Kicks #6 (New York City)

It took about a year for Miriam Linna and Billy Miller to put together the average issue of Kicks, but as shown by #6, it was always well worth the wait. The cover feature is a lengthy story on Bobby Fuller, including an extensive discography; other articles include pieces on Sonny Burgess, Chicago garage bands, movie "star" Arch Hall Jr. (Wild Guitar), Ronnie Dawson, Elroy Dietzel and the Rockin' R's from Peoria, Illinois. Issue #6 also includes a Drew Friedman cartoon, zine reviews and the usual album reviews. With this issue, Kicks also jumped up in price to $4.50 per issue but they also checked in at a healthy 104-pages with a cool color cover. Given the range of early rock music that Kicks explored with every issue (a field they had almost entirely to themselves), one wishes that they could have put out issues more frequently.

To be entirely fair, however, Linna and Miller had their hands full during the mid-to-late-80s. Aside from Kicks, they also published a zine called Bad Seed, which I unfortunately never got a chance to see. They had also launched Norton Records and over the following 20 years would release seminal recorded works from great rockers like Hasil Adkins, Roy Loney, the Flamin' Groovies, the Sonics, Link Wray, the Dictators and many more. They're still going strong today with Norton, and aside from CDs and vinyl, they also sell books and zines. They also still have a limited number of copies of Kicks issues #6 and #7 available for sale through their online store. Because the subject matter is timeless and obviously well-researched as a labor of love, Kicks is a zine that is well worth the investment to find and add to your collection.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #6
• 1988, no month given
• B&W with Color cover, 104-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Bobby Fuller
Sonny Burgess
Ronnie Dawson
Arch Hall Jr.
The Swags
The Rockin' R's
The Rumblers
Sparkle Moore
--> also album reviews, reader mail, book & zine reviews, lots of smaller articles

Kicks #5 (New York City)

A year after discovering Kicks at the Nashville Tower Records, issue #5 popped up and soon ended up in my greedy little hands. Linna and Miller had obviously found an appreciative niche audience and the zine grew by a third to a whopping 100-pages. The subject matter did not suffer from the growth in size and popularity of the zine, and if you'll forgive the pun, this issue kicks ass!

Kicks #5 kicks off with an exhaustive eight-page article on Hasil Adkins, who by this time was also a Norton Records recording artist. The piece includes a page with pictures of the labels of Adkins' self-released 45s, a very cool visual addition to the artist's discography at the end of the article. Other articles in this issue include a piece on the Rivieras, Joe Clay, the Pyramids, rockabilly legend Dale Hawkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and a cool "bull session" with Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. There's also a one-page "Hollywood Hell" cartoon by noted artist Drew Friedman, titled "Ugly White Guys – They Like Television"; and a funny four-page cartoon strip called "Milestones Of Teendom" by Jane King and artist J.D. King.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #5
• 1986, no month given
• B&W, 100-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Hasil Adkins
Jerry Lee Lewis
Joe Clay
Ed "Big Daddy Roth"
The Rivieras
The Pyramids
--> also album reviews, reader mail, book & zine reviews, lots of smaller articles

Kicks #4 (New York City)

One of the benefits of Tower Records moving to Nashville during the '80s was the ill-fated chain's liberal newstand policy. Although the "zine revolution" was already a few years old, the ready availability of zines – like most cultural advances on the "Music City" – took a catalyst like Tower to bring the phenomena home.

Kicks was one of the zines that I first picked up from Tower. Published by Billy Miller and Mirriam Linna, who was an early member of the Cramps and the Zantees, Kicks celebrated the roots of rock music. This undated fourth issue, from sometime during 1985, features stories on roots-rock idol Wanda Jackson, hillbilly rocker Hasil Adkins, the Fort Worth Music Scene and more. The zine was published a magazine-sized 8.5"x11" with a hurried punkture graphic style that crowded a lot of text and photos (some random clip art) into multiple columns. The writing was top-notch, especially Linna and Miller's work, and this issue also includes articles by Greg Prevost and Nick Tosches. The subject matter, while narrowly focused, was nevertheless interesting to anybody with a love of music.

