I've been thinking about this for the last few days, and after reading @BARELY HUMAN and @Ryan Leach posts in the Music Blog thread decided to post about it. I love putting out records and have been doing so for 20 years now. I started right as Horizontal Action was winding down but Terminal Boredom (forum and reviews), Gonerboard, Maximum Rock N Roll, Victim of Time were all great ways to get attention on your releases that resulted in actual sales. There are still great sites writing about music but even when that happens the best way to make people aware of it is by posting it in your instagram story or feed. A lot of people will like the post, some might even post a comment of flames or high-fiving hands but few are actually motivated to click the link and stop scrolling social media. So much of running the label has turned into just reposting stories or racking your brain trying to figure out ways to repost the same thing. I can't stress enough how much I hate that format, how shitty it can make me feel, and how ineffective it actually is.

Anyways its been really great seeing people posting music they are listening to and their thoughts on it. We have a bunch of people here who not only love music but are also good at writing about it, so I thought it would be fun to have a record review thread where people who are so inclined can post reviews of new releases they like. I figured if we get enough of them I can organize them every once in a while and publish them on the Total Punk site. All I ask is that you don't post reviews of your own releases or bands and that you try to keep it to stuff that has been released / reissued no longer than six months ago. Also please make sure to list a link to the where to buy/ listen to the release. Long story short if you like writing record reviews or would like to start taking a stab at it post them here. All I ask is:

  • don't write reviews of your own release/ bands
  • try to keep it to stuff that has come out/ been reissued in the last 6 months or so
  • make sure to include a link to buy/ listen

👍️

I "like" this post.

But seriously, I'm really into this. Honestly, since the pandemic and Termbo going offline, I've checked out from current music for the most part, besides sticking with some favorite bands who are still releasing stuff. Since this forum started, I've been way more interested in new music than I have in years and have found some stuff I really dig. Definitely interested in a space to discuss and review things a little more in-depth.

Won't be a writer but will be a reader! Great Idea!

Your suggestions are all good and conventional standards regarding music journalism -- although I think Lisa and Richard Robinson would blur the lines.

My suggestion would be to take it further. A quarterly or biannually collection in print (newsprint or zine-style layout). Something to sell online or at Goner. What you had mentioned about the superficiality of social media regarding actual reader engagement is a good one. While Rich was doing God's work at Termbo, a lot of that online material is now lost. I saved all of the interviews I did for the site, but I've also had zines cease publication and left me with interviews. For better or worse, print is permanent and that's why I'm still releasing records. You need a physical document. A collection of relatively current independent releases, free from PR influence, and a couple of long-format interviews.

If this is something you're interested in doing via Total Punk, awesome. I'll help. If this is more than you can handle -- and I'm not going to make a suggestion and not be able to walk the walk, we can lay it out and publish it. If someone else, specifically someone who's got some background in zines wants to do it, go for it. This will be a money-losing venture.

I've been doing this for 20 years too and I've seen the situation worsen. I'm tired of it. That's just my two cents.

    • Kkai

      • Post #7

      i despise instagram posts as you're mentioning so i'm definitely in favor of the sentiment. MRR does review stuff somewhat regularly still (i only write on the year end lists) and remains a good model for the format as well. I'd certainly welcome reading more edited/intentional posts about new music as it does really help me click that play button!

        kai I like MRR. The only interview I did for them (Drew from Sick Thoughts) landed the cover, so I thought I'd stop while I was ahead. Mitch Cardwell was/is reliable, knowledgeable and consistent. And they effectively review all submissions.

        Correct if I'm wrong, don't they have a proviso that record reviewers live in the Bay Area?

            Ryan Leach

            The Bay Area limitation fell away after the print edition ended. I do reviews for MRR & live in Portland; we've got current reviewers all over the US, in South America, Europe, the UK, etc.

              Got it.

              Layla Gibbon and Mitch were the people hitting it out of the park when I got the print mag. Not to slight anyone else -- there were/are talented people there -- but they were Forced Exposure-level contributors.

              Also, not directed to any comments here specifically, but MRR is always open to bringing in new reviewers & we've put out multiple calls for fresh voices over the last few years, so if anyone is unsatisfied with the current state of MRR reviews & actually wants to contribute, feel free to email reviews@maximumrocknroll.com to get info on coming on as a reviewer. MRR is what people make of it; keeping a completely free, volunteer-run resource for punk reviews with zero PR sway pulling the strings takes a lot more behind-the-scenes work than I think a lot of people truly understand.

