Rag Mag 39
What's up punks? Hope everyone is hanging in there as the bloodthirsty butchers keep pushing us into war. Cover photo this issue is from the new Ferocious X record, a garanterat mangel LP by these longtime Osaka noise punks. Their song peace or annihilation (sung in swedish like true rapunk) sums up my worldview right now.
This week we have a timely film review of Top Secret! from Wasteland Chick, a message from Coco, the fight report with Chessy Renee, new flash from Salty Dave, and Creature's Double Feature. Soundtrack to this issue featuring The Drags - Stop Rock and Roll LP (total punk just reissued there records which made me pull this one out. Total 90s classic with my favorite factoid being the bass player would go on to run blackjack records and be in monoshock - two monumentally important bands/labels in my personal music exploration), Sivilisaatio - El Luovuteta Koskaan LP, Destruxion Amerika - Gritos Nortenos - LP, The Burnt - Where's my Head? LP (mutha records!), Bill Orcutt - Music in Continuous Motion LP (talk about a zoner), The Sleeveens - s/t LP (finally checking this out and hope I can catch their tour), plus a bunch of 7"s with Harry Pussy - Frog 7", Radiation Nation / Toxic Drunks - split 7" (which is also just harry pussy - goddamn what a band) ,Venom P. Stinger - Walking About (ripping noise rock from Mick Turner and Jim White of the dirty three), Bullets for Pussy - Desolation Boulevard (ex-drunks with guns and the b-side is a boot of the first drunks 7" for an easy cheap grip), The Fells - I don't need you, Ignorantes new 7", Viletones - Screaming Fist, Padlock - Wind Blowing You - 7", and the Australian classic X - Hate City. Punk is the best!
Hit us up at ragmagclub@proton.me with flyers, art, feedback, column idea, or just to say hi and let's talk about PUNK! We archived columns and music reviews on the new site (rag-mag.ghost.io), so check it out.
Salty Dave
New McFever Dream flash from Salty Dave, available to be tattooed. Hit him up via DM @saltyDave73 or email saltydave73@yahoo.com
Coco
I’ve been reflecting a lot about the street queens lately as our last show approached. On Saturday when we played our “ goodbye for now” show I felt like I was having an out of body experience the whole time. I love being on stage, this time was different. I felt like I was floating above, watching it with the crowd. Nearing the end of our set Marty was like “do you wanna say something for our last song ?” Our last song ? Holy shit? I’m about to sing our last song ? What do I do after this ?
It's been a few days and after running on full adrenaline I'm crashing. I’m being hit with the sadness of a band taking a break or ending ( for the time being). I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to me , to be a street queen. 14 plus years is a long time , it's hard for me to imagine not having an upcoming show.
I love being on stage - I LOVE singing in a band. Nothing has felt freer to me. I remember years ago in my old band Gone Bad someone said I was putting on a persona on stage. And I was like no, I’m just me. If I acted like that 24-7 I’d be a nightmare but it's not an act , it's how I feel , it's who I am.
During the pandemic when we couldn’t play shows or practice or be near loved ones like most people I was bouncing off the walls. Stress of covid , dying family members depression ect ect… My biggest outlet - playing live music - off limits for the unforeseeable future. I remember talking to long time friend and Queenie Bobby Abraham about just how crazy I felt . He said something that had never really occurred to me before. Bobby Abraham said “I think being in a band / playing music is really tied to your mental health , you need it”. I had never thought of it that way.
Being in the street queens was truly saving my life . It kept me sane, it kept me grounded. It was this great artistic outlet joining together music, art, my friends and yes exercise.
Jumping around on stage and screaming is a feeling like no other . But the other part of that is playing with people you love. Goofing off .Trying to crack each other up on stage or whatever wacky practice space you’re in. Its coming into a practice space with water coming out of the ceiling and laughing at all the cockroaches running. Or hiding in your practice space quietly while your musical neighbor threatens to come back with a gun. ( He did not threaten us, it was him and another dude's beef. We happily stayed out of it :) )Or maybe it's a special moment of seeing your other practice space neighbors “ art studio” but it's actually a closet with a red sox banner and a poster of a girl's butt. These are bonding moments.
I LOVE BEING IN A BAND. It's coming up with news songs or video ideas. It's Sam constantly threatening to play a limp bizkit riff ( Sam please don’t). I took the street queens seriously because I love music but I took being silly pretty seriously too.
