NYC Political Punk Zines 1985-1991

NYC Political Punk Zines 1985-1991
By Dan Sabater

For a fairly large punk scene of a few hundred people, NYC produced very few political punk zines. I’m not sure why that is but I guess it‘s that folks were more busy socializing and hanging out, rather than reading and documenting.

Here are a few that I remember:

BAD NEWZ was published out of Brooklyn by Bob Z. He did around 15 issues. It was affiliated with the “Artists and Writers Underground”, and though not specifically punk it did include a lot of scene photos and interviews. BAD NEWZ is where I first heard about REAGAN YOUTH and A.P.P.L.E. Bob Z also put on some great shows, and he produced tape comps and poetry zines/ events. I heard he later moved to San Francisco.

John G. of NAUSEA fame did a zine called LIVING FREE. It was really good, not least because of John’s amazing artistic and graphic design abilities. Lots of coverage of UK Anarchopunk and US bands like CRUCIFIX. I know there were at least 4 issues. The only one I have is #4 from 1985. 

Ralphy Boy from Squat or Rot did four issues of a scene news sheet called NOT ALWAYS THE NEWS. It had info on bands, new releases, shows, gossip, etc. It was hand written, and if you wanted a copy you had to run into Ralphy on the street or at a show.

Vinny from A.P.P.L.E. produced a number of zines starting around 1985 that were given away at A.P.P.L.E. shows. They contained A.P.P.L.E. lyrics, articles and artwork. Vinny was a really funny guy, always with a beer in his hand. One of the zines he did was called COUNTER-CULTURE, which I believe was edited by a group of folks.

 

I produced one issue of SIGNS OF LIFE in 1990. It had interviews with FLUX OF PINK INDIANS and THE APOSTATES, as well as articles on the civil war in El Salvador, NYC punks picnics and non-leather footwear. 

Isa and Shawn from Brooklyn produced one issue of LEVIATHAN in 1991. It was really good, with interviews with INSURGENCE, GLYCINE MAX and more. They were also big fans of gore and horror films.

The War Resisters League released two issues of a youth-oriented zine called SPEW. Issue #1 (1987) had one of the first articles I ever saw on UK Anarchopunk bands like CRASS, CONFLICT, FLUX OF PINK INDIANS, etc. (One of these days I’ll upload that article to the web). Issue #2 had a profile of MDC and an article on squatting by yours truly.

SLUG & LETTUCE originally started in Pennsylvania, but moved to NYC around 1990 when editor Chris Boarts came to town to go to the School of Visual Arts. As far I know SLUG & LETTUCE is still going, published out of Virginia now.

Brooklyn’s Chris Caggiano did 7 or so issues of SOME PLACE LIKE EARTH, a half-sized zine. He also released a tape comp called DEAD AIR that had bands from the era and came with a booklet.

Long Island produced a number of zines: PLAGIARISM (edited by Ron) had at least 7 issues. I believe he later went on to edit the student zine OUTRAGE at Cornell University in Ithaca. There was also one issue of A.W.O.L. (A World of Love) and a bunch of issues of SCUT.

New Jersey produced SMASH APATHY and ANT SPOIM, both edited by Dan the D.A. from band TRIGGERVISION. SMASH APATHY was great. They were the first zine that I know of to confront the Ritz and the “corporatization” of hardcore shows by Metal promoter Chris Williamson around 1985. I don’t think many in the scene understood the point that was being made but it’s good that someone made it.

Connecticut had a few zines: DUMPSTER TIMES, edited by Sex Bomb and Spaz of SEIZURE fame. Also SOUNDS OF SUBURBIA edited by Rachel Rinaldo. Towards 1990 Jon Krupa edited political punk zine ADVERSITY which had previously covered death metal.

As far as political zines, the best one to cover events in the Lower East Side was THE SHADOW. It was a great newspaper edited by Chris Flash. THE SHADOW built a real sense of community amongst those in the neighborhood. BLACK EYE was published out of the Anarchist Switchboard on East 9th Street. They produced 11 issues from a borad range of Anarchist writers. PISSBUCKET had 2 issues that I know of. It was a squatter’s magazine edited by Amy from NAUSEA. Amy also did one 4 page issue of CLASS WAR NYC. And the LOWER EAST SIDE ROSE did a great job of covering events in the neighborhood around 1993-1994.

DOWNTOWN was a free VILLAGE VOICE-style weekly newspaper that had some good coverage of what was going on in the LES. It had great thought provoking articles and was funded by advertisers.

As for more general national and international events one of the best papers of the time was the weekly WORKERS WORLD, published by the WORKERS WORLD PARTY. I didn’t agree with many of their Marxist-Leninist views but they were always there to cover events. And I helped work on the Anarchist monthly LOVE & RAGE. LOVE & RAGE was a paper that raised Anarchism’s profile quite considerably.

There were one or two zines to come out of the hardcore scene, not particularly political but good for musical info. DEAR JESUS (formerly titled PLAIN TRUTH until a lawsuit) was edited by BORN AGAINST’s Sam McPheeters. Mike Bullshit edited BULLSHIT MONTHLY.

Back in the day there was no internet. Zines and word-of-mouth were where we turned for cutting edge information. True street media!