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WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Each week, Reglar Wiglar Magazine asks a band, artist or musician: What’s it all about? What's the point and why go on? This week, we ask Chicago's nude transmorgifiers, BARE MUTANTS:

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Radar Eyes, Bare Mutants and Outer Minds. February 6th at the Empty Bottle. We get to play with two of my favorite Chicago bands. It’s also a show to bring about awarness that nobody uses phone books anymore. Please stop putting them on our porches, they go straight to the recycling bin. I haven’t used a phone book in at least ten years.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

It’s Radar Eyes record release show and our 7” release show. Both records courtesty of our good buddies at Hozac Records.

WHY GO ON?

We are currently working on a full-length. Hopefully, we’ll get to tour every dive bar in the world and go on to sell hundreds of records.

MONDAY, 2/6/12
Radar Eyes, Bare Mutants, Outer Minds @ Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Ave.

ZINE REVIEWS
SIMPLE HISTORY SERIES

HAWAI'I
Simple History #5
J. Gerlach (Microcosm)
Number five in Microcosm's Simple History Series chronicles the history of the Hawaiian Islands from their "discovery" by Caption Cook in 1778 to the eventual statehood granted by the United States in 1959. Hawaii's story is a tale of colonization, exploitation, imposed capitalism and governments and corporations slicing themselves up the biggest piece of the poi. It's a story of Kings, Queens, Politicians, Missionaries and, as always, ordinary People caught in the middle. And that, folks, is pretty much the history of everything everywhere. Unfortunately.

Hawai'i's history post 1959 would continue to have highs (the alleged birth of the 44th President of the United States) and lows (Honolulu's perpetual hosting of the National Football League's incredibly pointless Pro Bowl) and then of course there was Bobby Brady's "discovery" of an ancient tiki on September 22, 1972.

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Simple History #4
J. Gerlach (Microcosm)
Microcosm’s Simple History Series is a collection of small zines on big historical events. They're sort of like the notes that a really good student would take in a history class while the rest of us doodled and decorated the covers of our notebooks with our favorite bands' names (Me: Hüsker Dü, You: Mötely Crüe, probably). The subject of issue number four is the Spanish Civil War—another major turning point in the war between left and right-wing ideologies that would preoccupy world powers for the next few wars (hot and cold) for the bulk of the 20th Century. This edition is interesting, easy to digest and kind of a cool thing to have on the bookshelf next to your Johnny Ryan comics—kinda classes things up a bit (no offense, Johnny).

THE CONGO
Simple History #9
J. Gerlach (Microcosm)
To quote the Daily Show’s Earth, The Book: “...no other continent could more truly say, I was raped.’” Talking of course about the continent of Africa. Pretty blunt, but there you have it. The area in central Africa known as the Congo is just one region, albeit a very large one, that was ripe for exploitation by European powers in the mad rush to secure the world's land and resources that started in the 16th Century. In the Congo's case, it was Belgium that took the lead, but they seemed to hardly have the heart for it. Control of the Congo was ceded and regained countless times as slave trading, foreign meddling and the indigenous peoples' inability to work out their own tribal differences and prejudices would plague them for decades to come. Congo's recent history is no less blood-free and has been mired in civil war and struggles with power-hungry dictators and staggering poverty. And that's a summation of J. Gerlach's simple history of a very complicated region of a very complicated continent. If I may again quote from Earth, "our species arose from Africa and we punished it for our failures ever since." Up next: Extreme climate change. Sorry again, Africa.

AN INTERVEW WITH COMICS ARTIST
JOHN PORCELLINO

Indy comics maven and distro champion, John Porcellino has been publishing comics for, oh I'd say about thirty years or so. With his long-running, autobiographical King-Cat Comics currently on its seventy-second issue, Porcellino shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. The Reglar Wiglar caught up with Spit & a Half proprietor between zine & comics fest jaunts and asked him a few questions.

MUSIC REVIEW

ROBYN HITCHCOCK
Chronology (Yep Roc)
Robyn Hitchcock is one of those rare musicians that there just aren't enough of—or maybe there are. Maybe there shouldn't be too many like him. Maybe it would get a little too crowded in the pantheon of highly prolific artists with decades-spanning careers and reputations for producing consistently great work, even throwing in a classic album every five years or so. Maybe.

