INTERVIEWS:
It’s the greatest month of the year! October! And we’re in the Halloween issue of MRR! Read an interview with us by The Tranzmitors’ Bryce Dunn in Maximum Rocknroll #341 (Oct 2011)
Despite What You’ve Heard, Zines Aren’t Dead. Liz Worth (Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History Of Punk In Toronto) interviews us in Broken Pencil for her article on the last three decades of zines, including us, Fish Piss, What Wave, Dig It!, Lost in Tyme, and Bananas zine. (Broken Pencil #50 Winter 2011)
Mongrel Zine reaches a milestone. (The Georgia Straight November 25, 2010)
Canzine: Because you can’t read a blog on the toilet (Ubyssey 10/18/10)
MONGREL ZINE #10 + VOL. 10 CD:
I think this is my favorite garage/punk zine in the world because they interview/review/promote/fuel contemporaru garage manics/70s punks/60s pioneers/underground illustrators/noise rock outsiders/people who only give interviews in French/witches/inventors/zine making creatures/etc. with a Canadian sensibility that combines polite discourse, whimsical enthusiasm, a Royal Canadian Mountie’s sense of duty, and the wicked energy of a hockey riot mob. Latest issue features great interview with Quintron and AMAZING interview with minicomix artist Colin Upton. And a CD. (Roctober)
This is the 10th issue of the only print zine in Western Canada that matters. As always, MONGREL brings us a thick issue with lotsa coverage of the current crop of bands making their way outa the garage… lotsa Canadian content and, as always, a CD comp of the bands covered in this issue.This issues got stuff on THE SHRAPNELLES,PRIMITIVE HANDS, QUINTRON, THE JOLTS, COLIN UPTON, THE ZELLOTS, STRANGE ATTRACTOR, JOHNNY LZR, etc… plus music and lit reviews, and a ton of other stuff. Always a great read… I never miss an issue! (Talk’s Cheap)
Thick garage rock zine from Canada, comprised mostly of interviews with bands, plus indie cartoonist Colin Upton. Some of it is in French, and most of these bands don’t have much to say. Luckily there are plenty of photos of guys in sunglasses and striped T-shirts and a killer twenty-five track comp CD of the featured bands. Things get a lot cooler once the music is given the chance to speak for itself. The varying degrees of savagery and catchiness make for a sweet collection of music. – CT Terry (Razorcake #64)
MONGREL ZINE #9 + VOL. 9 CD:
Other than the brilliant Kicks (which refused to cover new bands) I can’t recall much of a zine scene during the questionable garage rock revival of the 80s (Midnight Records, and such), but during the 90s revival there were tons of mags to go along with Estrus/Ripoff/whatever record labels that were out there. Now that there’s this amazing, lengthy 21st century wave of garage goings-on I would expect a million posh publications, even with the internet fouling up the print scene, but there’s really only enough to count on the fingers on one hand of a clumsy deli clerk. And the best of the bunch is this Maple leaf rag, which covers one man bands, poster artists, snotty young garage acts, prolific Quebequese rock n roll hip hop witches (or at least one), festivals, underground movie stuff, and every obscure slab of vinyl the dinosaurs sacrificed their lives to produce. Mondo Mongrel 4EVA! (Roctober)
But my absolute favourite fanzine out of Canada is – of course – the amazing ‘Mongrel Zine’ from Vancouver! This thing is so great! As this issue of the CRKO is released they have released their issue #9 (working on #10) and all the issues are just great. I found out about dozens of cool bands in that zine. Plus, it comes with a very cool CD-comp that often features unreleased tracks and exactly pictures the supreme musical taste of the Mongrel-masterminds Bob Scott and Janelle Hollyrock! I’m an absolute fan of this publishing, really! There was already some real good communication going on with Janelle Hollyrock and you will read more about this in next issues part 2 of the Canada-special, when we’ll report more about the Vancouver-scene. Right now read some more info about the ‘Mongrel Zine’ in the rubric to the right and make sure you grab all the issues you can get! (CRKO #2)
Rounding the corner at issue #9, Mongrel’s got the good word on what’s happenin’ Northward. Seemingly all rocks are over-turned by our Canadian neighbors, from garage, trash and pop to more blues-drenched and blownout varieties. Janelle Hollyrock, Bob Scott and the whole cast of characters are true fanatics, with enthusiasm and passion that’s brilliantly transparent. Mongrel Zine’s an entertaining read throughout, with interviews masquerading as comic strips, a LENGTHY reviews section (watch for the highly opinionated and humorous Steve Ferreira) and the ongoing saga of roots-punks Demon’s Claws in their various forms (Jeff Clarke’s interview in #9 is pricelessly hilarious). None shall pass without the Mongrel clan laying their piece down, and it’s a worthy and informed piece indeed. – Jeremy Cargill (Scion Garage Zine #3)
