DISTORT

AUSTRALIA'S ONLY MAGAZINE
SOLD OUT #8 (Canada, 1989)Features Cro-Mags, No For An Answer, Fire Party, White Zombie, Bim Skala Bim.Canadian based hardcore / metal fanzine with eclectic (read: somewhat poor) taste. It’s all over the shop. The interview with Harley (post-Best Wishes) has him at his most articulate and is the high point of this mag. That and the Rollins / Flag poster. And the Stars & Stripes Shaved For Battle promo ad! You mighta read about this rag in Town of Hardcore…From Cro-Mags interview (with Harley):“If people are really rebellious, they will understand first of all that the government is feeding us poison, slowing our mentality down.” Buy it here.

SOLD OUT #8 (Canada, 1989)

Features Cro-Mags, No For An Answer, Fire Party, White Zombie, Bim Skala Bim.

Canadian based hardcore / metal fanzine with eclectic (read: somewhat poor) taste. It’s all over the shop. The interview with Harley (post-Best Wishes) has him at his most articulate and is the high point of this mag. That and the Rollins / Flag poster. And the Stars & Stripes Shaved For Battle promo ad! You mighta read about this rag in Town of Hardcore…

From Cro-Mags interview (with Harley):

“If people are really rebellious, they will understand first of all that the government is feeding us poison, slowing our mentality down.”

Buy it here.

Antidote - Thou Shalt Not Kill 7” (BOOT)

I have heard some great stories about this bootleg over the years.

I heard that the guy who carved the groove out was a gay methhead named Julius who once kicked a guy’s head off in a CBGB’s pit. I heard that Wolf Eyes first few tapes were a needle running in the out groove of this record. My copy has a coloured in blood drop courtesy of the art pig I bought it from, circa 1998. The best boot hardcore record I own, not for the weak.

Scrawl from Distort #36:

Some Christian pop punk label from America has got their preying hands on the masters from Agnostic Front and Antidote, and this year saw the first official vinyl reissue of Thou Shalt Not Kill. I could upgrade from the bootleg copy I’ve had the last decade. You could never play the last fifteen seconds of either side because the matrix was carved out by an imbecile with a hot corkscrew in his kitchen (I now have a turntable with a slim stylus on it, so I can get to the end of each side with a nice panic attack each time it gets stuck in that harsh groove at the end).

But, replacing this record would mean owning a copy of TSNK released by a label that has been responsible for sending impressionable youth into the pews to get educated by menacing priestly types with hooded sweatshirts and high promises of eternal rewards, and I’m a responsible member of my community. All this said, and snide remarks towards opportunists aside, it is about time this record saw reissue (as opposed to many 80’s hardcore records seeing unnecessary reissue: Neon Christ is a good example). If only someone had the money and legal team behind them to work this one out that hadn’t also drawn contracts with some of the most decidedly mediocre (Have Heart), it’d look really really special. At the very least, the old blokes are getting some cash out of the deal, and probably some more exposure to young people with money to burn.  For those who have yet to hear it, this is one of the most prominent examples of a band who heard Bad Brains and did the right thing. High energy hardcore. Every song is memorable, the guitars sound huge but not indulgent, not huge at the expense of everything else. The vocalist is broke and hungry and pissed off from constantly tripping over the worm in the big apple. Sweet New York!

The liner notes from John Joseph that appeared on the 2004 CD release were not included with the 7”, and I thought they were kinda cool: “I first met Artie Googie as the drummer for the Misfits. At the time I was in a band with Nunzio called MDI, also with Harley and Doug Holland. I knew Louie for years from touring with the Bad Brains. Given everyone’s background being so grounded in the roots of NYHC and punk I knew when this unit decided to form together as Antidote it would be explosive! When Antidote asked me to sing on ‘The Real Deal’ I jumped at the opportunity. Antidote’s live show then was one of the best around. I really feel this EP captured their sound and is the best representation of the band’s energy and extremely chaotic live performance, which most albums are unable to do, even nowadays. Now that the EP is finally being re-released, how bout one last show, huh fellas?”

