Blitz #27 (Detroit)

Back in the late-70s, the "zine revolution" had yet to explode. Sure, there was an abundance of mimeographed science fiction "fanzines" that made the rounds at conventions and by mail, but the concept of the all-purpose photocopied zine had yet to really take off in the creative imagination.

Punk began the popularization of zine publishing, as a number of small-press publications began to pop up on the coasts. Greg Shaw's Mojo Navigator was probably one of the first while Punk in NYC and Search & Destroy in LA tacked down the coastal music scenes. In Detroit, the zine of choice was Blitz! Published by Mike McDowell with a heavy debt owed to Shaw's Bomp!, the pages of Blitz! were filled with a wonderland of local punx, classic pop-rock coverage and the odd outcast. The writing was good, the local coverage was all-inclusive and the lay-out was clean, kind of in the style of Ira Robbins' Trouser Press.

Issue #27 of Blitz! wasn't the first that I had picked up, but it was the first that I found in a big box o' stuff that I hauled up to WNY from Tennessee. Looking through this issue, I was delighted to find long-lost articles on Detroit rockers like the Reruns, Cinecyde and the Zooks. A cover story on soul legends Sam & Dave made for great reading and a series on the Monkees included an interview with David Jones in this issue. More in the spirit of the aforementioned Bomp! or Trouser Press than, say, Mike Stax's Ugly Things, Blitz! is an obscure but quality small press pub.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #27
• July 1978
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Sam & Dave
David Jones of the Monkees
The Reruns
The Zooks
Cinecyde
Brad Long
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