You can really injure your cranium and dent your intelligence levels by spending too much time with 1981-84 US hardcore punk fanzines; and the later you are in that cycle, the more likely it is you’re also going to be reading about some truly atrocious hardcore bands. Brainstorm #1 has a great deal in common with We Got Power and Flipside, such as Southern California provenance, an admirable party-or-go-home mentality, an “everyone gets interviewed” approach and some of the most ill-considered record reviews of all time. Having come out later in the cycle, however – at least later than the Flipsides we’ve talked about here on Fanzine Hemorrhage – this late 1983 mag is obsessing over the thoroughly rotten end of the US hardcore explosion, and – with some mighty exceptions – over some of our nation’s least interesting bands. (I will admit it got worse in 1984 and even worser in 1985). 

I’m gathering that this was affiliated closely with Toxic Shock Records and the “Fartblossom Enterprises” crew, and it was published out of Pomona, CA deep in Southern California’s inland empire. Like the aforementioned SoCal heavy-hitter HC mags, Brainstorm tried to talk briefly with just about everyone that came through town, and during the summer of ‘83, that would include Articles of Faith, Government Issue, the F.U.s and “McRad”. McRad!! The short F.U.s piece is the best – this was the band totally blackballed by MRR for their right-wing My America album; I remember the pseudo-controversy well. Apparently at this time they’re in a bit of a tiff with The Freeze, in conjunction with their friends SS Decontrol as well; all three Boston bands would soon turn into heavy metal lunkheads. They’re asked, “Do you get along with Forced Exposure?” and reply, “Sort of. Jimmy’s a real strange guy. He doesn’t say much, but I get along with him. Everyone says ‘He never talks’ but when I go up to talk to him he’s fine”. 

Battalion of Saints are having some problems with the cops in San Diego and think “rock stars are fucked”, but otherwise don’t add a whole lot to the great conversation. Now MY favorite hardcore punk band from this era by a mile is Die Kreuzen, and they get a good chat in with the Brainstorm #1 posse. At this point, they’re in LA on tour but seriously considering staying in San Francisco when they get up there – “we’re gonna find an apartment or something up there – we haven’t decided if we’re gonna move up there”. Well, it didn’t happen. How might the course of hardcore history been altered if this landmark record had been recorded in SF rather than at Multi-Trac Studios in Michigan instead, and if Die Kreuzen had been routinely ripping it up at the Mab, On Broadway and The Farm over the next 3 years?? I ask myself, because I might have been able to see them play live in this alternate timeline; as it was, I saw them in 1988 at this show instead.

Locals that get some big coverage include Mad Parade, Iconoclast and Peace Corpse, and another one of my favorites, San Francisco’s D.R.I., get a golden chance to tell their truths as well. The interview is clearly so intense and full of incredible truths about parents, cops and Reagan that it’s going to be “continued next issue”. Unless someone tells me otherwise, I’m pretty sure Brainstorm was one and done, so we’ll never know, will we?