Paranoize "#19" magazine
[Paranoize]
I haven't seen an issue of this relatively longstanding underground zine in quite some time, but it's still going strong in true D.I.Y. fashion with 20 pages of xeroxed content for issue #19.  As usual the setup is pretty standard with reviews and interviews, and the coverage tends to focus on the Louisiana scene (though not exclusively, of course).  Kicking things off is a brief New Orleans scene report listing off a number of local bands and their general styles, pointing out what they're currently up to where applicable.  Then it's onto the interviews with quick and at times personable chats with Catholicon, Apartment 213 (not the recently reunited classic grind band, to my disappointment), Beaten Back to Pure, Mangina, Die Rotzz, and the Faeries.  Some of the questions are pretty boring and typical ("How would you describe your sound?"), but since the bands are often talkative enough they tend to tell amusing stories and get kind of colorful when they get asked more lighthearted questions like, "If you could be a member of any 80's metal band in their prime, who would you be?"  The reviews range in length from a couple of lines to about a paragraph, so the effectiveness varies.  The reviewers are all honest and tend to pull no punches, which is nice, but a little more of a consistent level of detail would be nice considering there are only about 50 - 60 reviews in all.  Where I have to go a little hard on this one in the overall rating is that the general quality level simply isn't that high, especially considering it's not a free zine ($1 in person or $2ppd).  Cheap enough, sure, but let's face it: It's only 20 pages of crudely cut and paste styled xeroxes, and the content's not all that interesting.  The layout doesn't have the effective D.I.Y. aesthetic that can be a positive trait of this style of presentation either, so it's just kind of a roughly jumbled setup.  There are barely any ads and the ads that are included are all to promote local product, which is cool, and I have no qualms with any of that.  But making slightly better use of space and arrangement would allow for more content to be placed into each issue, or for a more visually interesting read, and it wouldn't take much work to get the reviews and some of the interview questions to jump to another level as far as overall intrigue, you know?  Editor Bobby Bergeron's a solid dude who's heart is in the right place, so I commend him for taking care of business and doing his own thing, but I'd like to see this zine take a little step up, because I know it's easily possible. (5/10)
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Paranoize - http://www.geocities.com/paranoize/

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