Zines from the 80s

I was just doing some digging around into the past and stumbled across an item that was a fixture of my youth but I had completely forgotten about.

Not zines in general, those low-production punk-inspired periodicals that took off in the 80s, those I recall quite well and I used to own a number of them that got misplaced or thrown out over the years. They were largely cut-and-paste, then Xeroxed affairs. Someone would sit in their apartment, sick of the slicks like “Circus” that never covered punk bands and decide to make their own.

One of the local zines, “Your Flesh”, was one of those that stood out and, by the 90s had gotten picked up by a larger publisher. The production quality got closer to standard expectations but lost a lot of what made the zine a notable zine in the process.

For those unfamiliar with the zine, they were very in your face and abrasive, which is exactly why we largely loved them. There were plenty of free zines at the local record store on a spare shelf just under the photocopied “Drummer Wanted” signs on a pushpin cork board, complete with phone-number pull tabs — usually with one removed even on fresh entries to look like there was interest in the slot. This issue is just before I started hanging out downtown with a friend or by myself, maybe a year before?

By the time I would have picked Your Flesh up, the price was probably the outrageous sum of $1.50. How dare they? LOL. (The price sticker on the cover looks close to what I recall the record store using and I wouldn’t be surprised if it came from Northern Lights).

In case anyone is interested, several of the bylines and photos are attributed to Lori Barbero, perhaps better known for drumming for the local pre-grunge act “Babes in Toyland”. Other band members appear in this issue with different bands, as this issue was before they had formed.

It was fun to look through the few digitized copies available online and see folks like Bauhaus and the Cramps show up as gig reviews. Lux and Poison Ivy in the photos above. Yay!

I miss this kind of shit. Unpolished, raw and full of emotion seasoned with angst.

I’ll have to see if I can find others (like “Ferret”, the precursor to the webcomic from a guy who went to my high school).