Zine Scene

Illustration by Bob AulBeyond the cutesy self-indulgence—which will one day be more telling to anthropologists than anything they'd care to read about Tragedy or veganism—zines are the little Morse code blips of a culture trying to get some feeling back in its fingers. Those bands no one cares about, art no one ever sees, poetry no lips will ever pronounce? One day, this will be the most important shit of all, and you'll line up at the Great Zine Library of Alexandria to peek at amber-preserved copies of Dear Jesus and Bikini Kill and stone tablets that say SLASH or WET or CREEM. And that dank little hole on your left on your way in to Long Beach independent art space Koo's is gonna be the perfect place for a zine library, even though it's currently clogged with old lumber-lookin' things, dusty sheets of garbage wall and several hundred vicious cave spiders. But Koo's volunteers Meghan Callahan and Sue Siadat (full and proud disclosure: FORMER INTERNS MAKE GOOD!) are already working on it. The benefit money from a show this weekend, says Siadat, is going to pay the guys with thick gloves who haul it all to the dump, and any leftovers will go into the de-starve-a-starving-writer fund for buying zines from local writers. She breezes through every valid reason for stocking a shelf full of homemade zines—to soften wait times between bands with something to read, to legitimize the zine-y art form itself (what Aaron Cometbus started, they shall finish), to demonstrate that history is only as far away as the nearest copy machine—and she ends with the best one, even if it's not technically a reason: "It's like reading a love letter from a stranger!"

The all-local lineup will include one-man laptop band Touch Heal, Matt Adams' folky-in-the-Kinks-way Blank Tapes, Kevin Disco's 60 Watt Kid, the Matachine's dead-eyed downer punk, Part the Clouds' (Adams electric plus Miracle Chosuke's Jason Medina and more) psych-lite guitar pop and Long Beach hip-hop group Art of Fact. Booby Trap poster boys Grand Elegance will headline.

KOO'S ZINE LIBRARY BENEFIT WITH TOUCH HEAL, THE BLANK TAPES, 60 WATT KID, THE MATACHINE, PART THE CLOUDS, ART OF FACT AND GRAND ELEGANCE AT KOO'S, 540 E. BROADWAY, LONG BEACH, (562) 491-7584; WWW.KOOS.ORG. SUN., 7:30 P.M. $5; $4 WITH A ZINE TO DONATE. ALL AGES.