Mysterex #2

I think when I was introduced to the notion of “New Zealand’s punk rock history” not long before this – probably when I first heard AK-79 in 1993, when it was reissued on CD – I was like, “Wait, New Zealand had a punk rock history?”. Well indeed it did; I should have known better; and in the early 2000s, a fanzine called Mysterex sprung up to document it all. See, I’ve always been chagrined by the Flying Nun-centric notion that the bands The Enemy and then Toy Love “started punk in New Zealand”, something that you’ll read from time to time, and which is lustily contradicted here and here. Mysterex #2 from 2002, the only issue I have, was devoted to not only setting the record straight, but setting the record, period, for a scene completely eclipsed by the country’s even greater musical heights reached in the post-punk era. 

Andrew Schmidt was the editor, and he’s explained the whole tale behind why he started the mag and its timeline here. Not surprisingly, this one surely moved the most units of any of his issues, coming as it did with a 23-track CD compilation of NZ punk called Move To Riot which I don’t seem to have around any longer. I remember reading Mysterex #2 on a beach on Cape Cod when we were visiting my brother in law that year, so if any of my P-Town or Sandwich crew found this CD 22 years ago, you know where to find me.

For me the big draw was and remains the feature on Shoes This High, helmed by Brent Heyward and creators of one of the great global post-punk 45s of all time. The long piece is full of Heyward reminiscences on the Wellington scene, and as accompanied by a timeline that explains the epochal events in said city, like David Bowie playing there in December 1978, and even “overseas records” by Pere Ubu, Captain Beefheart, Lou Reed and The Clash showing up in Wellington shops the same month. The article has got to be the pièce de résistance of Shoes This High scholarship, and I hope it finds its way to digital at some point, for the kids. 

Speaking of The Clash, there’s an oral history of their visit to New Zealand in 1982, including quotes from members of The Clash taken from elsewhere. Much of the rest of the magazine is spent delving deep into bands that Schmidt and his contributors saw as missing links and important bands in the development of the two island’s punk scenes: The Androidss; The Newmatics, and a little bit of the Suburban Reptiles. Them I know! Mark Brooks is interviewed extensively about the Christchurch scene, and that’s followed by an interview with an early group, Desperate Measures. Mysterex fanzine has got a yen for the forgotten and the misplaced, and that’s right in my proverbial wheelhouse when I’m, you know, reading a fanzine on a beach somewhere.

Oh, and then there’s a list at the end that goes right for my obsessive/cataloging/list-making jugular: “Thirteen Great Uncomped Kiwi Post-Punk Classics, 1980-83”, which for some reason includes a track from the amazing **** (Four Stars) compilation. Would you say that was “uncomped”? I’d say that’s really stretching the definition. Really well-put together fanzine with a righteous mission and execution.