Jersey Beat #34 (Weehawken NJ)

I lost track of Jim Testa's Jersey Beat music zine for a couple of years, and from the sticker on the cover of issue #34 that I found in the archives, I probably picked up this copy at the long-gone Tower Records in Nashville. While I wasn't paying attention, Jersey Beat had grown both in size and stature during my absence, and issue #34 is chock full of some meaty musical coverage that extends far beyond the state of New Jersey in interest to the average zine reader.

First up is an early interview with the Goo Goo Dolls, one of the first articles written about the band outside of their Buffalo hometown (the Reverend's article in Music Retailing around the same time being another). With a lone album under their collective belts, the Goo Goo Dolls had yet to make anything considered a splash in the music world at this early date, putting JB well ahead of the curve. There's an interesting conversation with underground icon Eugene Chadbourne, interviews with the Stand, Stax, Carbonic Smog, Pagan Babies and metal band Black Virgin. Zine reviews were fleshed out a bit with this issue, and there are a few live show reviews, including Testa's "Confidential Diary Of A Rock Critter" column, and Ben Weasel's "Skate Report" column.

As was usual with every issue of Jersey Beat, there are a bunch of album reviews included in this issue, such as feature reviews of discs from Mission Of Burma, the Splatcats and Tiny Lights along with shorter reviews of the Meat Puppets, Phantom Tollbooth, Alice Donut, Throwing Muses, Prong, Sonic Youth and Adrenalin O.D. As you can tell, Jersey Beat didn't restrict itself to covering just local bands (although the zine did feature NJ/NY/PA bands whenever possible) and offered readers a diverse range of musical coverage.

(Click on cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #34
• Spring 1988
• B&W, 36-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Goo Goo Dolls interview
Eugene Chadbourne interview
Pagan Babies interview
Stax interview
Carbonic Smog interview
The Stand interview
Black Virgin interview
"Baboon Dooley" cartoons by John Crawford
--> also live show reviews, album & zine reviews, lots of photos