Linna and Miller would later launch the well-respected indie label Norton Records as an outlet for the kind of music that, while respected during the '80s, was still pretty hard to find (even at Tower). These days...forget about it! The pair were also the biggest boosters of Hasil Adkins' career, releasing albums by the West Virginia madman and making his work available to a wider audience.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #4
• 1985, no month given
• B&W, 76-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Wanda Jackson
Ronnie Self
Hasil Adkins
The Tempests
Trixie Norton
Freddie Blassie
Link Wray
--> also album reviews, reader mail, book & zine reviews, lots of smaller articles

Blitz #38 (Detroit / L.A.)

Either I have copies and just haven't dug them out of a box yet after our recent move, or else I never had them in the first place, but I'm missing three issues of Detroit's Blitz (they dropped the "!" somewhere during the year) from 1980. Sometime during the year, health problems caused Blitz publisher/editor Mike McDowell to forsake the cold, snowy winters of southern Michigan for the warmer, more attractive climate of southern California. With this issue, Blitz had successfully relocated to Los Angeles and increased the size of the zine from its traditional 7.5"x10.5" to a more-professional-looking 8.25"x10.75" magazine size. Unfortunately, the editorial decline that had begun during late-79 had obviously followed Mike to L.A. as this issue is the weakest (in my estimation), editorially, of any in my admittedly small collection.

Blitz issue #38 features a cover story on the Four Preps, including an interview with Ed Cobb, and a piece on the Jan & Dean 1980 summer tour. On the plus side, this issue includes an interview with Detroit rock legend Mitch Ryder, who was staging a "comeback" at the time. I remember Bob Seger's massive, nine-night sell-out of the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit during the summer of '80s where he brought in Ryder to open for him. My brother Greg and I got lucky enough to see three shows during the stand and Ryder kicked ass! This issue of Blitz also includes an interesting interview with Jimmy O'Neill, the host of the TV show Shindig!

With this issue, McDowell also expanded his "local scene" coverage with reports from Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Toronto and Chicago, which was written by my old buddy and music biz PR wiz Cary Baker. Blitz also continued to cover 45rpm vinyl, this issue featuring reviews of singles from the Clash, the Barracudas, Cub Koda & the Points, the Undertones and the Zantees, among others. LP reviews this issue included Blotto, SVT, the Pirates, Teenage Head and the Tremblers.

This is the last issue that I remember seeing of Blitz, since I later moved back to Nashville from Detroit in mid-81, just in time to catch the initial stirrings of a growing Music City rock scene. I recently dug up this blog for the zine, created by Mike McDowell, who has evidently been publishing in some form or another, since launching his original Ballroom Blitz! music zine back in 1975. Overall, I've enjoyed Blitz! as much or more than many of the small-press music zines that I've run across or have been associated with, and I've gone back to the handful of issues that I have for reference time and time again. I have to applaud McDowell for sticking by his guns and continuing to publish Blitz! through the years, bringing his own individual rock & roll vision to the pages of the zine.

Mike McDowell's Blitz!: http://blitzmag.blogspot.com/

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #38
• November-December 1980
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Mitch Ryder
Jan & Dean
The MNM's
Luxury
Ed Cobb/The Four Preps
--> also album reviews, reader mail and local music news from Detroit, Boston, Chicago and L.A.

Blitz #34 (Detroit)

The new decade found Blitz! continuing its mandate to be "The Rock and Roll Magazine For Thinking People." Editor/publisher Mike McDowell found a lot to like with the fledgling "new wave" and pop scene of the early-80s, and this issue of the zine showed it with articles/interviews on Paul Collins of the Beat, Ian Gomm, the Invictas and Boston garage rock faves the Lyres (written by Miriam Linna of the Cramps, Kicks Magazine and Norton Records).

