Posted on: February 24, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Jaded in Chicago #16 / $2.00 / 40M / http://www.jadedinchicago.com / Jaded in Chicago, PO Box 330, Western Springs, IL 60558 /

Jaded in Chicago has the feel of a major-print run publication, but the writing and price of a small, intimate ‘zine. There are a large number of advertisements for this issue, and I would put the ad/material ratio at about 1:1, but the fact is the material contained within is worthwhile enough to merit flipping through a few pages of ads. In this issue, which is a little dated coming after November’s election, the focus in on Fat Mike, eir politcs and eir work on both punkvoter.com and the Rock Against Bush sampler. While I disagree with their claim that Matchbook Romance is “very talented”, something that is “very talented” would have to be their writing, exemplified most beautifully in the piece about “Taking a Chance on a Random Band”. In the aforementioned piece, Pete Grey talks about eir cynicism tempered by years of going to shows, “the more I hear, the harder I am to impress” and the ability of one band, who may not ever get the recognition they deserve moving eir so much by a simple performance.The layout is Spartan but effective – a normal typefont mixing alongside a related picture, and a different layout here and there. By far the most interesting in the issue, the retro feel of The Exit interview’s layout starts off this issue strong and the writing keeps a reader’s nose firmly in the book. Focused heavily on music, Jaded in Chicago’s strength comes in the incorporation of other subjects, keeping the reader interested while not being too scattered in subject to provide for a coherent read.

Rating: 6.9/10

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