Rag Mag 40

What's up punks? Weather is warming up and the punks are coming out to play. Caught (and missed) a bunch of shows in the past two weeks and people keep sending more flyers in. The world is hell, but punk rules. Speaking of, Rag Mag is throwing another party/flea market/food drive at Myrtle at the end of May, so hope to see you there! This week we have Film Freak with Coco A Go-Go, Creature on the Road The Elizabeth's Run Part 8 by Mr. Mittens, Hooked on Sonics with Velvet Deluxxx, Wasteland Chick, the Fight Report with Chessy Renee, and Creature's Double Feature.

Also, if you're in Allston, go to the model Tuesday night to catch brainwash victims and cigarette camp for an early show, brainwash victims ruled in providence last night!

Soundtrack to this issue: Spent most of last two weeks working on mixing my band's demo tape, so I felt inspired to pull out a bunch of tapes to put together this week's issue: Early Grave - Winter Promo, Sticker Shock - Free Food! No Disco! Cassette promo, Massacre System - demo, Whyte Lipstick - Deadbeat, Funerales Cristo Rey - Soledad, Ultimatum -demo, Uniformed Service - demo, Corpse Gas - Promo 2025, Funerales Cristo Rey - s/t, and Pledge Pins - We Don't Mind Dancin'.

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.

Here's a teaser for Gossip Collar's new single off their upcoming album "Eaten of Worms". Directed by the one and only Coco Roy.

Whats up my film freakazoids! I hope through it all everyone is getting to enjoy the sunshine and feels some hope with the sprouting of flowers. Though the allergies kill me this time of year , it honestly just feels so good to see the sun again and have the trees blooming. Speaking of pops of color I just got back some LomoChrome Turquoise 35MM film. It's pretty wild! I’ve shot other colors but never this.  Its pretty funny seeing most everyone turn into a smurf on this film . This roll mostly consists of two of my favorite things - my friends and rock n roll shows. Actually to be honest this roll spans multiple shows! What can I say I love my local scene . Picasso had a blue phase , maybe I’m entering mine ? I guess time will tell - xoxoxo Coco

Travis and Scott , Halloween 2025 , Myrtle , East Providence , RI , 35mm , 2025

It's hard to believe I met these two over 20 years ago when I was their teaching assistant at Mass Art. As you can see from this photo my pupils have grown up to be fine , well behaved young men.  This honestly is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken in a minute. Mainly cause I love photos you can HEAR. And if you know Travis you can hear this. I took this at the annual Halloween party I throw at Myrtle, aka one of my favorite nights of the year. Travis is also a great photographer so its fun to catch him on the other side of the camera. If you can’t tell from this photo Scott and Travis are best friends.

Mittens , the birthday Queen , Providence, RI , 2026, 35mm

I love Mittens so much! She is truly one of the coolest people I’ve ever met.  For her Birthday her band “ Tigers on Vaseline” played in her and Creature’s basement and here she is pictured in her studio having a post show smoke. I just thought she looked so cool I had to snap a pic. Sarah is an amazing painter and I could just hang in her studio forever. You ever go in another artist’s studio and never wanna leave? Thats how I felt hanging in hers.

Blue Angels , Midway cafe, Jamaica Plain , 35mm , 2026

I love all these people in this photo. This is from the last Street Queens show when I was like fuck ! I need to take photos to remember the night!

Some of my favorite photos are group shots at bars. Everyone's feeling a little loose, having fun , there's neon sparkling in the background. What more can you want?

Orange whip ? Or blue whip ? Myrtle, E. Providence, RI , 35mm, 2025

This photo came out a little darker than I hoped , but I think it add to the spookiness. I love how Kelley almost disappears in her all black costume and Cory’s hair is totally eclipsing his face. The lights somehow just landed on the vampire head to create a creature floating in the back.

I can’t wait for this years halloween party!

