How many of you ever bought some underground publication and
red it? And how many of you did it in
the last , let’s say five years? I still try to keep my eyes open on printed
‘zines and support them when ever it’s possible as these were the only medias back
then when I’ve started to be active in the underground. I still remember the
time when all of us waited desperately for some 'zine to be finally out after
many delays and still, once it’s out and
you got it and it’s full with interviews and reviews that are done one-two
years before the ‘zine is out you’re still happy as a child with the chocolate,
because you are able to reach all the information and feel the atmosphere of
the scene. Zines offered us entire universe of possibilities with many new
contacts of bands, labels, distros, 'zines…mainly, as I already said 'zines were the only chance to be familiar
with the underground and damn, we praised that chance deeply! After ‘zine
finally arrived in your hand then you start with reading, grab your notebook
(unplugged ones fuckers, not laptop) and write all interesting address of
potential contacts so later you can write the letters (yes again, real ones
that you have to send over the postal system) and then you wait for the
answers. Man, that magical moment when the package arrive from someone,
somewhere. That was real feeling and moment to remember. And then, again with
the letter you got usually came tones of flayers and possibilities to find some
new contacts, bands, zines, distros…And how come that back then everything was
more effective and direct than nowadays when we have that so called faster way
of communication?
Today you send an email and wait for the answer longer than
it was before with sending normal letters.. I’m not about to start here some
topic about internet and all these craps, no not at all. I don’t want to talk
about people becoming hyper lazy and pathologically not interested in anything
that isn’t in front o their noses. People that became stupid and zombiefied by
mass medias and capitalistic shit-lives…I just wanted to remind you all that
there are still some nice and dedicated publications out there in the forgotten
underground world. Publications that keep these old spirits of the scene where
all the laws are about respect and honor. Zines still work for the underground,
for scene. No matter if you are Metal, Punk, Core…fan remember that underground
scene of your subculture isn’t just on the internet and in the mainstream
magazines. It’s somewhere deeper as well, among small circles of passionate
freaks who support music (and not just the music!) they like! More like,
reading zines you have bigger chances to find out real situation on the scene
as underground editors don’t lick anyone asses, they don’t write reviews for
money and don’t follow any fake trends or push a couple of famous bands. They
simply worship their lovely music genre and they don’t give the fuck!
Those
supporters use internet of course, they communicate every day with many bands,
fans and all the others, but also they build something like product of all
these communications and that’s what’s different. Their works you can’t just
check somewhere around the internet, check and forgot as 99% of other
information here. Their work you need to
find, order and get! And believe me, big part of them will not even charge you
for their publications, they are always happy to trade it against something you
have! Yes, can you believe? There are still people in this damn fucked up
corrupted and capitalistic World that are not interested in filthy money, but
in real honorable way of exchanging goods. Try it people, you even don’t need
to dig so deeper and you are going to find circles I’m talking about here. I
will not suggest you any single zine, this is not promotion of anyone…simply,
try it yourself that’s the quest and adventure you need to start! Respect old
values and ways, don’t forget that people lived ten, twenty, fifty and countless
years ago ;)