Chronology is Hitchcock’s "greatest hits" offering—no doubt just a placeholder while he continues work on some other musical project or another, with whatever group of musicians he's currently chosen to conspire with. The songs on this digital-only album display some of Hitchcock's best work, at least according to him—Hitchcock selected all sixteen tracks for the record—and I agree. With three songs coming from the Soft Boy's 1980 classic Underwater Moonlight, through his early solo recordings (including a personal favorite, "If You Were a Priest," from 1986's Element of Light) and work with the Egyptians and a reunited Soft Boys whose six minute "Mr. Kennedy" from 2002's Nextdoorland features an excellent double guitar solo that ranks right up there with the best of Television's Marquee Moon—proof positive that the boys did not get soft. Three more recent solo songs end the album including the beautiful "Full Moon in My Soul" from 2003's Spooked.

Chronology is as good an intro as any into the world of Robyn Hitchcock but it really barely scratches the surface of a remarkable career that shows no signs of slowing down—Manfred Lightbulbhead [Robyn Hitchcock]

MUSIC REVIEW

PTERODACTYL
Spills Out (Brah)
Pterodactyl take the falsetto vocals of early Who, Beatles and Beach Boys, bring it to a boil in Brooklyn, then bake it in the studio for days on end before serving it to an unsuspecting public. The result is a delicious blend of shimmering pop tunes with plenty of hooks and almost more sounds than a soft squishy brain can absorb in one sitting. That’s understandable, the record is layered with vocals and guitar tracks, organs, megaphones and toy keyboards which has the tendency to send songs into the realm of otherworldliness—they seem to want to scatter and veer off into every different direction at once. Surprisingly, however, they are secured by some sort of invisible fence that keeps it all together... might be the rhythm section doing that anchoring but it's tough to tell. It's something that I'd rather appreciate without thinking too much about—Jubson Jones [Pterodactyl]

MUSIC REVIEW

MICHAEL YONKERS WITH THE BLIND SHAKE
Period (S.S. Records)
Michael Yonkers is the kind of musical figure that music geeks really like to geek out over. No offense to geeks. He’s obscure, he’s got an unfortunate back story, he suffers from an unfortunate back injury and he's got a back catalog that stretches back over five decades. Yonker’s tale of failure in the mainstream music industry was the shelving of his Miniature Love record by Sire in the late 60s. Now considered a psychedelic masterpiece by more than a few aficionados of the genre, it has since been released by both De Stilj Records and Sub Pop. Yonker's wrote a series of bleak folk albums after Microminature Love which have also seen re-release on various small labels, but his work with Blind Shake is his return to form in terms of heavy, challenging pysch rock. Which brings us to their latest collaboration, Period. This eleven song album of heavy, metallic blues and crushing noise guitar is a terminal punctuation point with Yonker's deadpan vocal delivery cutting through the chaos to make us feel just a little more alienated. Not that we need any help driving in that direction. Hopefully, this period doesn't mark the end of Yonker's output but refers rather to a particular section of time. [Michael Yonkers]

10 QUESTIONS WITH
SUMMER GIRLFRIENDS

What better way to get psyched for another long, cold, crappy winter than to daydream with (or about) Summer Girlfriends? Let's do that now!

MUSIC REVIEW

WOODEN SHJIPS
West (Thrill Jockey)
Wooden Shjips (pronounced Shjips) are not afraid to sail out into a stoner rock squall. Aye, these four shjipmates are likely to throw up a jib and stretch out leeward or aft for the better part of ten minutes if they get a taste for it. Not in a jam band sorta way, mind you, but with more of a trance-like, hypnotic repetition that harkens back across time and the ocean to Brit band Loop or maybe even Monster Magnet circa Tab...25 back east stateside. “Black Smoke Rise” kicks off this seven song set with fuzzed out guitar, followed by reverb-soaked keys and vocals. That's the Shjip's template for the most part; those elements winding and wafting their way through a hazy tour of intermittent guitar solos, guitar washes and assorted studio effects. There are some slight zigs and the occasional zag of departure: “Lazy Bones” ironically enough, steps up the tempo; “Home” flirts coyly with a classic rock riff; “Looking Out” is downright bouncy like a midnight carnival on psychedelics (or quality REM sleep) and “Rising” just flips the script by being all backwards. When taken together, it all combines to make West the perfect destination for when you want to go somewhere but just don't feel like getting out your chair. [Wooden Shjips]