Well, Johnny, you got what you paid for! Antidote are back and patrolling the clean NY streets. The few people I’d talked to that had seen them claim they are doing it with that most rare, brilliant diamond in an age of dull hardcore reunion coal lumps. They have class. They have humility. Age has not pickled them into the belief they have anything more to offer than the tunes of their 30 years old hardcore 7”. Praise Jah!

(Source: distortcult.bigcartel.com)

Mutagen #3 Anti-social NY punk and science fiction zine picked up at Heaven Street. Good store. The content is photographs of NY hardcore bands, fliers and mutant artwork, a strongly worded concise intro that quotes Burroughs, Baldwin and excoriates sick people, and a Ballard short story. Mutagen is unique for attempting to present a science fiction fandom that doesn’t read like a nerd. This is important. If every conversation you had with people about science fiction could be as anti-nerd as this zine comes off, you’d probably read more of it and find out more about it. Smug intellectual frippery vs. the damage of a challenged perspective. Mutagen take the latter approach. In this issue, the bulk of it is a reprint of a Ballard short called ‘The Drowned Giant’. A nice choice, one of his stronger shorts. Disappointed that they picked a story that’s relatively easy to find, but the associated artwork should made it the definitive printing. Recommended.

Mutagen #3

Anti-social NY punk and science fiction zine picked up at Heaven Street. Good store.

The content is photographs of NY hardcore bands, fliers and mutant artwork, a strongly worded concise intro that quotes Burroughs, Baldwin and excoriates sick people, and a Ballard short story.

Mutagen is unique for attempting to present a science fiction fandom that doesn’t read like a nerd. This is important. If every conversation you had with people about science fiction could be as anti-nerd as this zine comes off, you’d probably read more of it and find out more about it. Smug intellectual frippery vs. the damage of a challenged perspective. Mutagen take the latter approach.

In this issue, the bulk of it is a reprint of a Ballard short called ‘The Drowned Giant’. A nice choice, one of his stronger shorts. Disappointed that they picked a story that’s relatively easy to find, but the associated artwork should made it the definitive printing. Recommended.

WORDS CARVED INTO MY HEAD #1 (28 pages, Euro, 1996)Features the definitive Mouthpiece interview. A fanzine dedicated to Mouthpiece and old school straight edge hardcore.This is a very strange zine. The distance is vast between a good straight edge hardcore band like Side By Side and a band like Mouthpiece, who were ostensibly an emo (when emo went late DC indie rock) straight edge band, but this was 1996 and there wasn’t much to choose from at the time. The editors seem somewhat aware of the dire state of affairs and they seem to offer the requiem for Mouthpiece as a kind of cleansing ritual. Things seemed to get a little better from that day forward… a little better. Floorpunch happened, of course.There’s a series of photos of bands like Wide Awake and Chain, reviews of Plagued With Rage and the like. My generation. They attempt to define what old school hardcore means in a very collegiate essay about the term. The most interesting piece in here is a poetic essay on straight edge that references Blanchot, Hoderlin, Hegel and Heidegger - no shit. Once again: a very strange one. Buy it.

WORDS CARVED INTO MY HEAD #1 (28 pages, Euro, 1996)

Features the definitive Mouthpiece interview. A fanzine dedicated to Mouthpiece and old school straight edge hardcore.

This is a very strange zine.
The distance is vast between a good straight edge hardcore band like Side By Side and a band like Mouthpiece, who were ostensibly an emo (when emo went late DC indie rock) straight edge band, but this was 1996 and there wasn’t much to choose from at the time.
The editors seem somewhat aware of the dire state of affairs and they seem to offer the requiem for Mouthpiece as a kind of cleansing ritual. Things seemed to get a little better from that day forward… a little better. Floorpunch happened, of course.
There’s a series of photos of bands like Wide Awake and Chain, reviews of Plagued With Rage and the like. My generation. They attempt to define what old school hardcore means in a very collegiate essay about the term. The most interesting piece in here is a poetic essay on straight edge that references Blanchot, Hoderlin, Hegel and Heidegger - no shit. Once again: a very strange one.

