T Shirts Out:

Alhamdulillah. I have received the tshirts from Atoi Switch2tee today. Sayang tak dapat lepak dengan this nice fella. He seems friendly and down to earth guy. Hopefully bila dah ada masa nanti dapat lah aku melepak dengan dia.

Si Ambu Rebel Environment fanzine pun tak sempat nak lepak sambil jual fanzine aku dekat dia sebab dia nak balik cepat sangat. Aisey bro, bujang pun ada curfew ka bro? Hahaha. This fella is crazy with his fingers. His artworks were like crazy cool. Hopefully Ill have the opportunity to work with him someday.

I am not intending to really selling it these stupid t shirts. It was made to fulfill my lust for self glorification. Fuck yeah! I have officially joined the freaking band wagon. Maybe ill consider selling it to my closest friends who would not mind paying RM 20 for the stupid t shirt.

I sold 5 copies of Abstained Agogo Fanzine to Atoi. I do not what he is going to do with all those fanzines. Thank you dude. If you want to print shirts for your band, you can always contact this guy. He will certainly give you a good price.

visit Mr.Atoi at his blog : www.switch2tee.blogspot.com

New Flyer:

Fan Mentality and Metalcore Bullshit:

I am sorry but i hate fucking metalcore. Fuck me but metal core aint nothing but some bullshit gothenberg riffs recycled. One thing that i could not stand is that metalcore bands tends to be fucking generic. Do not get me wrong, I love gothenberg melodic death metal (the worthy ones of course) and Carcass heartwork LP will always be on the top 10 of my playlist, but come on. Give me a break. Whats with all these crabcore bands nowadays.

There are only a few Malaysian metal core bands that I think is worth the support. Black Territory is one of them. Combining that swedish feel with that youth crew shout along choruses will always be pretty much rad in my book. Other? Fuck the others!

One more thing. Whats with all the fucking tees? Your band played like one fucking show and your band have already got these florescent tees lined up on the store. Fuck. Is it the IN thing nowadays? The new "underground" trend? Go and shove your pride out of the fucking door, motherfuckers! What does it meant anyway? Monsters on your t shirts? What possible message are you trying to send out to the kids? That its cool to be in a fucking hardcore band? Fuck!

And to all the kids out there producing all these t-shirts, what in the fucking hell are you thinking? Grabbing some quick bucks at the expense of the scene and its naive young community? Straight edge watches? Are you kidding me? Whats next? Straight Edge underpants? Was it really about the idealism behind Straight Edge or the hip and awesomeness of claiming yourself to be one. Where the fuck did all the sincerity go?

Its all about fan mentality nowadays aint it? Fan fucking mentality. Fuck that shit.

Guilt Ridden

GUILT RIDDEN? Projek apa pulak ni?

Small Scale Selling:

Went out for a drink, tandoori and nan cheese with the guys at Restoren Mannusalwa, Melawati the other night. Also managed to squeeze half an hour meeting the dudes from the talented Hardcore band, Thy Regiment dekat Wangsa Walk. Forgive me la dudes mungkin lain kali aku interview Thy Regiment. You see, this issue was supposed to feature Thy Regiment but Jenn, the vocalist insisted on a face to face interview which I had no experience in doing. Sold 2 copies of the fanzine to the them Thy Regiment dudes and later on that night sold a couple more copies to my drinking (coke) buddies.

Meet me personally and I will probably sell it to you for a much cheaper price than the stated official price. Kewl.

I am still unsatisfied because banyak sangat isi yang aku tak sempat nak masukkan. Im thinking of doing another fanzine. Starting a new and fresh english written one. Maybe due to the guilt ridden dengan bebudak Thy Regiment. Hahaha. Thinking of asking my photographer friend, Syaiful to tag along. Maybe a photozine would be something new and fresh.

Any ideas?

Lagi:

I have made a few final adjustments. I have redesigned the cover as per the above. Mungkin sebab aku ni memang minimalist so bila tengok cover berserabut sangat, aku tukar la. Putih bersih bak kata Faisal.