MUSIC REVIEW

BAD COP
I Can't Slow Down Digital EP
Bad Cop are some young dudes from Nashville who do a pretty dang good bang-up job of playing garage rock. They seem to pay as much attention to the fuzz as to the hook and the chorus and the song as a whole—not always the case in the genre. This 3 song, 2 video EP is not just adrenaline pumping (there’s certainly that), but it's got substance too. Lead-off track “Animal” exemplifies that previous point, reminding one of Screaming Trees, who also paid homage with tips of the hat. “Maniac" is in the middle and a smidge more manic. "Gloom Bank," is gloomy, sure, but still suitable for buggin’ out. Videos for "Gloom Bank" and "Maniac" comprise the difference. They're low budget, low brow and bloody, just how you like 'em. And it’s free to download, so download it freely here. [Bad Cop]

MAGAZINE REVIEW

DEVASTATOR #4
Devastator is a comedy magazine in digest form. It contains comics and other writings of a satirical nature intended to make you laugh, preferably out loud. It succeeds in this endeavor. Number four is the "Arcade" issue, although nostalgia is really the theme here. This is immediately evident from the flip side of the book, which is a parody of my beloved Choose Your Own Adventure series from the 70s and 80s. Writer John Ford skewers the genre with “Night at the Arrrrr-cade!” where the second person you get’s trapped in a haunted game room. They’ve got everything down to a tee in terms of the fonts and writing style of those books and Marc J. Palm’s cover is spot on in it’s imitation.

There’s comics too, with James Kochalka delivering a Glorkian Warrior's tale in “Attract Mode,” Matt Taylor’s "Marriage Command" is good for a giggle and Edmund McMillen serves up something called “Meat Boy and Dr. Fetus” in the tradition of Goofus and Gallant.

Some of the satirical targets of Devastator are either before or after my time (probably after, sadly) like Amanda Meadows' "Mr. Do: Return of the Dino Drones" which parodies Scholastic Publishing’s Blast into Books series, of which I am unfamiliar. Judging from this piece, however, I get the gist of what those books are like. I know the type of crap education publishers try to download to developing brains.

Even the revered Atari 2600 is not spared the comedic wrath of Devastator. John Schnepp delivers a withering indictment of Atari’s 1979 game "Adventure" titled "Sadventure". And deservedly so, I mean, did they really expect us to believe that floating duck was a frickin' dragon? That game sucked on so many levels (pun intended).

And there's plenty more in this issue that a brief recap, such as this, is forced to omit. In short, Devastator showcases a mountain of talent by writers and artists who also contribute to some big names in comedy from Conan to the Onion News Network. And it looks great too. [Devastator]

BOOK REVIEW

THE COMICS JOURNAL #301
When did The Comics Journal get so freakin' fat? Weighing in at one and a half pounds, this 624 page sucker features more of what you love (or hate) about comics criticism: long, detailed interviews and reviews that will take you days to read. Absorbing, or perhaps tedious depending on your mood, this is a beast I’ve been wrestling with for a few months. This issue features an interview with R. Crumb conducted by Journal publisher, Gary Groth. The topic of discussion is Crumb’s illustrated creation story, Genesis. Groth questions Crumb on the development of his technique over the years, his creative process for this project and what led him to begin his adaptation of the ultimate beginning. The interview is followed by a roundtable barrage of praise and criticism from over a half dozen art and culture critics, who either praise Crumb or take the artist to task for a variety of sins.

Also featured in #301 are sketchbook/interviews with Tim Hensley, Stephen Dixon and Jim magazine creator, Jim Woodring, from whom Groth seeks to find an answer to the question of why Woodring is compelled to draw such repulsive images. Turns out Woodring doesn't really know.

MAD Magazine fans will appreciate the transcribed, transgenerational conversation between the 89-year-old Al Jaffee (creator of the Mad fold-in) and Michael Kupperman (a current pop culture provocateur) in which the two artists talk about art as work, art as satire and art for art’s sake.

