Ludicra

Ludicra - Urban Guerrilla Zine b-day show in Berkeley, 2002

Photo by Sam Bortnick

Discordia

DISCORDIA - live in Mexico 

I used a song from their demo on the first Urban Guerrilla Zine compilation back in 2001 (it came free with a zine). This video looks like it was probably shot in the late 90s. Members of Discordia went on to play in bands like Bumbklaatt and Coaccion, both of which I booked shows for here (Bay Area) up until the late 2000s.

Thursday Blog 1.7.16

Here is my first blog of the new year, and even though I’m looking forward to 2016, this is going to be a look back at Urban Guerrilla Zine in 2015.  I attempted to post a new blog every Monday towards the end of last year, which pretty quickly turned into every other Monday, but even so I’ve decided to commit to posting a couple a blogs a week in 2016.  Now, let’s take it back to time not so long ago.

In 2015, I managed to put out two zines, which isn’t that impressive.  On the other hand, when you’ve been putting out a zero zines per year for the last seven or eight years, two’s pretty good.  Urban Guerrilla Zine has never really gone away or stopped being active.  When there wasn’t a new issue of Urban Guerrilla Zine there were over a hundred UGZ Presents shows that I booked and promoted, like the UGZ Speed Trials for example, and when I stopped booking shows there was the internet.  When the internet started to feel a bit too isolating and detached, I decided to make zines again.  For most folks Urban Guerrilla Zine existed from 1997-2006, and that was pretty much it until 2015.

Urban Guerrilla Zine #17 was made to accompany a UGZ themed art show that took place in early 2015 at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records in Oakland, at the urging of Pat Libby for which I am grateful.  Urban Guerrilla Zine #17.5 was a half issue entitled “Summer Of No Love”, which was supposed to be out by late summer, but didn’t actually see the light of day until the fall due to issues with the printer.  In fact both zines had printer issues, and in both cases I found myself at Inkworks Press (a worker owned collective) in Berkeley, having to photocopy what were intended to be offset printed zines.  Inkworks doesn’t have the best copy machines, but they are well maintained, so the zines looked pretty good.  The biggest drop off from offset to photocopy would be the photo quality.  In the case of #17 I had to have it done in time for the art show, which we’d also advertised as a zine release party.  As far as the “Summer Of No Love” half issue went, I wanted that out as quickly as possible because I know me, and if I’d waited any longer then it would’ve ended up with all of the other unfinished projects cluttering my work area.

Urban Guerrilla Zine #17.5 is a very personal issue, but not a “personal zine”.  Maybe I should’ve made that distinction a bit more clear when describing it in previous posts.  I wasn’t that concerned with how much the graphics or stories resonated with the reader as much as I wanted to recreate this one summer in Emeryville, standing at a bus stop next to a casino that was in the process of being torn down, surrounded by elderly Asian gambling addicts and crack addicted prostitutes from the stroll a few blocks away on San Pablo Ave.  The vibe I felt while waiting to transfer to the bus I rode to my summer job at a bookstore, where I spent all day indoors when all I wanted was to hang out on Telegraph Ave with my friends.  I didn’t actually write any of that in the zine, but it’s there.

Looking ahead, I plan on doing more zines in 2016, one or two of those will be newer issues of UGZ for what has admittedly become a somewhat limited audience.  On the other hand, I don’t miss printing a thousand zines at a time, and distributing them, then trying to collect the money I’m owed from all the various distributors around the country.  I’m making zines at this point because I enjoy the process, and so I’ll see where that approach takes things from here on out.

If you didn’t get a copy of Urban Guerrilla Zine #17, the only remaining copies I know of are at Needles and Pens, 1173 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA

If you want a copy of Urban Guerrilla Zine #17.5 aka “Summer Of No Love”, then you can still purchase a copy at:

1-2-3-4 Go! Records, 420 40th Street #5, Oakland, CA

Issues Magazine + More, 20 Glen Ave, Oakland, CA

Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight St, San Francisco, CA

Monday Blog 12.14.15

There used to be a time when I’d think, “this is too much”, and, “they’ve finally gone too far.”  The first time I watched the Rodney King beating video I thought that, but then there was the trial and all of the officers involved were acquitted.  The L.A. riots that followed had flashes of sending a message, especially when they started to move towards the wealthier areas of the city, but in the end the folks who rioted only managed to burn and loot their own neighborhoods.  I should know better than to think that any one incident will turn the tide at this point because the list of demands from communities most affected by these types of incidents usually focus on reform, which is the same reform that previous generations have been calling for since the 1960s.  

