This issue of MRR gave me the fantastic news that my friend is getting her book published (Hi, Imogen) and reminded me of the tragic news of Sarah Kirsch’s passing. I’ve been a fan of Sarah’s music since I was in eighth grade, when the weird, twisting labyrinths of the internet sent me to a download of Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack, and kept discovering more of her varied output over the better part of a decade following that. A truly inspirational and full life, she will be missed. Interviews this time around consist of Forward, Hounds Of Hate, Kicker, Contorture, Nothing, Beatnik Termites, Lunatic Fringe, and Detonate Records. Coolest looking band in this issue is definitely Lunatic Fringe, who in 1979 manage a seamless melding of traditional spiky punk wear and the look of N.W.A. ten years later in their group shot. The reviews, interviews, and columns are plenty. Nothing in here is too spectacular, but, as always, there’s plenty to pick over and this magazine continues to draw me in and fascinate me every time I pick it up. –Dave Brainwreck (PO Box 460760, SF, CA94146-0760)