Under The Volcano

#27 (P.O. Box 236 Nesconset, NY 11767)
by Joshua Brown

High point: A short, bitterly transcendent fiction piece entitled “Why I Ate My Wife” by M. Gira of Swans, along with an interview of him. (The piece also appears in his book, released by Henry Rollins’ 2.13.61) Not so high points: Under the Volcano is a fanzine, sometimes in the most marshmallowy “positive” sense of the word. (We’ll say this new album is amazing, even though it’s only pretty good, at best. Since the band’s from our hometown, no one will question our sincerity. If they do, we’ll just exile them from our scene by calling them “unsupportive,” or even better, “counter-productive.”) The Pennywise interview was enlightening and entertaining, but the Joykiller interview was overly fawning, albeit informative, the columns are self-indulgent and useless, the reviews are on par with MRR and Flipside. Donny the Punk steals the show with an article entitled “Gods For Punx,” explaining why Shiva was a punk rocker just like Sheena.