Maximumrocknroll #335

(www.maximumrocknroll.com) What has always been good about MRR are the columns, the zillions of ads that provide a snapshot of "the scene," the often absurd scene reports, and...maybe nothing else. Some of the record reviews are good, but so many are abysmally written it's hard to endorse them as a whole (though I'm fonder of the book and movie reviews, which are longer, and in the 80s and 90s I definitely used the zine reviews as a catalogue), and the interviews with bands are pretty boring. What is sometimes good about the zine are theme issues, including the recent comix issue and the great gay punk issues years ago (which featured an awesome, clearly fake piece about skinhead bootboy bed buddies). What is sometimes great is the April Fool's issue - I think one issue had folks freaking out because the zine was ending and going internet only or something, and the one I loved involved every columnist conspiring to include something about some heinous fate slated for MRR's deceased founder's legendary record collection (prankish-ly hitting record geeks where it hurts most). Sadly, The Christian Punk Issue is not a theme issue, even though Christian punks are interesting topic (Chicago's Jesus People USA used to fascinate me), and more sadly as an April 1 prank they only go as far as the visual pun on the cover. Still, this ish had tons of great ads!