There have been many queens over the years but I think being able to laugh is one of the biggest common threads throughout the band and one of my favorite parts of it. I can’t say who the funniest Queen is ( Reba ) because everyone brought something to the table.
It's hard for me to truly put into words how much this band means to me. I’ve changed so much and grown with it over the years. Like I said it's a massive part of me . I’ve had people come up to me like “do you sing in this band ?” Beaming proudly I’m like oh yea! And the response is like “oh you made a phone call on my friends phone in the set” or “interrupted my first date” or “ you crawled all over me” whoops but OH - the memories!
One time a dude walked in mid set and I made an announcement he was my father and much to this strangers dismay people kept asking him about being my Dad. It was visibly annoying him because to be fair he walked into the bar having no clue what was happening. But at the end of the set he said as a Dad he should buy me a congratulatory beer for a job well done. Thanks fake Dad! Also shout out to all the people I’ve crawled on over the years and who have carried me on their shoulders! The last time we played at Ralph’s I yelled so loud I peed my pants ( and by pants the underwear I was wearing) and then ended up climbing on Joe Packards shoulders and later admitted he may have gotten pee on him . I’m sure it was fine. So thanks to all those brave and buff souls over the years that hoisted me up , or made sure the mic cord didn’t get tangled.
And who could forget about all the queens ? I fucking LOVE the queens . We’ve done so much cool shit over the years. Played so many fun shows, had so many laughs. I’m crying just thinking of it.
The queens are forever for the freaks and weirdos.
Our final song we all played together was “A- wella - wella” the last verse being ‘ THIS AIN’T AINT NO DREAM / I AM A STREET QUEEN / THIS AINT AINT NO DREAM / I AM A STREET QUUUUUEEEEN”. I think that sums it up except playing in the queens has also been a dream come true. See you freaks at the reunion show.
QUEENS 4 LIFE .
Thanks for listening to our tunes. We’ll be back
XXX Coco
Shout out to the royal queen roster:
Scram Mulligan , Bobby Abraham , Marty the Pool Boy , Reba Mcentire , Hondo , Frank the summer Queen , Randy Sadoway , Mel Vacation
Photo by Travis Lynn
Photo by Travis Lynn
Photo by Amy Chilton
Wasteland Chick
*Cutely plays an aggressive laugh track to ruin the joke* Greetings and Salutations, fellow Wasteland Chicks! Welcome back to the not-at-all gone for long movie reviews! Again, so sorry to delay the Coconut Shrimp story, but the motivation has not returned! My dearest apologies!! Anyway, today we’ll be reviewing the 1984 Val Kilmer classic “Top Secret!”, which immediately earns 5 points from me because it has Val Kilmer in a leather jacket singing. Let me go off topic here for a second
- I just love how this movie falls into the genre of “comedy that doesn’t make sense because it’s meant to not make sense”, like “Better Off Dead” or “Real Genius” (which I might definitely review later) where it’s funny with plot but you don’t have to think too hard about it! ANYWAY FOR THE THIRD TIME, the general plot of this movie is awesome but I would rather review some highlights that I found enjoyable because I am very tired, but I like that the movie starts with the absolute BANGER start of German enemy base discussing their evil plans, and set up the main hero of the movie by playing the BANGER record of “Skeet Surfin’” by Val- I MEAN Nick Rivers! We get a very nice music-video montage of what “skeet surfing” is, and my favorite part of this is when one of the skeet surfers shoots down a plane, and then a very intentionally grainy and edited in footage of a plane just plays on screen and then crashing sound effects are heard. Any, the scene moves on as Nick is taken to Germany with his agent to perform a show, and rides on a train in a very funny sequence that includes my personal favorite of Val Kilmer painting a picture of the moving trees outside of the train with a nice still city in the background (which is honestly a good art style/ art type). Then, we learn about the resistance (that most likely is purposely never explained) and its common but deadly meeting place of a Howard Johnson’s. Next, we meet Hillary!, who is played by the lovely Lucy Guttridge and delivers the hilarious line of “I know a little German, he’s sitting over there!”, and who hits it off with Nick over melting glasses of 84 Ripple Blanc. Then, Nick mistakenly thinks he needs to sing at this dinner over this other German guy and sings “Tutti Fruiti” by Little Richard for some reason and does an incredible performance, and Hillary mysteriously vanishes with the German cops just as Nick’s flaming hog balls meal arrives (that is weird even to type out).