Adding further heft to the issue is Tim Krieder's arugument with himself over the question of whether or not Dave Sim’s epic Cerebus comic should be considered a major work of art? I must admit that I haven't been swayed that it should, but I also haven't made it to the end of Krieder's article and I've only made it through Volume 1 of Sim's 16 Cerebus volumes.

But wait, there's more, including an article on comics pioneer and "Dean of Amercian Cartoonists," John T. McCutcheon; an interview with Joe Sacco concerning his graphic novel Footprints in Gaza; reprints of the "Gerald McBoing Boing," strip penned by one Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Suess; and a slew of other aritcles, criticism and opinion that I haven’t even gotten to yet—all wrapped in a fantastic Robert Crumb cover taken from his Genesis book.

COMICS ARTIST
JEFFREY BROWN

Jeffrey Brown is a very busy man. Not only is a film that he co-wrote currently in production, he's also held the titles of music video director, NPR contributor, children's book author, comics creator, diarist, husband, father and probably a cousin to someone as well. Mr. Brown is living proof that you can make a career out of drawing pictures of robots shooting lasers. Ok, maybe he doesn't draw pictures of robots shooting lasers exclusively, but still, that's pretty cool. So, if you are someone who draws pictures of robots shooting lasers, DON'T STOP NOW!Read the Interview!

INCREDIBLE
CHANGE-BOTS TWO
Jeffrey Brown
(Top Shelf)
Somebody watched a lot of cartoons when they were a kid... Here's a hint: it was Jeffrey Brown, but that's a given with the second installment of Jeffrey's Incredible Change-Bot series. The story line parallels that of the multi-million dollar franchise of movies, cartoon shows and cool morphing toys: Robots, however inadvertently, invade Earth and one poor bastard Bot gets left behind. In Jeffrey Brown's version, the two robot factions, Awesomebots and Fantasticons, struggle for control of their home planet. In Part One, these Bots crashed on Earth in an attempt to flee their embattled planet of Electronocybercircuitron. After an epic battle on Earth, in which the Awesombots were victorious, both parties departed for greener pastures. Shootertron is the ditched Fantasticon who finds himself deserted on our planet and that's where Part Two picks up. The Change-Bots once again crash into Earth and meet up with their long-forgotten pal. The Bot nation needs to learn how to get along to survive on their adopted planet. The results are quite funny and the one-liners are fired off like lasers (bew, bew) but with more frequency. Although I found the book funny, the humor is not aimed at adults specifically—at least not at the expense of younger readers. There's some groaners in there for sure, but if you appreciate bad puns you are in luck. (Read more!)

ROCTOBER MAGAZINE'S
JAKE AUSTEN

The conga line of Stormtroopers pictured above was not chosen arbitrarily, although there's never a bad reason to show Star Wars characters dancing. Even no reason at all is reason enough. In this case, however, those Imperial dancers are boogying down on Chic-a-go-go, the cable access show that Jake Austen has been involved in running for years. As a dance show host, freelance writer, puppeteer, rocker and publisher of the zine Roctober, Jake has been an important and busy part of Chicago's musical culture. So we figured we'd ask him a few questions about 20 Years of Roctober and other things. Read the Interview!

PHILLIP DICK SCHOLAR
DAVID GILL

"(Dick) has given us a guidebook on how to operate in this century and how to stay sane and how to stay centered and how to stay positive, even though those aren’t characteristics that are used to describe his work or him."

Dickhead? That certainly is a rude thing to say about a man, unless it's true of course. In this particular instance Dickhead refers to a fan of sci-fi legend, Philip K. Dick. Mr. Gill is a PKD scholar of the first order and therefore is worthy of the title. Nick Sondy reached Dave in Oakland to discuss all things Android in Part 2 of this two part interview. Read the Interview!

RADAR EYES

That growing blip on your radar screen ain't a UFO, genius, it's Radar Eyes. And that blip is set to go blop 'cause this Chicago quartet is about to follow up a good year with a better one. 2010 saw the band release a tape on local cassette label, plustapes and a 7" on HoZac, and in 2011 the Eyes are gearing up for an EP on Rococo and a full-length long-player for HoZac, as well as a jaunt down to Austin, Texas for that one music festival they have down there every year... South by Southwest, I think it's called. Proper! Read the Interview!