Daripada layout lama tu aku terpaksa buang satu artikel sebab terlebih 60 muka surat. Sayang betul. Kalau nak ikut, banyak benda yang aku tak boleh nak include macam interview dengan Crossing Lines, Last Strive dengan Breakin Chains. Juga review video video punk hardcore yang aku bersusah payah buat macam Afropunk, Punks Not Dead, American hardore, The Story of the Ramones, N.Y.H.C dan The Decline of Civilizations. Semua video-video review ni penting juga untuk educational purposes. Siapa yang minat boleh pergi cari. My recommendation would be American Hardcore dan Punks Not Dead. Dua dokumentari ni sangat bagus dari segi untuk mengenali roots hardcore punk.

Apa-apa pun, aku happy sebab semua kerja dah selesai. Paling senang lah nak buat isu ni. Mungkin idea terlalu banyak sebab dah 7 tahun tak menulis. banyak terkumpul. Aku yakin Ayeh dan Faisal sendiri pun ada banyak lagi yang nak masukkan content tapi aku terpaksa hadkan sebab tak cukup muka surat. Sorry brothers, mungkin ada rezeki isu 9 kita kasi lagi gempak. Itupun kalau aku decide nak sambung. hahaha. Co editors diam diam aje. hahaha.

Official lah harga dia RM5 (by hand) sebab kedai fotostat dekat ofis aku tu mahal. tapi kualiti kertas AA la, licin dan cantik dan cover aku guna kertas tebal. Insya Allah juga, by this week aku nak gi ambik baju yang dah siap di print tu. Alhamdulillah.

Aku nak setelkan kasi free copies dulu untuk bands.. bila lepas kasi free copies baru lah aku akan jual yang mana ada tinggal tu. Aku tak taget nak print banyak pun. lebih kepada kepuasan diri.

Chalo.

It Is Done:

Finally. It is done. All the works for Abstained Agogo Fanzine issue 8 has already been finalized. At this point, i do not give a fuck whether it is going to sell or not. I am happy and I am satisfied. I can now cherish my hard work all to myself. It was never really about anyone else but me.

Thank you Nik Hanif and Collages, Wan and Burn Out, Ash Telley and Destruction Zero, Mixart and Personal Control System, Wan and Sneaky Sniper, Bard and Eleven, Firdaus and This Order for your willingness to finish the bloody interviews. Free copies will be posted in a couple of days.

T Shirts:

Is it the latest trend nowadays that a new band would get their T Shirts or what ever merchandise bands are selling these days, out, way before the band itself starts to rehearse and compose their own songs? And what is with the ugly designs nowadays? Is the latest trend that all these hideous designs must have those awful florescent colors making it more eye soaring that it already was? Fuck metalcore!

Since I have always been this trendy ass bloke, a sucker for all things trendy, I have decided to ask a friend to print a couple of tshirts with Abstained Agogo stamped on it. The design would be the same design as the one i have posted below. Now thats what you call making a simple ass statement. The back design would be the above, a simple "Making Fanzines a Threat Again" slogan. Punk rock as fuck.

I do not know whether am I going to sell it or not since nobody will want to buy it anyway. It is more toward self satisfaction, self glorification and not to mention that branding the name of my fanzine on tees would make me look important, hardline and more punk rock than any of you assholes out there. Haha. That would be spectacularly awesome, dont you think?

Kindly let us have your answer as soon:

Korang bila nak revive fanzine korang?

Tired of Being Too Damn Tired:

Boleh pulak kena ulser. Nak telan air liur pun seksa zahir batin apatah lagi nak makan. Kang tak makan kang hensem la plak. Tall Dark and Handsome. Buat masa ini biarlah tall dark and chubby aje. Apa apa hal layan Aparattus Hardcore Religion dulu seround.

Akhirnya, Faisal dah submit dua artikel. Kupasan yang menarik tentang Human First Collective dan seperti biasa tugas aku adalah untuk mencuri gambar-gambar yang ada dalam myspace diorang untuk diletakkan dalam fanzine.