              I think most of us know how hard and costly it is -- I could've bought a new Honda Civic after 14 years of losses in the "record biz" and I was on staff at Razorcake and then Termbo for most of my adult life. Packing mags, editing, transcribing for others, going for 501(c) status, etc. I actually know about the Bay Area stipulation cuz I used to exchange emails with Mitch. When the other zine I contributed to started changing direction and Roctober went out, I hit him up -- could've been someone else -- about reviewing for MRR to keep abreast of what was coming in. That's good they've changed policy. I agree with you -- most people outside of this forum have no idea what goes into keeping MRR and other zines afloat. It's a thankless grind.

              I would like to see a print zine again. Even if it's an early '76-style zine of a few pages.

              Ryan Leach My suggestion would be to take it further. A quarterly or biannually collection in print (newsprint or zine-style layout). Something to sell online or at Goner

              Yeah that would be awesome, and something I definitely would be open to with some help. At first it would be nice to see if people are willing to to start contributing reviews here. I think part of what would make it nice is there’s no commitment. If you like something enough that you have something to say about it post it for all to see.

                  Would contribute. I like music and enjoy oppressing readers.

                  I'm not much of a writer, but I'd gladly contribute illustration and graphic design work!

                  When MRR’s monthly print life ended, I thought / hoped an annual “Year In Punk” edition would inevitably appear.

                  Seems fitting to start with a recent Total Punk review (I write these to get 'em in the general playbox at the college radio station):

                  The Circulators - Insufficient Fun

                  In the liner notes of a reissue of The Real Kids’ debut LP, the author reflects that “life then was–still is–a kinda aimless search for a thrill, and that thrill was, goofy as it sounds, rock n’ roll.” Indeed: boredom, apathy, tedium and ennui are universal problems, and rock ‘n’ roll offers a universal solution, alchemizing listlessness into restlessness into cheap guitars on Facebook Marketplace into raucous bursts of blood-pumping ruckus that, for a couple minutes at a time, allow us to lose ourselves in our own animal exuberance and forget that we’ve ever felt dead inside. In this sense, the title of San Francisco-based The Circulators’ debut LP poses the fundamental problem–“Insufficient Fun”--and the tracks themselves present the fuck-it-let’s-just-roll-a-ball-of-flames-down-a-hill solution. “Come on baby, let’s go on the loose,” the first track commands, and the wide-open, way-out rumpus doesn’t stop until the album suddenly ends 30-ish minutes later. “I wanna see you every day, I’m hung on every word you say!” the vocalist cries to his paramour on “Wired Over You”; it’s not entirely clear whether this is the same lover who ends up in jail for stealing catalytic converters on the second track (“Catalytic Converter”), but I like to think that it is. If boredom is a dreary descent down the slope towards the x/death-axis, and thrills are the opposite of boredom, then according to my calculations, the most life-affirming cris de coeur are the ones that maximize recklessness, mixing excitement and danger and fun in a bottle and shaking it up to spark a chemical reaction that intensifies the effects of all three ingredients. I mean, yeah, sure, you might end up in jail. And jail definitely sucks and is boring. But that’s OK, because when you finally get released, we’ve got a solution for that.

                    Might as well post this, too:

                    Sex Mex - Goes to Hell! EP

                    Within minutes of my first listen to the maniacal lo-fi bubblegum punk frenzy of Sex Mex’s last full-length album, “Sex Mex ‘23,” I was already thinking, “Holy hell, this rips, I can’t wait until 'Sex Mex '24’ comes out!” Sadly, I’m still waiting for that, but Clark Gray–for whom Sex Mex is essentially a solo project with a touring band–still bristles with creative restlessness, having unleashed a scattershot smorgasbord of budget punk scorchers. And the agitation has only amplified: On this EP, the guitars are not merely “fuzzy”; they’re overdriven and mammothed-up into a blistering hairiness that bounces and bops with the same rabid pop hookery that has become Sex Mex’s signature treat, but with more spleen and snarl than ever before. “If you wanna rake in the dough / just gentrify some rock and roll,” he trash-talks on “Pretty Boy,” lambasting what he sees as lucre-seeking charlatans who water down the genre, diluting the danger right out of it. I have no idea how much money Sex Mex makes themselves, although I’d imagine that, at best (worst?), they’ve achieved that storied income bracket where you’re too “wealthy” to qualify for a SNAP card, but too poor to pay the electricity bill this month because your van blew a tire, and you ended up having to pay for a whole new set because the remaining three were as smooth and bald as a dolphin’s skin. But I say: let the pretty boys have their soulless McMansions. We're all gonna die anyway, and those losers don’t even know they're only halfway alive.