< resources >
ZINE WORLD #20
($4.00 US/$5.00 CAN/$6.00 WORLD ppd from Zine World / PO Box 330156 / Murfreesboro, TN / 37133-0156 USA. Web:
www.undergroundpress.org)
Let's cut to the chase. In my opinion
Zine World is essential reading for anyone interested in zines and/or freedom of speech. This issue contains articles on media-created perceptions regarding the war in Iraq (say it ain't so!), the possibility of an "intelligent mail system" in the not-too-distant future and a number of stories concerning censorship, "zero tolerance" policies and other damaging goings-on in America's public schools. America is a country that force-feeds its kids shit from day one and then, when they regurgitate just the tiniest bit of it, punishes them for it. Well, anyway... Under a cover by Cole Johnson there's also an amusing article by Christoph Meyer (
Twenty-Eight Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine) about a worlds-colliding co-mingling of zine kids and a crocheting club. Oh, and a well-done comic (of sorts) by Jim Sumii about his family's internment in a World War II camp for Japanese-Americans in Arkansas. Let's see, what else... Oh, right, reviews – over 300 of 'em – of zines and mini-comics. Come on, just order the thing already.
< recordings >
LIKES...
by Dani Siciliano
(
!K7 Records, Available Now)
Review By Tim O’Neil
There have been many memorable rock & roll wives, but there have been precious few with the kind of genuine and unmistakable talent that Dani Siciliano has in spades. Admittedly, Matthew Herbert has always presented himself as one of the more cerebral and perceptive personalities in house music, so it comes as no surprise that he picked well when he married Ms. Siciliano.
If you’re familiar at all with Herbert’s music, then you will have heard Siciliano’s voice: soft and lilting yet surprisingly powerful, capable of registering playful warmth and timorous melancholy almost simultaneously. It has certainly served Herbert in good stead to have Siciliano’s distinctive voice so intimately connected with his own music. Here, Herbert repays the favor by collaborating with his wife on a number of her own tracks. His trademark sounds – his delicate and intricately structured jazz-influenced sound collages – are certainly well represented here. But, significantly, the sound that defines the album is not Herbert, but Siciliano. Her collaborators rally to her, informing but not forming, shaping themselves to fit her voice, her words and her songwriting. She has pulled off the impossible task of somehow managing to define a vivid artistic identity fully and completely through collaboration.
Much as with Herbert, Siciliano’s unique approach to songwriting uses technology to blur the lines between acoustic and electronic. Familiar sounds unfold in unfamiliar ways. Voices blend with soft drumbeats and echo across long stretches of contemplative noise. Listening to
Likes... is hardly an abrasive listening experience, but there is still a sensation of transgression, of borders being breached, of the conventional divisions that separate discrete genres being overwhelmed by the ingenuity of enthusiastically eclectic performers.
Siciliano even manages to remake Nirvana’s hoary “Come As You Are” into something truly beautiful, transforming the bestial simmer of the original into a luxuriant cabaret number – complete with swooning jazz band and shit-hot upright-bass. Again, Siciliano finds a way to make the commonplace exciting, injecting notes of mature regret and pathos into a defiantly and definitively ingenuous composition. You’ll never hear it the same way again.
It’s a testament to Siciliano’s talent that “Come As You Are” is nowhere near the best song on the album. It’s a subtly masterful achievement, not so much a bold statement of intent as a mature reiteration of plain fact.
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< comics/x >
GREEN PIECE: CITIZEN GREEN
($2.00 from Adam Owen / 52-C Aspen Dr. / Greensboro, NC / 27409 USA. Web:
www.greenpiece.net)
Review by Steve Keeter
There are two standout illustrations in
Green Piece: Citizen Green, either of which could have made a great cover. Well, one of them did – the very green, very mean frontcover drawing, by Adam Owen, of GP standing behind a podium and wielding a handgun is a knockout. A pin-up by Larry Blake is similarly dynamic, perhaps even more so with the thicker, bolder ink lines, and this time GP is wielding that gun on the surface of the moon! – which has absolutely nothing to do with the story in this issue. The story, filled with equal parts humor, drama, and mystery, concerns our favorite lizard space detective's accidental ascension to the leadership of a strange politically minded planet – after he is blamed for the assassination of its former "Prime Citizen!" The computer graphics blend pretty well with Adam's own solid artwork (and the top notch inks of Joel Klampert and Andrew Runion), but it is Jason DeGroot's fast-paced scripting that steals the show. One of the best issues of
Green Piece yet.
GREEN PIECE: HOCUS CROAKUS
($2.00 from Adam Owen / 52-C Aspen Dr. / Greensboro, NC / 27409 USA. Web:
www.greenpiece.net)
Review by Steve Keeter
Green Piece goes to a supposedly peaceful floating city for some rest and relaxation, which, of course, is bound to go horribly wrong, in another engaging space mystery by Jason DeGroot and Adam Owen. There are some humorous sequences (especially involving GP's misadventures with a magic wand), and plenty of action (a very excellent full-page action collage sequence of our hero gunning down the bad guys comes immediately to mind), although, except for GP himself, the characters come across a bit flatter and less developed than usual. Adam's full-color cover is a knockout, as is a very Vaughn Bodé-ish interior full-pager by Dave Hedgecock. Not the best issue, but still pretty good, and the series as a whole is highly recommended.
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XEROGRAPHY DEBT #12
($3.00 from Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 963 / Havre de Grace, MD / 21078 USA. Web:
www.leekinginc.com)
This issue of
Xerography Debt, "the reviewzine with perzine tendencies", contains reviews of zines and mini-comics by 19 different writers, including Dan Taylor, Fred Argoff, Androo Robinson (his column is drawn!), Ted Mangano and others.
XD is unique in that each writer's batch of reviews is presented as an individual column, rather than running them all A-Z. It gives the zine personality not necessarily found in similar projects. Also included in this issue are several zine history articles: Donny Smith discusses the self-published writings of Andy Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas; Peter Brock writes about
The Flowery, one of numerous underground papers produced in British prisons during World War II; and Cali Ruchala outlines the fascinating career of journalist George Seldes. These articles, over 140 reviews and art by Androo Robinson and Matt Fagan make this issue well worth the cover price.
I'll let you in on a little secret, though. Well, okay, it's not really a secret. Almost the entire issue can be read for free at the website. So, go read that and then send your three dollars
anyway because #13 is due to be released any day now.
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