COMICS ARTIST
JESSE REKLAW

I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that Sarah Palin ran a strip joint in Vegas and Justin Beiber was there drinking Old Fashioneds with Lady Gaga and they were both stuffing hundred dollar bills into Kanye West's g-string. It was freaky, man. Naw, I'm kidding, but artist Jesse Reklaw has been hearing that kinda shit for years, and transforming those nocturnal submissions into a weekly comic strip called Slow Wave. But that's not all he does, click on the link below to find out more. Do it! Read the Interview!

BLASTED DIPLOMATS

I guess we have Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to thank for the recent spate of diplomat blastings, but that has nothing to do with Chicago's Blasted Diplomats. Naw, there ain't nuthin' diplomatic about the way these dudes blast out their loud brand of good old fashioned guitar rock. So check 'em out and tell your friends, but remember, you can call them the Blast Mats, you can even call them the B. Mats, just don't call them Blasted Dips. Please! Read the Interview!

COMICS ARTIST
HANS RICKHEIT

Hans Rickheit is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, enveloped in a nocturnal hallucinatory fantasy nightmare. That's the effect that his comics and graphic novels can have on a person at any rate. Influenced by the ancient, the archaic and the gothic side of Americana, Rickheit exposes our collective underbrain and pokes it real good.

Read the Interview!

BAD COP

Bad Cop are some growed up kids from Nashville playin' punk rock and roll. They got signed to ROIR right quick after forming. Musta liked 'em. It's been balls out from there. Nashville correspondent Rebecca Seung interviewed frontman Adam Moult and filed this report.

Read the Article!

COMICS ARTIST
SIMON GANE

Like a lot of artists and writers working today, UK comics creator, Simon Gane, got his start in the underground music scene of the 90s. Fanzines and indie publishers (then as now) provided a stable of young creators who labored for years (with hangovers!) developing their art and style. If you don't believe me, track down an old copy of Simon's "Arnie Comix" and compare it to a more recent example of his work in the illustrated Paris series. Being a part of this small, intimate world without rules, artists like Gane were able to build a following and a portfolio which allows them to make a living today. Live from Bath, England, it's Simon Gane! Read the Interview!

READING RAINBOW

Philly's Reading Rainbow are garnering a little bit of attention lately. It's no surprise really. Their music is infectious. Infectious in the sense that it will infect you (your brain in particular) with it's lush and reverby distorted goodness. The band's latest album (2010's Prism Eyes) is a forty minute good vibey trip through a hazy, dreamy, forgotten forest of furry melodies and fuzzy guitar. Does that make sense? I hope so. Reading Rainbow husband and wife team, Rob and Sarah, talked to the Reglar Wiglar about Philly, musical influences and stuff like that. Read the Interview!

LAMB OF GOD

Metal lords, Lamb Of God, have ruled this puny planet Earth for over fifteen years—that's ten years shy of a quarter of a century! Certainly nothing to sneeze at. To acknowledge this great feat of 'togethership', we sent Ace Reglar Wiglar Reporter, T. Bux on a mission to interview LOG bassist, John Campbell. Even though T. Bux lives in London and The Campbell lives in RVA USA, Bux succeeded in this mission with the help of some sort of Skype or Internet device or maybe it was a telephone. Read the Interview!

MUGGSY McMURPHY'S
ROCK PICKS

Supposed to be warm this week (if 40 degrizzles can be considered warm, (jesus-freakin'-christ). I don't see myself venturing outside Albany Park much this week though. Maybe to the liquor store, sure, but beyond that: doubtful. Here's some good shows for you to check out though.

MONDAY, 1/30/12
Tijuana Hercules, The Canoes @ Pancho's
2200 N. California

Tijuana Hercules has a heart of beef and the soul of a messed up juke joint junkie. Tijuana Hercule's got the legs of an old diabetic blues player; the arthritic hands of an old jazzbo, the iron-clad stomach of an old goat and the hard steel balls of a young buck-a-roo.

TUESDAY, 1/31/12
Hay Perro, Knife of Simpson, Today's My Super Spaceout Day @ Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Ave.

Hay Perro are serious about punk rock music, as is evident from this photo.

