Although this is produced in St. Catharines, Noise is really a Niagara Falls zine, a bunch of disaffected youth just trying to be heard above the deafening sound of crashing water and dunce tourists. Dunce tourists are the semi-subject of Petro John’s I Am…The Gas Passer! in which he takes a liberal look at life on the pumps. But besides that overtly set in Niagara article, there aren’t too many more mentions of life in the falls, still, I stick to my theory that this is a Niagara Falls zine, and that this zine is the model for small-town zines with a global out-look. Globally (or at least North Americanly) we get Lesa’s interview with Christina Kelly, former editor of “the dearly departed magazine Sassy”. Now it seems that back when Sassy was still the coolest girl’s magazine to hit mass production, Lesa and the Noise staff were chosen to produce one of the reader produced issues (a Sassy idea that’s pretty ground-breaking when you think about it). Anyway, you can imagine that after that experience, it was pretty heart-breaking to watch the magazine become just another corporate piece of deluded garbage. The only person more crushed than Lesa was probably Christina Kelly who worked on the magazine for seven years. Kelly tells us her story and Noise chronicles that oh-so brief moment when main-stream publishing went renegade. There’s so much more in this zine, interviews with the Archers of Loaf, the Spinanes, and a lament for the demise of Eric’s Trip. A great zine. Noise doesn’t have to yell. We are listening. Plus it comes with a 7″ that includes mystery machine, thanatopop, loomer and plum tree.
zine / #10, 22 pages / main creator: Lesa (editor) / $1 (I think it’s 6 with the 7″) / 135 Dorothy Street, St. Catharines, ON, L2N 7R3 email: [email protected]