While scrolling through Reddit recently, I came across a post highlighting Crunchface: Fanzine Compendium, a new book featuring all 12 issues of the Akron, Ohio-based zine that ran from 1990-1992. I remember owning a few issues and its coverage (and shit-talking) on the straight edge hardcore scene was always entertaining.
To learn more about the new 400-page book and the story behind Crunchface, I spoke with John McConnell and Larry Gargus, the two main people behind Crunchface. "Larry and I have been friends for almost three and a half decades," McConnell told me about his connection with Gargus via an email exchange. "I am beyond grateful for his friendship. When I first met him, he was a small, skinny dude who would never back down to anyone in any situation, regardless of the awaiting outcome. He was hilarious and never a bully. He was just an all-around solid guy."
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I was curious about the stuff the pair were listening to during Crunchface's first couple of issues. "Back in the earliest days of the zine, Larry and Size 14 were rockin metal and the obligatory punk and hardcore every podunk fucker in Crackron, Ohio, was listening to at the time. We’d listen to the Cro-Mags in the car on the way to see the Ramones type of shiz.
"We got big into Negative Approach together, I think. Lots of straight edge bands. Meanstreak was on our first cover. They had spun out of Cleveland’s Confront. Mean Steve from Meanstreak was a big guy. Kids took the zine to East High School in Akron, and other students asked if we interviewed Heavy D (RIP). We listened to a lot of hip-hop and rap at the time too. We loved the Heav bumdiddilly Dee."
From my New York City-influenced lens during that early '90s period, the Ohio hardcore scene has always had a rep of being no-bullshit sense about things so I asked Larry Gargus over email if anything that he wrote in Crunchface ever caused any issues for him at shows. "I was dealing with far more important stuff in my life and I definitely didn’t care what any scenesters thought about me enough to change what I was writing," he replied.
"Honestly, with a couple notable exceptions, they most likely did not give a single shit about what I was writing. To most of those dudes, I was a dumb hick from Akron, so I wasn’t even on their radar. I never felt like there was any heat or that I was a target.
"The dirty secret about Ohio (specifically Cleveland) hardcore is that many (not all) of the key figures were not tough guys or 'hard' by any stretch of the imagination. For the record, neither am I… I mean, there certainly are some serious individuals from that era and the shows in Cleveland were pretty fucking violent. That was something that we all tired of pretty quickly.
"But, I genuinely did not care at all whether I pissed anyone off in Ohio or anywhere else for that matter. It might have biased some folks against a lot of the things that I did after Crunchface - I dunno - I can't say for sure."
The Crunchface compendium wouldn't have happened without Eric Macom, a fellow hardcore scene veteran who was the driving force behind the project. "Crunchface was a massive influence on me back in '92-'93," he told me on a recent afternoon when I stopped by his copy and printing shop in Los Angeles. "Over the years, I always returned to those zines and found them inspiring. It was the direct influence my zine, Cloudbreak. I would go as far as to say I ripped everything off of Crunchface for my zine!"
Macom explained how the idea for the Crunchface book came together. "A little over a year ago, I bought a perfect binding machine for my print shop. I wanted to print a compendium of the issues for myself, but I was missing #1-4. Larry had posted an image of issues #1-4 on his Instagram page. I hit him up, asked him if I could borrow his copies, and then I could complete the run.
"Once I got those, I printed a test book for myself. I sent it to Larry, and he said we need to get John involved since he was the driving force behind Crunchface. It took a little convincing with John, but when he realized I was approaching this as a serious fan, he got on board! Larry and I have stayed in contact over the years, dating back to 1993. I had never met John, but Larry introduced us last fall and we have become since become good friends."
Macom summed up the importance of fanzines in the hardcore community so perfectly that it deserved the pull quote treatment:
"I've always loved reading and making zines. They were our internet in the early '90s."
As you can see on the page I've embedded above, Crunchface definitely had a point of view on the state of hardcore of the time, with no punches being pulled. I asked McConnell how he felt reading some of that kind of stuff all these decades later while the book was being put together. "A lot of it is hard to read for me. Not only tapping back into how fucked up I was in my head back in those day, but also just my untrained writing at times. I’ve worked in editing and writing since then. It’s hard to look at my earlier typings. I wrote, 'kickin dat style,' and I cringe whenever I think about it.
"I recently pulled the compendium down off the shelf and read a bit. Where I’m complaining about a Jawbox ticket costing $12, I wrote a line about the event promoter or venue owner or something like that, and what I wrote made me lol for real. So it was there back then, yeah, but I also had no idea how to use a fucking apostrophe. My brain is mean to me a lot. I don’t really celebrate things. I do however talk a lot of shit."
I asked Gargus for his thoughts on his contributions to the zine. "Most of the stuff I wrote makes me cringe because it was just so poorly written. However, I do smile when I think about all of the people involved with Crunchface; John, Bird, 'Size 14' Rick, Shawn, and Nicole. There have been times since then where we weren’t in touch with each other. But, for my part, I’m still friends with all of the key creators and a ton of folks I met during that time.
"I also have good feelings about the fact that 'Crunchface' — John in particular — gave me the opportunity to contribute to hardcore punk instead of just being a spectator. It opened the door for me being involved in and contributing to hardcore punk in my own little way to this day. My time at 'Crunchface' shaped my fairly staunch DIY attitude and instilled in me the belief that people are important and we need to take better care of ourselves and each other."
Macom remembered back on his initial exposure to the zine. "When I first read Crunchface in late 1991, I was blown away. I had never seen anything like it. The attitude was off the charts, it was funny, intelligent and did not give a fuck about any of the sacred cows of that time.
"There was a clear changing of the guard in the straight edge scene, and 'Crunchface' was a huge part of that change. Attitudes were becoming less positive, people were becoming disillusioned with their 'heroes,' and the overall outlook and tone was becoming darker. John, Larry, Bird, Size 14, Shawn, and others were all writing about the way a lot of people felt, and I was no exception."
Before leaving his shop that day, Macom left me with the following parting thoughts about the book: "This project has been so much fun, and the response has been incredible. People have come out of the woodwork. I told Larry that if I moved 10 books, I would be stoked...he said 'you're gonna be surprised.' He was right."
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The Crunchface: Fanzine Compendium book is available for sale via RevHQ.
Tagged: book, confront, face value, integrity