Creature on the Road - The Elizabeth's Run Part 8 by Mr. Mittens

I faced both women, the sun was starting to set somewhere far behind them, sprays of pink and purple shot above the clouds. I couldn’t help but be fascinated by their newest dilemma, and honestly I had nowhere else to go but back to the depot and then back to my room above the garage. I could order all the washing powder, fans and noodle cups I wanted tomorrow, hell maybe I could even finagle myself a better deal with the sisters and still get my credits if I just lingered a bit longer at their trailer. 

“Ok, I sighed “but I want 10 more credits in addition to what you owe me and a bottle of vodka for my troubles.” 

The sisters squirmed and tilted their parasols covering their faces and any bit of conversation I might be able to pick up. It was now 5:57, I could hear the seconds ticking away as they deliberated. 

“Fine” I shouted loud enough to make their shoulders jump. “I guess you don’t need me that badly.” I let the last word hang in the air hoping to cinch this deal. Hell with 10 extra credits and a bottle of vodka I could spend a few weeks in clean clothes and my belly full. The vodka alone would promise me a few good nights before I had to scrounge up some powders or old pills from my next job. The sisters threw down their parasols dramatically letting them twirl in the wind before falling flat in the sand. 

“Deal” they exclaimed, reaching for my digital slip. I felt it vibrate in my hands, and heard the lovely little “ping, ping, ping” of credits being loaded into my account. The vodka would have to wait I suppose until my help was no longer needed. 

“We have to go mucking,” Elizabeth 1 said, zipping up her rubber wading overalls. She threw a pair at me and urged me to do the same. Elizabeth 2 stood on the broken steps that led to the trailer door and waved a bottle of vodka at me shaking it like a snow globe. 

“You’re not coming with us? I asked, stuffing my feet into the boot part of the overalls. She shook her head, and planted herself firmly on the steps. 

“No she hates going mucking,” said Elizabeth 1. “Beside you’ve got on her pair of waders”. 

“Fair enough, lead the way young lady.” I didn’t need flattery at this stage, but I found that it was so ingrained in my speech at this point that most of the time, I had no way of turning it off. It wasn’t even for transactional reasons, I suppose that if anything it created a comforting barrier of fakeness between me and the clients. Hell it was a comforting barrier between me and humanity as a whole.

“We need to go really far out” Elizabeth 1 said, her voice getting harsher and harsher as we waded farther and farther out into the spoiled fish smelling clump of wet earth that now divided the ocean from the rest of the world. The ground out here was like walking on pudding, and each step became heavier and heavier. I had never really gone mucking before, though I knew enough locals around here that did it regularly. It was amazing what you could find stuck out here beneath jagged bits of rock and the carcasses of old boats. Engine parts and fuel tanks are the main goal, but really anything can be found if you dig hard enough. Bug claims that he once found a complete set of silverware still locked in its barnacle covered metal case. Honestly, I believe him, if the world has taught me anything, it’s that humans love throwing away anything useful, especially where it doesn’t belong. 

We trudged slowly, getting closer and closer to the sound of the ocean. I lifted my nose enjoying the smell of actual salt carried by the wind. The sun was low enough to make me sweat inside my rubber prison, but it was glorious to feel so close to the water. Elizabeth 1 was steps ahead of me, she waded through this sludge like a professional. Even when her boots became stuck, she managed to slowly lift her feet one at a time, allowing the sand to slowly release her. Finally, she stopped and turned waving for me to catch up to her. 

“It’s here.” she shouted, her voice was low and steady now, all of the sing song lilt and baby talk had been replaced with what I assumed was her regular speaking voice. It was a bit jarring, as though she’d aged 20 years since leaving the shore. 

“I marked it with this little plastic marker,” she bent down and pointed at a yellow painted bottle lid she’d pressed down into the muck. “I actually had to rebury it when we spotted it a couple days ago, my sister has sharp eyes, but her strength is withering I think. We couldn’t pull it out of the muck you see, but I think with your help we can free it and carry it home.” 

I bent down, my rubber coated knees touching the ground. I could see the pile of seaweed and earth that had been shoved over top of the find, the sisters had been careful to conceal it, without making a noticeable hill from far away. Elizabeth 1 took a small trowel from her overall pocket and began excavating her treasure. She handed me a large spoon from her breast pocket and silently we began to dig.