Dah susun layout sampai 40 muka surat dan aku still banyak gile punya konten yang masih belum dimasukkan. Band interview aje ada lagi dalam 4. Artikel aku aje ada dalam 5 lagi yang nak letak, panjang-panjang pulak tu. Belum masuk book and video Reviews lagi. Belum lagi masuk gig review yang Azreen HC kata nak kasi. Mampus. Mana mau letak.

Feisal suruh buat double isu. Macam malas je. 40 muka surat macam nipis sangat. tak puas baca. Tak pe lah. 80 muka pun 80 muka la.. nanti aku up sikit harga.. muahahaha.

Tapi memang balance la.. tak politikal langsung yang membuatkan aku cukup teruja. Ayeh punya artikel memang stok novel ahadiat akashah, si fesal pulak memang stok dewan masyarakat, aku punya rencana memang lebih rileks. So variasi.

Kepada band band muda zaman sekarang. Kalau ada orang interview, jawab lah dengan tulisan-tulisan yang baik. Tahu lah korang semua generasi SMS, tapi jangan lah kasi aku 30 perenggan pakai bahasa SMS. pening aku nak edit satu satu.

Adoi!

Berjalan diatas lane-lane memory:

When i first started Abstained Agogo fanzine back in 1997, there were only two local fanzines from Kota Bharu at that time. Mine and Azra Affendi's Corepack Fanzine. We were both from the same Kampung, Lundang Paku, London Park i used to call it, 20 KM from Kota Bharu. A proper scene was almost non existent. JB's Hostile Disgrace used to be based in Kota Bharu but that was like years before I was introduced to the scene.

The Kota Bharu scene back then was dominated by skinheads (Kota Bharu Rebel Squad who frequented a place called Payung and Tumpat Revolters who would parade the saturdays in full working class skinhead gear, docmarts ben shermans and all) and your normal saturday neo nazi punks who frequented a place called Parking.

I never had the chance to go to the legendary Payung, but back in the days, the equally legendary Parking was THE place to be. It was not a pub or a specific restaurant, but rather a gloomy yet celebrated food court at a car park building adjacent to the once celebrated Mun Loong/Hankyu Jaya/Naim Jaya/The Store shopping complex near the Kelantan River, hence the name "Parking". Every aspiring saturday punk must pay the holy site a visit before acquiring their notoriety as a full fledged saturday Punk.

The place was notorious indeed. The local authority would often raid the place. I can still recall, one fine saturday afternoon, some friends and I were strolling towards the Parking for some quick lunch and saturday notoriety statuses, then got malcolm in the fucking middled by one of the raids and were almost caught by the raiding police. That was my one and only experience playing kejar-kejar with the cops that i shall save and tell my grandchildren with joyous pride. Haha. Atuk pernah berdepan dengan The Man and won.

Unfortunately one of my friend did get caught. Kecoh satu kampung Lundang Paku yang aman itu! Bloody fuck! Tak salah buat apa nak lari? Yeah right. Tell that to the cops you idiot naive little fuck. Adira Mustafa, where are you now, my naive little friend.

I do not know why people would go to such a place, the Parking. It was not your typical walking distance from the main Bus station. Maybe the only reason why the so called Underground kids went there to hang out was because of the nearby jam studio located at the near by building. The studio was called Hanis Studio and record store. Back then, jam studio was a rarity. As far as i could recall, there were only 4 studios in Kota Bharu at that time.

Besides Hanis, you got Digital Studio infront of Pantai Timor Shopping Centre. It was quite a cool place to chill since it also got a nice cyber cafe and a karaoke room. I used to came in and saw some sexually charged hanky panky shit going on in that karaoke room and it quickly went out of business after a couple of months.

Then you got Gahagi Studios or famously known as the Kapilla Studios at the back of the BSN building infront of the Pasar besar Siti Khadijah. The studio was owned by the band members of a local pop rock band called Kapilla if you might still remember. The band was famous for their Dikir Barat influenced album, Dikir Rambong back in their glory days. Demo lo ning tok supo mulo was the famous line from the song.

