BUS 125 Collective- Release #1 review

BUS 125 Collective zine & tape review “Crook by the Book”


Upon being in the local music scene for about a year, I noticed around March or April of this year (2010) that no one really had any locally produced fanzines and the thriving local scene we had was going unnoticed and undocumented. So I started my own personal zine, which I’ve put out three issues of so far, since compiling and releasing various work I’ve written/done from March 2010 onward. For a while, I noticed I essentially had a monopoly on this zine market. At least, until now. I was excited to see another local zine putting out something, especially when it consists of both a print zine and a cassette.

First, the cassette. It’s a compilation tape with four local acts. The first track is from a band called End Trails, and I heard something new, yet something old was there. It was new hardcore, playing a very tired style of it. Not a terrible song in and of itself, but melodic, breakdown-based hardcore doesn’t impress me much. The next track was from Build & Destroy, and it opened with a sample sounding like old-school hip-hop. Eventually, the song kicked into a hardcore track and that played out okay. I’ve been told these guys use a lot of hip-hop influence in their music. I didn’t see it so much here, but it was at least a good intro. More hip-hop, please. The third track is from Louder Than Bombs, who play rock with a heavy punk vibe, close to melodic hardcore. The track was pretty good, but definitely a newer sound I haven’t heard much of before. A worthy compilation track, to say the least.

After this, the tape turned over and the band Face Reality came upon the airwaves. Within seconds, I was taken by force by the furious, angry vibe of the band. Think Vitamin X, but local and a little better. Scratch that, a LOT better. Next was another track from Build & Destroy. This track was much stronger than their first one, bearing a more hardcore sound to it. Loud and angry, but no hip-hop influence here; a worthy endeavor/outing nonetheless. After this was a second track from Louder Than Bombs. This, too, was a more punk-ish track than the first one, and it was much stronger. With screaming melodic singing, the track stood out both vocally and musically. Perhaps good melodic hardcore does exist somewhere that hasn’t been sucked in by a black hole already. Closing the cassette another ripper from Face Reality. With even greater fury, the band ripped every throat out on the way to the top of the Michigan straight-edge scene. This band has so much potential and could retire now and still be one of the strongest bands I’ve heard as of recent locally.

Next, the zine. The zine itself is obviously a throwback to low-fi, raw production of old-school zines, and sometimes computer software just can’t beat literally copying, pasting, and slapping something cool together with one’s own two hands. This zine also has what mine generally doesn’t: a wide variety of different kinds of material, like a recipe, a comic, a how-to guide, and a greater presence of pictures. That’s mostly because BUS 125 is a collective with multiple different minds and insights, and I’m a one-man operation. Despite the differences between my product and theirs, I really enjoyed this zine and tape. Get involved, support local publications, do something to support one another. Don’t sit by and be inactive, wasting your life thinking everything is beyond reach; it isn’t. The world is generally composed of two kinds of people: those who do and those who do not. The only way to make any difference is to make decisions individually, and take action by one’s own will. The world caters to them, not you inactive hermits.

-Aunty Social