Issue #9 of Canada’s Mongrel Zine is also here, a lovingly laid out 8.5×14 tome that always does a great job of mixing music content with features on artists, photographers and other behind-the-scenes sorts. This one has a great and much deserved chat with Ben Lyon, who is one the nicest guys ever and among garage-punk-dom’s finest artistes moderne alongside Eric Hone and Avi Spivak. There’s also a HUGE Hell Shovel interview that delves into Montreal scene talk/history along with a Pat Meteor piece, a feature with photog Johannah Jorgenson, a great Gary Pig Gold article on the Stones, a Sled Island Fest review and tons more, including live/record reviews, cartoons and even more interviews. At least 70+ pages, with a half-n-half dual cover style that must be a bitch to keep straight during layout and the usual comp CD with featured artists, including some unreleased Red Mass tracks for all you completists! Well worth the toonies and so thick it literally burst the baggie it came in. (Terminal Boredom #28)
The latest issue of Vancouver’s garage-punk bible MONGREL ZINE is packed with over 100 pages (holy shit!) of interviews, reviews (of the album, zine AND show varieties), a Sled Island Festival report, a short story, and exactly one (1) hilarious comic strip-style “interview” with NU SENSAE (by Nic Greasy, who’s in a trashy Calgary garage band called TOPLESS MONGOES, which is ALSO interviewed in this issue) and more. It’s a good thing DEMON’S CLAWS and all their spin-offs are so damn good or you’d probably be made sick of them by the time you’re done reading this issue (they’re seriously in at least like a quarter of this thing, it’s crazy, but — hey — they’re prolific and hilarious, so what’re ya gonna do?) Apparently Bob and Janelle (and some others, including STD’s own Morgan Cook, but mostly Bob and Janelle) threw this issue together in three weeks. That’s insane! It takes the whole STANDARD ISSUE street gang three MONTHS (sometimes longer if there’s lots of parties and shows) to get straight enough to crank out one of the 32-page travesties you hold in your hands. Sure, this issue of MZ’s got more than its share of typoes because of it, but that’s to be expected on such an insane deadline (although, the Blue Sunshine interview is a real mess, and the guy who did it never even bothered to explain wht exactly ‘Blue Sunshine’ is — it’s not a band, it’s some kinda movie thing). I’m glad to see them including more non-interview content with this issue. Interviews are rad, but they can be a bit much when there’s nothing to break them up. On a negative note, I gotta call Jojo Who out on kinda ripping off Neckface pretty hard with his drawing for his article. FLAGRANT. I liked his article though, raggin on the down-side to Go Skateboarding Day… namely all the hippy, bro-down, we’re-a-comunity aspects of it. All-in-all, more rad shit from MONGREL ZINE, and it’s lookin pretty obvious that they’re gettin the international recognition they deserve. Oh, and there’s another CDR comp packaged with this issue. Keep it up, Mongrel! NOT SHITTY – Ben Jensen (Standard Issue #12)
MONGREL ZINE #8 + VOL. 5 CD:
Our policy at Roctober is pretty much only to talk to old dudes who were in groups eons ago because you figure they have the stories and the perspectives. What the hell are we gonna hear from new bands? But thank god (or Link or Lux, or whomever you worship) for Mongrel! We are grateful that a zine like this comes along and shows us how it’s done, not only tracking down all the stellar new jack garage combos but also delivering the goods with great interviews, zine-esque layouts, and lotsa goofs and giggles. They even cover garage rock visual artists (like our own Johnny Sampson) and include killer CDs of mongrel music makers making messes of the masses. We’re not jealous, just glad Mongrel sets new standards and does the dirty work so we don’t have to… (Roctober)
