For me, the most important early magazines
( or zines) were Option and Sound Choice. Both featured cassette reviews and
contact addresses for the artists. The ones that said "will trade" were the
ones I wrote first.Of course
there were other standout publications such as OP, the acknowledged
forerunner of the entire movement. Later came Factsheet Five, Unsound, ND
Magazine, Electrogenesis ( may have come earlier actually). The second
generation of zines included Gajoob, Autoreverse, babysue, Electronic
Cottage, and Improijazzation Nation. There were also many fine European
magazines such as Notions, Second Ave ( UK), Music And Elsewhere News ( UK).
This barely scratches the surface of what was going on at the time. It was a
very active and fertile period for what later came to be called "desktop
publishing". At the time though, hardly anyone was using computers to design
their publications and often there were glaring errors, badly printed
pictures, typos and many rudimentary problems. Still, the excitement of
do-it-yourself publishing was in the air. Some went to more glossy
professional lengths ( such as Option), most went out of business for one
reason or another, and some were even one issue or short series works such
as Kevyn Dymond's Anemic Billfold.
Sound Choice was published by David
Ciaffardini in the mid 1980s and continued until 1992. At the time it
was considered a more underground alternative to Option although both
covered a lot of the same territory.
Scott Becker and Richie Unterberger
began printing Option in 1985 and was a very professional looking
magazine. It featured many reviews, features, ads from indie musicians
and lots of pictures. It continued until 1998.
Bryan Baker began Gajoob Magazine
in the mid 1980s and continued for many years. It went online and
stopped publishing sometime in the 1990s.Gajoob was essential in
picking up where Option and Sound Choice left off. Baker ( with
Chris Phinney) also started the intriguing Tape Germ Collective that
created an interactive atmosphere for collaboration online.
Factsheet Five, a magazine
started by Mike Gunderloy in 1982 ran gobs of reviews and
information about other zines. It also featured reviews of
underground music as well and became another useful tool for
home tapers who wanted to make contact. It stopped running in
1998.
Musician Kevyn Dymond from
Arcata, California branched out into small run publishing
with his Anemic Billfold pamphlet. It had articles on travel
mixed with features about home tapers
( such as Robin O'Brien in this issue). I believe he did
about 5 issues.
I also made the cover of
Ian C. Stewart's Autoreverse in the early 1990s. Stewart
published for several years and even began another zine
after Autoreverse folded called Mouthy. Unfortunately,
health problems became too much for Ian and he had to
discontinue his activities.
My own 15 minutes came in
1991 when Hal McGee ran me on the cover of Electronic
Cottage. Carl Howard also conducted an interview with me and
there were many other features as well.
OP Magazine from Olympia , Washington
published 26 editions that were alphabetically sequenced. Was published
from 1979-1984 by John Foster and The Lost Music Network. Both Option
and Sound Choice sprung from the ashes of OP.
