Artcore

With the advent of crap like this blog, the inky goodness of fanzines seems to be a thing of the past. When I was a nipper there was no other way to find out about underground music except through fanzines. Many a rainy night was spent holed away in my bedroom pawing over copies of Maximumrocknroll, Flipside, 666 1/2, Raising Hell, GO! and Artcore. In the (many) years since then most have gone to the fanzine library in the sky, but one of the best still remains some twenty three years on. Artcore from South Wales has always had something a little special, its founder Welly is a tough cynical son-of-a-bitch which makes for great interviews and reviews and a good ear for what makes a classic band, both past and present. Each issues of the mag has new bands in the first half then deep involved histories of punk bands of the past in the second half. The new ish just hit the deck with interviews with Double Negative, Off With Their Heads and Violent Arrest and a vaultage section with the Nuns, Ripcord and Lookout records amongst others. Also there is a vaultage EP with unheard sounds by the Beef People. I can't speak highly enough of this mag. Click the link and get ordering......