Buy it.

BIG TAKEOVER #13 (NY, 1983) Writing and photos of UK Subs, Channel 3, DOA, Exploited, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Rank and File, Circle Jerks, the LA punk riots and NY bands like Kraut, Even Worse (editors band), Nihilistics, Heartattack. Never liked his writing, but for NYHC history this one waved the flag.

BIG TAKEOVER #13 (NY, 1983)

Writing and photos of UK Subs, Channel 3, DOA, Exploited, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Rank and File, Circle Jerks, the LA punk riots and NY bands like Kraut, Even Worse (editors band), Nihilistics, Heartattack. Never liked his writing, but for NYHC history this one waved the flag.

RIPPER #7 (SF, 1982) Interviews with The Fix, Bad Brains, Fartz, Effigies & CrucifixPretty exceptional spread of early US hardcore bands in this issue of Ripper. Great taste and well executed, and though incredibly inconsistent, one of the better early hardcore fanzines in terms of the depth of content.From CRUCIFIX interview:WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO?Jim: I don’t really like any kind of music, I don’t buy records.Sothira: What we play is totally different from what I listen to and what Matt listens to. He listens to Black Sabbath. I listen to mostly Joy Division, they’re my favourite band, and I listen to Bauhaus.Matt: It probably comes out in his lyrics, not in the music. Cuz the music is more like GBH and Discharge.Sothira: We like playing like the new bands coming out of England. We buy their records. Sick Pleasure was one of our influences too. But besides that, the lyrics influence is mostly Joy Division.

RIPPER #7 (SF, 1982)

Interviews with The Fix, Bad Brains, Fartz, Effigies & Crucifix

Pretty exceptional spread of early US hardcore bands in this issue of Ripper. Great taste and well executed, and though incredibly inconsistent, one of the better early hardcore fanzines in terms of the depth of content.

From CRUCIFIX interview:

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO?
Jim: I don’t really like any kind of music, I don’t buy records.
Sothira: What we play is totally different from what I listen to and what Matt listens to. He listens to Black Sabbath. I listen to mostly Joy Division, they’re my favourite band, and I listen to Bauhaus.
Matt: It probably comes out in his lyrics, not in the music. Cuz the music is more like GBH and Discharge.
Sothira: We like playing like the new bands coming out of England. We buy their records. Sick Pleasure was one of our influences too. But besides that, the lyrics influence is mostly Joy Division.

TOUCH AND GO- collection (1991)

This is a “best of” selection of Touch and Go put together in ‘91 (ten year anniversary party?).

Comes with the Reagan Regime Review compilation 7”.

Some bands you might have heard of…

A1     Fix* –     Vengeance        
A2     Meatmen –     1 Down 3 To Go        
A3     Negative Approach –     Can’t Tell No One        
B1     Toxic Reasons –     Somebody Help Me        
B2     McDonald’s* –     Untitled

(Source: distortmag.bigcartel.com)

WHAT IS HARDCORE ALL ABOUT? From Sniffin’ Petrol #2 (1998) The word “fruits” is some post-OLC Australian vernacular. This is one of my favourite Kas Mattes comic strips. IG.

WHAT IS HARDCORE ALL ABOUT?

From Sniffin’ Petrol #2 (1998)

The word “fruits” is some post-OLC Australian vernacular. This is one of my favourite Kas Mattes comic strips. IG.

INTEGRITY - SYSTEMS OVERLOAD shirt Shirt retired after one decade. All I can think about is revenge.

INTEGRITY - SYSTEMS OVERLOAD shirt

Shirt retired after one decade.

All I can think about is revenge.

