Zine Crush? In Memory Of...

in

I've thought a lot about Zine Crush. I saw it some time ago and thought it was the coolest, cutest thing ever. But I've tried going on it for a while and it's been dead for at least two years. I want that to keep going and have discussed this with a lot of zinesters and they've said to just bring it up again. So, I want this to keep going.

For those who don't know, Zine Crush was a site and zine that people would write anonymously about a zine or zinester they had a crush on. What if we do that here?

It would be dope to bring that back because I think a lot of us zinesters have mini-crushes on zinesters because of their work. Whether it's because of how impactful their work was to them, or just because they absolutely love their work.

What do you think? Should I start a page on here for Zine Crushes? I can make it anonymous or public. Whatever!

Josh

Image from SeaGreenZines review of #3 of Zine Crush

Albums to Keep You Warm This Winter

It's that time again, when LA gets weather fluctuations and we all flee indoors because outside is an unpredictable place and it feels like there's a vengeful god who just knows you forgot to buy an umbrella this year or that you forgot to bring clothes other than goddamn shorts because you've been staying over at your new boo's place. So in these dire times, fuck it! Stay indoors and listen to the following albums to keep you warm in this horrible times.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd

Genre: Psychedelic

This album has that perfect mix of experimental madness and pop-ish psychedelia that makes you move and smile! There are many manic drums playing that keep both your body and mind in motion. It's most apparent in the Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk with the coolest frantic drums in the whole album (very much inspired by Jazz). Then when the madness subsides, there's the great pop melodies like Bike, and The Gnome.

Warmest Tracks:
  • Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk
  • Interstallar Overdrive

    • Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes

    Genre: Soul

    Isaac Hayes productions bring the longest, most satisfying instrumentations in soul I've ever heard. This classic album opens with what may the greatest cover of Walk On By that's ever been produced. and an amazing epic into soul. The violins swell and bring goosebumps to your flesh! Especially that ending. My god! Cuddle up to this one.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • Walk On By
  • By The Time I Get To Phoenix

    • Cry Tough by Alton Ellis

    Genre: Rocksteady/Ska

    If you don't know this pioneer of Rocksteady and Ska, you will now! He's one of the best lyricists and singers of the classic ska and rocksteady movements. Songs that bring such emotion and imagery to mind, there's no denying it'll warm up that cold heart of yours! Especially You Make Me So Very Happy, which is so much fun to sing along to!

    Warest Tracks:
  • Why Birds Follow Spring
  • You Make Me So Very Happy

    • Prospect Hummer by Animal Collective & Vashti Bunyan

    Genre: Freak Folk/Psychedelic

    '70s cult folk singer Vashti Bunyan came from her disappearance from music to bring us joy once again by collaborating with Animal Collective, the kings freak-folk/weirdo music. What came out can best be described as a transcendent experience in folk. The cold dissipates as you run through the forest to find a group of anthropomorphic animals singing in front of the fire, then you sit to join... finding that you are one of them. This is what it feels like to listen to this album.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • It's You
  • Baleen Sample

    • The Comforts of Madness by Pale Saints

    Genre: Shoegaze/Dream Pop

    Chilling guitars combined with calm melodies... the Pale Saints certainly create an atmosphere of pure joy. Have you ever felt yourself melted into your seat before? If you have or haven't you'll want to and can with this album. You find yourself stuck to it and feeling like a warm burrito. You are the beans. It also transports you into a good time in the '90s, and you know you hip mo'fo want to travel back then for some reason. The song Sight of You brings you up, and A Deep Sleep For Steven takes you higher.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • A Deep Sleep for Steven
  • Sight Of You

    • Night Time by Killing Joke

    Genre: Goth/Post Punk

    Feel a bit broodish because the cold is slipping into your home? What better ways to lift the spirits than to listen to this goth classic. Killing Joke outdoes themselves from their great post-punk albums, and brings a mood that always brings me back. The sinister guitars in Europe move your legs, causing both friction and energy to be used, warming up that leg and soon up to the rest of your body. Rising synths, and grinding guitars bring the blood up and burn your house to the ground. Make sure you have some sort of insurance before popping this in.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • Love Like Blood
  • Europe

