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

Blitz #30 (Detroit)

Issue number 30 of Blitz! offers a nice balance of local Detroit rock coverage and coverage of classic early R&R bands like Danny & the Juniors and Paul Revere & the Raiders. This issue also includes articles on out-of-towners like Boston's Moving Parts and Cleveland's Human Switchboard. It was around this time that I met Blitz! publisher Mike McDowell somewhere around town (maybe at one of the many weekend record collector's conventions?) and talked to him about writing for the zine.

I never got my chance to contribute to Blitz! but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the magazine. This issue included features on two of my favorite local bands, punkers Flirt (as I remember, mainstays at the New Miami club in the Cass corridor) and Nikki Corvette & the Convertibles (who should have been big stars in the vein of Katrina & the Waves, the Go-Gos or the Bangles). The reviews section is flush with reviews of Motor City rock, including 45s from Destroy All Monsters, the Ivories and Master Cylinder, and Elvis Costello's This Year's Model takes the top LP spot in the Blitz Awards For 1978 listing.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #30
• March-April 1979
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
Phil Volk of Paul Revere & the Raiders
Flirt
Nikki Corvette & the Convertibles
The Nightcrawlers
Moving Parts
The Human Switchboard
Danny & the Juniors
--> also album reviews, reader mail, local music news, reviews of "classic songs"

Blitz #29 (Detroit)

With issue number 29 of Detroit music zine Blitz!, publisher Mike McDowell includes two excellent articles, the first being "The History Of Hamtramck Rock," covering local bands the Mutants, the Reruns and the Romantics. Hamtramck is a city-within-a-city located near the center of Detroit. Home to a large GM plant, Hamtramck was a mostly-Polish community with some of the best restaurants that you'll ever eat in. A microcosm of the high-octane Motor City rock scene, the little city had a long musical legacy of its own to brag about.

The other cover article worth noting is McDowell's piece on Radar Records, including a label discography. At the time, aside from the odd article in Creem magazine, only Ira Robbins' Trouser Press was really covering what was going on in England. McDowell's article included Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Ray Campi and his Rockabilly Rebels, the Good Rats, Nick Lowe, the Soft Boys and other artists that were still a good year or five away from becoming well-known in the United States. Other articles in this issue include a piece on cult band Kenny & the Kasuals, the Neon Philharmonic and the Belmonts as well as the usual well-written and diverse album and 45 reviews.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #29
• November-December 1978
• B&W, 28-pages (including covers)
• Style: music zine

ARTICLES
"The History Of Hamtramck Rock"
Kenny & the Kasuals
The Belmonts
The Neon Philharmonic
"Dangerous" Diane Spodarek
"The Radar Records Story"
--> also album reviews, reader mail, local music news, reviews of "classic songs"

Blitz #28 (Detroit)

With issue number 28 of Blitz! publisher Mike McDowell tacked an additional 4-pages into the zine and changed the publication's tagline to "The Rock & Roll Magazine For Thinking People." McDowell's description of Blitz! wasn't mere hyperbole...this is a good music zine! This issue included a cool Residents front cover ("The Residents stock up for a wild weekend!") and a funny ad from local Detroit rockers the Mutants on the rear.

Between the covers you'd find articles on the Residents, interviews with Michael Nesmith of the Monkees and Freddie Cannon, and coverage of local bands the Plugs and the Ivories. Album reviews included such diverse fare as Devo, Johnny Cash, Dave Edmunds, Kenny and the Kasuals and Deep Purple; singles reviews included groovy tunes by local rockers like Nikki Corvette, the Last, the Reruns and Flirt (one of my personal faves) as well as French punks Metal Urbain, the Red Krayola and Motorhead. John Clayton covers the Boomtown Rats, Graham Parker and the Sex Pistols in his excellent "Mersey Beat" column.

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

ARTICLES
The Residents
Freddy Cannon
Michael Nesmith of the Monkees
The Ivories
The Plugs
Neil Norman
--> also album reviews, reader mail, local music news, reviews of "classic songs"

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
--> also album reviews, reader mail, local music news, reviews of classic songs