Parade Brigade #1

This is our personal pages from Parade Brigade #1. Nothing much to say here. The Spazz interview was actually in #1 (but the H-Street interview we mention later on wasn’t, huh?). The Kill Your Idols, Speak 714, Purpose, and Nerve Agents interviews are still unreleased to this day. We never got around to interviewing In My Eyes.

Parade Brigade #1
Well, well, a new zine. John and I have combined forces and are now doing a zine together. ITBOAE is dead; not that anyone gives a fuck, but hey why not mention it? I figure fuck, I am the negative one usually so I will let John do all the positive bullshit. I hope that since we are now a *team* that we will be able to bust this shit out more often. I would like, ideally, to do one of these every two to three months. However, John is even more of a nerd than I am, so school always comes first. This issue has Floorpunch, DRI, Arms Reach, The Judas Iscariot, Ensign, and 97a. Look for the next issue to hit trendy bookstores and Camelot’s near you in a few months with Spazz, Kill Your Idols, H-Street, Speak 714, The Purpose, In My Eyes, The Nerve Agents, and Unit Pride.

Playlist-Beyond, Neurosis, Quicksand, Samiam, Floorpunch, Raw Power, SSD, DYS, Impact Unit, Negative Approach, 411, Arms Reach, Negative FX, Full Speed Ahead, Fit For Abuse, 97a, Deadguy, Token Entry, Mainstrike, Anti-Heroes, One Sided War, Killing Time

Thank You List-

Jay Fisher, OAYC, Mickey, D-Tox, Joe OZ, The MPC, Jenn West, Aaron L, Clay, Dan and Melissa Scheme, No Contest, Tears of Frustration, Chris Oliver and The Purpose, The Disturbed, Tim and Traci, David K, Floorpunch, Geoff TDT, Scooter, Brett, SOV, Sue Stormshadow, Greg Miller, Chris Alpino, Adrienne, Gordo and The Parting Shot, Fred Hammer, XClaim! and all of Australia, Crucial Response Records, Highscore, H-Street, Clevo Kids, Susan Wills, Cynthia, Spike and DRI, Sweet Pete and all of Boston, 97a, Reach The Sky, Amanda Cajano, Kill Your Idols, Full Speed Ahead, Fired Up! and all the others…

John
Welcome to the first issue of Parade Brigade Fanzine. This is my first “real attempt” at doing a fanzine, but putting out a fanzine is something I’ve always wanted to do. In 11^th grade my friend Justin and I started up a fanzine called We’re Not Gonna Take It. We did interviews with Rain On The Parade and No Redeeming Social Value, but that was about as far as we went. Usually, we would spend too much time skating and hanging out at the shore, and not enough time cutting and pasting. We’re Not Gonna Take It was eventually buried in the illustrious heap of unfinished hardcore fanzines.

Although my initial effort fell flat, putting out a zine remained an unfulfilled dream. Recently, I had the inspiration to start a new fanzine in hopes of bolstering the somewhat anemic Jersey hardcore scene. I wanted to give recognition to the bands I love and construct something that represents my ideas and opinions. Unfortunately, I would have probably just wasted paper on something that I would never finish.

Bill, on the other hand, is an experienced and successful zinester. He began by doing a zine called Assimilation or Oblivion (whose only memory is preserved by Ocean County diehards and of all people Rick Healey). After A or O, Bill worked on What Was Said, In The Blink Of An Eye, and Broken Behind This Wall. Each of these zines delivered Bill’s caustic indictments of the hardcore community and each one included a title stolen from a classic NJHC record. Just when Bill was ready to kick off his next project, Going To AC On A Saturday Night Fanzine, he realized the joke was over and it was time to move on. Therefore, Bill and I teamed up to present you Parade Brigade Fanzine – a clever ploy to cash in on the success of Rain On The Parade and The Bad Brains.

Bill and I have discussed our goals for the zine at length. Bill and I differ in a few respects, but we share the same idea of what a good hardcore fanzine is supposed to be. We especially want each to be released within a specified period. In other words, we do not want there to be huge gaps between release dates; so we intend to stay on the ball. Consistency is also very important to us. Too many zines gradually decline after the first issue. The following scenario is all too typical: the first issue of the zine includes interviews with Floorpunch and Mainstrike, but by the time the third issue surfaces they are interviewing Morrissey and Gravity Records. I know that many zine editors want their zines to be diverse and open minded, but hardcore means one thing to us. To some people that may seem narrow minded, but perhaps the kids today are too permissive. A hardcore fanzine should have hardcore bands in it.

Lastly, I want our zine to be honest and real. Parade Brigade Fanzine will never contain artsy backgrounds or lugubrious prose. We will never overload our zines with pretensions or skirt away from unpopular statements. Parade Brigade Fanzine will never be about “softened commitments designed to please the crowds.” If there is something that needs to be said, I will say it, in the face of laughter or resentment. I would never go out of my way to offend anyone, but I will never dilute my statements to avoid offending our audience. It seems very odd that I’m making all of these qualifying remarks when Bill is at least a hundred times more sarcastic and critical than me, but I just want people to know what we stand for. There is only one thing left to say: here’s your warning…