Think It Through Zine: Issue 1

Okay, I don't have a good camera, so unfortunately I can't upload any pictures from this zine at the time, so this blog entry will be text only.

So I just answered the door and a neighbor says "Hi, I'm your neighbor. The mailman accidently gave this to us." I look at the package and the first thing I notice is on the top left where the return address is, two crucial Turning Point logo looking dudes (I'm pretty sure its the same dudes from the Turning Point demo) just chillin over the name Jeff Hess. My eyes light up because I've been waiting for this zine for about a week and I'm super pumped it came and that the neighbor didn't just keep it. I doubt she'd know how awesome it was anyway.

So this blog entry is dedicated to this zine,  and I will type my opinions as I read through it for the first time. Ready? Here we go! (also listening to Amen Ra right now this band rules and I highly HIGHLY recommend you get into them if you haven't, especially if you're into heavy, ambient music). One more thing before I proceed. You might want to get a snack because this is going to be long...

So now I look at the cover, and I notice that it was drawn by xSlabax, an awesome dude from Ohio. I haven't met him (yet) but I've exchanged some myspace messages with him and he's designing some sick art for my band Alert as we speak. He is an amazing artist and it shows on this cover. It shows a brick wall and a door, an open door with a picture of Stephen TFS from their last show this previous September at Championship in Lemoyne, PA. The door is being opened by a dark hooded crucial dude with nikes laced up and a bold X on his hand with his finger pointing to Stephen. Two other dudes with THINK IT THROUGH written on the back of hooded varsity jackets looking into the doorway. THINK IT THROUGH is also written in a sick font above the door as well as ISSUE ONE and the price of the zine (3$). Featured in this zine is Judge, Seeker, Balance, Loud And Clear, and Face Reality in terms of bands. For other content there's a HC Art Section (I'm excited to see this) featuring Ram, xSlabax, Jay Jacoby and Graffiti by Inflammable.

I'll turn the front page. Alright, maybe I won't type for every page because there's way too much content in this zine (all the more reason for you to get it before its too late!) I'm reading the Intro to the zine and it's pretty sweet. It's Jeff talking about all he's done with hardcore and how it wasn't as hard as sitting down to do the zine. True story. It's not as easy as you think, especially if you want your zine to have substance to it.

Alright I'll spare you a little and skip out on the band reviews for now (I'll read them to myself when I go over the zine again) but the first band he talks about is Seeker and I can imagine it's all good because that band fucking rules. They are from Texas with influences as awesome as Beyond, late Bold, Underdog and Absolution. When this band comes to Massachusetts I'm gonna lose it. Face Reality is the next band mentioned. My band Alert is lucky enough to be able to do a weekend with them as well as Overload and Right Idea in late January which should be fucking sweet.

I turn the page again and ooohh it's a bunch of logos of bands. I love this stuff. No For An Answer, Uniform Choice, Inside Out, Turning Point, Underdog, Wishingwell Records, Straight Ahead, there's no end. Well if I ever wanna rip off a logo, I'm coming to this book for answers. I turn the page and now there's a page dedicated to Jay Jacoby. and artist/cool dude from Kansas (who also is working on a few Alert designs) Man his art is awesome. There's a guy busting out of chains whil wearing a COS shirt and another dude posi jumping. This dude rules, seriously. On the other page is RAM's art and h is also pretty sweet. His style reminds me of Crucial Youth's art a bit which is a style I draw most like. I'll have to hit this dude up soon just because Alert has art from the other two and it'll have to be complete. Next page is an entire page to xSlabax and this dude is the fucking man, in every aspect of the word. Flyers, sticker designs, logos, he has it all and I'm at a loss for words as I look at the sheer awesomeness of this page. I sound very cheesey right now but that's because I'm in such utter shock and the awesomeness of this dude's art. Can't wait to play OH and meet him face to face. Next pages are the graffiti done by a european dude by the alias of Inflammable. I remember lurking his myspace pages and seeing pages and pages of nice graffiti done of great bands; Uniform Choice, Bad Brains, Youth Of Today, True Blue. Great artist.

I'm just going to stop here and call this part 1 because I'm about to leave now, but I will finish it a bit later. In conclusion, this zine rule so far and I'm so glad I got it.