And then you got the infamous Dominant Studios at the Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium. If you wanted to properly record a demo, then that was THE studio. Phalanx Suffer (Metallic hardcore) and The Panic (Oi!) recorded their respective demos there.

During my schooling days in Maahad Muhammadi Lilbanin in Jalan Pengkalan Chepa back in 1995-1999, i would often go and jam at the Dominant Studios. I would sleep or take a quick lunch at the Surau infront of the Studio while I would wait like a homeless hobo for my talented Metallica/Butterfingers influenced guitarist friend, Mohd Aliff Ismail. I wonder where he is now, that bugger.

When i first met the core members who would later form the collective known today as the Network of Solidarity Collective (NOSC), it was at the Parking. Nazier and Dean of Papakerma records would be there. Poodien the now famous punk rock artiste would be there. Firdaus and Ben Khairilza, the muslim core kuantan dudes would be there. Faisal Dhani Ahmad the radical activist would be there. Me, Ariff (Deadmocracy, an IRC nick he is famous for), Nasir (Revenge of the Killer Germs), Affa (Phalanx Suffer) and Ayeh would be there. Jera Core Pack would be there. Nik Ikhwan of Life is Funny would usually be there. The only two chicks in NOSC, Manisah and Munirah would be there too, being cute and all. Hafiz Shit the former ROTTW columnist would hang out there.

It was these few people who would later build the core of Kota Bharu Hardcore Punk scene back in the days. We started fanzines and newsletters and bands. The leading band was Revenge of the Killer Germs (Gupa-g, Pudin-d and Nasir-b) playing punk rock then Shabra Shatila (Nazir-g, Firdaus-v, Dean-v, Juwe-g and me-d) playing hardcore then Ancaman (me-v and b, Faisal-v, Ayeh-v and Pudin-d) playing grinding hardcore punk and then Phalanx Suffer (Affa-v, Jemi-g) playing metallic hardcore so on so forth.

I do want to continue but Im tired. Sahur!

Jangan Malas!

Baru balik dari pada Hotel Istana berbuka puasa dengan my clients and the dedicated litigation department staffs from Khalek Awang & Associates. Perut macam ikan buntal tergolek tepi jalan tak boleh bangun sebab terlalu gemok. 1-Segala macam daging dan ayam. 2-Nasi sama segala macam daging dan ayam. 3-Aiskrim. Crazeh!

Ayeh baru sahaja hantar his contribution for the fanzine this morning. Tu pun selepas setiap pagi selama 3 hari aku asyik hantar sms suruh hantar artikel. Hahaha. Terpaksa lah kalau nak rilis benda ni ikut deadline. But its worth the wait lah. Ayeh's stuffs would be more towards the emotional walks of life while mine would be more towards the scene kind of thing. It shall give the zine a more colourful and vibrant content so to speak. He submitted 2 rencanas and i hope that he will be able to write and submit a few more since i liked his articles and way of writing very much.

Faisal masih belum submit content (oi macha, cepat lah) but i tend to believe that his contributions would lean more towards the current socio-political side of things. You know, the one which can get you a free visit from the Kementerian Dalam negeri. A friend of mine, a junior in the university, Berry was his name, once got a visit from the KDN for doing his fanzine and was forced to pledge (akujanji) not to do it again. Now, thats a story worth telling your grandchildren.

Hardcore Punk is always about communication. I am truly excited to learn about this one fanzine editor yang duduk satu taman dengan aku. Hopefully i can meet this fella. Taman Melur Hardcore Punk rules. hahaha

Day 2 - the progress:

Happy Ramadhan Al Mubarak fellas.

I think i have managed to compile a 60 pages fanzine worth of contents and I am kinda freaked out. two of my first introductory articles alone filled a spread of 5 fucking pages. Fuck! The initial plan was to use Times New Roman font size 11. Guess what, it was too freaking big, gargantuan, humongous or in another word, fucked up. I later opted 8 instead. Do not blame me if you will be having a hard time reading.

