DISTORT CULT

1/06/09

Quick follow up, a new issue back from the printer. This issue is primarily writing on records and fanzines, with no interviews. The next issue will hopefully be completed in the next three weeks, a feature issue about Adolescents and Christian Death guitarist Rikk Agnew who also released one of my favourite records, 'All By Myself'. The issue focuses on that record and his life at the time. Some cool insights into OC life and the genesis of Christian Death.

Subscriptions are still available for 10 issues. The cost is $30 in Australia by bank deposit or mail (please email for details), and US$30 for anywhere overseas (paypal to distorttheworld@gmail.com). 10 issues will mean 8 regular issues of Distort, 2 7" records and a few sub-issues focusing on overenthused minutiae. Please include your mailing address when subscribing. Subscriptions will start from #21, as I just printed it last week.

For backissues, #19 and #20 are still available through missinglink.net.au. You can order through the website. I don't have time to mail out individual issues, so please order through there.

22/05/09

The new issue is out. This is a split issue with Ratcharge fanzine out of France. Ratcharge is a perverted French fanzine with a more prolific publishing schedule than Distort. Thanks to Alex for obliging the split. READ. The content in my side of his milestone in publishing history is an interview with "the only embryonic all-Asian band in the country playing punk music and getting rowdy": Brisbane's Shock Value. The Asian community have been constantly petitioning me to include more content of an oriental nature, and in the interests of international relations, I'm obliging. Shock Value play fast, raw hardcore and they remind me of The Abused.

The next issue (#22) is already written and I'll hopefully lay it out over the weekend and get it printed next week. Subscriptions will go out then. Oh shit, subscriptions are now open again, if you want one, it's US$30 overseas and $30 within Australia.

22/04/09

Gentiles, Muslims, Hebrews and Buddhist types, Distort subscriptions are now full. This is not some arbitrary figure to retain some collector mystique: stuffing 100 packages takes a good amount of time, time that isn't in abundance around here. When I get some more time and I'm able to balance everything out, I'll open the subs up a little . The next issue of Distort will be done in the next couple of weeks. Mostly record reviews, no interviews planned for this one. Also shortly printed will be a split issue with French fanzine of fuck RATCHARGE. High class lit that will be for sure.

Please keep sending me photographs of your homemade Electric Eels shirts (etc.) and any back-issues of SUPERDOPE fanzine you've got growing legs in the corner.

Let me reiterate for the semi-retarded Slapshot fans out there: please do not email asking to subscribe til you read different here. #19 and #20 have been sent out and subs will probably restart from #21 when it's printed. I also have confirmation on the next 7" release, #25. It's a split 7" with Extortion and Jed Whitey, both Australian black metal types.

31/03/09

Alright, fuckheads. It's here. The Flying Trichecos, Cleveland's most devout religious freaks, lay down their new 7" and it's fuckin' hot shit. This is a truly new low for that town, completely cheap drug fucked hardcore, perfect. Out of 300 copies I've got half the pressing. The subscribers copies come numbered out of 100 with a DISTORT stamp on the 7" label. At this stage there are about 30 subscriptions spots left, so if you wanna get on board please email in the next couple days. Subscriptions are $30 in Australia, US$30 overseas. In Aus, please get in touch for payment details, overseas please paypal to distorttheworld@gmail.com.

I've started work on the new issue, so expect #21 in the next couple weeks. There's been some great hardcore released in the last couple months - Cult Ritual, Breathing Fire, Hatred Surge new releases - and I'm catching up with it all and trying to get writ down while I'm in a lull between work and Stained Circles. Thankfully there's been a pretty sick burst of fanzines in the same period covering cult hardcore and punk shit, and I'd recommend checking out Z GUN, NO THANKS FUCK EVERYTHING, NICHE HOMO, STAINED SHEETS, DENY EVERYTHING and the new MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL is fuckin' excellent.