Then, skipping ahead a way bit, Nick ends up tortured in a segment where he dreams he’s back at school- REAL GENIUS FORESHADOWING (Real Genius came out the year after this movie)!! Anyway, then Nick heads to his actual show and performs awesomely of course, and has a legitimately nice-ish interaction with this young fan girl before she passes out on stage, then sings a really slow sad-ish song that is played comically as Nick spawns random props onto the stage! Jumpin’ ahead a bit more, Nick and Hillary reunite in front of a very funny visual gag and head out to find the other members of the rebellion, including Nigel, a man Hillary met when she was abandoned on a grocery-store stocked planned community island, and a bunch of guys with random French names like ~quaSONT~ and Deja ~View~ (wait, why French names if their in Germany? Am I missing something?). We also learn of Nick’s tragic past of his mother being abandoned in a Macy’s and being fed fucking soup and bread by some cosmetics ladies, which for some reason is the funniest thing in this scene/movie for me to think about!
Whatever, this review is taking ten years 😵💫, let’s SPEEDRUN!: (imagine me saying this in a comedic and rushed funny voice) The guys in the revolution make a plan to take over the enemies and try to find who’s the traitor in their group based on messenger pigeons, and in response to be questioned, Nick sings a song (of course) and somehow drills into the floor of the restaurant while dancing and hilariously but logically has to come back in through the front door, and the group agrees he can be trusted. Then, the rebellion makes their plan that iconically involves going into that cow suit that was definitely just a real cow the movie guys put boots and paint on for exterior shots, and starts doing the things, then it turns out that NIGEL was the traitor the whole time!, then a Ford Pinto explodes- why, I don’t know, and this leads to Nigel kidnapping Hillary and Nick going off after her and fighting Nigel. BUT, during this fight, the two go under WATER to fight and have a FULL ON UNDERWATER SALOON FIGHT that has a BARTENDER and group of COWBOYS who give Nick a cowboy hat after the whole thing is over… AND THEN MITCH, JORDAN, AND ICK PUT SLEEPING GAS IN KENT’S ROOM TO KNOCK HIM OUT SO THEY CAN PUT A RECORDING DEVICE IN HIS BRACES TO TRICK HIM INTO THINKING GOD IS TELLING HIM NOT TO SLEEP NAKED IN JELL-O SO THEY CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT HATHAWAY DID TO THE LASER! Oops, different movie but as amazingly insane as this ending sounds, anyway, Nigel is defeated, Nick and Hillary go to America with Hillary’s father, I probably skipped over a lot of shit, and this review is 8 google doc pages long so see you later!
Sincerely, Wasteland Chick
The Fight Report by Chessy Renee
Tired Tired Tired of the BULLLSHITTT
Sup punks!?! Ohhh brother, here comes the fight report - I haven’t been doing enough focussed fighting this week - just fighting my allergies and punching at the sky. One thing I heard about this week - I found out about a bill that has advanced through the house of representative in Massachusetts and I think it kinda SUCKS! Read here to hear some opinions against it - or read the bill here. Basically, if it passed then all kids under the age of 14 or 15 would be kicked off of social media - also in order to ensure YOUR not a kid under that age, they are gonna start asking everyone their ages on social media. From what I read, it doesn’t specify what social media - though we probably all know the big offenders.
I’m not into surveillance, so I’m gonna go be the bug in my senators ears so that they kick this shit to the curb. Shut down the social media sites before you surveil those using them. And if idiot adults can be on social media, idiot kids should be able to too. I know, I was one… and maybe still am!!! Heyyy, don’t judge me.
Anyway, I’m gonna go fuck off - but here are some fights for you to get into:: Support a Union - like Starbucks United
Join the Quakers to talk peace and shit? - #2 on this list I’m gonna try to make a meeting soon to check out what they are getting into to
Get involved with feeding your neighbors - check out Food Not Bombs, Community Fridges in your area, or the Greater Boston Food Bank.
Check out the events with Boston Jewish Voices for Peace
Keep at it, sucker. TTFN.
