When I was a teenager living in Alabama, I thought that Maximum Rock N Roll was a totally useless rag that covered shitty bands and stupid attitudes that had nothing to do with my life whatsoever. Now, I write for them. I came to realize that MRR is only as good as what the punks put into it, since it is largely contributor based. Sure, I still think there is some complete shit within its pages, but I think it is fairly representative of the worldwide punk scene, which also has many shitty parts. If you play in a band, write a zine, run a show space or eat, breathe and live punk 24/7, please contribute something to the magazine. Also, they are still looking for a new head coordinator. If you think you can handle that responsibility, get in touch with them.
Thanks to MRR (and Paul) for the excellent write-up about Remote Outposts on their blog...and thanks to them for continuing to exist and be punk, relevant, and fiercely DIY.
When I discovered MRR it opened up a whole new world for me. Before I found out about it and before the internet all there was to go by was word of mouth, a few select record stores and of course shows. I never found it a useless rag even when I didn't agree with some reviews and columns. I remember BYOFL and I still have a couple issues somewhere. Paul was right on with your blog, Greg. And what an awesome blog it is. Thanks for your time in ripping, uploading and sharing info/experiences about these bands. Keep on keepin' on.
ReplyDeleteI realize now that it was never useless. I was just bummed out because they didn't cover any bands that I liked from the south. I now know that all I had to do was actually SEND them info about bands from the south in a scene report or interview and I could have fixed that. I liked that BYOFL existed (I had a lot of listings in the AL section), but I always had terrible experiences booking shows through it and only the worst metal bands ever wrote me for shows.
ReplyDeleteThanks for liking the blog and I will keep doing this for a long time to come.