WIDE OPEN ROAD #10
One of the best indiepop zines around right now, with a stylish layout, a literary writing style and an extensive knowledge of the indiepop scene. And unlike the majority of indiepop zines in the past, it doesn't have an elitist attitude as it also covers music from other genres, and bands the indie police think just aren't indie enough. It's basically a reviews zine, with writeups on the Truck, Glastonbury and Leeds festivals, and reviews of bands such as The Lucksmiths, The Steinbecks, Harper Lee, By Coastal Cafe, Slipslide, Sportique, Super Furry Animals, The Stars of Aviation, Homescience, The Pastels, Razorcuts, The Thrills, Kosmonaut, The Guild League, even The Beatles.
My only complaint with this issue is Stu has spent a lot of time and effort writing negative reviews of a lot of the festival bands; personally I prefer zines to focus on stuff the writers like and not bother wasting time telling people that (insert flavour of the month well known band here) are rubbish. Hopefully there will be more of the positivity and enthusiasm that I normally associate with this zine next issue. Send 50p or $2 US or 2 Euros to Wide Open Road, PO Box 2059, Bristol BS99 7TH, UK.

I'D RATHER BE FAT THAN BE CONFUSED #6
Another of the best indiepop zines of today, also covering electronica, post-rock and other undergroundy stuff that's more hard to pigeonhole. As with other recent issues of IRBFTBC, there's not much in the way of contact addresses printed, even internet addresses, but Ben would rather you emailed him for those or tried getting the records from distros (which he does include the details for).
There's lots of true enthusiasm in here, which I like to see in zines. Zine is after all short for fanzine, so it makes a lot more sense when writers cover stuff they're actually a fan of. There's a surprising amount of zines that don't. This issue includes interviews with Stewart Anderson (Boyracer/555 Records), Mates of State, Death by Chocolate, I Am Robot And Proud, All Girl Summer Fun Band and Kitchen Records, and reviews of bands such as Camera Obscura, Grandaddy, Stars of Aviation, Empress, Jet Johnson, Airport Girl, Bearsuit, Motormark, Meets Guitar, Essex Green, Explosions in the Sky, MJ Hibbett & the Validators, Tender Trap, The Tyde, Origami, Hood and more.
And you don't just get a fanzine for your money - this issue comes with a CD featuring The Guy Who Invented Fire, Big Eyes and Meets Guitar. Some stuff here is exclusive to this release; all of the Meets Guitar tracks are. The fanzine also includes info on these bands. TGWIF is an electronic/experimental/cut up samples/chaotic noisy techno project, and if I'm not mistaken it's the work of Jimmy of Robots & Electronic Brains fanzine. Each of the three tracks here is very different to each other, reflecting Jimmy's eclectic musical taste.
Big Eyes includes a couple of people from twee bands - Neil Shumsky from early 90s band Bouquet, and Elodie Ginsbourg who I'm pretty sure is/was in Plouf. Don't be misled though, Big Eyes are no cutie band. This is an altogether more sophisticated affair, taking in influences from folk music (the classy & impressive kind not naff oompah folk), film soundtrack music and (neo)classical music.
Meets Guitar is primarily the solo project of Gavin Baker (also of Jet Johnson, Billy Mahonie and Glider), who is joined by Kevin Smith (also of Reynolds) on one track and Tula the cat (!) on another. The first track, Thumb Piano is untypical of Meets Guitar, being a very lo-fi minimalistic keyboard piece with audible background noise like a barking dog. But then we get to hear the real Meets Guitar in What's Wrong With You, a well crafted song with shades of American folk. Cat is again an untypical and somewhat disposable track, consisting only of percussive sounds and cat snuffling. The next track, The Band, more than makes up for the unimpressive previous number - an excellent full band song with hints of laid-back 70s rock and a strong sense of melancholy. Fire is lo-fi 70s bluesrock guitar soloing with additional experimental background noodling, and it's actually much cooler than that description might suggest.
Contact Ben at irbftbc@fsmail.net

BUTTERFLY CRUSH #6
Another of my favourite zines. The layout is a compromise between cut n' paste and clear, no frills, no nonsense word processing, which is easy on the eye. Peter tends to dig deeper than many fanzine writers, covering totally DIY underground music alongside bands that are well known in the indie scene and beyond. This issue has interviews with The Party and The Uterus Women, articles on Red Sirus and Diamanda Galas, reviews of (amongst others) Air, The Conspiracy, Faster, The Feline Dream, Fiel Garvie, Lambchop, Momus, The Postal Service, The Radiator Experts, Stars of Aviation, Tracer AMC and even The Pet Shop Boys, showing Peter is no indie snob. There's also a page of fanzine reviews, covering many of the same zines regularly written about in Aquamarine. (Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be that many zines around these days, compared with in the 90s. A typical paper issue of Aquamarine used to have several pages of zine reviews; these days I'm lucky if I get about 8 zines to review. Where are all the zines?) Butterfly Crush is a true FANzine, covering music Peter is enthusiastic about. This is what I like to see in zines, I see little point of endless negativity and half heartedness. And with this zine, the enthusiasm is combined with a descriptive and intelligent writing style. Highly recommended. Contact butterflycrushzine@hotmail.com

