidwestMixtapesFM [at] gmail [dot] com Put together by a group of friends in the Fargo-Moorhead area, Midwest Mixtapes is mainly a music zine with album reviews and band interviews, but also a few movie reviews, root beer reviews, a restaurant review, a local photographer interview, a video game review (Super Meat Boy), and sightings of Will Smith in the Fargo-Moorhead area. ... I've really gone crazy underlining and making notes in this issue so I'll go straight to all that... PxM interviews Evan and Dan from hardcore band, Power, and Evan says this about another hardcore band called Wreck: "They're doing real, like, obscure riffs and stuff that isn't jammy, but it's real technical. Some kids just might not get it." Then when PxM asked them about how their tour has been, Evan says, "Canada was awesome, they hook it up super hard. If you can ever go there, go there." ... Then a little bit later, PxM begins a sentence with, "I'm not going to lie..." which I really should report to Dudes Magazine's Pancake Master [see review]. I really enjoyed this interview I guess mainly for the language. Hook it up super hard? I've never heard that before but I like it. I'm gonna use it. ... The centre pages is a double spread of Will Smith sighted around town. It's just a cardboard Will Smith propped against things. Very funny. There are also comments alongside each one by Big Willy, a little anecdote about each shot. MM describe him this way: "Will Smith is the last healthy human alive on the planet, hiding from the infected hipsters of the downtown area..." ... The other pages I underlined mad style was an interview with Midwest [Iowa] singer-songwriter Andrew Johnathan, which is unintentionally funny, "Not only do you fall in love with his lyrically genius abilities and his melodic guitar, now along comes banging drums, soulful electric guitar, and rhythmic bass." This kind of writing seems out of place. But it's funny! Another funny aspect of this interview is that twice Johnathan begins a sentence with, "I can openly say..." I wanted him to throw in a few "I'm not gonna lie..." Finally, when asked about his favourite part of touring, Johnathan admits, "I get to go a lot of places I haven't been, along with a lot of places I have been..." Anyway, this one was a thoroughly enjoyable zine.