About this blog– This little blog is dedicated to the underbelly of pop culture- art and entertainment that falls through the cracks (for the most part); the counter culture (or I like to call it non-pop culture) of entertainment.  It will contain reviews and commentary on non-pop culture relics such as old horror/ gore/ exploitation/ trash cinema fanzines and extreme music (punk, extreme metal, grindcore, industrial, noise, experimental, death rock, hardcore, oi!, crust, etc.) fanzines that had small print runs (and were mostly xeroxed by their editors) as well as some reviews of that kind of music and film; underground comics; interesting (non-famous or well known) artists; old posters and flyers; and some articles and commentary on various things that I find interesting or comment worthy.

Old ‘zines are relics of another time; a snapshot of history that includes commentary and a documentation of the evolution of art and music from a non-mainstream and very non-academic (and therefore not as well documented or represented) perspective.  These people worked very hard and put a lot into their endeavors (with little in return- they did it purely for the love) so I’ll be focusing heavily on these works, without totally ignoring current artistic endeavors that I find worth exploring.

About the blogmaster– My name is Jason Beck, and I’ve been doing ‘zines most of my life.  I put my first one out, a music magazine called Hatefilled that had a bunch of reviews and one interview with Eric of the PISSED HAPPY CHILDREN (who went on to form MAN IS THE BASTARD and BASTARD NOISE) in 1987 before I could even drive.  I put out another issue of that ‘zine, then changed the name to Godvomit in 1990 and put out 9 issues of it (it was a music ‘zine that also had a few pages on gore movies).  I also did a horror/ gore/ exploitation film ‘zine called Chunk Blower of which I only did 2 issues in the early 90s (the only significant thing about it was the Dario Argento interview in issue #1.  I could never get anyone else to answer an interview so the ‘zine was mostly just me bitching about wimpy horror movies that weren’t extreme enough and reviewing/ trying to call attention to  underground ones I thought were good).  The last ‘zine I did was called Brain Snot, and it was a printed matter review ‘zine where I talked about/ reviewed/ interviewed artists and editors of other fanzines and self-published comics.I believe that made it to 7 issues in the early to mid-90s.   I also wrote a demo-review column for legendary punk ‘zine MaximumRockNRoll throughout most of the 90s.  Musically, I was in a grind/ death band called SPINAL REMAINS, an experimental/ industrial death band called BLOODFOUNTAIN (both in the late 80s/ early to mid 90s) and am in a metal punk band called TUMORHEAD now (www.reverbnation.com/tumorhead) who managed to receive the worst review I’ve ever seen written about a band in the big glossy metal magazine Decibel (and I’ve read a lot of reviews in my time).  Lastly, I’ve been a part of many underground radio shows (not podcasts but real radio shows) since 1991.  The one I’m currently doing is a punk/ hardcore/ industrial/ grindcore/ straight edge/ oi!/ death rock/ sludge/ ebm/ d-beat/ experimental/ crust etc. music show called deadthyme and can be heard on  KPFT in Houston, Texas on Sunday nights (and you can listen to the latest 2 week’s worth of episodes at the archives.  You can find old episodes on iTunes or at http://deadthyme.libsyn.com.  I hope you enjoy this, my first blog.