Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 [Paperback]

This is an enjoyable tribute to what used to be the underground, before even alternative or college rock was coined, three decades ago. It's a hefty read, but conveniently assembled and longer lasting than aging newsprint. It's handsomely produced and sturdy, if heavy, to hold.

Tesco Vee of the Meatmen teamed up with Dave Stimson in Ann Arbor to produce this slapdash, ornery, and entertaining fanzine. Cutting and pasting their typed reviews, concert flyers, salacious photos, found art, and random scrawls, they photocopied twenty-two issues. They surveyed the gloom of post-punk, they ridiculed the neon of the new wave. They insulted (TSOL, GG Allin, sometimes Fear) or celebrated (local groups The Fix, Necros, and, surprise, The Meatmen) those claiming to be hardcore.

Wit wriggles into many reviews. Two entries cited in their entirety show a pithy style perfected. Stimson sums up "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats. "The little California miss could've done us all a favor had she taken her shooting spree to the Ensign studio when this grandiose piece of schmaltz was recorded." His soundbite on the LP "Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls": "(forgot the label) I bought it. I sold it. What more do you need to know?"

Scatology scatters over nearly every page. A frustrated, lonely, adolescent mentality lingers. Its slogan: "Where hardcore doesn't mean pornography." Fecal fixation, erectile fascination, naughty peeps, and homophobic taunts fills margins. Two cartoon balloons appear over a tiny photo of two conversing celebrities. John Lennon is made to ask: "So, what's it like being black?" Muhammed Ali finds himself responding: "Better than being dead."

This sophomoric reaction to convention conveys T&G's reaction to the usual media coverage of the angry, lonely fans of musicians hyped, caricatured, or dismissed. The fanzine champions albums such as Gypsy Blood from Doll by Doll, 154 by Wire, Seventeen Seconds by The Cure, and Hypnotised by The Undertones. It documents how the nascent alternative category widened. Later issues discuss Big Country, Cocteau Twins, Motorhead, and a metal band, Venom.

Presciently, the critics pan such leaden tunes as "Punk's Not Dead" by The Exploited. Tesco praises 999. They despise a Midwestern mentality whose biggest contribution to the new music is "What I Like About You" by The Romantics. Oddly, Cleveland and Minneapolis bands seem overlooked; perhaps the decline of the Ohio scene and the delay in the rise of the Twin Cities one may account for this omission. Or it may be plucky rivalry between Ann Arbor and the rest of the country.

They analyze the promise and the flaws within October by U2: "Soothing harmonies. I'm sure they feel as noble as they look on the cover...but there is something about their clinical and smug approach that really bothers." They warn against the otherwise forgotten group Chronic Generation. "Crutches couldn't help this band, their s[--]t's that lame."

The edition opens with testimonials by scenesters, writers such as Byron Coley, and punks themselves. Keith Morris of Circle Jerks, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, and Henry Rollins of Black Flag praise the fanaticism that fills these pages, edited by Steve Miller, whom I presume is not the Gangster of Love. Let the final word be a stray phrase from here, as hardcore in the early 1980s became as conformist and commodified as previous cultural and musical rebellions. "We are the hippies of tomorrow."

To have all the issues of Touch and Go in their original form compiled into a single beautifully bound book is a godsend. I can not recommend this book enough. 576 pages of punk rock bliss.

There once was a time when fanzines were truly works of art, strips of typed (on a typewriter) text and assorted photos (mostly torn from magazines, posters, or flyers) glued on randomly selected pieces of paper, then surreptitiously copied at someone's place of work under cover of darkness. That's how the first half-dozen zines I worked on were done, and a few that I've been a part of later in life... [gratuitous self-promotion has been self-edited]. Well, as old as that makes me (ahem), I wasn't even aware of the existence of `Touch And Go' during its magnificent run from 1979 through 1983, but I have been influenced by it--we all have--without even realizing so. Every zine of the past 30 years owes something to `Touch And Go', which is clearly evident by flipping through this magnificent, massive book. From the thick stock cover featuring a glowering John Brannon (Negative Approach) to the collection of show flyers in the back (Necros, The Fix, Minor Threat, Scream, Black Flag, and of course Tesco Vee's Meatmen), this book demands attention. This is 576 pages of madness, with full reproductions of every single page of the zine's 22-issue run, plus all-new essays written by Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Corey Rusk, John Brannon, Byron Coley, both authors, and more... plus a `remember the days' interview between Tesco and Ian MacKaye... that bring the early days of the US punk/hardcore scenes to life like nothing else could. Since the authors were isolated in the US Midwest--in the days before internet, cable TV, satellite radio, cell phones, and whatever else we have today that makes everything old news before it is even new news--their shared perspectives on the music and culture of the times are fascinating and all-too identifiable for those of us who remember what it was like to be forced into seeking out and discovering such things as opposed to having instant access to everything at all times like we do today. My favorite moments include: the authors first experiencing Austin's then-burgeoning punk scene via the Stains (who became MDC a few months after their debut 7" hit the streets), Big Boys, and Dicks... because they hated these bands, didn't know what to think, but as the issues go by, all 3 hit town for shows and then they `got it' and understood these bands' greatness; the early and continuous love for Minor Threat and all things DC; the early Black Flag coverage, wherein the authors openly worship this seminal band and express concern about how often they were changing singers--and how they weren't sure about Henry joining up simply because they were so into his then-current band, State Of Alert; fantastic coverage of 7 Seconds and the Reno (Skeeno!) scene as it developed; JFA, JFA, JFA!!!; a fantastic letter from one `Ugly Norbie' of Green Bay, Wisconsin (if you don't get this, you are definitely way too young or way too hopeless, if not both, but you've got the interwebs so use them to figure it out); their open love for the burgeoning new wave and new romantic scenes happening in England, experienced through hard-to-get import 7" vinyl records from The Cure, Modern English, and loads of other bands that really were making amazing and important music that `punks' today would never be exposed to properly; and a brilliant early show of love for the man, the myth, the legend that is George Tabb on page 479. This book is so good it'll make you cry.