Bananafish Magazine (Complete run in 18 issues plus book)
- Paperback
- San Francisco: Tedium House Publications, 2004
A complete run of a long-running San Francisco 'zine focusing on music with no commercial potential, either unclassifiable genre-wise or "noise," with some outre jazz or unusual indie rock groups (such as Sun City Girls, Boredoms, Caroliner, Solid Eye, Royal Trux, Keiji Haino, Dead C., or TFUL282) initially included. Later issues dropped the rock entirely.
Rather than reviewing the music with the high-seriousness of The Wire or the hype of a typical fanzine, Bananafish had off-kilter, semi-nonsensical in-jokes in lieu of starred reviews. The artists it profiled tended to be acquired tastes even for hardened longtime outsider music fans-- artists like, say, Volvox or Caroliner, whose overall sound and aesthetic are nearly impossible to explain. Bananafish letters columns consisted of Found magazine-style nonsense. Interviews with musicians could be written by the musicians themselves, or be comics or collages by them instead.
More than other magazines at the time, Bananafish captured the devil-may-care attitude of the small noise scene it documented. And, best of all, it knew when to quit-- just about at the time when noise was showing the tiniest glimmer of commercial potential in the early oughts.
Details
Title
Bananafish Magazine (Complete run in 18 issues plus book)
Author
Glass, Seymour [Editor]
Binding
Paperback
Condition
Near Fine
Publisher
Tedium House Publications: San Francisco
Date
2004
Edition
First edition