Moore fun with zines: Punk magazine, Thurston Moore and the Meatmen

Issue #7 of Killer by Thurston Moore, mid 80's

More cool stuff - and some of it pretty tough to come by. 

See everything here.

The Very Best of Touch and Go by Tesco Vee, 1985

Punk #16 by John Holmstrom & Legs McNeil, 1979

See if your combat boots still fit

Click on image for a closer look.

Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985 by Tony Rettman
Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson

Reading, 80s Hardcore Video Screening, and Signing - Refreshments will be served

Tuesday, August 24, 7-9 PM
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn
For more information: (718) 666-3049

In the early 70s, Detroit was the musical hub of America. Everything from the chart topping sounds of Motown Records to the vicious proto-punk of The Stooges was being brewed out there and it seemed like there was no end in sight. But by the early eighties, the city was both a physical and cultural wasteland due to major-label buyouts of the artists as well as the crippling drug habits of some of the others. Detroit's most well-known musical export at the time was the vapid sounds of New Wave heartthrobs The Romantics; This wasn't good. It took a gaggle of suburban skateboarders, a grade school teacher and a census bureau clerk to wake this city up from its slumber and start one of the first hardcore punk scenes in America. Why Be Something That You're Not chronicles the first wave of Detroit hardcore from its origins in the late 70s to its demise in the mid-80s. Through a combination of oral history and extensive imagery, the book proves that even though the Southern California beach towns might have created the look and style of hardcore punk, it was the Detroit scene—along with a handful of other cities across the country—that cultivated the music's grassroots aesthetic before most cultural hot spots around the globe even knew what the music was about.

About Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1984
"The Michigan hardcore scene was a crazy mixture of DC-style teen-thug-purists and debauched elders with a taste for the newest in high-energy freedom. Tony Rettman has done a great service to Western culture by interviewing the prime knuckleheads involved in this scene and reporting what he finds. It's hard for me to believe the Necros first record was done almost 30 years ago, but it's the sad goddamn truth—we're all grandpas now.

Tony doesn't let any of the potential blowhards prattle on for too long, but he gets some great stories out of 'em and presents them with lean fast strokes. He dug up some boss pictures too, and the whole shebang makes some of the other volumes I've seen about this spot in the time-space continuum look even lamer than they did previously. There were certain aspects of the Michigan scene that made it the brightest, hottest spot on the world-underground music map for a few brief moments. Tony would like to tell you why." — Byron Coley

About Touch and Go:The Complete Hardcore Fanzine '79-'83
Touch and Go fanzine was the brainchild of Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson and was launched in Lansing, Michigan, in 1979. Major fanatics of the new punk happenings in the late '70, Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson set out to chronicle, lambaste, ridicule, and heap praise on all they arbitrarily loved or hated in the music communities in the U.S. and abroad. In laughably minuscule press runs by todays standards, Touch and Go was made by guys within the Midwest scene strictly for the edification of scenesters and pals in other cities like DC, Philly, Boston, LA, SF, Chicago, et al. Inspired by magazines such as Slash and Search and Destroy and writers like Claude Bessy and Chris Desjardines, Vee and Stimson pumped out 17 naughty, irrevent issues together, and Vee did another five solo. This is the first time the issues have been collected and published as a complete set.

Touch and Go - the Book!

This is great news...Tesco Vee's fantastic and LONG out of print fanzine, Touch & Go, is getting the compendium treatment, as all 22 issues have been put into one huge, 576 page, honker of a book. I can't wait to see it! Available June 30, what follows is all of the information from the publisher's, Bazillion Points, website:



The complete series 1979–1983. Twenty-two issues in one loud, fast volume.

ISBN 978-0979616389
576 stiff pages

Featuring new introductory essays by Tesco Vee, Dave Stimson, Steve Miller, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Peter Davis, Henry Owings, Byron Coley, Corey Rusk, John Brannon, and Ian MacKaye.

“I was inspired by how fearless and together Touch and Go were. They were really wild and extremely funny.”—Henry Rollins

“It was really one of the first times anyone outside of Washington really paid us any mind. The fact that Touch and Go took an interest in us really blew us away.”—Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat

“Creem may have taught me how to piss, but Touch and Go taught me how to shit. I owe my career to that magazine.”—John Brannon, Negative Approach

Touch and Go fanzine was the brainchild of Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson and was launched in Lansing, Michigan, in 1979. Major fanatics of the new punk happenings in the late ’70s, TV and DS set out to chronicle, lambaste, ridicule, and heap praise on all they arbitrarily loved or hated in the music communities in the US and abroad.

In laughably minuscule press runs by today’s standards, T & G was made by guys within the Midwest scene strictly for the edification of scenesters and pals in other cities like DC, Philly, Boston, LA, SF, Chicago, et al. Inspired by magazines such as Slash and Search and Destroy and writers like Claude Bessy and Chris Desjardines, TV and DS pumped out seventeen naughty, irreverent issues together, and TV did another five solo.

Magazines like Forced Exposure and Your Flesh, among others, soon fired up Xerox machines themselves, and the rest is history. So is the legendary independent record label launched from this zine, and so are the bands covered inside: Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Misfits, Negative Approach, the Fix, the Avengers, the Necros, Discharge, Iron Cross, Youth Brigade, Faith, Die Kreuzen, Crucifix, Poison Idea—and all the other punks worth their weight in glorious black and white.

There is a book release party/gig planned for Cleveland on July 16 with Tesco Vee's Hate Police, White Flag (yes, that White Flag), and more bands to be announced.

Bobbleheads

This has been fairly well reported elsewhere, but was too funny not to mention here. Aggronautix has produced two new unlikely bobblehead collectibles of GG Allin and the Meatmen's Tesco Vee. And at $14.95 each they're a bargain!

South By Southwest, Part 5

Click the linked names for info.

The English Beat. Or as my friend Paul & I called them, the Wakeling Beat, as Dave Wakeling is the only original member. Pure nostalgia. Wakeling wrote a lot of hit songs! Funnily enough, the best song they played was the last song of set, "Tenderness" by General Public:





Carbon Silicon. Or better known as Mick Jones & Tony James buddy project. As a lifelong Clash fan, I hate to say it, but man! These guys really suck.



The Meatmen. Who knew? Lansing, Michigan's least favorite son, Tesco Vee, comes back from the dead backed by a bunch of twenty somethings who rocked pretty hard. I didn't stay for the whole set, but ol' Tesco is as offensive & funny as ever.