WEDNESDAY, 2/1/12
E+, Coffin Pricks, Wimps @ Schuba's
3159 N. Southport Ave.

Punk rock will never be buried alive, 'cause if it ever was buried alive, some band like these guys would come along and prick holes in the coffin. And that's the origination of the name Coffin Pricks that I would like to get started. You heard it here first.

THURSDAY, 2/2/12
Mars Argo, Everything She Wants, Garrett Borns @ Subterranen, 2011 W. North Ave.

There's just something about the music of Mars Argo that makes me want to jump right out the window. I live on the first floor though, so I guess it just makes me want to hurt myself a little.

FRIDAY, 2/3/12
Summer Girlfriends, Blasted Diplomats, Pamphleteers @ Cole's Bar
2338 N. Milwaukee Ave.

If you like good old fashion indie rock and roll, like they played back in the day (the 90s in this case), then you would be wise to check out the B. Dips on Friday. I would consider you to be wise, at any rate.

Read the Reglar Wiglar Interview with the Blasted Diplomats!

Read the Reglar Wiglar Interview with the Summer Girlfriends while you're at it!

SATURDAY, 2/4/12
Cooler By The Lake, Sweet Cobra, Deminer, Full On, The Party Downers @ Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Ave.

Yes, it is Super Bowl Eve, but more importantly it's Mat Arluck's Birthday, so it's time to celebrate his life and times in memorium, Saturday at the Empty Bottle! I'll drink to that (I was gonna be drinkin' anyway)!

SUNDAY, 2/5/12
Super Bowl XLVI Party featuring
@ Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.

So apparently this band is some sorta super group, but all I know is they're called Football. I'm going to assume that this is in reference to the American variety and not the game where a ponce like Dunc the Punk skips around the pitch, pissed off his arse, punting a round ball back and forth to and fro. A round ball! Ha! Bollocks, Dunc, bollocks!

HANS RICKHEIT's
ECTOPIARY

MORE REVIEWS
music, comics, zines, books, cassettes

DREAM WHIP #1-10
Bill Brown (Microcosm)

Dream Whip is an unabridged compilation of Bill Brown's long-running zine of the same name. Seems like Bill did a lot of traveling between 1994 and 1999 and his zine chronicles that time on the road. DW is filled with short pieces, both fictional and nonfictional observations, comics, drawings and tidbits cut out of local newspapers and tourist brochures. The writing style can come off sounding like that of a freshman writing student at times. It suffers from simile overload in places and it seeks to flatter Beat writers in its imitation, but that's likely a result of a young writer trying to find a voice of his own. There's much improvement by issue number ten which Bill instructs readers to treat as a road map of his travels from Texas to Canada and back again.

RAD DAD #19
Tomas Moniz, Ed. (Microcosm)

Editor and rad dad, Tomas Moniz is back with another issue of his Rad Dad zine. The purpose of Rad Dad is to help guide dads in the raising of their kids. Actually, it's not a guide necessarily, although it does serve that purpose. Tomas's goal is to share stories, thoughts and observations on parenting with like-minded parents who have made their share of mistakes and have learned from them. The contributors are not all dads either, but they are all activists, organizers, musicians and artists. They're definitely to the left politically and the challenges they confront while parenting range from issues like early gender identity ("The Handsome Daughter" by Laura Pretnar) to food activism ("How to Turn Your Kids into Radicals" by John Chapman). There are interviews with activist/writer John Conant and Pittsburgh musician JonJon Cassagnol, as well as several pieces remembering Oscar Grant who was fatally shot by BART cops in Oakland in 2009.

HEY HEY LONESOME
Adam Gnade (Punch Drunk Press)

This novella, by author and musician Adam Gnade, is intended to introduce readers to the characters that will appear in Adam’s forthcoming novel. It's a prequel, if you will, that follows the characters around San Diego in the hours leading up to a party where all of their paths will cross. It is at this point that the novel (finished but as yet unpublished) will begin. Hey Hey Lonesome is a part of a series of fiction and music that loosely ties together various characters through songs and stories. The work is intended to convey a picture of contemporary American life the way American Graffiti portrayed life in the early 60s or more recently Dazed and Confused in the mid 70s. Similarly, the characters in Hey Hey Lonesome are young, shiftless, in or out of love, bored, under the influence, or all of the above. Adam's prose style even reads like a script at times. The viewpoints of the characters are first person and we hear their inner monologues, but the scenes and action are described like stage directions, sometimes parenthetically. It is unclear at this point how the characters' lives will intersect and how they will interact with each other, but the scene has been set for the full story to begin. Stay tuned. [adamgnade.com]