Last week’s Monday blog was about the SFPD’s execution of Mario Woods by firing line, which was all captured on video, from multiple angles in the city’s Bayview District.  I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see when Facebook autoplayed the first video I watched of Mario Woods being gunned down by the SFPD.  That’s a shitty function by the way, and who knows why Facebook feels the need to shove video content down the throats of its users, but either way I watched that video, and later the other videos from different angles before writing last week’s blog.  It was shocking, and after two years of protests around the country, and the Black Lives Matter movement, to think that something like that can happen in a so called liberal city like San Francisco just underlines the fact that we are way past the point of fixing things with simple reforms.  Oh, and if you watched the Mario Woods video(s) and thought, “this is too much”, and, “they’ve finally gone too far”, then you probably missed the video of Los Angeles police officers shooting a man 33 times as he attempted to crawl away.  The LAPD says they found a gun on the man they shot from behind, then continued to shoot as he crawled away, and they also claim that they received 911 calls from citizens in the neighborhood reporting gun fire, and that the young African American male they shot to death matched the description of the suspect.  If only we had a system where we could trust that all of those claims would be followed up on and properly investigated.

There used to be a time when people believed that art and music could change the world, but that got commodified and turned into art and music becoming a soundtrack for social change, then finally a soundtrack for a generation that once called for change in this country.  They protested in the streets and occupied their college campuses, then graduated and got married, had kids, bought property, turned their homes into apartments, and their backyards into apartment buildings, then rented these units to students so they could circumvent rent control laws, and so on.  That’s a different subject for a future blog perhaps; the Baby Boomer generation and the pitfalls of granola based diets.  

A creative, conceptual, free form approach to addressing the inequality and injustices in our society can change the world, as we observe it.  It’s not literally the art or music, but a state of mind.  I know that’s a fairly abstract statement to make without expanding on it further, but the point of these blogs is not to delve deeply into every thought I have concerning whatever subject I’m addressing, but it’s more of an immediate response to what’s most on my mind on any Monday morning when I sit down to write.  

Triad

Urban Guerrilla Zine b-day show in Berkeley, 2002

Photo by Sam Bortnick

Task Switching

This photo was taken about half way through a very caffeinated hang out session with Pat Libby.  Pat is the manager and head booker at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records in Oakland on 40th Street, about two blocks from the old UGZ headquarters.

"Summer Of No Love" aka Urban Guerrilla Zine #17.5 is currently available at both the Oakland and SF store locations.

Summer Of No Love

There’s a new UGZ half issue out now entitled Summer Of No Love, which is just a little something that I wanted to get out there before tackling anything bigger.  It’s a theme issue and a personal zine that I worked on alone that contains photos (35mm), a story or two pulled from old notebooks that I used to take with me to cafes back in the day, as well as random observations that I jot down, usually after I’ve had a large cup of coffee and wandered around a bit.  Most importantly, every zine comes with stickers.

As you probably guessed, this was supposed to be a summer issue, but I hit some snags with the offset printer we were going to use.  So as the summer passed, then my fallback plan of an Indian Summer issue began to dissolve, I had to bounce over to a print shop in Berkeley to get a 100 or so photocopied (the same as the last issue).  They turned it around very quickly, and a little over a week later I had a box of zines finally, only they got the print run wrong and the number of zines was half of what I ordered.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, the Summer Of No Love is real.

If you’re in the Bay Area, you can purchase a copy of UGZ #17.5, Summer Of No Love at:

Issues, 20 Glen Ave, Oakland, CA

1-2-3-4 Go! Records, 420 40th St, Ste 5, Oakland, CA

Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA

Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight St, San Francisco, CA

Or you can send $5 (well concealed cash) to: UGZ ℅ Jay Unidos, 1442A Walnut Street #419, Berkeley, CA 94709.  Email me: jayunidos@gmail.com.

Thanks, Jay

UGZ Speed Trials

Here’s a Larry Wolfley photo taken at Burnt Ramen, and in the background you can see the top of a UGZ Speed Trials poster from 2002, the first year we did one.

REAGAN SS

Reagan SS set from the 2002 Rampaging Insane Depravity Fest. The 2002 R.I.D. Fest took place at various venues throughout the Bay Area and Southern California. This set in particular is from day two of the fest, which took place at both Warm Water Cove in San Francisco during the day and 924 Gilman in Berkeley at night. Reagan SS played the Gilman show in the Bay Area and a house party in Long Beach when the fest moved south the following weekend.

