MAXIMUMROCKNROLL
Wow. Little ol’ me reviewing the punk-rock bible. Geez. What to say? Crazy cover complete with molotov cocktail and drooling, Blondie LP sporting anarchist guy. Maximum is still under-designed, in keeping with punk (?) ethics. Still no table of contents. Still 3 bux. There’s tons of ads for bands and records, a legible reprint of Noam Chomsky’s “Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind.”. I generally avoid academic rants in which the words are all more than seven letters long, but this is one of Chomsky’s more readable works. Very relevant in the era of the US-television-centred politics of today. The graffiti-influenced artwork lights up the columns of text just enough to keep my attention. The What’s the Scoop page makes me laugh, Tom Hopkins asked 9 people at Mission Records: “What’s the Worst Thing You’ve Ever Smelled?” There’s an interview with a Serbian Hardcore Punk, more Chomsky, spools of music and “fanzine” reviews, and even classifieds. (EPW)