Distort #9 (2006) Interview with Chris Colohan re: Left For Dead / Japanese hardcore rumourmill / writing on Disclose, Severed Head of State, Upstab, Urban Blight / top 5 split LP’s (uh…)From the Intro to #9: So much of the themes of hardcore and punk revolve around a very naïve way of looking at the world, a fetishised idea of the ‘kids’, of ‘youth’, which feels really inspiring and exciting when you’re in high school, when you believe that the hundred kids at the punk show on Thursday night all hold within them the ability to affect change or represent a hardcore alternative to what the rest of the world stood for. The years click by, your friends have moved on or fucked up or atrophied or died, and you’re where you were at the start, alone. This is the point where a lot of hardcore begins to feel pretty trite and meaningless. The music that matters past this point talks less about connection and more about disconnection. More about alienation than togetherness. More about hatred than unity. It was about six years ago, coming outta the disaster of my first relationship, unemployed and wasting my time in a useless university classroom, that bands like Youth Of Today lost their appeal, and bands like Left For Dead made sense.As always, this zine is done for the hardware.#9 was an interview with Chris Colohan from Left For Dead. A few months after this was printed, I realized I hadn’t even looked at my Left For Dead records since then, and promptly exchanged them for rent. I’d forgotten about them til recently when a record came into work and gave it a listen. I remember at the time this band sounded really insane, but I think time has wilted them. I can’t enjoy that china cymbal washing over everything in every second bar. Anyhow, the interview was pretty cool, and they were a pretty fuckin’ exciting band for a while, definitely breathing a lot of life into Australian hardcore (remember Deadstare?). , And… We’re Not In This Alone is sounding better every day (well, side A is at least), so I guess that intro falls apart at the end…From the interview with Chris Colohan re: Left For Dead“There were some really good hardcore bands around at the time. H100s, Unbroken, Threadbare, Copout, Integrity. But the overall mood of that era was still pretty stifling. People were really young for the politics they were playing with back then. We were all like 21 going on 40…in Maoist China. Everyone wanted catharsis, but it was played out in a very safe, uniform way. With LFD, us and our friends always had fun (at everyone’s expense) and tried to ignore the feedback, whether it was praise or hate. The H-100s were an awesome band for that time. Seeing them and Integrity play Kendzies in Lockport NY in 1995 was the biggest adrenaline rush. Integrity ripped, and always brought out thugs, but the H-100s set…holy shit. They started, the singer threw something really heavy straight ahead of him, not even looking. Someone took out the bouncer, two girls were punching each other’s heads in and there were at least 3 all out fistfights by the first chorus, no joke. That bought me another 5 years right there, easily. There’s no way to defend it, it was totally senseless, and that made it great considering that all that faux-sensibility is the thing that was killing HC at the time. Not the politics themselves but the mind-numbing amount of over-analysis that came with it all. It was making everything feel too safe.”

Distort #9 (2006)

Interview with Chris Colohan re: Left For Dead / Japanese hardcore rumourmill / writing on Disclose, Severed Head of State, Upstab, Urban Blight / top 5 split LP’s (uh…)

From the Intro to #9: So much of the themes of hardcore and punk revolve around a very naïve way of looking at the world, a fetishised idea of the ‘kids’, of ‘youth’, which feels really inspiring and exciting when you’re in high school, when you believe that the hundred kids at the punk show on Thursday night all hold within them the ability to affect change or represent a hardcore alternative to what the rest of the world stood for. The years click by, your friends have moved on or fucked up or atrophied or died, and you’re where you were at the start, alone. This is the point where a lot of hardcore begins to feel pretty trite and meaningless. The music that matters past this point talks less about connection and more about disconnection. More about alienation than togetherness. More about hatred than unity. It was about six years ago, coming outta the disaster of my first relationship, unemployed and wasting my time in a useless university classroom, that bands like Youth Of Today lost their appeal, and bands like Left For Dead made sense.
As always, this zine is done for the hardware.

