This month’s column reckons to be relatively short, as I haven’t heard from many of you lately, and nothing much has come up in the way of legislation meant to screw with your access to internet goodies

Netpunk February 1999

This month’s column reckons to be relatively short, as I haven’t heard from many of you lately, and nothing much has come up in the way of legislation meant to screw with your access to internet goodies. I do have a handful of sites, however, for you to stumble into.

Before I begin, however, I have to mention the cost of computers nowadays. Unfortunately, the price of a system still isn’t within the range of a low income family, but you can get a super-fast system (one that is a hell of a lot better than what I’m writing this column on) for less than 500 bucks, including monitor! And prices continue to go down. What that means is that you can either get yourself a powerful new system, or you should be able to score a used system (good enough for laying out record covers, doing a zine, browsing the net, etc.) for less that 200 bucks. Be a Luddite if you want, but computers are a fact of life so you might as well learn how to use them.

The first site I’ll mention this month isn’t your usual punk links, music, interviews and so forth. Instead, it is the website of J.T. Colfax, a prisoner in jail in Colorado whose friend has put up a website dealing with his legal plight. Colfax ended up in jail for trying to set fire to the house where JonBenet Ramsey was murdered and for taking pictures of corpses that he was responsible for as an employee of a cadaver transport company. While Colfax may be sick, the web site does make it sound like he is being railroaded for his, as he puts it, "performance art". You can also check out some drawings by Colfax at this site, which you’ll find at http://members.tripod.com/~JT_Colfax/index.htm .

Next on our web tour is Insert Clever Title Here (hey, whatever works) at http://www.biztech.net/user/mrflak/insert.htm . The coolest thing about this site is that if you are in a band and send this guy your music, he’ll review it, and put the song on the web for everyone to hear, free of charge. Actually, this sounds like a good scam for getting free music… maybe I should try it. He does have quite a few reviews, as well as links to record labels and other music sites.

From Germany comes the Psychobilly Photopage (http://psychopix.notrix.de/ ). This has a bunch of photos of psychobilly bands that have played in Germany, as a well as a reviews page, news, and a couple of interviews. If Psychobilly is your bag, this site is worth your time.

A site that has a good start, but that is way too basic, and way too much of a static advertisement for the label is the Dirty Records page at http://www.dirtyrecords.com/main.htm . I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with this site as I do if there was much information here, but unfortunately, when I visited there was one sound file, a couple of nice looking but non-interactive ads for what the label has to offer, and a page of stuff to order. Not my idea of a dynamic site, but maybe it will be improved by the time you visit.

The Poopunk! Web*zine is one of the better e-zines out there. A hell of a lot of stuff here, from a couple of online music compilations to band interviews and columns from the regulars of the website. You could spend quite awhile wading through everything you’d find here. Check it out at http://members.tripod.com/~poopunk/ .

For those wannabe singers, check out Punk Rock Lyrics on the Web (http://members.xoom.com/punklyrics/). While most of the band here fall within the Epitaph realm of punk rock, there are quite a few lyrics. Next time you’re arguing with a friend about the lyrics to Cannibal Café off of SNFUs first album, you know where to go. The only cool thing would be to find lyrics to lesser known, or hard to find punk albums (for example, early Necros, or Anti-system, or that kind of stuff). Anyway, kind of fun to read the lyrics if you don’t already have the lyric sheet with the album.

I got e-mail from the Pet Peeves about their slick looking website, which you’ll find at http://members.conk.com/world/petpeeves/ . Coming out of New Mexico, the Pet Peeves site doesn’t have a lot of info, but there is a decent photo gallery of the band, and a short bio, as well as links to other NM sites. And, judging by the two sound clips found here, their forthcoming seven-inch should be something to grab.

I had a couple more sites for you this month, but unfortunately, Netscape just decided to eat all of my bookmarks. See, even geeks have computer troubles. A reminder that you can e-mail me at hanford@cruzio.com or snail mail me at PO Box 8059; Santa Cruz CA 95061. Until next time, keep those web sites coming my way… see ya.