McDowell further expanded his "scene" coverage with a report from Cleveland, while local Detroit rock coverage includes a piece on the Reruns and reviews of 45s by the Mutants and Coldcock. Dunno why McDowell included a lengthy piece on Bobby Vee -- I guess that he really dug him -- but he did it right, including an exhaustive Vee discography.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #34
• January-February 1980
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Ian Gomm
The Beat (Paul Collins)
The Lyres
The Reruns
Bobby Vee
The Invictas
--> also album reviews, reader mail, local music news, reviews of "classic songs"

Blitz #33 (Detroit)

Overall, Detroit's Blitz! music zine offered up pretty interesting music coverage through the years of its publication, mixing classic and typically overlooked artists with new faces in a way that only Greg Shaw's Bomp! zine and Ira Robbins' Trouser Press were doing at the time. Every now and then, however, publisher/editor Mike McDowell would wimp out with a piece on a questionable artist like Bobby Vee, or this issues piece on schlock-rocker Robert John. McDowell partially redeems himself with a fine interview with soul giant Solomon Burke (who was off everybody's radar in 1979) and a piece on pre-fame John Cougar (Mellencamp).

A piece on Little Buddy & the Kids performing in NYC includes photos by well-known zinester Mykel Board, and vinyl reviews feature 45s from the Action, the Cars, the Headboys, the Inmates, the Lyres and local Detroit rockers the Vampires and Nikki and the Corvettes. An extensive LP review section this issue includes Blondie, Chuck Berry, the Crawdaddys, Cheap Trick, David Johansen, the Records, Carolyne Mas, the Rubinoos, the Shoes, the Residents, Tom Verlaine and, for some reason, the Captain and Tenille. Ouch!

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #33
• November-December 1979
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Gary Lewis (of the Playboys)
John Cougar
Solomon Burke
Robert John
The Neighborhoods
--> also album reviews, reader mail and local music news

Blitz #32 (Detroit)

Blitz! scored a major coup, in my eyes, when they landed an interview with country music legend Hank Williams Jr. for issue #32. Sure, in '79 ol' Hank wasn't quite the giant that he is considered today, but he had definitely moved out from under his daddy's considerable shadow to forge his own sound and larger-than-life musical legacy. Much of the rest of this issue paled by comparison, but McDowell still delivered the goods with a strong piece by Al Wagenaar on great lost '60s Michigan band the Fredric, pop-rocker Nick Gilder, LA rockers the Zippers and '60s-era folk-rock band the Last. Reviews of 45rpm vinyl include the Human Switchboard, Graham Parker, Roy Orbison, the Records and Detroit band Stirling. LP reviews include a diverse bunch o' punters, including Devo, Nick Lowe, the Kinks, Dave Edmunds, the Flamin' Groovies, Sleepy LaBeef, the Knack and more...wowee zowie!!!

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #32
• September-October 1979
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Hank Williams Jr.
The Fredric
Elton Duck
The Last
The Zippers
Herman's Hermits
Nick Gilder
--> also album reviews, reader mail and local Detroit music news

Blitz #31 (Detroit)

Blitz! music zine rolled on through 1979 with its usual coverage of overlooked rockers, past and present, issue #31 including a lengthy piece on cult faves Question Mark and the Mysterians. This issue also includes an interview with Miki Zone of the Fast and the Miki Zone Zoo, a piece on American blooze-rockers Canned Heat and a long piece on Detroit's own favorite sons, the Mutants. Singles reviews include wax from the Crap Detectors, Kenny and the Kasuals, the Gizmos, the Electric Prunes and Wazmo Nariz. LP reviews include rockabilly wonder Robert Gordon, the Boomtown Rats, Cheap Trick, the Jam and Bram Tchaikovsky. My copy of this issue was cut wrong, resulting in some strange page placement but, luckily, no lost content.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #31
• May-June 1979
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Question Mark & the Mysterians
Canned Heat
The Miki Zone Zoo
The Mutants
--> also album reviews, reader mail and local music news