My Teeth Need Attention #2

Joe Tunis, a.k.a. “CarbonJoe”, is already back in action with a second digest-sized issue of My Teeth Need Attention as we hoped and prayed for back when we reviewed his first one earlier this year. Not only has his game been upped this time around with an absolutely lovely hue of orange/red for the cover – I believe this may have been the same shade as the “Fire Engine Red” crayon in my 64-color childhood Crayola box – but he’s got a terrific interview with another one of the 21st century’s best music fanzine creators, Matthias Andersson of Fŏrdämning. 

Because Fŏrdämning wasn’t exactly easy to come by when it was around in the United States of America, or outside of Sweden at all, you may better know Andersson for his i Dischi Del Barone, Discreet Music, Fŏrdämning Archiv and Förlag För Fri Musik labels, all of which are still active. He’s also a member of numerous experimental musical acts on said labels, the most “famous” of whom are Enhet För Fri Musik, who are very, very famous and who routinely sell out hockey rinks in their native Sweden. This interview conducted by Tunis is the most complete overview I’ve seen of how this incessant curator and furtherer of the underground came to be the man he is today. If I can be said to have modern heroes, Andersson is probably one of mine and it’s always great to hear from someone who got into rad punk and underground sounds from Bones Brigade skate videos, especially when they lived in a 400-person village in Southern Sweden.

My Teeth Need Attention #2 has a similarly deep philosophical investigation with New Zealand musician and label owner Anthony Milton, who relates that he nearly recently died from a brain hemorrhage, wracking me with guilt over the callousness of this blog’s name. Liam Grant, one of the finest solo guitarists on the planet right now and who has a new LP on Carbon Records as it turns out, contributes a few pages of tour photos. Then there’s a record-collector-adjacent piece of fiction and another about a bewildering encounter with a male prostitute; another tour diary from Joe just like last issue; and it closes off with a gaggle of reviews, a few of which have led me by the hand into “exciting new dimensions in music” like this wild 1970s Pygmy Unit private-press jazz thing.

An excellent 2023 fanzine made on real paper! You can grab a copy here.