Distort #13

Distort mag started in 2003 to document kvlt hardcore and World War III. The contents of Distort have been dominated by impulse, excess, insomnia, stimulation. No editor, no proofread, no nerd.

Out of the 2000+ pages published over the past couple of decades I am skimming the C.R.E.A.M. into an archival book.

I'm raising funds to print this by making backissues available again via PDF.

You can also purchase a onetime subscription to all Distort here which this issue is part of.

Distort #13 (2006) - Extortion / The Mormons / Bill Bondsmen / Voices Wake Us / Cardiac Arrest / Out Cold

 Distort, 2006. Most interviews were conducted via email, the content was flush with bands that I would never have heard of were it not for the net/networking of email and messageboards. To compensate for this spiritual compromise, each issue was laid out in a very haphazard and ugly cut-and-paste style, printed once and one time only in runs of 100-1000 copies, and when it went out of print, it stayed out of print. Until now. 

I did not upload content to the internet, the process was entirely in denial of the looming reality of hyper-documentation, and each issue was written, edited, designed and published in bursts of fever or reckless stimulation, deadlines most often based on the next Straightjacket Nation show or tour.

Voices Wake Us was a NY zine that for whatever reason charmed me at the time. Reading it now, I can see it was an introduction to many bands that I’d not heard before. The style has an overbearing pedantry on the part of the editor that hasn’t aged well. Much like this issue of Distort! I jest - this issue was a groundbreaking, world changing moment for Australian hardcore, featured reading in the Extremist Watch List.

 Bill Bondsmen were a hardcore band from Detroit – I couldn’t describe them now to save my life, but I would venture a guess that they dragged some influence from the Cleveland bands down the road. I was fascinated with Detroit, and I wanted to learn more about what was happening there at the time.

 The Mormons were a Cleveland band that predated 9 Shocks Terror, one of the Straightjacket Nation’s more obvious inspirations.

 Extortion are one of Australia’s best ever hardcore bands and this was one of 200 interviews they did in 2006 - this is well regarded as their best ever interview.