    • Another Music in a Different Kitchen by Buzzcocks

    Genre: Punk

    With an almost heavy metal like guitar playing in this album, this punk album has the best in the repetitive quality of classic punk, lyrical content of lost youth and misunderstanding, that makes for a great warm listen. Imagine yourself, blocked into your house. Now the heater is being a piece of crap. What do you do? Put this record on and walk about, move about by your sexy self, and sing along. We could all identify with this album, because we seriously need money and you, with the blanket cape will be okay. Keep warm.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • Sixteen
  • Moving Away from the Pulsebeat

    • To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar

    Genre: Hip-Hop & Rap

    The best way to listen to this album is to make sure it's on full blast so you really piss everyone off as well, because that makes you get up from your couch and exercise a bit. Not only is your body stimulated but your mind is as well. What better way to spark discussion about issues of race, hypocrisy, education, and ignorance than a rap album? And that opening, oh my god! There is nothing warmer than a hot opening that makes you wanna get up and dance, while speaking about the miseducation of young black youths, leading to them being taken advantage of by corporations, and/or mismanaging money in their lives. Toasty.

    Warmest Tracks:
  • Wesley's Theory
  • Complexion (A Zulu Love)

    • Consider these albums to keep you warm this winter. Buy them, stream them, or just fart in your blanket when you're alone. It creates heat. 

    Here are the runner ups:

  • Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order because Age of Consent makes me happy and happy equals heat.
  • Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear because it reminds me of a cabin
  • Take Me to Your Leader by King Ghidorah because it's regal and big, like someone who can afford central heating.
  • The Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground because it sounds like a bunch of friends playing in front of a fireplace

    • Itchy and Scratchy (and maybe Poochy)

    in

    I really like classic Simpsons episodes. A lot. I quote them sometimes when an occasion comes by and then I watch some shows and laugh and laugh, and then go to sleep or work. Whatever comes up. Anyway, I was pretty excited about the whole Springfield, USA area coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, as I was a pass member and a fan of the park. Now, I really hate that a lot of merchandising is complete shit for places. Especially theme parks! So I sought to make my own thing for my trips to Universal and Springfield... so I decided to make Itchy and Scratchy hats! Kinda like those that you would get at another theme park with a rodent... so I did!

    I set off to make them and recruited my sister to be a painter to help me with it. Behold!

    Next, I'm gonna add more details to this... then a Poochy hat!

     

    Love,

    Josh.

    UPDATE 10/6: 31 Days of Halloween Calendar

    I just got an e-mail that I've been invited to the Crimson Peak premier so that should be fucking tight! It will at least be a beautiful movie... Anyway, I've also circled the things I will be doing and the ones not circled are because I have no idea what I'm doing yet.

    Update me with your events! #Iggys31DaysofHalloween

    Tonight is a picnic at Suicide Bridge. I will be there to record paranormal activity and mostly eat pizza. Also I'm going to be thoroughly scaring the crap out of myself because I am paranoid, and I will be thinking of crazy people with knives stalking me.

    Like on the day of the Zombie Fashion Show, there was an actual crazy man with a knife running around. Anyone in the 31 Days Krew can attest to this.

    Happy Week Two!

    Hello, Kiddies

    Don't forget to tag your adventures this Halloween, if you're following my map or not, with #iggys31daysofhalloween so I's can see! The map will be updated soon, and check out what I've done so far by checking that tag on Instagram or going to my Instagram!

    Tonight is a picnic at a haunted location! Oooohhh!

    Have a great October!

    From Zombie Fashion Show:

    Day 3 of Iggy's 31 Days of Hallowe'en! Zombie Fashion Show with a highlight of the night. 📷: @windsaywoji

    A photo posted by Josh "The Thing" Spookybottum🎃 (@zombieunderdog) on


    HALLOWEEEEEEEN!!!

