We've digitized the original issue #4 of Mike Gitter’s xXx Fanzine! This issue features Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, Husker Du, Peace Corpse, and additional content that did not make the book. You can read issue #4 in its entirety HERE. xXx Fanzine founder Mike Gitter had the following to say about this issue...
Cranked out at the end of Hardcore ‘83’s high tide, xXx #4 was a fanzine poised on promise, but was still the product of an ambitious high school senior on his way to, well, “getting there”. The cut-and-paste layouts, the rudimentary writing and yet-to-be half-toned Paul Johnson photos (printed in the St. John’s Prep photo class darkroom) marked xXx as little more than another Boston area zine cribbing its inspiration off local stapled-together brethren like Suburban Punk (later, Suburban Voice), Frontal Assault and local HC bible, Forced Exposure. Based on where xXx was at, at that point in history, you shouldn’t be reading this some 35 years later. But I digress.
Not that issue #4 didn’t have its highpoints. There were the interviews – hardly Playboy-worthy profiles, but “not bad” as fanzine interrogations went. There were notables to be found like Pomona's Peace Corpse, but we we also walked in the shadow of future titans. For example, Bob, Grant and Greg from Husker Du were happy to oblige an interview in parking lot of The Channel at their second Boston area gig with SST labelmates, The Minutemen. Where the Huskers’ inaugural Boston gig at Maverick’s earlier in the year was a blur of rampant speed and roughshod melodies, pulling largely from the Twin Cities trio’s then binary salvos of Land Speed Record and Everything Falls Apart, their December 1983 Beantown gig - touring on the back of their landmark Metal Circus EP - gave the still hardcore-inclined, pre-“college-rock” era fans of Husker Du a taste of the Zen Circus come.
Outside of the Black Flag/SST Records axiom, Suicidal Tendencies’ Mike Muir might have been one of the most “hardcore” and hardest working personalities out there, carving a lane that even today pledges its allegiance to no one but the Suicidal Army. When ST unleashed their self-titled Frontier Records debut it was a shock to the system in a way few then-recent records, since maybe “Damaged”, had been. Suicidal had the total package. They were an anomaly and a success in spite of - and because of – themselves. For starters, Suicidal had a dangerous street rep spelt out in the pages of scene bibles like Flipside. Songs like “I Shot Reagan” “Institutionalized” scaled heights no one imagined and ended up as KROQ radio semi-hits. Then there were the Glen E. Friedman shots of Suicidal Tendencies’ crew decked out in Ric Clayton’s hand-drawn Sucidal Cyco button-ups on the back of that record. They had a crew of Venice vatos that were a Suicidal Nation unto themselves. Mike Muir put in the work: playing and promoting gigs as well as scrawling out plenty of “through the mail” interviews to spread the Suicidal gospel (which involved physically slapping and stamp on an envelope and heading to the post office) - one of which he was nice enough to do for that issue of xXx.
Now with a spate of reunion gigs, including a US re-debut at Punk Rock Bowling, announced as pen this intro-screed for xXx#4, the Circle Jerks’ place in punk and hardcore history is indisputable. Paul Johnson’s cover shot of Keith Morris wagging his tongue at a Channel crowd in late 1983 is pure, point-perfect punk attitude. Interviewed in the back dressing room of the South Boston waterfront club, the Jerks were on a high at the time, ploughing across America supporting their Golden Shower of Hits LP with a lineup that’s amongst their strongest to date with the rhythm section of Saccharine Trust giant Earl Liberty on bass and drum legend Chuck Biscuits supporting Keith and guitarist Greg Hetson. Confronted by a teenaged xXx editor, the ever-affable Keith was good enough to endure questions about comparing the Jerks with his legendary stint as OG frontdude for Black Flag, as well as the usual queries about “the scene”. Now, 36 years later, it’s great to see the Jerks are back – at least for the moment.
Flipping through these pages, it’s plain to see that xXx #4 was a solid cross-section of a scene about to shift. Bands were cresting, putting out their finest and starting to think about calling it quits ala Minor Threat and the Misfits, both of whom played their last shows in the Fall of that year. The “Best of 1983” list contained the likes of Youth Brigade’s Sound & Fury, Scream’s Still Screaming, DYS’ Brotherhood and a lil’ classic from Minor Threat called Out of Step. That issue also contained reviews of future classics from The Faith, Crucifix, Stranglehold and a pulverizing platter called Earth AD by the Misfits, just to name a few. Add to that a few bona-fide ads (mostly paid for with record trades) including Deep Wound, advertising their Radiobeat Records EP and Jerry’s Kids announcing their landmark Is This My World? LP, it felt like the fledgling xXx may be getting it together.
- Mike Gitter
January 2020
