Remember your middle school locker? I kept mine clean but never without a healthy smattering of my favorite bands pasted on the inside. In early preparation for making another mini-zine of sorts soon, here's a short rundown of who was hanging up in my middle school locker and how music fueled my 'zine creations. By "'zine" I mean the DIY-published type (the kind you can hold in your hand! touch! feel!).
6th Grade: Xeroxing is fun
That was the year the Beatles Anthology series came out. My friends and I became such little Beatles dorks we performed a Beatles medley in the talent show later in the school year. By choice we stayed after school (our crushes were in detention...) to collage our lockers with black and white photocopies of the band. Trips to the public library and bags of change resulted in a locker full of all-era Beatles (Side note: Is it weird to crush on the same Beatle your mom did decades before?). My zest for photocopying was birthed!
  7th Grade: Yay for Lookout! Records 

I thought maybe I had some angst. Cue up the Nirvana, Hole and anything else out of Seattle I had missed a few years earlier. I clipped out any and all photos I could find of them, made mini-collages and hung them in my locker, along with old favorites Green Day, who are the equivalent of comfort food to me. The Green Day obsession was strong enough to lead me to their former label Lookout! Records, where I took to liking The Mr. T Experience, Pansy Division, etc. Lookout! is most likely responsible for awakening me to 'zines, as Lookout! band Pinhead Gunpowder's Aaron is founder of the punk 'zine Cometbus.

8th Grade: Pagan Kennedy and Grand Royal


I had teen magazine subscriptions telling me "worthwhile" things like who my hot, new, celebrity crush should be. The good thing was that every once in a while Sassy magazine (the cool, rock chick, big sister of the bunch) would review a book I wouldn't hear of otherwise. One of those books was The Exes by 'zine writer Pagan Kennedy (Pagan's Head). Its main focus is a fictional "painfully hip Boston-area indie alterna-pop band [...] that weaves pop reference and nerdy rock-geek sensibility into a combination Harlequin Romance/Celebrity Tell-All." I fell in love with reading about this fictional band and reading as the romance between band members emerged. 
After I got waaaay into the Beastie Boys and found out they had Grand Royal magazine, my 'zine aspirations were a done deal. It was a magazine that included educational articles such as "Mulling Over the Mullet," plus contributions from the always-entertaining Ricky Powell (photographer and friend of the Beastie Boys, who currently holds a regular column in Mass Appeal called "Ricky Powell is...The Doloist"), and tons of music-related features- they put Lee "Scratch" Perry on the cover that was designed to look like a Wheaties box. Genius stuff. Is there anything as great at Grand Royal out now? 

Enter the easy to use Kid Pix. Classic program! My best friend and I made a 'zine and named it Clunk! [1998-2003(?)], the name's exclamation may or may not be due in part to Lookout! Records use of it. Free copy machine access meant fat-ass issues, about 70-90 pages of both printed and handwritten articles/cartoons about whatever the hell we wanted and music was always a big part of any issue we would put out (one issue included musician men trading cards!). Sadly, I don't have a picture of the cover of Clunk! But I've included a picture of the most recent 'zine I put out, which was last year. It's a one-off issue, so I named it Trill and made it all about rap...and yeah, that's my head cropped onto some booty-candy as a reaction to all the "eye candy" sections in the mainstream rap magazines.

Below, "Sure Shot" by the Beastie Boys, a staple to Clunk!'s 'zine-making hey-days soundtrack.

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Rawkkiddoh says:

ha, I remember in 8th grade stacy gleeson was right next to me and her locker was a shrine to Ralph Macchio. Mine on the other hand was filled with pages from word up magazine with a big tribute to Public Enemy. I feel as if I am dating myself here

Posted 4 days ago | Delete

Pop Savant says:

It's been a while, but i don't remember having anything hung up in my middle school locker...I think I would have had stuff by The Police, Squeeze, New Order, and maybe Duran Duran (or as the British pronounce it Juran Juran). I didn't have a locker in high school, but I did have posters of The Cure, U2, The Smiths, and Dire Straits in my room. I know I subscribed to a zine called "B-Side" and Rolling Stone when it was still good.

Posted 4 days ago | Delete

watchbatteries says:

I never really used my locker in middle or high school. I did the whole logos-on-notebooks things. Except, I didn't really do it with bands or what have you. Instead of making zines, I made up my own fake record label (Failed Cow Recordings), and I put all my straight-from-the-radio mixes on it. I also put some garage recordings my friend and I made in 7th/8th grade, mostly Minor Threat covers and just random bullshit.  In spring 2004, that morphed into scamelENT (also my AIM sn, my myspace url, and several other things), where I've made several really shitty bedroom recordings.  Good times.

 

Is this Boston area indie alterna-pop band based on a small little outfit called Pixies?

Posted 4 days ago | Delete

Stumbled upon this one today, Hot Chip covering Snoop's "Sensual Seduction." (video does work)

Well, what do you say?  Who's more likely to sensually seduce you? Hot Chip or Snoop?

(Or none of the above)

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waydutch says:

I vote for the baywatch babe - nice new icon, lol

Posted 16 days ago | Delete

brittanybf says:

ahaha, awww, thanks! 

Posted 16 days ago | Delete

Snorri7 says:

I agree! Actually, I swung by just to let you know! I am jealous, we don't have beaches like that in Montreal! :P

Posted 16 days ago | Delete