Posted on: December 18, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

A Beat Of Our Own #1 / $1 / :20 / 32M / [email protected] / 

This is the introductory issue of A Beat of Our Own, and it is pretty evident. Jared’s opening to the zzine says that ey has done zines in the past, but this issue just does not seem to have much in the way of hooks to catch onto readers. The collage style of this magazine means that there are random pictures poorly cut-out with a number of different common fonts (Times New Roman, Courier, Arial). The interviews that are in this magazine that focus on classic punk acts (The Detonators, Anti-Nowhere League, Dangerhouse Records), do well in informing readers about the act in question. However, when there is an interview with an act that is not thought of as traditionally punk (Jim Testa from Jersey Beat), there is a lot less specificity in the questions asked. Perhaps it is not knowing about your interview subject, but wouldn’t you just talk to or learn about the act in question before sitting down with them for an interview? The few advertisements in this issue of the magazine are not enough to make this magazine any less interesting; here’s to hoping that Jared can buckle down and maybe increase the amount of material in subsequent issues of the magazine. Perhaps shrinking the text so it does not read like a large print book would help, and an increased focus on some of the punk acts that may have slipped through the cracks of popular memory in the last few years. Keep giving this zine a chance.

Rating: 5.3/10

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