ZEITGEIST Volume 7 Issue 1
Reviews zine covering a variety of music, mostly underground. Includes lots of good bands like Gadsby & Skol, Green Pajamas, Mere Dead Men, Krom Lek, The Beaker People, Ian Simpson, Vodka Camels and Econoline, as well as assorted metally stuff I know very little about. Zeitgeist, PO Box 13499, Edinburgh EH6 8YL, Scotland.

VIVA SPARKY! #5 & #6
#5 has 12 pages, #6 has 16, both are free with an A5 SAE. The zine has bits in English and Welsh; the only problem is that you don't get each article in both languages. Instead some articles are in English and others in Welsh, so if you can't speak Welsh and want to read about Zenfly or Baswca (issue 5) or Big Leaves, Ty Gwydr or Skep (issue 6) then tough! Issue 5 also has reviews of Stylus, Random Number, Phosphene, Allstar 6, McLusky, Pressure and Wendykurk; issue 6 reviews Turnstone, Napalmed, DJ Methodist, Ethania, The Fabulous Nobody, Tystion, Magoo, Trademark TM, Nameless and Guitare Brothers. SAEs to Catchpenny Records, PO Box 88, Mold CH7 4ZQ, Wales.

THE EXCLUSIVE #7
Mostly indie/alternative type stuff, but in a broad sense. They don't seem to care about scenes or be oh-so-bothered about what label something's on like many zines from a few years back, and this is, of course, a good thing. Includes interviews with Patrick Duff, Sleater Kinney, Spangles from pirate radio station Dimension FM, Camera Obscura and Marshal, and tons of reviews of everything from the mainstream end of so-called indie to obscure small label stuff, including tapes. They review zines too. As well as music, there's personal articles by a whole team of writers, including stuff on childhood memories, Beat poets, an argument that pop music isn't always rubbish, an article by Stewart Home on irony & sarcasm, and other stuff. £1.80 inc p+p, payable to M Turner, from Matt T, 53 Birches Head Road, Hanley, Stoke on Trent, Staffs ST1 6LH.

THE EXCLUSIVE #8
Current issue of this recommended and refreshingly open-minded zine. The editorial sums up what they're about: "We don't tend to bias in favour of anything in particular and we don't worry if the band sells two records or a million, as long as we like them they go in and that has always been our policy". As well as this intro, there's a column by Matt about the reasons for him doing The Exclusive, and about fanzines in general, and once again I find myself nodding in agreement with a lot of what he says. He talks about many zines being done by youngsters who think it will get them fame and a job in the music industry (too right!) and adds "While I do not believe that ANY fanzine writer hasn't harboured thoughts of impending fame when they get their first few issues back from the printers/photocopiers, The Exclusive was never intended to be a 'stepping stone' to anything else." I wouldn't go as far as to agree with the first point here - when I started Aquamarine back in the early 90s, zines had nothing to do with fame; people wrote zines as an alternative to the 'real' music industry and not as a way to find work in it. I didn't even consider that I would be sent free records to review, let alone get famous! But I wholeheartedly agree with Matt's sentiments about why he does a zine. He believes zines are important (hear hear!) and "the only place you are going to read unbiased, non-ego filled reviews and interviews with bands that, on the whole, aren't going to get covered everywhere else". Hear hear again!
There are also columns from other writers on such wide-ranging subjects as masturbation, 'safe' music and political correctness. Shellac, Clearlake, Half Eaten Records, Trilemma and The Fence Collective are interviewed, and there's the usual ton of reviews of music & zines. £2 inc p+p from the above address.

VENDETTA #17
There's a general emphasis on the more well known/well established end of indie/alternative music, with interviews with The Charlatans (or The Charlatans UK as they're known in the USA), Stephen Malkmus, Tindersticks, Ride (reprinted from a zine Ben used to write in the early 90s) and Sonic Boom, as well as Miranda Lee Richards who I don't recall coming across before but she's on Virgin Records so is probably famous in America. Lower profile bands also get a look-in though - there's interviews with The Clientele, The Volta Sound, Melochrome, The Pills and Rick Bain and the Genius Position.
In the Stephen Malkmus interview, his girlfriend Heather also took part. She is asked "Where are all the girls at rock shows?" and she replies "Very few girls I know know anything beyond commercial music, just like I don't know shit about sports. Culturally they aren't encouraged. They don't get into music, they see it as male domain".
She has a fair point here (apart from the various notable exceptions) and when I see statements like this, it makes me wonder why, in this day and age, a large number of women still shy away from less commercial music, seeing it as something just for men. Many of the women that do get involved do so to make a feminist statement, but with me, the gender thing was never an issue. I didn't think "I want to do zines and tapes but can't cos that's just for boys" or even "I'm going to do zines and tapes to show that girls can do it too" - I just went ahead and did it because it was something I wanted to do. And what's more, I'm still doing it now.
I do not subscribe to the extremist feminist view that there are *NO* women in serious music. Can these people not see for looking? There are several genres of underground music and even a few of the more credible popular styles that do have female representatives. But certainly in metal, prog, psych, mainstream indie of the Britpop variety - or whatever it is they call that genre now, and the less mainstream types of electronic music, females are very thin on the ground.
Heather's statement is certainly true when it comes to females who are listeners rather than people actually involved in making or promoting music. Go to a non-mainstream record store and you are unlikely to see many female customers.
Returning to the rest of Vendetta - there's a large reviews section, mostly covering indie/alternative music but with the occasional 60s, punk and experimental review. Ben who runs the zine is a huge fan of Delta and there's a very favourable review of Hardlight in here. As with previous issues, this is highly recommended - further info from modvendetta@yahoo.com