The world keeps going and things are hectic, so I need to remember to slow down and take time to enjoy things in life. For this week's double feature, i wanted to get into some of the zines and comics that have helped keep me sane lately as the world falls apart.
колхоз Fanzine no. 1 (The Stalin) - Classic old-school fanzine that is a collection of photos, flyers, tour dates, review, ads, interviews of The Stalin. If you love the stalin (and who can resist the power of Romanticist), this fucking rules. 50 pages, not a ton of writing in english, but I've spent hours just looking at all the cool collected emphemera in here. And that tour/show list is fucking nuts, they played constantly! Really cool and hope to see some other zines from whoever made these. I think sorry state is still carrying these.
I've Got a Date with The Devil zine - Cool new zine from the No Norms Records camp in Boston with a nice mix of record reviews, current immigrant stories from the US, essays, excellent photography (bands and otherwise). Pretty slick looking zine (guessing pro-printed) and hope they do some more. Does exactly what a current fanzine should and turned me onto a bunch of new records and bands to check out.
NO NORMS RECORDS
Since I spend so much of my time listening to records, I'm always feeling totally lost when it comes to comics as so much stuff comes out and I can never keep up, but who cares because they aren't less fun if you read them later. Goner Records just put out Reading is Tight! - by Jeff Mahannah a collection of comics he has been doing on the gram. Totally gross and over the top, so offensive you can only laugh. This shit is sick (and as mittens said - so many dicks), but I havent laughed harder in awhile. Selling point for me is that I put it on the couch to read and Mittens sat down, looked at it, and then read the whole damn thing before I had a chance to, laughing the whole time. Also, my buddy Simon Whitepages gave me the latest issue of The Jungle, a cool monkey/biker gang hybrid from Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely, some of the folks who brought you Henry and Glenn Forever a decade back. I'm a sucker for biker gang movies and monkey movies, so this shit is right up my alley. I love that I dropped in at issue 3 and it still works, this is why comic books rule. When we went to Cambridge a couple weeks ago, we stopped by Million Year Picnic (still the best and almost the last of the harvard square of my 20s left standing). I finally picked up the Nancy Wins at Friendship collection because it's nancy. It's not classic nancy, but the rules for the strip remain mostly in place and it's just good. There's apparently a new person doing Nancy now, so I gotta step up and check that out already. I finally checked out Werewolf Jones & Sons by Simon Hanselmann and Josh Pettinger. I've seen the name and books around for years now (sitting on Cory's shelf, and he knows his wolfmen and comic books!), but finally pulled the trigger. This shit is so good. Dark, funny, fucked up stories and I love their style. Hit me up with comic recommendations! Records of the Week
First up this week is Sewer Baby Eaten by Worms by Philly's Early Grave. Cool early 80s USHC sounds mixed with lyrics (and a touch of metallic thrash) reminiscent of The Accused. With the gbh reference outta the way and killer artwork, really feeling this one right now. Could totally see this band being one of the standouts on those Noise from Nowhere comps. Total ripper!
B
Next up is Ser Ut Som Djävulen (looks like the devil), the first LP from Osaka's Ferocious X, who have been around for over 25 years. Total noise punk/mangel from these Japanese punks who go so far to show their love of the rapunk they sing in Swedish. Trebly blown out noise overtop, guitars like chainsaws, rubber band bass, gallopin, pounding drums, and growled vocals screaming for peace in our insane world. Feels like this record dropped right as the world is headed back towards total war, fuck. Blast this one loud!
Soul Song of the Day
I watched a mid-80s movie called 52 Pickup last week (the stars aligned with that one - John Frankenheimer directing an Elmore Leonard script/book, starring Roy Scheider, and produced by The Cannon Group. Primo LA sleaze and Roy Scheider's wife is played by Ann Margret, which reminded me to pull out this cool early r&b number from a young Ann Margret, I just don't understand. Totally fits my watch of the movie because I just dont understand how Ann Margret isn't enough for Roy Scheider, haha. this one is T U F F
And since I can never recommend enough music, Coco's solo project Devil Honey just dropped a new track today. Check it out, cool post-punk vibes on this one and I've been hitting repeat as put the finishing touches on this issue.
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That's it for this week's Rag Mag. Here's some flyers and keep sending stuff in (ragmagclub@proton.me).
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