#9 was an interview with Chris Colohan from Left For Dead. A few months after this was printed, I realized I hadn’t even looked at my Left For Dead records since then, and promptly exchanged them for rent. I’d forgotten about them til recently when a record came into work and gave it a listen. I remember at the time this band sounded really insane, but I think time has wilted them. I can’t enjoy that china cymbal washing over everything in every second bar. Anyhow, the interview was pretty cool, and they were a pretty fuckin’ exciting band for a while, definitely breathing a lot of life into Australian hardcore (remember Deadstare?). , And… We’re Not In This Alone is sounding better every day (well, side A is at least), so I guess that intro falls apart at the end…

From the interview with Chris Colohan re: Left For Dead

“There were some really good hardcore bands around at the time. H100s, Unbroken, Threadbare, Copout, Integrity. But the overall mood of that era was still pretty stifling. People were really young for the politics they were playing with back then. We were all like 21 going on 40…in Maoist China. Everyone wanted catharsis, but it was played out in a very safe, uniform way. With LFD, us and our friends always had fun (at everyone’s expense) and tried to ignore the feedback, whether it was praise or hate. The H-100s were an awesome band for that time. Seeing them and Integrity play Kendzies in Lockport NY in 1995 was the biggest adrenaline rush. Integrity ripped, and always brought out thugs, but the H-100s set…holy shit. They started, the singer threw something really heavy straight ahead of him, not even looking. Someone took out the bouncer, two girls were punching each other’s heads in and there were at least 3 all out fistfights by the first chorus, no joke. That bought me another 5 years right there, easily. There’s no way to defend it, it was totally senseless, and that made it great considering that all that faux-sensibility is the thing that was killing HC at the time. Not the politics themselves but the mind-numbing amount of over-analysis that came with it all. It was making everything feel too safe.”

DISTORT #8 (2006) Interview with Chris Erba re: h100’s, The Ruiners and Upstab / writing on Alone In A Crowd, Roky, Fucked Up, Haymaker, Negative Approach, The Repos, Think I Care, The Testors / a reprint from Breakout fanzine of the 10 Ten Hardcore Records That Were Never Released From the interview with Chris Erba in DISTORT #8 about the h100’s, re: DISTORT CLEVELAND.“Well the back of the Distort EP - believe all you read, cause in those cases it was all true. We were just playing our shit man, fucking clubs over react when shit starts breaking. Let me explain: when you start playing music that is making your god damn c-sucking blood boil and the tension between the band and the crowd starts heating up, its easy for things to escalate. The thing is, we played with as much intensity and self destructiveness even at band practice, after driving 10+ hours to get to a gig with no expectations of even getting paid and small turnouts of mostly lame crowds, well, we were in no fuckin’ way going to let god damn anyone shut us down. We were gonna finish our fuckin’ set regardless if the club is on fire, the promoter is hogged tied in the bathroom, or the police our on their way. That’s what it’s all about. Fuck everyone.”

DISTORT #8 (2006)


Interview with Chris Erba re: h100’s, The Ruiners and Upstab / writing on Alone In A Crowd, Roky, Fucked Up, Haymaker, Negative Approach, The Repos, Think I Care, The Testors / a reprint from Breakout fanzine of the 10 Ten Hardcore Records That Were Never Released

From the interview with Chris Erba in DISTORT #8 about the h100’s, re: DISTORT CLEVELAND.

“Well the back of the Distort EP - believe all you read, cause in those cases it was all true. We were just playing our shit man, fucking clubs over react when shit starts breaking. Let me explain: when you start playing music that is making your god damn c-sucking blood boil and the tension between the band and the crowd starts heating up, its easy for things to escalate. The thing is, we played with as much intensity and self destructiveness even at band practice, after driving 10+ hours to get to a gig with no expectations of even getting paid and small turnouts of mostly lame crowds, well, we were in no fuckin’ way going to let god damn anyone shut us down. We were gonna finish our fuckin’ set regardless if the club is on fire, the promoter is hogged tied in the bathroom, or the police our on their way. That’s what it’s all about. Fuck everyone.”