Wasteland Chick

Yummy *crunching noises*. Greetings and Salutations, fellow Wasteland Chicks. Welcome back to another music review from your local almost-13-year-old. Yes, that’s right, it’s almost my birfday!!! Yippee!! Just two weeks until the really long Heathers review, yay! Anyways, today we’ll be tackling with a ten-pound metal door the song “Never Shut Up Again” from my personal least favorite version of my beloved Heathers The Musical, Heathers West End. Let’s start with the rhythm and melody, which I give an 8 out of ten. I like the riveting pop beats and the overall upbeat and triumphant feel of the song, which really represents Heather Duke happily and finally rising to power in the wake of Heather Chandler’s death. Honestly, it is cool but kind of disturbing that Heather Duke could only rise after Heather C literally died, like :0! Anyway, next let’s move on to the lyrics, which I give a 8.8 out of ten!

I really enjoy how Heather Duke callously describes Heather C’s “suicide”, showing how she views it just in the way J.D. thought: Eating it up with a spoon and using it to gain their own favors. I also really like the rising of the beat and the vocal crescendo Heather D does her transition into red to represent her replacing Heather Chandler, which is also AMAZING on a theatrical level! Like, in proshots of this, the ensemble students gather around Heather D as she star poses and her green clothes get ripped off (not like that lol) to reveal her new red outfit! Sadly, her sock color does not usually change, but WHATEVER! However (so many evers), the song is kinda not amazing. The lyrics and overall song, while having some cool stuff like the lyrics “My silence made me strong” and “Now I am the flag you pledge allegiance to”, are somewhat muddled.

Now, warning, this may contain some Heathers West End bashing as I really don’t like this version even though it did some good things, but they decided to combine Heather D’s original reprise rise song “Blue Reprise” into this solo, which not only breaks Heather D’s character-accurate trend of only doing reprises, but also unless you want to hear a weirdly off-key “Sword-fight in her mouth” underneath a power ballad, don’t. Just-Just don’t with this song. Overall, I give this song a 8 out of ten! The rhythm and melody are fun and represent what is happening on stage, and the lyrics are kind of muddled in with “Blue Reprise” but are honestly pretty good! Remember fellow Wasteland Chicks, real life sucks losers dry, if you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly! Bye!

Sincerely, Wasteland Chick (RagMag party’s in a month!)

Whats up my sonic freaks ? This week we took our show sonic show on the road! Whyte Lipstick had a show in Brooklyn playing with the Sleeveens , Mala Vista, and Shop Talk. It was a whirlwind trip but SO FUN. I love Brooklyn. Thank you Jenny Thunders for putting such a fun event together and for Main Drag for hosting. 

All the bands brought it and I was sliding on stage cause I was sweating and rockin so much.  Sleeveens are currently on tour so check out if they’re coming to your town! Also buy their record, it's so good! Mala Vista is also going on tour! Don’t miss these rock n rollers! I think Shop Talk just got back from tour so sorry folks -  make sure to check them out when they travel again.

Speaking of touring , Josephine Network is currently on the road and stopped by Deep Cuts this week. I ran down there to check out the sights and sounds . All the bands did NOT disappoint . Have a good week and go out and support your local scene baby — Velvet Deluxxx

Whats better than a venue that serves killer sandwiches, sells records , has pinball and has cool shows? LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU THINK OF IT! I love Deep Cuts and am so grateful we have a cool venue like this in our city. So , I jump at the chance to go there any time I band I love is playing. Thursday night was just that show!

Kicking off the night we have the Puke Pisstols. Its kinda like a all star team of a band with Hilken , Andy California and Johnny and Simon who are in too many bands to list. I love this band so much. They fucking rip and play loud , dirty rock n roll. I love seeing Andy and Hilken play guitar off each other and trade off on vocals. One of my favorite things about seeing live music is see people perform. Like really perform move around make you sweat by watching them. Puke Pisstols does that. Go check them out!