I Went To Gilman Twice This Past Weekend

I went to Gilman twice this past weekend, and going back to Gilman feels like thanksgiving dinner at the home of your cool uncle, who used to be cooler, but at least he never sold out.  Not like the others… Of course he lives in an apartment that was built in the 60s, and even though his record collection is pretty awesome, it’s hard to hear at times because the speakers are old and dusty, or maybe he just needs to change the needle on that dusty old turntable of his?  Anyway, it’s cool because you can show up after not showing up for a long time, and all that he asks is that you clear the table when you’ve finished eating.  Oh, but it would be awesome if you helped do some dishes after, but at the very least if you could pass the mashed potatoes, then that’s all we ask of you.  To be honest, you could eat, leave your plate, throw your leftovers in the toilet before you leave, and you’d still be welcome back, just apologize before next thanksgiving.  Always remember that even though he refers to them as “little kids tables”, there’s still a space for you.

 The end, need coffee.

ELDOPA (1332)

ElDopa (1332) - full set from the 2006 December Bastards B-day Bash, which took place in January of 2007 at the Chop Shop (West Oakland). We did two B-day Bash shows that year because of a scheduling conflict with Gilman’s 20th Anniversary weekend the month before. Happy birthday to all the December Bastards out there!

NOISEAR

Noisear - full set from the 2007 UGZ Speed Trials at 924 Gilman

NEUROSIS

I’m back from our short road trip to Portland for the Neurosis, Tragedy, The Body, Atriarch show at the Roseland Theater.  The sun was shining when I arrived in PDX, although the temperature hovered between forty and fifty degrees for most of the day, which is cold by Bay Area standards.  That said, I zipped up my hoody and wandered around as much as possible prior to the show, eventually making it as far as Pok Pok for lunch, which was awesome.

 The show itself was worth the trip, especially for the Tragedy and Neurosis sets. I was so into both bands that I only attempted to snap one or two pics early during Tragedy’s set, which turned out blurry.  During Neurosis’ set I made a conscious decision to just be in the moment and enjoy the show.  Early on though I did notice that there were a couple of guys there with nice cameras taking photos, and I figured I’d just look them up online when I got back to the Bay.  This Neurosis photo is by Al Case, and you can find more of his photos from last Saturday night’s show on his blog: http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/

Santa Muerte

Santa Muerte t-shirt design for 924 Gilman, based on Brian Stern's limited edition shirts he made for the EXTORTION/IRON LUNG show that we booked, along with Alejandra "Nunca Mas" back in 2009. The Gilman design is basically the same, except for the band names that were removed, and the bottom half which was decided upon after 15-20 minutes of emails between myself and Brian. We raised over ten thousand dollars (for Gilman) selling t-shirts and tote bags of this design. I also like that this Santa Muerte image is synonymous with UGZ, and our involvement with the club.

P.L.F.

P.L.F.'s  crushing set from the 2010 UGZ Speed Trials.  2010 was the last time we held a Speed Trials show at Gilman, which had become home to the event after a couple of short stints at Burnt Ramen and the Slaughterhaus in Oakland.  The economics of pulling off an event like the UGZ Speed Trials finally caught up to us, so we've put it on hiatus until the particulars can be sorted out.  The cool thing about the Speed Trials shows were how completely independent and D.I.Y. they were, with zero sponsorship or even promotional support from the bands' record labels, just two or three people on their phones, computers, and in the club the night before painting, hanging banners, cooking food, and making it happen.  The turnouts were always around 300 paid, which isn't that big for a UGZ Presents show, but it was the perfect size for a UGZ Speed Trials show.  Thanks to Dan and Kill That Cat for filming this.

Rampaging Insane Depravity

This dude was feeling it!  Day three of the 2002 R.I.D. Fest, which took place at Mission Records in San Francisco. The lineup for this show was Brainoil, Phalanx (Seattle), Exitwound (reunion), Dystrophy, Voetsek, Black Market Fetus (Iowa), Thretning Verse (Los Angeles), and I'm pretty sure that Skarp (Seattle) jumped on as well.  Photo by Rick P.U.N.K.

CALIFORNIA LOVE

California Love at the Oakland Metro in 2005. We really hustled to find a venue for this last minute show (two weeks notice or something like that), which we finally did at the original Oakland Metro location on Broadway, next to the porn shop. The bill also featured Iron Lung, Unpersons, and Laudanum. Photo by Lars

SKARP

SKARP back in 2005 at the Arcadia Skate Ramp Hotel in Oakland, CA.  The Arcadia Skate Ramp Hotel was a short lived venue in West Oakland that we booked shows at between 2004-2006.  We booked SKARP for the first time in 2001 at Burnt Ramen Studios in Richmond, CA, and I'm pretty sure that this was the last time we booked them.  It was a fun night and SKARP were as good as I'd seen them up to that point.  Photos by Murray Bowles

TRAGEDY

TRAGEDY back in 2008 when they toured with Blowback from Japan.  The Bay Area shows were awesome! 

LUDICRA

Today’s ‘Throwback Thursday’ post is a full set from Ludicra, filmed in 2007 at 924 Gilman by Dan Hashthrash (killthatcat.com).