27/03/09

Here's the new issue. Printed yesterday, I've got to sit around stapling and folding. The soundtrack for this is most likely to be the Monoshock 2xLP, the Outlaw Order 7" and the recordings for the new UV Race LP / 7".

An update on subscriptions. As it stands there are about 30 subscriptions left. After this I will cut them off. This isn't an arbitrary figure: subscribers issues will be handstamped and number, and I don't want to do that for more than 100 given the current workload of stapling / folding 500 fanzines in the living room. Once I can get a good printing deal and once everything is running smoothly I'll increase the subscriber number, but in the meantime I have to keep it manageable.

As mentioned in the last post, the FT 7" will be sent to subscribers when it arrives, hopefully this week.

Other news, probably the most exciting, is that Rikk Agnew has finally got back to me with some answers for some questions I sent him about his solo record and time in Christian Death and Adolescents. He has also put me in touch with the artists for the LP Linda Taylor, who designed his killer t-shirt and the creepy insert. She's agreed to do the cover art for the issue of Distort with Rikk in it, and also is allowing me to do a limited run of t-shirts with this artwork on it. Anyone who has been reading Distort for a while will have picked up on my obsession with this record, so it's an honour to be able to print this shit.

13/03/09

Issue #19 will be printed next week. This issue will feature Lebenden Toten, Napalm Hearts and Homosexual Tourists. All the backissues are now sold out and gone, and I'm anticipating selling through this in about a month.

Issue #20 will be a 7" of scumpunk band Flying Tricechos. Sounding like cheap drug fucked KBD #69 rejects, this stuff is classic Cleveland styled mess. Members of a bunch of shit cunt bands. I'm very happy to help release this, and I'm looking forward to releasing more 7"s with Distort... more on that shortly.

I will be spending a lot more time with Distort this year after a couple years trying to set up other shit in my life. I've been so fuckin' busy the last couple years that writing about hardcore and punk records has had to take a backseat. I'm happy to say that I've got stuff ready for about five separate issues, and soon as I get the time I'll stagger their release with what my pocket can handle.

This means I'm reintroducing subscriptions. The subscriptions will be limited to 100 people. I have about 40 at the moment, and I'll update this number as we go along as I've been getting emails about this every week. The basic deal is every fifth issue or so will be released as a 7" and subscribers will get this 7" as part of their subscription with a limited subscriber only cover / some other incentive that I'm usually uncomfortable with but for the fact I'm trying to grease my fuckin' palms.

At the moment the only one definite is Flying Tricechos, but there are a handful of great 7"s I've been asked to release with DISTORT, including a killer Aussie punk band that I'm VERY stoked to work with again.

An added incentive for subscribers will be the subissues that will be printed in short runs primarily for subscribers. These issues will be similar to early issues of the zine, focusing entirely on one band only. The idea is to publish these, try and get as much material (photos, interviews, etc.) from other people who can see I'm interested, and eventually compile them in their own large size issue. At the moment, the next subissue will be about the notorious violent hardcore band Gehenna, a long time favourite for me, but I'm working on FANzines for the Meat Puppets hardcore era, the Lil Bunnies, Lost Sounds, Chickenhead (Fl), Crucifix and early Cro-Mags, so any photographs, interviews, fliers, press mentions, rumour milling, etc you can throw at me would be great.

So, the new deal with subscriptions is they will cost $30. In Australia, that's in Australian dollars, and CASH ONLY please to my mailing address. Overseas, please paypal USD to distorttheworld at gmail.com. To save money on postage, o/s subs will be sent 2 issues at a time.

This is a busy as fuck year already, so I'll leave it there. Thanks to everyone who's supported Distort so far, I think for a modern hardcore punk fanzine to get past 2 or 3 issues is a milestone, so excuse the self congratulatory beat-off.

Oh shit... when I've sold through the 500 copies of #19, I'm going to start working on a reprint of the best material from #1-#19 in a book to be published towards the end of the year. More information on this soon as I know about it.

There is a blog here for all you perverts covering books and non-hardcore related records, etc.

Dehumanisation in the age of quarrell.