This is the first time I’ve actually seen a real, live, blood ‘n’ guts copy of what’s GOTTA be Canada’s best known garage/punk zine: Vancouver’s MONGREL! And after reading a bunch of it (I’m not done yet; the thing’s almost 100 pages!), I gotta say, it’s DESPICABLE it took me so long to do whatever I could to get my hands on one. This thing’s awesome! It’s PACKED full of interviews and reviews… they’ve got MARK SULTAN, WHITE WIRES, JACUZZI BOYS, punk artist Johnny Sampson, and a bunch more in this issue alone. I’m also gonna point out that the layout is great and the writing is actually good/spelled right! AAAAAANNND it comes with a compilation CD with some real bangers on there! (Fuck the internet: a home-made mix is STILL probably the number one way to find new bands besides going to shows.) Don’t wait until you’re sick of OUR bullshit! Go pick up a MONGREL zine now! NOW, dummy! NOW! NOT SHITTY – Ben Jensen (Standard Issue #11)
Canadian music! I’m amazed at how separate our neighbor country is sometimes. The only band name I recognized on the cover was Subhumans only to find out it’s a DIFFERENT Subhumans. FROM CANADA!!! Who knew? This is a garage rock-y music magazine full of interviews with bands and artists of this particular genre and don’t forget the record reviews! As an extra special indoctrination to this seedy underground of striped shirts and sunglasses every issue comes with a 24 track CD compilation. –E. Conner (MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #330)
Mongrel is a Canadian zine that is way up my alley. It’s well written, covers the ground between garage and punk that I love, and contains tons of reviews. Issue #8 has interviews with Mark Sultan, artist Johnny Sampson, and The Subhumans (Canada) along with writing about film and music that I will now blindly take interest in. It also contains a CD-R of tracks from the bands. I don’t know why, but I’m also a big a fan of 11” x 14” folded. Everything here is in perfect harmony with zinedom. – Billups Allen (Razorcake)
I really liked to pick up printzines like ‘Teenage Rampage’, ‘On The Run’ or ‘Faule Kuhfotze’ back in the 90ies when everyone and their mothers xeroxed their rants about Rock N Roll and sold it at shows or recordstores. Ten years from that everyone and their mothers put their rants about Rock N Roll straight into the wasteland of www. But there are still great fanzines to discover – ‘Go Metric’, ‘Choke’ or the German PopPunk-Bible ‘Fanatico’ are some of my favorites – but you have to look very closely and often spend a lot of cash to order from overseas. The ‘Mongrel Zine’ is from Canada and worth every single dime! No. 8 contains like everything you need to know if you’re into fluffy GaragePop like BBQ, THOSE DARLINS, JACUZZI BOYS, WHITE WIRES and the projects of Wendy Norton (THE FLIPS, PLEXI 3, SEARCH & ANNOY) but also about the classic Punkoutfit SUBHUMANS, SNFU’s Mr. Chi Pig, the films of Meiko Kaji, the arts of Johnny Sampson plus record reviews and many more. But the best part of that package is the 24-song CD-R that features almost every band from the zine. So, while you flip through the pages, you’ll already have the right soundtrack in your stereo! — Markus Pacino (Corporate Rock Knockout #1)
Nardwuar the Human Serviette recommends MZ#8: “The one book you always recommend is… Any local Fanzine such as Bob and Janelle’s wonderful Mongrel Zine that is packed full of rock n’ roll goodness! Shop local, eat local and read local!” (Vancouver is Awesome)
Leur recent N8 propose, toujours en une centaine de pages au format 45T, des discussions avec Mark Sultan (BBQ), les legendaries punks canadiens Subhumans, les Tandoori Knights (Bloodshot Bill et King Khan), les Jacuzzi Boys, Those Darlins (excellent groupe feminine genre Carter Family punk), The James T. Kirks (surf punk tatoué de l’Alberta!), Spider (un duo mixte avec Erin des Spits), Johnny Sampson (illustrateur graphique pour Scion Rds, King Khan & The Shrines, Trouble in Mind Rds), Wendy Norton (Kryptonite Rds, Plexi 3, The Flips), The White Wires (excellent et marrant Bubblegum Punk’n’Roll), The Midwest Beat (un gang du Wisconsin à la Goner Rds capable de faire un set entiérs de covers de Creedence!), Sonic Avenues (Power Pop genre Plimsouls, The Beat) et quelques autres. Un CD est toujours offert en prime avec, en plus des groupes cités, Pat Meteor, Primitive Hands, Hell Shovel, Strange Attractor, Indian Wars, etc… Excellent boulot! Contactez-les pour avoir une idée du tariff, port compris… s’il en reste. (Dig It! #50)
MONGREL ZINE #6 + VOL. 3 CD:
Dusted Magazine outta Brooklyn calls our Demon’s Claws interview “probably the best written piece on the lightly documented Demon’s Claws”. They’re probably right! (Dusted Magazine)
“Broches, papier, ciseaux” by Ralph Elawani. Read it at Le Délit