CURVATURE #2
As with the previous issue, this is a non-standard size and has a colour cover. The inside layout is a mixture of standard cut n' paste typewritten stuff and a more artistic looking computer layout. The main music article this issue is a 7 page retrospective of Britpop. There's also a handful of zine and music reviews and a list of current musical favourites. This zine also contains various personal and otherwise non-music related articles. There are a series of complaint letters about electrical goods 'procured by Employee X of Company X' including a classic one where a bloke smashes up his computer and then demands a refund for it. There's also features on the TV prison show Oz and the film/graphic novel Uzumaki, and various personal thoughts/ramblings. reznor@lundwood.u-net.com

BUTTERFLY CRUSH #3
Recommended indiepop/electronic music zine including interviews with Kanda, dntel and Dreams of 4, and lots of well written, enthusiastic reviews including Clinic, The Groove Criminals, Hood, Picture Center, The Rotating Stars, Jen Turrell, The Tyde, Belle & Sebastian, Orange Cake Mix, The Psychedelic Breakfast and more. Costs £1.30 inc p+p from Peter Millar, 24 Donegall Park, Upper Lisburn Road, Belfast BT10 0HH, Northern Ireland.

THE STATE I AM IN
20 page A5 zine, much of which is taken up with ads and pictures. There's only 7 and a bit pages of text, but what text there is is personal, enthusiastic writing, in English, about indiepop. There are pieces on My Favorite, The Imaginary Friend and Nixon, and interviews with Mikael Olofsson of the indiepop club/label Starke Adolf, and Mr Wright, which are introduced with info about these projects, as I feel interviews should be. Whilst some interviews themselves do give you information about the band, I do like to see an introduction written by the zine writer before the actual interview starts. This not only tells you more about the band, but also the writer's opinions of them. It's nice to know the writer is actually a fan of who they are interviewing. (In the mid 90s there was a worrying trend of interviewing whoever, even when the zine writers hadn't heard of the band or didn't like them, just to fill space, or in the case of interviewing famous bands that the writer didn't like, to sell zines.) So whilst there isn't as much content in here as most zines, it is full of enthusiasm, and it's always good to see zines that focus on old style indiepop! Available from Anton Halldin, Temperaturgatan 91, 41841 Gothenburg, Sweden.

UNPEELED Series 3 Issue 1
Zine with a neat, magazine style layout, giving info and opinions on bands played on John Peel's show. They also mouth off about other stuff, much of which is controversial and/or politically incorrect. They hate old people. They hate the Royal Family. They think the September 11th disaster wasn't really a disaster and that it's ok for a few 'yuppies' to be killed. I'm sure this last article in particular will provoke a great deal of controversy. Lots of sick humour and swearing, and the occasional picture of naked women. So you thought Trembling Blue Stars fans were sensitive types? This lot rate TBS very highly, but have the sensitivity of a wrecking ball. £1 + A5 SAE from 102 Clifton Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN35 5AP.

UNPEELED Series 3 Issue 2
More spleen-venting in the form of an article on hating Brighton. Whilst this may be mildly offensive to those that live there, it's much lower down the intolerance and controversiality scales than last issue's old people and September 11th rants. Also includes a feature on non-profit labels in which Flitwick Records and yours truly give info on how our labels work. And before you start yelling at me that I'm 'guilty by association' and I'm supporting such a pro-hatred zine by agreeing to be a part of it, I must stress that I had not yet seen the zine when I agreed to give them some info for a feature so was not aware that they held views rather more extreme than your average fanzine writer. Matt from Shinkansen also contributes a piece on why CDs cost what they do, and there's a ton of (usually) tongue-in-cheek reviews, as well as a full track listing for John Peel's shows in June 2002. This is the latest issue I have but I believe it's a monthly zine so in that case there should have been a few more out since. Contact shane@unpeeled.freeserve.co.uk

WIDE OPEN ROAD #8 & #9
This has an intelligent writing style that's quite 'literary' yet personal and is reminiscent of the sort of music zines written from a personal perspective that you used to see in the late 80s/early 90s. Like zines from this period, the primary topic is indiepop. The only real difference between this and those zines is it eschews the messy, typewritten, cut n' paste layout of days of yore in favour of an artistic, computer produced appearance that shows a keen eye for detail.
#8 has writings on Pipas, Landshipping, Sportique, Camera Obscura, Janis Joplin, Butterflies of Love, Of Arrowe Hill and Fortuna Pop!, plus various shorter reviews of (mostly) indiepop stuff. #9 includes Great Lakes, Bilby, Matinee Recordings, Bridget Storm, Sandy Posey and Kaleidoscope, plus lots of reviews including Tompaulin, The Relict, Free Design, The Relationships, Sodastream, Farina, Miss Ludella Black and Tender Trap. There are also some personal, non-music writings that again bring back memories of zines from 10 or so years ago. Stu also charges early 90s prices for his zines - 50p + A5 SAE! Still one of the best zines there is for indiepop (with a pinch of 60s music thrown in too). Write to PO Box 2059, Bristol BS99 7TH.

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