Maximum Rocknroll: DEAD?

[P-TNT]

At least in its current form:

http://maximumrocknroll.com/announcement/

It is with heavy hearts that we are announcing the end of Maximum Rocknroll as a monthly print fanzine. There will be three more issues of the fanzine in its current format; later in 2019 we will begin publishing record reviews online alongside our weekly radio show. Readers can look forward to more online content, updates regarding the archive project initiated in 2016, and other yet-to-be-announced MRR projects, as well as new ways for punks around the world to get involved. We will be having a public meeting at 2:00pm on Sunday, January 20 at the MRR compound to discuss the future ? please write mrr@maximumrocknroll.com for details.

Maximum Rocknroll began as a radio show in 1977. For the founders of Maximum Rocknroll, the driving impulse behind the radio show was simple: an unabashed, uncompromising love of punk rock. In 1982, buoyed by burgeoning DIY punk and hardcore scenes all over the world, the founders of the show ? Tim Yohannan & the gang ? launched Maximum Rocknroll as a print fanzine. That first issue drew a line in the sand between the so-called punks who mimicked society?s worst attributes ? the ?apolitical, anti-historical, and anti-intellectual,? the ignorant, racist, and violent ? and MRR?s principled dedication to promoting a true alternative to the doldrums of the mainstream. That dedication included anti-corporate ideals, avowedly leftist politics, and relentless enthusiasm for DIY punk and hardcore bands and scenes from every inhabited continent of the globe. Over the next several decades, what started as a do-it-yourself labor of love among a handful of friends and fellow travelers has extended to include literally thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of readers. Today, forty-two years after that first radio show, there have been well over 1600 episodes of MRR radio and 400 issues of Maximum Rocknroll fanzine ? not to mention some show spaces, record stores, and distros started along the way ?  all capturing the mood and sound of international DIY punk rock: wild, ebullient, irreverent, and oppositional.

Needless to say, the landscape of the punk underground has shifted over the years, as has the world of print media. Many of the names and faces behind Maximum Rocknroll have changed too. Yet with every such shift, MRR has continued to remind readers that punk rock isn?t any one person, one band, or even one fanzine. It is an idea, an ethos, a fuck you to the status quo, a belief that a different kind of world and a different kind of sound is ours for the making.

These changes do not mean that Maximum Rocknroll is coming to an end. We are still the place to turn if you care about Swedish girl bands or Brazilian thrash or Italian anarchist publications or Filipino teenagers making anti-state pogo punk, if you are interested in media made by punks for punks, if you still believe in the power and potential of autonomously produced and underground culture. We certainly still do, and look forward to the surprises, challenges, and joys that this next chapter will bring. Long live Maximum Rocknroll.

I just ordered the magazine for a year after the last local dealer in Finland closed down couple of months ago, so there's that too.

[Mattpabst]

Just came on here to post this. I admit over the last year or so I haven't read it as consistently as I have in the past but it's still a regular go to for me. For some reason I thought it would last forever.

[AggravationOverdose]

Bad news. MRR is still relevant though-magazines in general, not so much.

That said, I just sent in $45 for a revolving subscription just a few days ago!

[Mattpabst]

On Instagram they do mention they will be reaching out to advertisers and subscribers in the next couple days.

[Spacecase Records]

Magazines are still plenty relevant. If you're writing about music (or just journalism in general), the goal's print -- not online. It's a shame as print really lends itself to easier archiving. Print news sets the template for all other mediums -- online, radio, etc. Another one gone.

[nuggetsvolume1]

Sucks: the last local store that near me carried this stopped years ago. I remember it being at my Barnes and Noble for a long time. RIP.

[Someguy]

I didn't know it was still in print.  I'm a bit shocked actually.  I haven't seen it since the 80's.

[kevin e]

I remember them doing this as an April Fool's joke close to 20 years ago.

I haven't read it forever, but it serves a really good function keeping pretty disparate forms of underground rock music in one place. These days it seems like things are much more silo'd than they used to be.

[K2]

Super depressing development, rendered even more so thanks to the aforementioned April Fools prank. Whatever your feelings on the content, it?s an institution and these developments illustrate the potential impermenance of the whole thing. What plans are in place to ensure the long term integrity of the record collection, for example?

Don?t get me wrong, I get it, it?s volunteer run, this was obviously a collective decision. It?s still something I find very disheartening.

[Mitch]

Tough news any way you slice it, but all messaging presents this as a shift rather than an end --- a change to allow MRR to continue (and expand) its work & coverage online rather than battling for survival as a monthly print zine.  It's a blow in the sense that there's no other entity that covers punk in print monthly as well as MRR.  Not gonna say it ain't sad (it totally is!!!), but this decision is just a couple days old and there appears to be much more info and MRR content forthcoming. 

Rough fuckin' news, been doing some manner of MRR shite the entirety of my adult life...And I'm an old person now!

[damski]

Was gutted reading the news on Twitter earlier. MRR has meant so much to me in my life and has been a constant in my life for 33 or so years. I know they are putting a positive spin on the news what with the chance to expand on-line, but, at the moment, it feels like a hammer blow to me personally and also to punk itself. It got some amount of shit from folk over the years but it was still relevant to me and thousands of others. Was honoured to visit the compound a few years ago and meet Grace and, of course, see the collection.

[nuggetsvolume1]

I got into MRR as a monthly thing in high school when they were bitching about Green Day, the Steve Albini band economics article came out, they were shaming corporate rock, etc. It was pretty amazing for the time, because every other print magazine that you during that period praised/cashed in on the alterna craze of the 90's (Spin, AP, etc). Really kind of a big deal for a punk kid in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't around for the 80's HC days, and I haven't really followed it recently, but huge for me as a kid around 1994-6. I even remember making a few pen pals from the classified ads...and getting a lot of KBD info from the articles. RIP.

[ditmasduke]

It is collectively run, so why not find a collection of people who want to keep it going? Charge an extra dollar? Get it back in Barnes & Nobles?

I stopped buying it years ago because no place near me sells it. There?s a flea market I never get to that carries it, that?s it.

I do have like every issue from late ?84 until ?96 or so neatly stored in my house so I will pull them out and read them again. If anyone in Jersey wants to drinks and read MRR hit me up.

[K2]

It is collectively run, so why not find a collection of people who want to keep it going?

Easier said than done (I mean, I?m sure everyone would rather have it in print, ideally.) Bay Area housing market also undoubtably doesn?t help the situation. An extra dollar an issue? I dunno bout where you are but a lot of young punks around here thought five bucks was too much to pay for a touring band at least as of a few years back.

[AggravationOverdose]

I didn't know it was still in print.  I'm a bit shocked actually.  I haven't seen it since the 80's.

You're on Termbo, but you haven't seen an MRR in 30 years? How not?