I have no major internet developments to tell you about this month, nor do I have anything to get off my chest (other than my usual bitching about human beings in general, but I'll spare you this time), so I figured I'd just do some house cleaning by giving you some assorted websites and the like that I've been meaning to mention but just hadn't gotten around to. I'll also probably throw in a couple of other goodies. We'll just have to see where this column ends up.
Before I dive into the new stuff, I wanted to mention again a couple of punk rock internet resources from the early days of this column. I figure many of you missed these the first time around, and they are definitely worth your time. First up is the internet mailing list for people with too much time on their hands, also known as the punk-list. This list is filled with punk rockers who spend their time typing about everything under the sun, with perhaps the exception of punk rock. That's right. This list is for punkers who (apparently) see something more to punk than just the music. If this sounds like your cup of spit, then here's how to join the punk-list: If you are in North America, subscribe by sending e-mail to majordomo@cc.gatech.edu, with SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message, and no subject line. If you aren't in North America, subscribe by sending e-mail to punk-list-request@cs.tut.fi with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Warning: You'll get 100 or more messages a day, so you'll have to be an e-mail junkie to keep up.
Another good punk site I've mentioned before, but should mention again, is the Usenet newsgroup alt.punk . You'll need a newsreader like Netscape News or Internet News to check these out. In alt.punk you'll find a lot of punks (including certain MRR columnists and ex-columnists) typing and gossiping about music and who did what to who in the scene. Another newsgroup that is almost the same is alt.music.hardcore. In fact, if you get a newsreader, simply look at any of the alt.music newsgroups and you'll find a ton of messages to waste your time reading. If your Internet Provider doesn't carry alt.punk, alt.music.hardcore, or any other newsgroup you want that supposedly exists, call them up and ask them to start carrying them.
Okay, so now on to the pages that various people have e-mailed me about - either to suggest them for this column or to have me review. Starting off with the Musicians Assistant Site, which bills itself as the resource for the musical do-it-yourselfer. Not a bad idea, except that in front of a very flashy front end, there seems to be very little in the way of actual information here. Everything I wanted to look sent me to a non-existent page. Hopefully by the time you read this, they'll have gotten their shit together, because this page looks like it could be useful.
Next up is S.854, a webzine that claims to be "Intellectual opiate for the misanthropic masses" - whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. Some silly gothic style posturings at this site, but obviously quite a bit of work has gone into this sucker. Included in the issue I took a look at were interviews with Earth Crisis, Brutal Truth, My Dying Pride, and others. There are also music and zine reviews, editorials, and more. Not a bad read, even if you aren't into all that they cover. You'll find S.854 at http://www.netside.net/~bueno/S-854/S-854.html .
Harmless Records, home of some quality Chicago punk rock, have a decent website where you can check out there catalog, find out news about the label, link to some other sites, and read band bios (though when I visited the only band bio up was one for Lynnards Innards. Not a bad site, though, especially if you like the stuff that Harmless releases. You'll find Harmless at http://www.sitegroup.com/harmless/.
From out of Singapore comes the Put:Put website (http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~witchee/). It's always cool to see what punks in other countries are up to, and maybe once this site has a bit more content, you'll be able to do that here. Unfortunately, right now, it's fairly lacking. But what the heck - check it out anyway. You don't have to go outside or anything, right?
While I was checking out the homepage for The Pinkerton Thugs (http://pinkertonthugs.thegeek.net/) - which by the way is really cool... You should take a look at it. I discovered that the VML record label has its own website. Info on a ton of VML bands, the scoop on the Vindictives and Lookout, and Joey Vindictives' Trivia Contest. I don't know how I missed this one for as long as I have. Definitely a site you'll want to visit.
This next site was sent to me by a guy who claimed to have stolen Reverend Norb's e-mail list (with his permission, of course) to get the word out about his site. The Juicy Cerebellum (http://www.geocities.com/~sloopydrew/) is a collection of rants, stupid humor, non-politically correct thoughts, and other stuff. In other words, it's a fun, wacky read. And it looks like it gets added to every couple of days, so there's always a reason to keep coming back. Gotta love it.
Okay, so that's enough already. It's time for me to leave the house and get some fresh air, and it's time for you to go turn on your computer and look at some of these websites. As always, I can be e-mailed at hanford@cruzio.com or snail-mailed at PO Box 8059; Santa Cruz, CA 95061. And of course, you can find the Netpunk columns at http://netpunk.base.org, and if everything works out the way I hope, you may find links to other MRR columnists there as well. Until next time, I'm outta here.
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