Bad Newz #11 (New York City)

The Reverend had to dig deep into the back of the filing cabinet to find these earlier issues of Bob Z's legendary Bad Newz punkzine. Issue #11 was published while Bob was still located in New York City, during his infamous battle with the "sanitation police" that first brought him and his fine zine to my attention. The deal went like this: after NYC had passed an anti-postering ordinance, inspectors with the city's sanitation department went kookoo-bananas, grabbing whatever "evidence" they could from posters stuck to city lamp-posts and then fining the "culprits." Their brilliant Holmesian investigation found Bob Z's phone number on posters for punk shows that he was promoting, and they fined him $3,100 for his transgression. Bob fought this injustice and, in the process, spent thousands of dollars that he didn't have on legal fees and promotion.

This issue also includes "A Jaded Look At NYC Clubs," a follow-up of sorts to a similar line-up published in issue #9. As the writer states, the Big Apple club scene changes rapidly, and most of the clubs discussed in this article were probably history a year later (and certainly almost all of them are gone now). Nevertheless, it is an interesting read from a historical perspective. There is a short Bob Z. interview with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, just prior to the time of the band's signing with Geffen Records; as well as interviews with Chicago bands Screeching Weasel and Sponge Tunnel.

Amidst the eye-popping "punkature" styled graphic lay-out, you'll also find the zine's usual mix of political commentary, records and zine reviews and lots of funny cartoons by ubiquitous underground artist "Ace Backwards." You'll also see a lot of ads for other zines (Bob used to swap ads with everybody...he was cool like that) and low-budget indie labels in the pages, resulting in a trip back through time to a simpler, much more civilized era of alt-culture.

(Click on cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #11
• February 1989
• B&W, 56-pages (including green-colored covers)
• Style: punkzine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Screeching Weasel interview
Sponge Tunnel interview
Sonic Youth interview
The Unsane interview
"Polish Punk" article
"Twisted Image" cartoons by Ace Backwards
--> also live show reviews, album & zine reviews