Mark Robinson Interview with John Davis December 27, 2018 College Park, MD. 0:00:00 to 0:50:11
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0:00:00
Davis: Today is December 27th, 2018. My name is John Davis. I'm the Performing Arts Metadata Archivist at the University of Maryland. Today, I'm talking with Mark Robinson, creator, publisher of The Straight Line fanzine from 1984 until…
Robinson: Probably—I guess so, yeah. ’84, right.
Davis: And then that last issue appears to be, what?
Robinson: I feel like it’s ’87—or ’88. I think it’s ’88.
Davis: I just want to talk to you about the production of this zine and what made you want to do it. I suppose the very first step is—what got you into punk in the first place?
Robinson: Good question. Wow. What got me into punk in the first place? I guess I—I was into music. So I loved like Queen, Kiss, [laugh] things like that. And at some point—I don’t know if I got the subscription or somebody gave me a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine, and they would have these ads—Warner Brothers would do these albums, these like double albums, and they were super cheap.
Davis: Loss Leaders? Those kind of things, where it would just be like a compilation?
Robinson: Yeah, it’s a compilation. It’s like a promo thing. And it would be like, you know, $3, postage-paid.
Davis: Yeah, yeah.
Robinson: And I got, I don’t know, five of them, or something like that. And there was one called Troublemakers, and it had Sex Pistols, PiL [Public Image Limited], Gang of Four, Wire…
Davis: Wow.
Robinson: …Devo, like all on the same album. [laugh] And many more things that I can’t remember that were on there. And so then after hearing that— Jonathan Richman—just all sorts of stuff. Pretty much every song on that record is incredible. And you would just kind of go and explore each one of those bands. And, so, I was into pretty much all of the stuff that was on there. And then you would kind of get into what’s going on now, or what other bands are on different record labels besides Warner Brothers.
And then I think they would also do…the featured review in Rolling Stone, so it would be like a full-page thing. There was like a lot of artwork. And they reviewed New Order and Joy Division. … And, so, in high school, I was kind of like just way into the whole punk and new wave stuff, but I had no idea that there was anything local going on. I just assumed that just like Kiss and Queen, and this was just some sort of vocation that only a few would do, [laugh] and they were not from D.C.
0:03:01
And a classmate of mine said, “Oh, you must—do you know this band, Minor Threat?” I was like, “I've never heard of them.” …“Oh, my mom’s friend’s son is in this band” [laugh] … And then I just discovered all that stuff, and that was pretty eye-opening. So, I think that’s how I got into punk.
Davis: What was that like to go see a Minor Threat show, for someone who was coming from feeling always sort of removed—like at a distance from bands? So, to go to a show like that that was completely in your face…?
Robinson: Well, my first show was actually—because I was a huge PiL fan, because [of] Metal Box, which was known here as Second Edition, had come out. And that’s an incredible record. Still a great record. And they played—it was Halloween night, 1982, at the University of Maryland. At Ritchie Coliseum, I think it’s called?
Davis: Yeah.
Robinson: And Minor Threat was the opening band, so it all kind of came together. [laugh]
Davis: And then how would you find out about shows?
Robinson: That’s a great question. I feel like back then, it was so easy to find out about shows. There was always somebody like handing out flyers. There was things like—I don’t know if that was pre [Washington] City Paper back then? I mean, people would talk to each other, too. But as soon as I went to that show, it was like I was going to a show every single week for like, you know, years after that.
I was just talking about—we did this film screening last night, and I was just saying that I saw No Trend every week for like three months or something like that. And it was always at a different venue. Sometimes you would go to 9:30 Club, sometimes it was d.c. space, but a lot of times, it was just like some very strange space that you've never been to before that only had one show or two shows…
Davis: What were your record stores of choice at that time?
Robinson: Well, we went to church [laugh] in Georgetown, and it was right in the center of Georgetown, and right behind the parking lot was Olsson’s [Books & Records]. So, Olsson’s was great, and they had tons of—they had all the Dischord stuff and a lot of singles. And then RTX in Arlington, which was right next to the Ballston Metro. I think it was there obviously before the Metro even got there… I remember going there—like taking a bus there from South Arlington. So that was a great store. And then much later on was Vinyl Ink and all those stores. But I'm trying to think—yeah, I think Olsson’s was definitely the go-to place, and RTX in Arlington. There were some stores like down in Old Town. There were just like weird stores.
0:06:00
Orpheus was definitely a favorite, because you could discover—I would go in there and me and my friends—they’d have cutouts, like tons of cutouts that were still shrink-wrapped. So, we discovered like Henry Cow, King Crimson. You just discover one—you’d just take a chance on a record, and then a few weeks later, you'd have their entire discography, because all the records were like three or four dollars.
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: Velvet Underground. All sorts of stuff like that.
Davis: Were there zines stocked at those record stores? Would you ever see fanzines in record stores?
Robinson: I feel like Olsson’s must have had—I'm sure RTX did. Yeah. Where did you buy fanzines? That’s a great question.
Davis: Like, at shows?
