With the exception of our peek into Silent Command #1 a couple of months ago, the Fanzine Hemorrhage story so far has been something of the proverbial “nostalgia trip”. It certainly doesn’t have to unfold that way, as long as new music ‘zines of a high caliber find their way into my hands, as happened with My Teeth Need Attention #1 just this very week.
Actually I ordered this straight from the Carbon Records store as soon as I heard about it, as I’ve become quite acquainted in recent years with the wild world of Joe Tunis and his label and podcast. Carbon Records – which has been going since 1994, a fact that blew me away, since, given my pedestrian tastes and johnny-come-lately openness to the world of the often formless structure-shunning noise/”music” he releases, I only first heard a Carbon release in 2018, when the 2xLP guitar compilation Wound came out. Now I could be wrong about this, but I think Joe himself is in at least 20% of the bands on Carbon. From his perch in upstate New York – Rochester, the home of Kodak and Xerox! – he’s now launched a fanzine, a terrific compliment to the grounded yet outer-limits exploration of his podcast and label.
He goes big on New Haven early, staking his reputation with interviews of two of that city’s heavyweights: Stefan Christensen and David Shapiro, the latter of whom you may know as solo guitarist Alexander. Both of them are among my very favorite musicians going right now; when they’re hitting their peaks, they respectively take “guitar playing” in some creatively bold and very exciting directions. Listen here for maybe my favorite example of Christensen’s layered, folk-rooted noise and here for a great taste of Alexander’s intricate, lo-fidelity fret-climbing. Both fellas play together in the band Headroom, another favorite here at the ‘Hemorrhage.
So that’s the bulk of My Teeth Need Attention #1; there’s also a Tunis tour diary of a trip to Philadelphia; photos by Brian Blatt; a short piece of fiction by John Schoen and some reviews of more otherworldly psych, noise and freedom-seeking not-even-rock music. Personal, well-written and very “all in the family” – and make no mistake about it, it’s most assuredly for heads only. Hoping it becomes a thing I can count on a couple times a year.
Fanzine Hemorrhage 