‘Celluloid Lunch #3’ offers nothing but tasty nuggets with surprising nutritional value

Montreal-based Celluloid Lunch is a music zine full of slouchy prose, good faith interviews, reviews and band journals. You might think of it as an offbeat Maximumrocknroll substitute for those of us still mourning the end of the seminal zine’s print editions (it’s complicated, we get it!). As an extra dose of antidote, this zine is available in paper format only. Even an old hippie like MC5’s former band manager John Sinclair, interviewed in this issue, has mostly gone digital—though he makes a point to praise the zine’s commitment to the physical form.

The ethos of this rag comes out in snippets across articles. For instance, take Joe Chamandy’s comments during his interview with Toody Cole from Dead Moon. He philosophizes, “[DIY] has always appealed to me, both the taking matters into your own hands and the idea of total control over the final product.”

In some ways, this zine is sleek in a way that reflects the recent availability of affordable touches like perfect binding and full-bleed spreads. But Celluloid Lunch is transparent in its values. The fanzine feast it offers readers is wholly organic. “There is no real focus, there is no real goal and there is no real aesthetic,” reads the anonymous editor’s letter. “For this I am grateful.”