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FANZINE REVIEW! VULCHER #2

After the last issue I'll betcha you thought that the folks behind VULCHER couldn't top this li'l endeavor any, eh? Well, if you just happen to think this way---maybe you're RIGHT! Let's just say that VULCHER #2 is every bit as good as its predecessor and considering just hope tip top ajax that read was you can bet this one is just as boffo and thankfully not worse, which would still make it a great magazine anyway but these days rock 'n roll needs all the help it can get!

It's really nice seeing the old Kenne Highland/Eddie Flowers/Gizmos branch of the seventies rock fanzine mafia up and at it this late in the game (heck, I thought the "game" for all practical purposes was over and done with no later than 1996), but they're not only here Gizmoing things up but doin' the rock writing game just like they did back inna early-seventies when Highland was pumping out a whole slew of ROCK ON magazines (particularly powerful writing for a mid-teen!) and Eddie was threatening us with his SEARCH AND DESTROY for years which ultimately became what we all know and love as GULCHER #0.

And frankly, if there is ANYONE in this fanzine world of ours who DESERVES to be the honorees at a banquet complete with instant mashed potatoes and a slab of roast beef with a vein through it, its Eddie Flowers and Kenne Highland!

Of course the new VULCHER features many an improvement o'er those early stabs at rock 'n roll---er---"journalism" including the slick paper upgrade and neet typeset. I might miss the old style of rock fanzine publishing even if most of the back covers on my ROCK ON's are detached from the rest of the mag but man, it sure is nice to pick this up and see well-repro'd photos and neat letters and a general layout that woulda even wowed Jymn Parrett (who proudly contributed some reviews) to no end.

The mag starts off swimmingly what with Gary "Pig" Gold's interview with Jan and Dean "archivist" Mark A. Moore bringing up some interesting things regarding the famed singing duo (f'rinstance the connection between Dean and the guys who kidnaped Frank Sinatra Jr. back December '63 way is mentioned---nothing about Dean's extracurricular activities as relayed by Jonh Ingham in his TAMI SHOW article in CREEM comes up like I thought they would which I gotta say did disappoint maybe a tad bit). Also on tap...Claudia Bell's interview with Cleveland's new bright lights Archie and the Bunkers, a Modern Lovers history that's sure nice to reminisce to esp. if you too were bombarded with ads for their debut throughout the spring/summer of 1976, a Mike Rep Q&A which I guess is better than a D&C, rare Australian seventies pop, Rich Coffee on The Sonics Rendevous Band and of course TONS OF REVIEWS like Parrett on a collection of Vancouver sixties pop/rock rarities, Byron Coley and Lindsay Hutton on their current top spins, Funhausen (???) and even Dave Laing does something on rare seventies Australian pop groups that, while interesting and entertaining and all that, ain't gonna make me wanna part my purse lips the way I would had I come across a model of a 1965 Australian Ford Falcon station wagon rather cheap!

Layout's beyond fine-fine-superfine...everything I woulda wanted to do with my own crudzine but lacked the brains, money or materials to complete! The Phillip Dick spread was particularly potent not to mention Sir Plastic Crimewave's piece on "Paternoster", an act I don't think will be popping up in the bins of your local FYE any day soon. Let's just say that, unlike a whole load of those dull and boring 'zines from the eighties onward featuring no illustrations and nothing but block typeset Olivetti spewings on the usual precocious precious flower musings that are so in vogue even to this day this mag is pleasing to a whole load of senses!

Another great thing about it is that you will find items in VULCHER #2 you're probably not gonna see in other fanzines unless Sir Plastic decides to re-up GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER! A chap named Robert Dayton reviews an old issue of MARVEL TEAM UP where Marvel's flagship hero Spider-man joins forces with none other than the (almost) original "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE hosted by who else but Stan Lee (ya expectin' Julius Schwartz???)! Considering just how much I've enjoyed Bill's (and my own!) comic book reviews o'er the past few years a piece like this really satisfies me more than the usual dilettantish artzy Glade Air Freshener forays into comic art critiques I've happened to chance upon as of late!

Also hot---Eddie Flowers' list of his favorite freakazoid neo-psychedelic out-there doo-wah classic records, not to mention that infamous review of an anti-drug platter done up by none other than Lester Bangs which appeared in the original (#0) GULCHER. It was so good that a new generation just hadda osmose it, which is I guess why it was reprinted here because if anyone has their thumbs up the mid-Amerigan rock rectum its these guys!

Did I have fun reading this??? You bet, for VULCHER packs more punch and reminds ya of what rock 'n roll in all its forms (tee-vee, print and live as well as via the ol' Victrola) used to mean at least to a suburban slob such as I who felt (and still does!) that  the Seeds and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND were part of the same high energy entertainment spew. And what are you waiting for...write Sam at Vulcherfanzine@gmail.com and see how you can get your very own copy to have and hold, hopefully with both hands!