Every time I pick up a copy of Mongrel Zine it feels like I just walked out of an elementary school birthday party with the best loot bag ever. If getting a zine of biblical proportions (up to 120 pages!) isn’t enough then maybe the dense content which you won’t find anywhere else, the awesome designs, CD compilations, flyers, posters and the reasonable price will do the trick. Last night was the Mongrel #6 launch party with The Beehive girls at Lick. Indian Wars, Manic Attracts and The Dead Ghosts all played some tunes with DJ Mo Diddley playing great records between sets. Mongrel Zine 6 is jam packed with interviews and tales from The Black Lips, Demon’s Claws, The Sunday Sinners, Red Mass, Nardwuar, Bloodshot Bill, Trude and The Dead Ghosts to name a few. Now go grab a copy of Mongrel Zine and check out this CiTR Nardwuar vs. Mongrel Zine interview below! Interview: Nardwuar vs. Mongrel Zine. — Review of The Beehive vs. Mongrel Zine #6 launch party with Dead Ghosts, Manic Attracts, Indian Wars + DJ Mo Diddley by Still Alive
Passionnant et enthousiaste, bourré d’interviews et de chroniques futées, Mongrel est un ‘zine de Vancouver au Canada, particulièrement dédié à la scène nationale mais pas uniquement. Tout au long de ce n6, vous apprécierez certainement les longs entretiens avec les Demon’s Claws (on y croise King Khan et Sky Saxon), les Black Lips (qui parlent de Charles Manson ou de leurs mésaventures en Inde), Dead Ghosts (“imaginez les Swamp Rats reprenant ‘Be My Baby’”), le genial zigoto Nardwuar alias “The Human Serviette” (Evaporators, boss de Mint Rds et animateur radio corrosif), Gerard Van Herk (Mr 50% de Deja Voodoo), Red Mass (divers members des CPC Gangbangs, Demon’s Claws, Black Feelings), Mathieu Trudel (auteur de pochettes d’albums ou posters pour King Khan, les Magnetix, Bomp Rds, Fat Possum Rds), The Sunday Sinners (groupe de filles avec l’ex-Sexareenos “Work With Me” Annie), Bloodshot Bill, The Teenage Hookers, Petroleum by Product, Simply Saucer, etc… Toutes les interviews sont longues, détaillées et plutôt marrantes. Ajoutez-y un bon paquet de chroniques, de disques, zines, concerts et vous viola avec un 96 pages qui frisent la perfection. D’autant qu’un CD d’une vingtaine de titres souvent inédits (live, demos) des groupes interviewés accompagne chaque livraison. (Dig It! #50)
MONGREL ZINE #5 + VOL. 2 CD:
Thick as a book, tight layouts, great photos and writing, and covering great bands (the Spits, King Khan, Dead Moon/Pierced Arrows, and an interview with Lux Interior (RIP) from 1997). It’s also got some ‘zine and record reviews, cool art, and more. Get your hands on this one from Montreal and you’ll fill hours of downtime. It also has a CD but my deadline was looming and the CD player in the car that I was going to check it out in was broken. Seek Mongrelzine.ca for more info. – (Thrasher Skate Mag)
While Australia is busy running the table, Canada is sneaking into position for late round upset. Mongrel Zine out of Vancouver is a nice and fat little B&W digest dealing in all things garage. I’ve sampled a couple issues and they’re definitely fighting the good fight. Instead of just doing interviews with bands, they talk with artists, recording engineers and other personas on the inside of the scene, making for a nice departure. Issue Four has a lovely piece with long-time Vancouver punk photog Bev Davies (who’s snapped everyone from The Barbarans to the Pointed Sticks to Nardwuar), a nice Wreckless Eric/Amy Rigby interview, a boatload of interviews with B and C-list Canadian garage bands, and a packed live/book/DVD/record reviews section. The reviews aren’t the best, but they’re done with true fanzine spirit and there are at least a couple interviews that make the issues worthwhile. They also keep things very Canada-centric, which is wise and admirable. Issue Five offers more (non-Canadian) meat, including chats with King Khan (technically a Canadian I guess…), The Spits, a reprint of a great Lux Interior interview from ’82 (done by Sal from Electric Frankenstein!), a surprisingly in-depth and worthwhile interview with Ratas Del Vaticano (another instance where I found the interview more interesting than the band’s record), a great talk with Skip Jensen that includes lots of interesting Scat Rag Boosters talk, amazing Dead Moon coverage (a quality chat with the directors of Unknown Passage and a Q&A with Fred), and a short-but-sweet piece on The Petticoats. Plus a whole lot more reviewage and more artist/band interviews. A very fine publication. Issue 6 is out now, and features an all-Montreal theme! Each issue comes with a CD as well…Grab ‘em here: mongrelzine.ca – Rich Kroneiss (Terminal Boredom Issue 24)
