Ode to Roctober

Neon Leon with Honi O'Rourke
from "Neon Leon: Alive and Well"
by James Porter, Roctober #40

I first became aware of Roctober in the early 2000s as a young black punk searching the world wide web for my likeness since that was something I could not find in real life.  Before the "Afro-Punk" documentary came out, if you went on the Internet and searched for "black punks," the most substantial thing you could find was an article called "Black Punk Time: Blacks In Punk, New Wave and Hardcore 1976-1983" by James Porter and Jake Austen.  The print version of that article was turned into an online archive that is still being updated even though the original article was printed a decade ago.  It is literally an encyclopedia for black freaks--the most comprehensive listing of black punk rockers that exists.  I remember this being one of the first things me and Adee Roberson talked about when we met in Portland in the early 2000s.  It was a very important document for us as isolated black punks who were also obsessive music nerds.

Last spring, I went to Chicago with the People of Color Zine Project to do a zine reading and to table at Chicago Zine Fest.  I had never seen an issue of Roctober in print and wasn't even aware that it was still being published, so imagine my happy surprise when I found a table full of Roctober back issues, including the issue containing my highly treasured and oft-referenced "Black Punk Time" article.  (I talk about this article in SS No. 5 as part of a review for "Ataxia" zine, in which "Black Punk Time" was re-printed.)  Interestingly enough, "Black Punk Time" was published in Roctober's 10th anniversary hip-hop themed issue.  From the introduction:  "In these pages you'll read about the characters on the fringes of the Rap world...  And if that wasn't enough, we take an in depth look at an under-historicized African American underground that parallels Hip Hop; Blacks in punk during the late 70s/early 80s!"  How awesome to see black punk rock written about in relation to other concurrent black subcultures!  Like my own zine, Roctober made the phenomenon of "black punk rock" seem like this cohesive thing, even though in reality, the black punks covered were separated by time and geography. 
From Roctober #32, Winter 2002
Upon flipping through multiple issues of Roctober, I was even further surprised and delighted to discover that "Black Punk Time" was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to their coverage of obscure black rock'n'roll nuggets.  I scanned issue after issue with wide eyes and asked the guy behind the table how and why this was so.  Roctober magazine does not have any sort of racial agenda and its editor, Jake Austen, is a white guy.  The full title of the magazine is "Roctober: Comics & Music" and its real focus is all things subterranean.  Articles about obscure soul, rock'n'roll, reggae, free jazz, bounce rap, you name it, with comic illustrations to boot.  The guy behind the table, who I now suspect was Austen himself, said he didn't know exactly why Roctober is the way it is.  He mumbled something about it being a natural result of the diversity of Chicago's various music scenes and left it at that.  

See, now, that's what I'm talking about.  It's really too bad that in order for people of color to be mentioned in any realm, it has to be this very self-conscious thing.  It has to be a "people of color history."  As a women's studies major in college, this thought always crossed my mind.  It's annoying that women's studies has to be this separate topic when it should just be a natural part of every field.  The problem is that it isn't and so that's why we have to have "women's studies" and "African-American studies" and so forth.  Roctober is refreshing to me because the inclusion of people of color in the magazine is just natural.  When white people write a book about something and forget to mention or include people of color, when men make a documentary about something and forget to include women, it just baffles me.  The absence of that natural curiosity about people and experiences that are different from your own is something that I just can't understand.  I want to chalk it up to white, heterosexual and/or male privilege--and surely it is a result of that--but honestly, that way of being in the world sounds like a total drag to me.

Okay, enough ranting, back to the good stuff.  Look at this spread on black skinhead, punk and reggae by The Soul Rebel, published in Roctober #40!

Roctober's contributors were a diverse group of people with diverse musical interests.  For instance, James Porter, who compiled the list of black punks for the "Black Punk Time" article with Austen, is a black dude.  Porter is a regular contributor who did an excellent interview with black rocker Neon Leon about the early days of punk and his time at the Chelsea Hotel (see photo at top of page.)  Check out this other interview he did with Filipino-American blues singer Sugar Pie Desanto for Roctober #24.

I really appreciate the way that Roctober presents punk rock as part of this larger continuum of underground, obscure and esoteric musical subculture.  Here's a taste of the other kinds of stuff they cover.  (Click them to view full size image.)
Roctober just celebrated its 20th anniversary of existence!  To find out more about the magazine, visit their website.  They have back issues available for order.  To learn more about the editor of Roctober, Jake Austen, read this very well-written article from The Chicago Tribune which also includes a brief Q&A with Steve Albini about the magazine.  Jake Austen is also the host and creator of the cable access show Chic-A-Go-Go.  The show, in all of its low-budget bizarreness, is a very fitting audio-visual counterpart to Roctober.


Chic-A-Go-Go

Comments

  1. Finally reviewing the mountain of zines from Zine Fest and while editing the SS review we found this story about us...thanks for the kind words
    Your review is here http://roctoberreviews.blogspot.com/
    Feel free to write anytime at roctobermagazine@gmail.com

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