Soda Jerk

Alright Deeker. Are you the very Deeker from Perth who puts on punk shows in Dundee? I think you put us on in August with Frigits. I'm Joe, I used to be in It's Broken! but I'm living up Aberdeen way now. It's right bastard cold up here. I'll have a bash at this anyhow. 1. What role did fanzines play in the early days of punk? How important were they? Do they still play a role today? I wasn't there, but I can only imagine the played the role of what the internet does right now. It seems as though nearly everything has gone electronic. Web-zines are nowhere near as aesthetically valuable as a fanzine, but it's the same idea, and probably more accessible. 2. When punk went 'mainstream', how did the fanzine evolve? Punk went fairly mainstream from near the beginning, but fanzines seemed to stay with what wasn't gaining commercial success, and rightly so. You can hear about mainstream mainstays all over the radio, but zines would have been the only way of exposing new, unknown bands 3. Do you think fanzines remain an important part of the underground scene today? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem so. Myspace and segregated forums have made everything so much easier, aswell as filesharing I presume. 4. Does the fanzine have a future? Depressingly, I imagine it doesn't. I imagine Maximumrocknroll and Razorcake will still keep on pressing for the people who care, and the odd fanzine may come and go. Some of the best zines are ones with only a few issues. Reason To Believe was probably the finest UK fanzine with only a series of 10 issues. But, eventually, I imagine everything will be electronic. The world and his wife has the internet now. 5. Are fanzines still relevant? Of course. I think the ideal behind the fanzine itself is enough relevance, but when things become electronic and so easily accessible, people become apathetic towards the idea of spending money on something they can probably research online. That is a shame though. 6. Is the internet the ultimate DIY forum? Probably, and it's a great, great tool. But more and more things are going digital. Fanzines are phasing out, and now so are record sales. Soon enough, the main format of music is going to me MP3. A volatile, compressed file of massively inferior quality. What's next? Guitars swapped for midi plug ins and bands not playing live, put plugging their iPod into a P.A. and playing back their 192kbps version of their new record? You should definitely focus on the big American three fanzines, Maximumrocknroll Razorcake and Cometbus. The former two of which still print today, and the latter a more personal approach, but outline every ideal DIY punk has to offer by a very insightful and charming fella. Cometbus was nearly completely handwritten which was hugely inspirational on the fanzine movement at the time (mid 80's to early 90's) that anyone could just pickup a pen and put something together. I hope I'm not just telling you stuff you already know!

Wayne Kramer - The Hard Stuff Young Livers - The New Drop Era Off With Their Heads - Hospitals Born Against - Rebel Sound Of Shit And Failure

Where is Ivory Blacks? Coliseum are amazing.

Awesome name for a label! Especially if there's gonna be releases on good ol' fashioned Wax! Tapes totally rip too. My old band released a split tape in the summer. Bright green tapes. They were awesome.

I could probably do rhythm guitar if you haven't already got one. I'm definitely no lead guitarist. I'm all about fat, massive chords. I've just moved up here, so I don't have my amp with me at the moment, but I should be going to fetch it within the next 3/4 weeks. I'm definitely into a bit of bluesy metal myself though. I've been wanting to start a band for ages that sounded like nothing but track 2 from Metallica's 'Load' album. The rest of that album is whack apart from that number. Could possibly even stretch to a bit of vocals if you so needed. I'm no soloist though. I dunno if that's what you're after. ...And I can play the hammer-on riff from Slayer's Angel Of Death.

Haha? Like Jud Jud? Amazing band. No instruments. Just vocals. Making guitar sounds.

Bingo. It's alright is that place. The second hand section is awesome. I guess someone can probably lock this now. I'll take my guitar down to R&B. Boomy!

They've got it in that CD shop in the city centre. Can't remember what it's called. The one down from where Fopp used to be. Until then, I'd never seen a Karate CD in a shop, ever. Always had to buy online.

I've heard alot about these industrial estate hookers, but never seen. I've never been privelaged enough to live in an area graced by hookers.

The smaller Cash Converter rip off shops know nothing about guitars and are fucking ace. I took a Marshall Jackhammer pedal in to "Main Exchange" in Dewsbury to sell and told them it was worth about 120. He gave me 50 for it. They are 45 brand new. I wins! Where does your missus work? I'm only here for another week. Temping is whack.

The strings on there are about 3/4 weeks old. I changed the strings, as I say, about 3/4 weeks ago to try and fix the problem, but it still kept slipping out of tune on string bends. You say D'addario sound brighter. Does that give them a trebley kind of twang to them? I usually go for a more gainey, metallic sound. I dunno if the strings will affect that... I don't know much about guitars. Amps are more my territory.