You can hear them on bandcamp here:

https://themonsieurs.bandcamp.com/album/puke-pisstols-the-lost-recordings

Up Next we had the Kathy Snax Band.  She bounces between playing solo and a full band and I realized that night I’d never seen the full ensemble. Its always cool seeing a solo artist expand  their sound for a live setting. Normally more dream poppy , the added instruments gave it a more pop rock sound. They even covered the Go-Go’s which was really fun. Kathy is in a million bands but you can check out her solo act here:

https://kathysnax.bandcamp.com/music

Now we’re on to our headliner : JOSEPHINE NETWORK ! AH! They were so good!! I was dancing the whole time. One thing I love about going to shows is when you can tell the band is having fun on stage , and they were definitely having fun. Josephine was shredding with a smile on her face the whole time and it was contagious. They’re music is a mix of nyc Rock N’ Roll and glam rock and I fucking love it. I think they even opened the show by introducing themselves followed by “ we love Rock N’ Roll” and I was like YESSSSSSS MEEEEEE TOOOOO - we all do! If you don’t why the fuck are you here??????? I love shows that leave me smiling wanting more . They’re on the road so be sure to check them out if they’re in your area.

Till then you can check them out here:

https://josephinenetwork.bandcamp.com/album/hooked

Well thats my review. But before I go I wanted to share some music from the Whyte Lipsticks NYC show.

Heres where you can check out all those bands. See you in the crowd!

Sleeveens

https://thesleeveens.bandcamp.com/

Mala Vista

https://malavista.bandcamp.com/

Shop Talk

https://shoptalk.bandcamp.com/music

Whyte Lipstick

https://whytelipstick.bandcamp.com/album/deadbeat-2

The Fight Report by Chessy Renee

Truth and reconciliation - what in the fuck would T***p know about it?

Yo dudes… America is a fucking trip, isn’t it? The shit just keeps coming. WELL - the fight report finds itself this week as a micro version of itself. Keeping it short, and keeping it thoughtful.

What I implore of you today is to read the links below about the concept and practice of truth and reconciliation. I ask this because I just read (granted very late in the game) that when Trump was running for re-election he made a whole proposal painting the building blocks of fascism as the kind of “truth and reconciliation” the US needs. He was completely misconstruing what the goal and process of truth and reconciliation - NOT A SURPRISE obvi - but rage bait for sure.

I remember learning about the origins of TRC in South Africa, as a practice to address the interpersonal atrocities that occurred during apartheid there. I feel like not enough people know about these processes, especially in the U.S. and especially also considering South Africa developed their apartheid system after looking at and learning from America’s system of chattel slavery. So maybe there is something… or maybe there are lots of things that we can learn from TRC in way of healing from the types of atrocities and social degradation that gets baked into our culture and society due to political powers beyond our individual control.

I’ve collected these links below — get into ‘em:     

TRC / Truth and Reconciliation Committee, South Africa

American Constitution Society

Commission on Racial Equity of NYC

Wabanaki Reach, Maine

Association of Research Libraries

With that, I leave you punks with the usual message: go out there and fight for something important - what are you waiting for?

Shows happening all over the place and the weather getting warmer is helping keep my spirits up as we live in this insane world. I got to spend a nice day with Insect World, the other guitarist in our band Tigers on Vaseline, mixing our demo tape and I'm psyched on how it turned out. Demo tapes coming soon. Anyways, let's jump right into it this week. Saw a bunch of bands the last two weeks and I fucking love punk.

