Interference Volume 2, Issue #5 Free For more information, contact Mike Hammer at 440-779-9340 or rainermaria@hotmail.com.

You'll have to get past the look of Interference first, though, because this is not a pretty magazine. Blurry photos make bands look like missing milk carton children. The type is tiny, and reversed out of black tint on many pages, with band names highlighted in screaming ALL-CAPS. There are lots of different type faces in use -- I counted five just in the table of contents -- but the result is not exactly edgy Wired-style graphic impact.

Interference is the opposite of slick in every way, and that, finally, is its main charm. It is like getting a long, rambling e-mail from someone you know who just has to tell you about his new five favorite new bands, what he had for dinner the other night and what Bush should really do about Afghanistan. The writing is conversational in the extreme. For example, editor Mike Hammer's impassioned critique of national Academy of Recording president and CEO Michael Greene's speech at the Grammys includes sentences that begin with "Well, I'll tell ya..." and "I kinda see downloading..." His point, however -- that it's the music industry, not the internet, that is turning rock music to crap -- is dead on and deeply felt.

If you've ever found yourself asking "Doesn't anyone else care about anything?" you'll like Interference, because its writers are not "on the other hand" kind of people. They know what they think, and they tell you. Sometimes they disagree with each other. They tell you that, too. In fact, one of the most interesting feature of this zine is the review section, an exercise in "Point/Counterpoint"-style criticism, where two or more writers give their opinions on a new record. For example, editor Hammer's blurb on Tilt's Been Where? Did What? begins "I don't like TILT. Nothing in this female fronted California punk band appealed to me." But he also makes space for a second review in which writer Dave McGlaughlin calls the album "a great collection if you're a long-time fan or a fan of the 80s punk sound." You get the feeling you could write the zine, and tell Hammer and McGlaughlin they're both full of crap, and they would print that, too.

This issue's main features include long interviews with members of the Rye Coalition, Liars Academy and Rival Schools, with sidebar reviews of the bands' new records. In the Rye Coalition feature we pick up such tidbits as where the band has been between albums (Oberlin College primarily, so they're most likely vegans) and who came up with the title for "Stairway to the Free Bird on the Way to Smokey Water" (a mental patient). The Liars Academy interview is an almost unbroken string of cliches; we learn that the new album is a "fresh start", that Liars Academy is a "just trying to rock" and that its members are trying to "write good, down-to-earth type songs". Um, yeah, thanks for sharing.

Likewise, the label profile seems kind of dull, a regurgitation of what you'd get by visiting File 13's Web site. A few verbal embellishments, like "Shit you not, File 13 has been kickin' around for close to 13 years", do little to lighten the tone, which is self-satisfied.

There's a feature called "Mad Libs", which is just like the missing-word books you probably toted around in junior high, filling in the blanks with wildly humorous substitutions like "fart" and "booger-nose". The only difference is that Interference gets a band do to it, in this case Trail Of Dead. You'll be happy to know that the latest band touted to save (the ever-sickly) rock and roll has exactly the same sense of humor you had in seventh grade. They supply words like "defecating", "hard cock rocking" and "freaking fucking fucked up", and the result is, predictably, knee-slapping.

There's a purity to the opinions expressed in Interference, the kind of certainty that most people save for the covers of their three-ring algebra binders ("Fu Manchu Rules," "Joey and Lisa 4 Ever," etc.). Still, there's something kind of appealing about a bunch of people who care so much about the bands they love, that want you to care, too, and that are willing to do it all, writing, editing, photos and design, to get their point of view out to you. You know, the worldwide media conglomeration is beaming its perspective down to you 24/7 through every available bandwidth. Thank heavens there's a little Interference now and then.

-- Jennifer Kelly