Oh, you work there? Ignore what I said about kicking stuff over... ;) What kind of price am I looking at? Also, what strings do you recommend? I've been using Ernie Ball's since forever. never strayed away except for acoustic strings. I've never thought about using anything else, just cos Ernie Ball seem quite prestigious, and CHEAP! Is there anything noticably better I should try. And lastly, I'm having a bit of trouble recently with My guitar staying in tune. When I bend G, B or high E, it goes a couple of dots flat on my tuner, and I have to tune it back. The bottom three strings can take some bending and stay perfectly in tune. This is a very recent thing though, which is odd. When tuning the top three strings, the machine heads feel a little loose, as in they are alot easier to turn than they used to be? Can the machine heads be tightened or anything to stop the guitar coming out of tune when I bend notes?

Right next to that big Leisure park. The very end of the Harbour industrial estate (I can also see Burger King and Asda out of my window). It's just round the corner from that Peeps Bar that was on Britians roughest pubs on Sky One. Anyone fancy a drink after work?

I can never pick a favourite. I'm more partial to there jazzy/bluesy stuff they did after The Bed Is In The Ocean. Some Boots and Unsolved are probably my favourites I guess. The (fairly) new live album is also awesome! I didn't even know it'd come out til a few weeks ago. It's been out nearly a year!

Karate are too good. Geoff Farina just owns. His new band Glorytellers are also very good. They have a Myspace somewhere. It sounds like acoustic Karate, with brushed drums and such. Real good. Aberdeen isn't so grey. I can see the beach from my office window. The sea looks almost blue. Back when I was a lad, on my many trips to Blackpool, all I knew was brown and acid-green seafronts. This is what I imagined Hawaii to look like. Is the sea warm in Febraury?

My apologies. I love sticking my oar into solidstate amps, like some kind of amplifier nazi. When really, I've had more SS amps than valve amps in my time. My first was a Marshall MG. back then, I thought I had the best tone on earth.

I told them what strings to put on. They didn't have any 10's in stock. I wasn't overly happy with them just putting thicker ones on. I'm pretty sure they just fitted the pickup, and slapped some strings on, with no setup, because the intonation is out past the 10th fret and on some open chords, and the action is just a joke. if R&B do the same kind of job on me, I'm going to start kicking over cymbal stands and that big rack of guitar straps until they start doing it again properly. Japow!

Excellent. I'll pop down to R&B! We're not that bad in Leeds It's them Bradford lot who will steal your hubcaps and window wipers.

Yeah, I took ages writing my post cos I'm at work. Just saw that. I will go and compare prices at some point.

AVT's are proper gash. I had an AVT50 head for a year. It was reliable and everything, and I don't regret buying it because I got it second hand for 50. You're a bit daft if you pay 200+ for an AVT brand new though. However, they do sound proper crap. Especially the drive channel. You can get away with the clean channel, as it has a bit of a nice crunch to it if you turn the gain up. For a brand new AVT, you could get a second hand JCM900/2000 for the same price.

That shop boggled my mind the first time I went in. I was quite interested in the PIRATE brand guitars which I've never heard of before. The wood texture looks really cool, but I bet they are proper crappy, judging on the price 100-150. Has anyone here had a set up from R&B? I've usually had a good job done by (mostly)second hand music shops like R&B, except Music Ground in Leeds who put on Power Slinky's without adjusting the bridge or the truss rods, and left my guitar almost bending at the nut. I took the strings off before my guitar exploded or something. The neck was almost warping and the strings were really far off the fretboard. I paid 50 for that set up including a two pickups fitting. I was displeased. When I bought the guitar (ESP Viper) the strings were so close to the fretboard, with the lowest action I've ever seen on a guitar. It was an absolute pleasure to play. Not anymore...

Yes. I fucking love Karate.

You still needing someone? I like a few of those bands.

I wouldn't consider them the best ska punk band when they only sustained the very bare minimal characteristics found in ska punk. They didn't even have a proper horn section. They just seperated fast bits with upstrokes. Lyrically they were fairly terrible, and probably one of the slackest bands I've seen live.

Holler I've just moved here from Leeds. My guitar has been in dire need of a set up for weeks now. I only know of a couple of Guitar shops so far. One is R&B, and the other is that fucking weird half music shop / half cafe/newsagents place on Union street. Do R&B do good set ups? The last one I got was from music ground in Leeds and they did a right balls of a job.