I'd fallen behind with MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, and it wasn't until last week that I finally got hold of December's issue. Unfortunately it turned up with January's issue just a few weeks after Xmas. And I was given a few books as presents, books I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into. So when am I gonna get time to read MRR?
It may be the done thing to slag off Maximum, but I still really like it. I may only read about 80% of it each month, but I try never to miss an issue it's an important source of information, a good way to keep abreast of the latest releases of both records and zines and the columns are a constant inspiration. A lot has been said about the area of punk that Tim Yohannan wants the mag to cover, but what people seem to forget is that it is still just a PUNKZINE. I don't think Tim has any interest in it being the sort of Punk Rock Bible that many view it as, to him it's just a zine and seeing as he is the main man then it should cover the sort of bands/records he wants it to. Hell, if someone started to tell me what I should put in SUSPECT DEVICE I'd be pretty pissed off. The thing to do if you don't think a zine (any zine) is covering the sort of thing you want it to read about is to do your own. Maximum's apparent change in policy caused several of its writers to break away and both PUNK PLANET and HEARTATTACK are products of people doing just that. And that's healthy for punk rock - and to me PUNK includes everything, SxEx, hardcore, pop punk, old school, emo, whatever. I see nothing wrong with what MRR chooses to cover, and I also buy the other zines. I can enjoy them all, and I prefer there to be a whole host of punkzines with different slants than one big `masterzine' or, as is happening in the UK at the moment, a lot of identical zines all covering the same bands and reviewing the same records.
What I don't like is the slagging that Tim Yohannan gets, publicly, from the likes of Larry Livermore. Just recently I picked up an issue of PUNK PLANET from June 1995. In it Tim Yo had a letter published as a response to a column Larry had written `digging dirt' on Tim and MRR. Bearing in mind that Lookout Records, and therefore Larry, has done very well thank you very much out of the current `popularity' of punk, thanks to GREENDAY,SCREECHING WEASEL and the rest Larry is a pretty wealthy man, while Tim works a part time job and devotes all of the rest of his time to MRR. Larry has visited Europe on countless occasions while Tim has had no time off, except for his hospital treatment for cancer. Also, Larry has changed his point of view about the major label involvement in punk while Tim has kept to his DIY ideals. I don't want to get into an indie verses major debate here, and as far as I know Lookout is still an indie label, (still I guess you'd find me in Tim's camp) but I do wonder how much of this influx of cash Larry and Lookout plough back into punk? Of course MAXIMUM is pretty big too, and is staffed by volunteers, so they must rake in a fair bit of money but, I have first hand experience of how MRR reinvests any profits it makes back into the `scene'. A couple of years ago, we received a cheque for about £150 from MAXIMUM. We didn't have to do anything, except for answer a few questions to make sure that SD was still around, they just had made a profit that year and after giving the volunteers a bonus they deserved, dished out the rest of the money between smaller zines/labels around the world. That strikes me as someone, Tim, putting his money where his mouth is, because it really did help us out at a time when we had a new issue due and a new 7" release imminent. We would have put both out without their donation, but it certainly helped.
Of course,MAXIMUM isn't perfect (who is?) and I'm not slagging off Lookout, although the only record I've bought on that label for years was the WAT TYLER 7", good luck to them, and of course they can do what they like with their money (and no, I don't want any of it). But why Larry feels the need to launch attack after attack in Tim's direction is beyond me, and alienates him from me even more (and I used to be a fan of his MRR columns). There's always two sides to every story, but all I can see coming from the MRR camp is Tim calling Larry on his shit, and being totally up front about the way he does things.
I do think it's sad that these long standing members of the worlds punk community have to spend so much time with claim and counter claim about each other, same with the Tim, Jello Biafra `war'. It would be good if we were all pulling in the same direction, instead of in-fighting, but I don't suppose that'll ever happen, and I don't think any of us are immune to taking part in it at some stage. There's so much shit and corruption out there that some of it's bound to filter down, whether it's crooks taking punk and punks for a ride, false indie labels owned by evil multi-national companies, right wing thugs trashing gigs or fucking drunk punk wasters living up to the worst of the media image of PUNK. There's still a lot of good, dedicated people out there, and we should be supporting each other. Whatever Tim and Larry think of each other, they have both made a significant impact on punk rock over the years, and I wonder if we'll all still be as active when we're their age?
So next time you moan about how MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, or PUNK PLANET or HEARTATTACK or SUSPECT DEVICE or even HAPPY HOUSE are doing things. Don't write a shitty letter to the publication you see has let you down, unless you wanna call them on their shit, write down all you want from a zine and then go do it yourself!