I knew when I picked up the first issue of MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL I was going to love it just by looking at the kind of paper it was printed on. Then there was the layout, which was chaotic but made total sense to my young mind. Being from Southern California, I was an avid reader of Flipside, but MRR spoke to me in a different way. My favorite part of the magazine was the national and international scene reports that helped get me into gnarly bands from around the world. This was in 1982, so without these mags it was hard to find out about music that was not coming from our neighborhood. I can honestly say that these scene reports had such a big influence on me, which is why we always wanted CVLT Nation to have a global aspect to it! MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL even changed the way that promoters booked shows – it was because of them that Goldenvoice started putting on international gigs with bands from all over the world. Then there was the politics of this fanzine; they talked about things that other zines at the time would never talk about. MRR made me want to be an activist and make a difference in the world in some way. After I heard the “Not So Quiet on The Western Front,” the way I listened to punk was never the same. This was a record that I played over and over and never got bored of! One day I will never forget was in 1984, the “summer of hate” in San Francisco due to the Skinheads (B.A.SH & S.F.Skins) terrorizing the scene. Tim Yohannan invited Mark Dagger and his other skinhead goons on to the MRR radio show, and they went head to head with them about their racist beliefs. Tim Yohannan ripped them a new one! The fallout from this show was that the skinheads wanted to destroy the anarchist bookstore on Haight St. You can now go HERE and download the first 8 issues of this fanzine that has helped shape worldwide punk culture. After the jump check a video essay of some of the bands that were featured in MRR in the early days, as well as some screenshots of the first issues. CVLT Nation salutes MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL for being around for 30 years – thank you for changing my life!
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