GAD! Zine

    Most readers of this blog are likely aware that it exists as a sort of compliment to our physical GAD! zine. It's an old-school black & white photocopied deal that we give out for free. A terrible business model. But this ain't a business. This is our passion. And appropriately, GAD! ZiNe Comp is filled with passion. 24 independent bands each contributing a song for the cause of keeping the zine happening. We have bands featuring contributors to the zine/blog. We have a lot of underground Alabama bands, several of which are composed of people who have fought the not always pretty fight of being a punk rocker in the Deep South for twenty, even thirty years. We have bands from other parts of the country. We have a band from another part of the world. We have demos and exclusives. We even have an exclusive mix of "Bella Donna" by Indoria, featuring the legendary Faith No More/Bad Brains/Cement vocalist Chuck Mosley!!                    ORDER CD!!      ORDER C

MIKE WATT Bassist of Minutemen talks coming up in the early CA punk scene , Double Nickels On The Dime , and the perfect flannel . Gad: I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today. Mike: No problem, thank you for having me aboard. What part of Alabama did you say you were from? Gadsden, Alabama. A long way from California. A little further south, haha. Well, it ain’t as south as Mobile. That’s right on the water. In fact, Mobile is like a miniature. It’s a little port ya know? They got a couple hammerheads. We’ve got almost 400 (laughs). I’ve played there. Last time I was in Mobile, it was a sad night. Jack Bruce had passed away. I don’t know if you know him. He was in a band called “Cream” in the 60’s. He was the bass man and as a younger Watt, I was very influenced by this guy. Scottish, he was from Glasgow. And you never really know. Ya know, you probably noticed lately a lot of dudes are passing away. I just think it’s the time period too ya know

    I still remember an art club meeting in high school. Yep, I'm taking it back that far. The purpose of the meeting was to decide what design to put on the art club t-shirts, which we'd sell to students to earn money for the art department. Being a snotty artist-wannabe punk rocker who subscribed to the D.I.Y. ethos even then (especially then), I suggested that we hand-paint the shirts ourselves with acrylic. Each shirt would be a one-of-kind piece of art. High School students can be surprisingly receptive to the art of their peers. My stuff back then looked like crap, but the students at the time would have you think I was a genius. And most of them hated me. Imagine if I was cool! With individuals painting in different styles, that meant that we weren't stuck with just one design that may only appeal to certain people. Customers could pick the shirts that spoke to their style or interests. I knew that the paint would hold up to repeat washes, because I'd already pa

    The epitome of Neo-Glam rock. Is there such a subsect genre? There is now. Coming from “tha ATL”, the band bears such a distinction honestly; their sound is really what the New York Dolls or “Aladdin Sane” era Bowie might have sounded like birthed upon the musical landscape of somewhat more modern times, instead of what the sleeve credits suggest. The quartet hails from Atlanta, and their lush, densely-layered sonic palate gives me hope for the future of southern-based artistic product (ooooh, the most scintillating of tense and uneasy of alter egos saddled upon this thang called “ROCK AND ROOOOWWLLLE!”) . The band currently has two releases: A self-titled EP from 2013, and “Heavy Petting”, a full-length (I never get tired of giggling whenever I see that written or hear it anywhere) from this current year of our Jon Lord, 2016. The EP is a little more feisty, more on the UK 77 punk side of town as far as the bands catalog is concerned, specifically “Bat On A Leash” which has a t

  My musical endeavors, the GAD! Zine, and this blog can all be traced back to one inspiring cassette that I purchased when I was a kid: Faith No More's debut album, We Care A Lot. Early FNM introduced me to the sounds of punk, post-punk, metal, even a touch of rap that I could stand. The vocals were truly unique, with lyrics that could be abstract and enigmatic one moment and so utterly relateable and down-to-earth the next. The music that would accompany this new poetry was dark and menacing and catchy and unencumbered by any preconceived notions of a particular blueprint or specific style. This album completely opened my mind to not just a whole new world, but to an entire universe of creative possibilities. I've often said that if it weren't for punk rock, then I'd have been a lot more successful, but I would've killed myself. So, in a way, Faith No More saved my life.     Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled when Kolbey and I were given the opportunit