BUTTERFLY CRUSH #7
Latest issue of this excellent zine. It's very intelligently written; not often will you see a zine that contains words like 'coruscating', 'rambunctious' and 'plangent'. The Conspiracy are interviewed - great to see them in here. I can identify with a lot of what Duncan (of The Conspiracy) says; for example when asked about influences from art, he says 'much of my creativity comes from within myself! I don't feel the need to keep abreast of exterior cultural developments to remain productive'. I respect people whose music comes solely from their own mind and not from outside influence; it shows they are truly creative. He goes on to say he's had enough of current music and has been listening to classical music. I agree that there is very little current popular music that is moving, and whilst there is still a lot of exciting music going on in the underground, I find most of the music that moves me these days is traditional folk (mostly Scandinavian) and medieval/Renaissance music. Duncan also talks about the underground scene, which he says 'is not dead, but it has seemed to shrink' (tell me about it), and adds that it's now just the 'hardcore' involved, a good thing, as 'there've been too many talentless timewasters involved in the past, giving the underground a bad name'. Again, I identify. One reason why I started Bliss was to show tape labels can release good music, instead of the badly written/played/recorded music/noise that used to be commonly associated with the tapes scene. Elsewhere in this issue Peter writes about The Vichy Government, Casper & the Cookies, The Concretes, The Go! Team, Lali Puna, Eeriephone Records, and more music and zines, and interviews Lights Out Asia. Continually recommended.

SPLINTER #1
Splinter is an impressive looking glossy, colour printed magazine that exists for an equally impressive variety of reasons. Genre is not an issue for Splinter (this is after all a zine that covers both The Field Mice and Gwar), and neither is the time a band is/was around ("We write about bands past, present and future; because isn't being a music fan all about embracing good music no matter its origins?" says editor Fliss Collier). Splinter describes itself as a magazine, and certainly looks like one, but its heart is that of a fanzine, written by true music fans and put together with no advertising. Splinter aims to provide a real alternative to the mainstream music press, covering bands who get ignored or misinterpreted by the established magazines. I completely support their philosophy and think it's great that people are making an effort to produce a (hopefully) widely available publication that goes beyond the norm of music magazines.
This issue features The International Karate Plus (ex-Mo-ho-bish-o-pi), Love Ends Disaster, Handbags At Dawn, Typewriter, Degrassi, Melys, David Gedge, The Kills, The Fall, British Sea Power, an extensive article on Hood consisting of a history of the band, an interview, and a selection of their photography, The Field Mice (great to see them in here), Sarah Records (ditto), Disco Inferno, Sleeper, Scout Niblett, Electrelane, an amusing article on a trip to Brussels, a similarly amusing live Gwar review, an article in praise of vinyl and flexis, and other bits.
I totally recommend Splinter - its humour is actually funny, its enthusiasm is infectious, and its coverage of old indiepop has made me all nostalgic, reminding me of my own enthusiasm for that genre back in the early 90s. Contact enquiries@splintermag.com

CURVATURE #3
Curvature is a zine that goes beyond the norm, both layout-wise and content-wise. It's a non-standard size with a colour cover, a varied selection of interior layouts ranging from old-school typewritten cut n' paste to slick white on black, and held together with string. The range of content is quirky, going far beyond standard music zine fare. There's something in Spanish which I only understand a handful of words from; pieces on dissecting bees and watching grasshoppers, reality TV, spoof reality TV (not for the easily offended, but as the writer quite correctly points out, "If anything I've said has offended the reader - how far away is it from the stuff already being rammed down the throats of the viewing public at large?"), Frank Welker (actor who does voices for cartoon characters), photo manipulation and politics; dark & off-kilter stories and poems; and various uncategorisable oddities. There are also some brief but informative reviews of music and zines. Contact Phil - viscera@curvaturezine.co.uk

CHAOTIC ORDER #16
Chaotic Order defines itself as a magazine covering alternative media and culture. Its cover proclaims that it is 'not for the easily offended', and that is no exaggeration. Most zines describing themselves as alternative are very tame in comparison to this, a publication packed full of darkness and deviance. This issue includes an interview with Alex Ladd of porn filmmakers DVSX; an article on artists Trevor Brown, Gottfried Helnwein and Mark Ryden, who specialise in surreal and perverse depictions of children; an article on Death Women, a Japanese film collecting police & amateur video footage of gruesome deaths; an interview with Greg Forschler of Fear of Dolls; an interesting and vivid portrayal of an eclectic pagan ceremony in San Francisco (my favourite part of the zine); an interview with Kristie Alshaibi, who I know nothing about, but whose life story makes for interesting reading; an article on Hellraiser; short stories by Alex Severin; and reviews of books, zines, films and music, which in the general spirit of the zine have an overall emphasis on porn, extreme gory horror, and extreme forms of music such as experimental noise and death metal. If you're able to cast aside all ability to be offended, there is some thought provoking stuff to be found in here. Even though a lot of the subjects they cover are just too violent and horrific for my taste, at least the CO team are operating far outside the zine norm and producing something that is genuinely alternative. More info from bob@chaoticorder.freeserve.co.uk

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