As I said last time in my typically hackneyed and cliched manner, there’s really never been a fanzine quite like Galactic Zoo Dossier before or since. First, editor Steve Krakow has put forth his own singular, personal vision for what defines true rocknroll. That’s not unique to Krakow, of course, but for him It’s “psychedelic” in every guise and form, overlapping with all things trippy and raw. This can be psych-pop, folk, or hippie rock, or it can be grunting, Stoogely groin emanations. It’s that he illustrates and hand-draws his entire mag that just boggles the mind, and I’m using present tense here as I write about Winter 2001’s Galactic Zoo Dossier #5, because my understanding is that a new issue is currently in the works after a long layoff.
This issue is dedicated to Skip Spence, and why not? There’s not really a Spence thread running through it, except for a very agreeable piece (as in, I agree with it) by Scott Wilkinson called “The Myth of the San Francisco Sound”. He convincingly posits that there was very little continuity between the many celebrated and underground late 60s bands in my hometown, and therefore trying to make a big hullabaloo connecting the Dead, Fifty Foot Hose, Moby Grape, It’s a Beautiful Day and what have you is just silly. It was just a happening music scene with loads of tripped-out kids; otherwise just as absurd as talking about the “Los Angeles Sound” of the late 70s.
Plenty of things to really love in this one. Dieter Moebius and Michael Rother give the story on Harmonia, a record I now love but didn’t hear until a year or two ago (!), as well as other krauty things. There’s also a nice bit about horrific rock stars like Kenny Loggins or Rick Springfield that had their own “psychedelic” periods, which I take to mean a song or two that were vaguely hippie-ish (Galactic Zoo Dossier is unfortunately quite liberal with terms like “kickass” to the point of straining credulity). And staying on the kraut theme, there’s a jukebox jury where Krakow plays records for Michael Karoli and Damo Suzuki from Can. Karoli claims to have never heard Syd Barrett “knowingly” until that day. Come again now??
While Galactic Zoo Dossier #5 came out in 2001, it clearly was in the works for some time, as you might expect given its craft. There’s a scene report from the April 1998 Terrastock II in San Francisco that I missed by a few days, Kendra Smith, Alastair Galbraith, Mudhoney and even Major Stars’ most recent show in SF before the one I saw in 2019, which I’m currently claiming to have been one of the twenty greatest live shows I’ve ever seen. Krakow also writes about some Incredible Chicago shows he’s witnessed with Major Stars themselves, as well as Japan’s High Rise and Mainliner on the same night (yeah, I know they shared members). There are also small pieces on Chants R&B, Idle Race and Kaleidoscope, who are said to have been every bit as great as The Beatles, and I say that’s totally okay if someone wants to think that.
So much more, too. “German heavy rock” by Kit Moore; a surface-scraping interview with Dick Taylor of Pretty Things; a talk with dumb-dumb dopesmokers Electric Wizard, and a set of removable “Damaged Guitar Gods” trading cards. These encompass a wide range of freaks and string-benders, from Jandek to Davie Allan to Eddie Hazel to James Williamson to Pip Proud. Krakow seemingly knows everything and everybody, and now he’s 22 years older and wiser than that. Totally gearing up for that next issue if and when it arrives.
Fanzine Hemorrhage 