Posted on: April 25, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0


The New Scheme #8 (Free, Stuart Anderson, PO Box 19873, Boulder, CO 80308) My my, how The New Scheme has grown up. I distribute the magazines around my college, and I usually don’t even get to read them. So, my last experience with The New Scheme was around a year ago, and I was sent #8 for review by Jim. Much smaller in page count than the prior issues, The New Scheme has really tuned itself up and is putting out much higher quality pieces. Incorporating a very informative opinion section, The New Scheme tackles the IRS, the hypocrisy in the activist scene, and the hypocrisy of the American government in the handling of Afghanistan. In fact, the entire magazine has much more of a political slant that I remember it having, also reaching into the Milemaker interview, with a line of questioning that is about the band playing in front of the Capitol. Other interviews focus pretty heavily on the Richmond, VA scene (which is odd, since The New Scheme is based out of Colorado), with pieces on Light the Fuse and Run and Denali. The review section is pretty approachable, with some larger market CDs being reviewed. Pretty odd for a zine these days, as each individual zinester tries to go and out-underground each other in the bands they interview and the CDs they review. While they are not the best music-oriented zine out there, there has been considerable improvement since I read TNS the last time. Lets’ hope that the rate of improvement improves for TNS, and #13 will be something exemplary.

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