Well this cover really makes you wanna kick out the fuckin’ jamz, doesn’t it? Talk Talk was a frequently-published, late 70s/early 80s “Midwest American Rock and Reggae Magazine” from Lawrence, KS. Lawrence gathered a bit of a counterculture halo effect over the years by being a cool college town plopped in the middle of Kansas, and particularly because William S Burroughs spent some quality time there. I’ve been to Lawrence a couple of times, and frankly, I loved the place. Easily one of the most liveable places in this country, vibrant & safe and with mostly decent weather, as long as you’re cool with being surrounded by college kids and cornfields and with having Kansas City as your nearest metropolis. 

That’s maybe easier to say now than it was in 1981, a time in which records, news and trends moved much more slowly, particularly from the coasts to the dead-center of Midwest USA. Talk Talk Vol. 3 No. 2 has the feel of a place partially locked out of the cutting edge, such as it was, while being one still dying to take part regardless. You get this vibe sometimes in fanzines outside of NY, LA, SF and Chicago. They know that something’s happening, just that it’s somewhere else, and their ability to successfully separate wheat from chaff is often therefore a bit limited. 

Like the record reviews in this one: Adam and The Ants and Black Flag are given roughly equivalent milquetoast reviews; in Black Flag’s case, for Damaged, “…Once you listen to their latest release, you might not really want to see them. Granted, this type of music is not for everyone.” That’s typical of the journalistic standards of most of the writing, but I definitely got a laugh out of the fact that the editor, Bill Rich, clearly laid down the law of the use of contractions. There’s nary a “don’t” nor a “can’t” nor a “let’s” anywhere in Talk Talk, but rather, “Let us”, “cannot” and so on. Strunk and White, call your office!

Yet there’s still a real “college try” going on here to build a scene, and that’s worth admiring. Plenty of local bands are covered, including one I know and like: Get Smart!. I also dig the equivalent coverage given to reggae, even dub, such as Augustus Pablo’s Rockers Meet King Tubbys in a Firehouse, about which Hill says, “These people seem to meet everywhere”. I guess flexis were included with later issues; flexidiscs were huge in 1981, but the one from Abuse here seems to have gone missing in my copy. Thanks to ZNZ for including this as a special bonus in a shipment to me; he has a way of doing that, I’ve noticed, so you might wanna insist on some left-field or middle-of-America bonus next time you place an order there.