Scram #15

We return now to Kim Cooper’s Scram, a low-culturally omnivorous magazine whose fifth issue I dissected a bit earlier in the year here. The Los Angeles-based mag had gathered a great deal of steam by this point, 2002, to the point where they’d recently held their own showcase weekend “Scramarama” at the Palace Theater in LA, which I learned in this issue my cousin Doug Miller was the bartender and alcohol-procurer for. Of course he was! 

As mentioned last time, Scram had a sensibility that didn’t quite dovetail with my unrelentingly pure underground-music-that-must-be-beyond-reproach stance at the time, so while I always liked it, I really have come to enjoy it now, after the fact, now that I’m not such a pigheaded contrarian. The borders of their schtick were quite loose, but encompassed elements of goofy 60s pop, novelty records, garage punk, pranks, toys, oddballs, analog-era artifacts and underground comix. The writing was fun, upbeat, winking and satiric. Contributors – in this issue alone – ranged from Gene Sculatti to Mike Applestein to Andrew Earles to Brian Doherty, with Kim Cooper lording over the proceedings and setting the tone as “editrix”. 

Right out of the gate Scram #15 hits it out of the park with a funny & revealing Dan Clowes interview that’s contemporaneous with the release of the Ghost World film, one of the 2000’s best, discussing everything it took to get it made and released. I was so taken with reading this last night that I’m going to watch the Criterion edition of the film tonight w/ all the extras. There’s a panel review of rock-themed board games, such as a Monkees, a K-Tel and even a Partridge Family game that I actually remember from my youth. And then Sculatti’s piece is actually a 1971 interview he did with songwriter and producer Gary Usher, talking extensively about his interactions with the Byrds, Beach Boys and the early 60s instrumental surf scene.

Remember how excited everyone got about that Langley Schools Music Project release, a mid-70s recording of some Canadian schoolkids arranged through their music program into doing tracks like “Space Oddity” and “In My Room”? Applestein interviews Hans Fenger, the maestro behind it, as well as one of the now-grown-up kids, who gives a fairly reluctant interview about something she’s clearly still a little baffled about. Mike Applestein also milks a piece out of “Five Concerts I Missed”, a terrific concept I wish I’d thought of first: shows you could have gone to, but didn’t, and then regretted. I’d start with SST’s “The Tour” on February 28th, 1985 at the Keystone Palo Alto with The Minutemen, Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Saccharine Trust, which I couldn’t get any of my high school friends to attend with me so I bailed. 

I’ve got nearly a complete run of Scram except for issues #8, #9 and #10, which I’m missing and can’t find. Anyone able to help a brother out?