I saw they had a Spits interview in this so I snatched this zine right up. Lo and behold, I found a treasure trove of fresh music and a newfound interest in the Montreal garage rock scene. In this issue, editors Janelle Hollyrock and Bob Scott do a good job of praising their heroes, such as King Khan and B-Lines, who hail from Canada. I find it interesting how different scenes appreciate different aspects of art around music. In this issue, Mongrel includes interviews with some damn fine music poster artists such as Rupert Bottenberg and CM Ruiz. This zine is great for covering a ton of ground in the music scene, from interviews of film directors to live show reviews and music reviews. The twenty-four-track burned and mastered compilation CD that came with this zine is an all-too-worthwhile listen. My biggest problem with this zine came from the reason I picked it up in the first place: The Spits interview. The interview is humorous, but there’s only attribution to Mongrel Zine’s questions to the band. The reader has no idea what member of The Spits is answering the questions. Was it Sean, Erin, Lance, or some really high paid spokesperson? Well, I guess there’s only one disappointment to an otherwise enjoyable fanzine. –N.L. Dewart (Razorcake)
MONGREL ZINE #4 + VOL. 1 CD:
Even with the accelerated proliferation of music blogs, the tried and true fanzine format continues to flourish, with three local zines hitting the racks of your favourite rock ’n’ roll wax shacks this month. Vancouver’s Mongrel Zine puts out its fourth issue, and although it’s not technically local, its co-creator, Montreal ex-pat and artist Bob Scott, was. Scott brings a lot of Montreal flavour to his pages with reviews of Montrealers King Khan (okay, also an ex-Montrealer) and BBQ, Complications, CPC Gangbangs, the Cocobeurre/Chocolat split record, the Sunday Sinners and Red Mass, plus interviews with Montrealers the B-Sides and the Gruesomes, Vancouver punk photographer Bev Davies and Stiff Records legend Wreckless Eric. What makes this mandatory is the accompanying compilation CDR chock full of the best of garage, punk rock and rock ’n’ roll. — Jonathan Cummins (Montreal Mirror)
Mongrel (#4) : Excellent ‘zine canadien qui fait la part belle aux garagistes du crû (Thee B-Sides, Gruesomes, Manipulators, Vicious Cycles, etc…) et s’autorise quelques digressions qui nous vont droit au coeur (une interview de Wreckless Eric et Amy Rigby et de la photographe punk Bev Davies). 84 pages bien touffues par un team de passionnés et en prime un CD présentant vingt deux gangs garage majoritairement canadiens (Dead Ghosts, Bloodshot Bill, Raised By Wolves, etc…). N’hésitez pas! — (Dig It! #46)
A music magazine with an overwhelming amount of content where interviews with bands including The Gruesomes, Thee B- Sides, Thee Manipulators, and the Vicious Cycles take up most of the space. However, an interview and some photos from photographer Bev Davies are really the highlight of this zine. Just like her photos of everyone from the Rolling Stones to DOA show some grit and take you into the moment, this long, well-researched interview digs deep into Ms. Davies’ past rock’n’roll lifestyle. I’m not crazy about the featured artist Holly Ruth Anderson’s style, but all of her drawings are of naked pin-up type girls, if you’re into that kind of thing. Overall, this is a solid zine that still seems lukewarm to me, possibly because it is lacking a unifying theme. –Lauren Trout (Razorcake)
MONGREL ZINE #3:
This zine looks like it would suck. The cover features a terrible picture by Rick Trembles, but I’m happy to say the inside looks much better and the content is great too! Interviews with Mark Sultan (BBQ Show, The Spaceshits, Les Sexareenos), The Tranzmitors, Bloodshot Bill, The Pointed Sticks, plus more including music and zine reviews. I’m pretty sure this came out a long while ago so there are lots more Mongrel Zines to catch up on! Rating: Cool. (That’s Cool That’s Trash #2)
Mongrel Zine seems to have two primary functions, both laudable: discuss underground art and conduct interviews with bands orbiting in the garage rock galaxy or close thereto. Forgive me, folks, if I’ve painted a picture that’s too simple. On the art end in this issue were interviews with Rick Trembles and the “Gallery Spotlight,“ which seems as if it’s a regular feature. Music features include interviews with Mark Sultan, the Tranzmitors, the Pointed Sticks, Stolen Minks, Defektors, and Bloodshot Bill. It’s been my experience that a zine that has an art focus is a dicey prospect because art, for some reason, often has a side effect of chronic pretentiousness. That’s not the case here. Everything within this zine appears to be handled with a great deal of glee and good humor. Recommended. –The Lord Kveldulfr (Razorcake)