All in all, i have like 10 personal articles spreading 2 pages each the least, a collection of 10 interviews at least occupying 2 pages each yet to include the band photos that im planning to steal from the respective bands myspace pages haha, the contribution from my lazy ass sub editors and some friends. Hell, it will fill 60 pages easily. What about my reviews? Shit. I am definitely not going lower than 8. I am currently editing the layouts, just so you know the stage that we are currently in now.

Itll gonna cost you RM5. I hope its not too expensive. Ill try to cut some expenses out so that i can sell it at a cheaper price. For the time being, let us just assume that the price is RM5 postage included. I have yet to check the printing cost out. Ill make sure to quality is top notch. I am definitely not going to rip everybody off with some lame ass shit fanzine. Itll gonna be worth every fucking penny.

I am not going to print anymore than 100 copies. 15 copies reserved for the bands and the contributors and ill be selling the rest. Seeing me at gigs? I dont think so.

Cant wait! Exhausted but excited.

Abstained Lagi:

Basically, I am excited. Kalau nak ikut hati yang excited ni, nak aje aku rilis esok-esok jugak Abstained Agogo #8 ni. Tapi memandangkan masa yang terbaik adalah lepas raya, maka lepas raya it is then. Apa risau? Bukan sapa peduli pun. Konten semua dah cukup. rencana dah cukup. Inetrviews dah cukup. Reviews pun ada. Kalau tak cukup pun bukannya aku tak boleh tulis satu artikel on the spot untuk kasi cukup. Almaklumlah, dah lama tak menulis, writers block tak kena lagi. Haha.

Thank you kepada para bands yang sudi ditemuramah oleh aku. Penat la juga aku menemuramah dan aku tahu mereka juga penat ditemuramah. Haha. Kepada yang tak reply msg temubual request aku kat Myspace tu, takpelah. Mungkin takde rezeki aku nak temubual diorang. Or mungkin diorang buzy.

Tapi at least maklumkan lah. Jangan buat aku tertanya-tanya. Gua nak follow up pun naik segan. Kalau tak nak jawab, cakap je, bukannya gua nak kecik hati. Gua boleh paham.Takde masalah. Macam bebudak 2nd Combat tu. Ok je inform aku yang diorang hanya buat interview face to face. Aku pulak memang tak reti nak catit kalau buat face to face. Kesudahannya melepas lah aku nak interview 2nd Combat. Tapi aku appreciate sangat diorang ambik masa untuk maklumkan pada aku about the situation. Takde lah aku asyik tunggu je.

Satu je lagi yang buat aku termangu hari ini. Berapa ringgit aku nak jual fanzine ni. Zaman-zaman 90an dulu harga standard dia RM2 je plus stamps. Skang? Aku dah la memang dah berkurun tak ikut perkembangan fanzine malaysia. Kang aku letak RM5 kang macam mahal sangat. Tengok la dulu pada kos printing. Tapi kalau aku jual RM5 pun, aku akan pastikan benda ni berbaloi. And most probably its going to be more than the usual 40 pages format. Itll worth the money, i hope.

Hopefully akan ada yang terinspirasi untuk terbitkan fanzines sendiri lepas ni.. huhu.

Teaser:

Isu kali ini menyentuh topik politik yang sangat sangat minima. Aku bosan tulis pasal politik. Tired. Exhasuted. Maybe its just my dont-give-a-fuck attitude on Malaysian politics. Kalau nak baca pasal politik baik pergi baca Suara Keadilan atau Harakah. Aku tulis pasal scene dan mostly tentang trying to inspire and aspire kids to start their own fanzines.

Gambar tu adalah gambar yang aku curi dulu minta izin kemudian dari myspace band Old School HC Klang, xElevenx. Most prolly will end up being the actual cover. There are around 9 interviews with Hardcore bands from all over the country. I managed to write 10 articles within the span of 2 weeks. Exhausted? Yes. Excited? More then ever.

It will also be a limited release. Most probably around 100 copies? 15 copies for the interviewees dan contributors and Ill be selling the rest of it. I dont know. Let us just hope for the best.