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Hi Sorry State readers! How is everyone? Things aren’t too bad on my end. Can’t complain.
So I’m gonna go a different route for my staff pick this week and talk about a zine. I’ve really enjoyed the latest installment of the Network of Friends (volume 5). I’m a big fan of zines. I really hope print media will make a comeback one day.
I made a zine once (literally once) in 8th grade with a friend. It was mostly music reviews, me bitching about my favorite bands selling out, passive aggressive opinion pieces aimed at classmates, and some super cringe poetry. We got one issue under our belt before my school pulled the plug on it for failure to seek permission to distribute. Who asks permission from school to circulate a zine at school?
Anyway, back to a zine that’s enjoyed more success than my 8th grade effort. Network of Friends was originally started by Steve of the long-running UK zine Ripping Thrash. The zine consists of several DIY mini-zines. The purpose of compiling parts of existing zines was to collaborate with punks across the globe, and to essentially spread the love. Volume 5 was compiled by Negative Insight, with Steve’s permission.
Some of the participating zines include but are not limited to UK’s A Blast From The Past, Initonit, and Crisispoint. Bootlegs Of Filth from Australia, Negative Insight from the US, and Brazil’s Vermynoze Putrida.
There is a hilarious review of a Discharge show in Leeds gone wrong. Let’s just say they had put out an album that wasn’t/isn’t well-received, and a certain integral member of the band did not want to play the classics. Audiences generally frown upon this approach. And some people frown more violently than others. I won’t spoil that story, but it gets infinitely better when paired right next to a copy of a letter written to MRR by another member of Discharge to explain what was happening behind the scenes during this period of time. That letter made me laugh a few times. Out loud.
There’s also a pretty lengthy interview with Jim Whiteley, who played bass on part of Napalm Death’s Scum album. You may also know him from Ripcord, Doom, and like 10 other bands. It was cool to get his insight on UK hardcore in the 80s. Now, I’m perfectly content with interviews, music and show reviews, fliers from cool shows, etc., but there was an extra bit of depth to this zine that I appreciated. Paul from the Initonit zine contributed some interesting opinion-style pieces on social and political topics. He writes from a place of personal experience and comes off really honest and relatable. There’s no elitist and pretentious bullshit in there.
Overall, Network of Friends is a cool concept and just a good reminder of how important collaboration and cross-promotion is in the underground punk world.
We only have a handful of these left, so I’d grab one if I were you. There’s loads more stuff in this zine than I mentioned, and it’s a rather small price to pay for the amount of content you get!
Thanks for reading! Until next time..
Angela