Literary

NICHE HOMO #4

When this 80-page bumper edition flops open at the centre-fold, we learn that power-electronics stalwarts Ramleh "quite like" dubstep, which is refreshing because when I asked Cerebral Ballzy the same thing they said it was "some weak-ass, faggoty shit." In this issue,

Niche Homo

cherrypick Sic Alps and The Homosexuals for interviews along with other hipster-adored lo-fi bands who don’t suck yet. Elsewhere, Nick Jones’ adventures at the local swimming pool bless the world with the line, “The sight of a man wearing a t-shirt—but naked from the waist down—is uniquely offensive.” True that. Makes a man look like a blindfolded elephant.

KEV KHARAS

nichehomo.blogspot.com

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #332

Is this issue of

MRR

their tribute to our own

Comics Issue

of six years ago? Probably not. I love

MRR

and have it delivered to my house every month but I’m not sure of their love for

Vice

. Whenever I read it I’m reminded of the time that a sometime-

MRR

contributor called Paco came to visit us at the office and said something like: “I don’t hate you, Andy. I just hate everything that you and your company stand for.”

In the last two years,

MRR

has become less of a PR sheet for boring American bands that split up after one seven-inch and has started to include fun stuff like an Agnostic Front interview and a free Cock Sparrer flexi. They even did a photo issue. George Tabb, Brontez and Bryony Beynon’s columns are always fun to read and make me almost forget the terrible days when boring, trite knobheads like Kent McClard were allowed to use the pages of

MRR

as tissues for their emotional jizz catastrophes.

This new one’s got cartoons and interviews with people such as Kaz, Jaime Hernandez, John Holmstrom of

Punk

magazine, Ed Luce and other names that you can find out about by going to the

MRR

website or taking out a subscription. It’s not quite as amazing as our Comics Issue but it’s still worth your attention. Ben Lyon’s “Greatest Moments in Punk History” page is great and should definitely be printed on a t-shirt. Maybe we can ask one of our multinational corporate sponsors to give us some money so we can bootleg it and sell it back to the kids. I can use the filthy profit to buy expensive cigars while dowsing myself in rare cologne and bathing, nightly, in the breast milk of Venezuelan teenage mothers.

ANDY CAPPER

maximumrocknroll.com

GIRLZINE #1

Ramiro Pereyra is a Spanish photographer based in Barcelona who likes girls. In that respect he’s kind of a bit like Richard Kern, except the girls Ramiro features in the full-colour, 24-page debut issue of

Girlzine

, his zine, keep their clothes on and don’t appear to be professional models. They’re plain Janes. “Some of them are ‘girls next door’, which I love,” says Ramiro. “I don’t like the model type, they’re not my cup of tea, as you say.” He sounds like a good guy. Let’s speak to him some more.

Vice: What’s the idea behind Girlzine?

Ramiro Pereyra:

I’ve been taking photos of girls for years and I was looking for a good place to show them. I’m tired of the internet, and a fanzine is the way I want to show these photos. This is my first zine, but I’m not much into zine culture, I have to admit. For this issue the focus is on girls of Barcelona, but I keep looking everywhere.

Are any of the girls featured in the zine your girlfriend?

Ha ha, no!

Why not?

Good point. I find it happens that you don’t use your girlfriend much as a model, and for me

Girlzine

is about fresh new faces.

What’s happening in Barcelona these days?

Mmmm, not much, I’m afraid. Madrid is way more exciting at the moment.

Are you planning a second issue?

Yes, this time with collaborators. I’m very inspired by girls from 70s Barcelona. There was a scene called “La Gauche Divine” which was exciting at the time. That’s my main inspiration now.

Tell us about it.

It started in the late 60s as an intellectual scene, but it happened in a disco called Bocaccio. Then they made a magazine called

Bocaccio

’70 which was like

Playboy

but with no nudes; Franco was around then. Barcelona was a very cool place in those years. There was an intellectual side to it with a bourgeois touch.

Are there any parallels between the Barcelona of Bocaccio and today?

I don’t think so. Now we have a very different generation. But Barcelona has always had a good club culture. I’d like to reanimate that Bocaccio spirit, that would be nice.

If you were to sum up Girlzine in one sentence, what would you say?

It’s obvious but the sentence would be: I LIKE GIRLS.

PIERO MARTINETTI

girlzine-e.blogspot.com