The Sleeveens / Adult Learners / Lithophones - Live at Deep Cuts in Medford, MA. I drove the nearly hour and a half trip up after work for a 3 band Thursday night show at a cool space in Medford called Deep Cuts - a brewery, pinball, record store, restaurant, venue. First time there and it was a nice chill spot. Lithophones (ex tampoffs, wongs, Tokyo electron) started the show off with a fast set of garage punk rippers. Always a pleasure to see Joe beat the traps and sing. Heard a rumor they recorded something recently so hoping to hear it soon. Adult Learners were up next and had Tyler from Pledge Pins filling in on guitar. Fun set of their catchy power poppy, garagey punk sounds and other than some guy complaining about Kathleen's vocals being a little low in the mix, they sounded great to me. Stoked for their upcoming 7". Finally, The Sleeveens took the stage. I had heard the name but hadn't checked them out until a few weeks ago (thanks to Simon/Kathleen from adult learners for recommending). The hype sticker says good vibrations sounds like protect, rudi and outcasts, but to my ears they are more pub rock like clive culbertson or something, but who gives a shit cuz all that music rules. The lead singer/guitarist is from Dublin and the rest of the band is based out of Nashville, so glad I was able to catch them live. Killer set and played a lot of songs off their new album National Anthem that isn't officially out yet. The band is killer (bass player looks like the most bass player ever and fucking ruled) and the song writing is top notch. Catchy, heartfelt punk/pub rock with politics for our current times. Favorite song of the night was National Anthem off the new LP. Not often a song I hear live once gets stuck in my head, but this one is a goddamn hit. Fun night and always nice to have 3 good bands on one show.

Liquids / American Muscle / Impulse / Baby Muffler / Crimps - Live at A1 in Providence, RI.

I've seen some younger punks hanging out at the speed shop here in Providence and they put up a bunch of flyers for punk shows at their warehouse space A1. First show I checked out there was Liquids from Indiana with American Muscle from Minneapolis (who also served as Liquids backing band). This space was timewarp for me, with kids blasting raw noisecore and crust and seemingly everyone that lived there had the same capitalist casualties shirt on they just made a silkscreen for. Also all these kids were smoking ciggys inside and moshing without shoes on. Fun vibes and felt like my teens/20s again but friendlier and way less dangerous. Thankfully no fireworks and broken bottles being thrown inside here haha. Show took awhile to get started, but it was fun hanging out and bullshitting with friends and the space is cool. Baby Muffler opened up and played fun catchy punk and got the kids dancing. Crimps were up next and played tight pop punk, and the kids started moshing and throwing their shoes around. There was a bit of break after that and than it was time for the touring bands. American Muscle were all posturing and preening and yelling about providence being boring, before ripping through a 4 song, seemingly 5 minute set sounding like if the persuaders grew up just listening to hardcore. There was a quick costume change for them, and they came back behind Liquids. Another 4 song set, I think this one hit 8 minutes. Kids went nuts and it was super fun. I heard some grumblings about touring bands playing a combined 13 minute set, but the kids are alright to me if you are touring across the country with seemingly no merch and wanting to play for less than 15 minutes. Thought the show was over, but Impulse was playing last. Local hardcore (with the guitarist and drummer from baby muffler switching instruments) and they played a fun set with all the kids moshing. It was really funny that their set was still pretty short, but still longer than the prior two bands combined. Ripping.

Records of the Week

First up this week is a new LP by Finnish punks Sivilisaatio. It's not often that a hardcore punk LP from a (new to me) band sticks with me, but I've been jamming this one for a couple months. Simple riffs, pounding drums, and catchy songwriting. I hear strains from all sorts of different eras of punk and hardcore (from the adolescents to early 200s k-town to bastard) but sounding like none of them. As the insert says, DIY punk forever and that is the sounds captured here. Total ripper!

Ei Luovuteta Koskaan, by Sivilisaatio

14 track album

Sivilisaatiodcdirkzwager

Next up is a reissue of Japanese punk legends Laughin' Nose's first EP - Get the Glory on the equally legendary MCR Company records. Killer foldout sleeve, giant sticker, and remastered to sound much louder than the originals that I have heard. Originally released in 1983, this debut shows their love of 77 punk and oi, but played with shitty equipment too loud and too fast, making for a glorious catchy, noisy debut. Giant mohawks, out of tune guitars, and yelling over everything. Punk is the best.

Soul Song of the Day

Soul has always been a 45s genre for me. Most LPs have too much filler and goddamn it I don't need any fucking beatles covers. Cairo just reissued Irma Thomas' second LP and this is the exception that proves the rule. Just a beautiful album, start to finish. If you need just one song, side one ender Anyone who knows what love is (will understand) is an all time banger. So much power in her voice

That's it for this week's Rag Mag. Here's some flyers and keep sending stuff in (ragmagclub@proton.me).