    I take Halloween very seriously and this month I have planned something to do each day of Halloween. SO I made a calendar with multiple choices of things to do.

    If you know me you can download the calendar and hop along with me. First confirmed event is on the first and it will be Dark Harbor.


    Song of the Week: Tiney Winey

    There's nothing like the sound of your youth, and for me that was the sound of reggae, ragga, soca and punta! I still listen to this music all the time, but not as much as I did when I was a wee one. So I'd like to revisit my youth with one of my favorite soca songs of all time: Tiney Winey! by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

    This song was a huge hit and was a one of the pioneers of the genre. Byron Lee unfortunately succumbed to cancer, so we won't be seeing him in concert any time soon. In memory of him, please enjoy this video and the wonderful production of this video.

    Fun Fact! Byron Lee and the Dragonaires were so huge in Caribbean music that they were asked to be the band for the James Bond film Dr. No!  

    RETNA Video

    Yo!

    So lately I've been working as an editor in videos and such. So my latest project as an editor is up now on Patrick Hoelck's Video Page for your perusal! Check it out, serio! You'll see my editing skills in this video. If you don't know RETNA, he's a graffiti artist who works with hieroglyphic style hand writing. You may have seen his work in Mid-City Los Angeles, with the cholo in front of the writing. I also made the banner. Check it!


    Song of the Week: Miles to the Sun

    Hieroglyphics: Hip Hop is Vintage!

    If you've never heard of this Oakland, CA native rap group, you need to listen to them now. Nine to ten deep and wonderful. They're sound is one of the prime examples of that underground sound of the nineties and millennium. That wonderful chill you can take with you if you're driving down the street or even walking through nature. The closest you can get.

    Miles to the sound has that beat, and as a beat junkie I fucking love it. I'm in love with this.

    Extreme Honors to the song You Never Knew... which is my absolute favorite.

    P.S. I'm working on a video of a famous graffiti artist but that's all I can say for now. When it's released, I will show y'all!

    I'm Poor! and Song of the Week: Are You That Somebody?

    I went to Pechanga Why? Because I wanted to be in Vegas but wanted the poor man's Vegas! I went and spent my limit... because I was up so much I got cocky. Don't get cocky, kid!

    The song of the week this week is also a great video. The choreography in this video is superb! We should all learn this dance and cause a major traffic jam on the 101! This song will stay stuck in your head and you won't care because it's so great. Walking into a bar, or something, and this song plays, you'll do the "AWWWW SHIIIIIIIIIT!" yell in the middle of the bar. Also it's the amazing voice of R&B great Aaliyah!


    Song of the Week: Marquee Moon by Television

    Have you ever had a song that for the life of you you could not get enough of? This was that song for me. The guitar, oh my god. It was perfect! It was repetitive as fuck but I could not care less! This song was orgasmic! I could listen to it for hours! Hours I say! I did, too. I put this song on repeat on my way anywhere and every time I would sing along.

    I rememberrrrrr how the darknesssss doubled!

    This is Marquee Moon by Television

    For those of you in the audience who don't know, Television was one of the classic '70s New York Rock/Punk scene artists who would eventually become a fixture of rock in that era. Ever heard of Blondie or Talking Heads? No? Yes you have, shut up. These guys played with them on stage in places such as the big, now defunct CBGBs where every band you have ever loved played. 

    You may be thinking why are these guys songs so damn long? Well, they're a Jazz influenced Rock band so improvisation is king! This is what they did on stage, and that is what they tried to convey on record. but of course like Jazz, it must be experienced in person to delight in the true sound of improvisational love. So go to YouTube as you will never see them! Even though they say they're back together and recording an album and they're almost finished but we all know how that goes, right Dr. Dre??? 

    Man, at least Deltron 3030 finally released their new album.