A ceremonial top five!
1: Huggy Bear live in 1994 video on you tube!! This era of Huggy makes me so nostalgic for my teenagerhood... Hardcore records and mod girl haircuts. Angela Davis and the Wipers...
2: Gun Outfit, Spiritual Warriors, Replica and Index live at Thrillhouse. Replica are amazing; ex Duck and Cover and Infect, most girl raging HC with Dharma destroying all previous front people’s attempts at frontpersoning with her total reality. Send off for their tape already. Google that shit. Bay Area hardcore, it’s going off. Index played their first show, Eric from Jump Off a Building/Nodzzzz, Jess Brilliant Color on vox and I think a Traditional fool (I might be wrong) and they sounded like Kleenex playing Sham 69 songs; ie totally sick. Spiritual Warriors are a new mutant Olympia hardcore band, they have a tape you gotta get it. Weird TV and Gun Outfit peoples making your destructive urges seem more necessary. Sick! Gun Outfit bummed out the HC scene who wanted Replica to play (I sympathise, Replica is the best) but Gun Outfit paint landscapes of dark times and loneliness in a specific Northwestern manner that makes me feel like I am watching a movie or reading a book, there but not there. It’s so good and they are moving to LA?!
3: Proxy tape. We listened to this a lot during print week; great Blitz styled street punk from Montreal, I think Inepsy members are involved somehow? It sounds like Born Dead Icons playing Blitz, ie rules! The first song is just OK, but the good songs on this thing are great.
4: Weird TV test press for the new 12”. Seriously, I love this band. This is what we have been waiting for ok?
5: So this is the first issue of MRR without my name in the coordinator spot! Mariam asked me if I was gonna keep writing a column; I think so... We’ll see! Lydia got here from Greece at the end of last month, and has been impressing us all with her masterful editing skills and attention to detail, and I am happy to hand over the joys of running the magazine to her.  As I am sure I have stated a million times in this space, I intend on keeping on working on the magazine in various behind the scenes activities, and will continue to contribute content. (As you should too!! Send in a scene report/interview already). I am working on several things at once even as I type!
    You may have read Mariam’s column about having to move on from coordinating MRR this year also; she has some family responsibilities that mean she has to shift focus. That means you could be coordinator still! Seriously; you could be the person who picks what runs in the magazine, what interviews with super secret cult bands from 1982 or from last week, what theme issues and what projects... You get to live at the MRR house for free, rent and bills paid, with over 40,000 punk records and a hundred or so shitworkers passing through the house assisting you in your endeavors! You have to live in San Francisco, at the Maximum house, and you gotta have your shit together (ie to be able to edit and run a magazine), whilst at the same time being absolutely consumed by punk rock and all it has to offer. Email us at mrr@maximumrocknroll.com and let us know why you are interested and what you think you could bring to the magazine and we will send you an application. It’s a two year commitment. I lasted four years, the longest anyone (aside from Tim Yohannan, obviously) has lasted is six, but most people put in two or three years. It’s hard work, like going to graduate school for punks, but it’s the most fun/gratifying thing too. So much music to discover, punks from all over the world to correspond with and to coerce into contributing to the magazine! DIY or DIE!!
You can read old columns by me here: whatwewantisfree.blogspot.com and you can email me at Layla@maximumrocknroll.com