Posted on: October 17, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Verbicide comes forth with a very fiction-based approach for this issue. In fact, an entire section is devoted to the stuff. This brings me to one of the major philosophical debates that we in the zine world have; is it actually better to have blocks of material (for example, reviews and then stories) or are listeners kept interested when there are different types of pieces interspersed throughout the magazine. In this issue, the fiction will tend to get a little tiresome if an individual is not a fan of fiction, and the interviews will do much the same if the individual does not like the format. As usual, the layout is impressive; while there is not a dash of color in the magazine besides the covers, the pictures continually pop with life. There are pieces that are tremendously nuanced and introspective (the interview with Kim from Jawbox/Desoto Records), while there are pieces that are intensely direct and straight to the point (Abstract Fantasy). While there are advertisements in this issue, they are for truly independent bands. Besides their fans, who else has heard of Letlive, The Spookshow, or rarepunk.com? Everything about Verbicide shows a devotion to the material that is simply not shown by magazines that have a higher print run; when Spin or Rolling Stone covers something, it is maybe about a tenth as detailed as Verbicide’s treatment. Make sure to get a subscription so that Jackson does not need to truck as many copies of the zine to AMC this year; the subscription price is well worth it given the material present.

Rating: 7.4/10

[JMcQ]

Verbicide #15 / $3.95 / 76M / 1:00 / http://www.scissorpress.com / [email protected] / Reviewed 31 December 2005

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