MIKE MOUNTAIN
Hiding in the Rock
(75 Words or Less)

Mike Mountain (Mike Mtn. for short) is a four-piece rock band from New Bedford, MA. They play your basic blues-based rock music. Nothing new there. However, what makes this band unique from say, any number of bands jamming and drinking in garages, basements and practice spaces all across the universe right now (and there are millions) is the bizarre quality of the lyrics. Let me give you a taste from the lead-off track “Acid at the Funeral”:

Cut my feet on glass/Eighth-grade mustache
The natives in my head/have a banquet and some cash

These are either cut & paste, stream of conscious or both. The record continues in this thematic lyrical vein with "Las Vegas Waltz" which sounds like it's about Lyme disease but isn't, nor is it a waltz; "Freebird 33-1/3 " does not sound like Skynyrd on vinyl played at long-player speed; "Two Little Bossmen" is demented Dylan and "Put 'Em on Ice" name checks Slick Rick, of all people. So, if you're getting the impression that Mike Mountain is a little off, then I've done my job. [Mike Mountain]

BURN COLLECTOR #15
Al Burian (alburian.com)

Al Burian is back for another issue of Burn Collector. BC #15 finds Al living in Berlin. Like always, Al shares his thoughts and observations on life in his newly chosen city, but before that he needs to deal with a searing toothache that sends him immediately to the streets in search of a dentist. After an aborted first attempt at the dental office in the building he lives in, Al finds a caring, gentle soul who is willing to ease his pain. She of course disproves of Al's lack of preventive dental maintenance. Al returns later to plead poverty to the woman, who he hopes will fall in love with him and forgive his debt to her. Doesn't happen.

Also in this issue, Anne Elizabeth Moore contributes a piece, "When You Realize the Freedom" (title courtesy of a Hasselhoff lyric) on the selling of the Berlin Wall (more literally than figuratively). There’s an interview with fellow zine-maker and ex pat Liam Warfield on living in Berlin. Al also reviews various things like Berlin’s Tegel Airport, books on writing (Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King), people (Ronnie James Dio) as well as various records, squats and Germany’s May 1st holiday.

Always good to check in. No comics though? What's up with that, Al?

THE EAST VILLAGE INKY
by Ayun Halliday (EVI)

One-time member of the Chicago Neo-Futurists theatre company, Northwestern grad, writer of several books, zinester and native Hoosier, Ayun Halliday is now the proud publisher of forty-eight issues of The East Village Inky. EVI was begun when Ayun and husband Greg Kotis (Urinetown, look it up!) lived in an East Village apartment. Now in Brooklyn with two children, she continues to produce this hand drawn, handwritten and hand-laid-out zine. This is my first encounter with EVI and just my luck, it’s also the first ever music issue, and I like music. In this forty page mini, Ayun recounts tales of her musical listening history touching upon early influences from grade school through high school, college and beyond. I must admit, I do not have much in common with Ayun as far as musical tastes (Todd Rundgren is the zine’s centerfold for example), but I won’t dwell on that. What I can relate to is the joy of making and receiving mix tapes and I agree that movie soundtracks are good ways to discover new music that is often old music. I enjoyed the section in which a smattering of “hip” Brooklyn teens are interviewed about what they're listening to. They seem to have pretty developed musical tastes, which is either due to living in Brooklyn, their parents, the accessibility of music on the Internet or all three—the perfect storm for "hip" in this modern age, I suppose.

EVI reads like a conversation you're having with a friend you haven’t seen in a while and you only have a short time to talk. A lot gets crammed in, topics change quickly and sometimes you lose the thread of the converation for awhile but your friend is so happy to fill you in that you really don't care.

