Train Wreck is a smart, literate zine focussing on the world of indie rock in a simple, handsome package. Exclusively the work of Michael McLeod, a rock fan with the soul of a poet, it seems well on its way to becoming one of the best music zines in the country. It’s not without its faults, though. Foremost is McLeod’s preferred method of interview technique: e-mail Q&A’s. McLeod runs through a list of well-thought questions to his subjects (Lynnfield Pioneers, Appendix Out, Illyah Kuryahkin), but none of them followed-up with any relevant or engaging probes. They simply continue on to the next prepared question, thereby giving the disjointed effect of a leaden form questionnaire. If interviews must be done via e-mail, it would be better that McLeod uses his responses and incorporates them into the bodies of actual articles. This would make for a far better read, and given McLeod’s curious instinct and way with words, the task’s certainly not beyond him. Train Wreck works best in the record review section, where McLeod’s measured and personal critiques are some of the best around. However, some readers may have trouble getting past his excessive verbiage, like this representative excerpt from a review of a Blonde Redhead single: “The systematic and tectonic guitar line in Limited Conversation shimmers in a voodoo spell that texturally is linguistically lamentful and deeply internal before receding in admiration to the percussion assuming a pedantic presence.” Lofty, yes, but passionate too. (DF)
zine, #3 / main creator: Michael McLeod / $2 / P.O. Box 652, Sydney, NS, B1P 6H7