SO RAW IT’S DOWNRIGHT FILTHY
Joshua Ploeg (Microcosm)

The last raw thing I ate was a raw radish, which was radically delicious, but other than that, I am not a vegan or a vegetarian and I am definitely not a rawcist. Therefore, there's a good chance that I will not be using any of the recipes in this zine cookbook. I like Joshua’s attitude though. Despite being a vegan/veg chef himself, he still likes to rib militant dieters, as he does in a short excerpt reprinted from his zine, A Chef's Tale: Strange Travelers Tales of Food, Sex, Random Occurrences & Other Culinary Disasters. If you’re a hard-liner, it doesn’t matter whether your hard line is politics, religion or vegetables, lighten up already! Whatever your diet dictates, many of the recipes in this zine sound pretty dang tasty: Curry Banana, Avocado Mousse and Plum Salad, etc. I do not agree, however, with the decision to include random black and white (black and pink actually) photos of things that are filthy, like the toilet on the cover. This is perhaps to tie in with the zine's title. Ok, I get it, but it's still kinda gross.

THE SENTINELS
Music of the Pleistocene
(Imperius Rex)

I prefer the music of the Holocene Epoch myself, but I guess they were really just building on what was already going on in the Pleistocene Epoch, creatively speaking. At any rate, Music of the Pleistocene is a strong debut from the Chicago four piece, The Sentinels. The instrumental core of the band is comprised of a few local rock veterans you may remember as being The Tuffets a few years back. The Sentinels sound nothing like that proto metalling trio. No, this band comes at you from a straight rock angle, employing the requisite riffs and rhythms to allow vocalist Liz Elle to work it out on the mic. Which she does by trafficking in such human emotions as love, loss and lusting after girls (you read that right). The record sounds great, the songs are well-thought out, the choruses are as catchy as they should be, which leads me to the conclusion that The Sentinels are, in fact, Guardians of Rock.

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LINKS

MUSIC VENUES

Abbey Pub
Beat Kitchen
Bottom Lounge
Cobra Lounge
Congress Theater
Darkroom
Double Door
Empty Bottle
Gallery Cabaret
Hideout
Lincoln Hall
Logan Square Auditorium
Metro
Mutiny
Quenchers
Reggie's Rock Club
Ronny's Bar
Schuba's
Subterranean
Whistler

RECORD STORES

Dusty Groove
Hyde Park Records
Laurie's Planet of Sound
Logan Hardware
Permanent Records
Reckless
Saki

ZINE/COMIC SHOPS

Challenger Comics
Chicago Comics
Chicago Comic Vault
Dark Tower Comics
Quimby's

BOOK STORES

Barbara's Bookstore
The Book Cellar
Gallery Bookstore
Myopic Books
Powell's Books
Revolution Books
Unabridged Bookstore
Women & Children First

FROM THE VAULTS

Check out the Reglar Wiglar Archives for more interviews with your favorite stars!

COMIC ARTISTS
Peter Bagge
Jeffrey Brown
Dan Clowes
Jef Czekaj
Jesse Reklaw
Sam Henderson
Simon Gane
Gary Panter
Hans Rickheit
Johnny Ryan
Terry Laban

BANDS
Bad Cop
Blasted Diplomats
DOA
Electric Frankenstein
Federation X
Fleshies
The Goblins
Kaspar Hauser
The Hold Steady
Lamb of God 2001
Lamb of God 2010
M.O.T.O.
The Mediums
Radar Eyes
Reading Rainbow
The Reigning Sound

VERMILLION SANDS
"Summer Mellody" b/w "A Sweet Bitter Winter" 7" (Shit Music for Shit People)

The Italian band Vermillion Sands give us the two seasons on this 7" record. Vivaldi would certainly roll over in his grave and laugh (possibly outloud) at the thought of excluding fall and winter from any musical work concerning the seasons. But then maybe Vivaldi would've had the bread to kick in for a double seven inch. Yeah, that's true, he did die poor, but I was thinking more like when he was at the height of his popularity—like when Charles VI was all up on his jock. Well, that's ridiculous and a completely unnecesary digression at any rate. "Summer Mellody" is provided for the A side and it is bouncy and infectious and has a carnival-like vibe that would make it hard for Vivaldi not to smile and tap a toe along too. "A Sweet Bitter Winter" on the other hand, is also an upbeat number but in a garage/blues kinda way. I must confess, I have not a clue how Antonio V. would feel about it, but I like it—J.S. Bach [Vermillion Sands]