Robinson: I think people would just bring—a show was kind of like the market, where people would just bring stuff to sell. And they would just be carrying it around with them…
Davis: And were you playing music yet?
Robinson: Let’s see. I bought my guitar in I think ’81? At, like, Springfield Mall, at the Harmony Hut. It was on sale for $99. Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: And I just kind of played that by myself. And then when I got to high school…just to find someone else that had an instrument was amazing. Not that they were even into the same music that you were, but just to find someone… “Oh, you have an electric bass guitar?” No one has those. [laugh]
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: So, I played with these guys who were really into like Rush and Van Halen, which was not my thing. I was more into Kiss and Queen, as I already said. [laugh] So I played with those guys, and then in I think freshman English class, there was this guy who was in the marching band, and he played drums. And I was like, “Do you play rock music?” So that was Phil Krauth, who I ended up playing with in other bands. And then we kind of—those other guys kind of left, and then we got somebody who was kind of more of our mindset.
Davis: What would have been some of the first zines that you remember seeing? I know earlier, you were talking about Truly Needy being one that stood out to you.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: Particularly in D.C., but if there were zines from outside D.C. as well.
Robinson: Right. Definitely Truly Needy was I think the best one. And all these other ones over here. The…
Davis: Brand New Age.
Robinson: Brand New Age.
Davis: Thrillseeker.
Robinson: Right, Thrillseeker. I mean, I remember all those. And I feel like those were kind of like—all the ones we've mentioned were kind of like Time magazine and Newsweek. They were just really big and important. But there was tons of other little smaller ones that I just do not remember. I should have done some research before I got here.
0:09:04
Davis: [laugh] So when it came time to make your own zine, what made you want to do that? The date on the first issue is Autumn ’84, it says.
Robinson: Right. Yeah. Davis: So, sort of the D.C. hardcore scene was peaking if not had just peaked at that point.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: That’s sort of like the beginning of the turn into the time that I guess necessitated Revolution Summer or whatever…
Robinson: Right. [laugh]
Davis: …where like hardcore was starting to—Minor Threat had broken up.
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: What was exciting to you about punk and hardcore at that time, and what made you want to do a zine?
Robinson: Well, I had done a zine before called The Shirlington Post, when I was like in sixth grade. [laugh] And in that zine, we would report the scores of, like, the [elementary school] recess soccer matches and review Kiss records. And I think we would just clip out pictures of Kiss, like from other magazines, and stick them into our fanzine.
Davis: Were you reading Creem or Circus or something like that?
Robinson: Yeah, exactly. That kind of stuff. And I always thought I would be like a journalist or whatever, [laugh] so I was really into publishing things. And I think with The Straight Line…I always wanted to have some sort of creative output, and…just getting the zine out was kind of a fun thing to do. And it wasn’t really that much later than when I was doing The Shirlington Post. I mean, I guess it was, yeah, like maybe three years, three or four years later, but it just seemed kind of like a natural continuation of that. But to be honest, reading back at these—because I haven't really looked at these in so long—they're quite embarrassing to read. [laugh]
Davis: [laugh] Why The Straight Line? Is it some reference to straight edge, or…?
Robinson: …it has nothing to do with straight edge. There was an exhibit of the De Stijl movement, like Piet Mondrian and all those dudes. And I think that was 1981. It was called Visions of Utopia. It was at the Hirshhorn.
Davis: Wow.
Robinson: And I went to that, and I was just kind of like, “This is really cool.” Like primary colors, straight lines. And the De Stijl movement is named after— it was a magazine, or a periodical called De Stijl which means “the style.” And the original name of that periodical was The Straight Line.
Davis: Oh!
Robinson: So with the first issue here, I'm trying to do like a Theo von Doesburg imitation—the 90-degree angle type in the masthead there.
0:12:02
The other thing that happened with zines was—Maximum Rocknroll was obviously a big one. Like, I never missed an issue of that. That was even bigger than Time and Newsweek. But what was I going to say? But I was going to say—zine reviews were a big thing. Like you would get your zine made, and then you would mail it to like every other zine, and then they would review your zine, and then you would review other people’s zines. [laugh]
Davis: Right. And then based on those reviews, then people would mail you stuff, because they read the review.
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mailing stuff was big. [laugh]
Davis: Absolutely.
Robinson: And, like, mailing stuff for free a lot of times, too. It was like—I mean, people would send you…
Davis: Stamps or something.
Robinson: …twenty-five cents. Or stamps—yeah, exactly. “You can have a free copy of the zine for two stamps,” or whatever. And even later with just, like, video—somehow, everybody just had—like pre-YouTube, everyone had seen all these cool videos because people just traded tapes…
Davis: So, you have a Government Issue interview in this first issue?
Robinson: Yeah. Well, it’s only Mitch Parker. It was done at this place called Space II Arcade. Do you know about that?
Davis: I've only seen the name of it on fliers, and I'm curious—is it actually an arcade? Like a…?
Robinson: I don’t remember it being an arcade. It was like a weird, empty unused space, kind of like north of Union Station. I don’t know if there was more than like one or two shows there? …But the Government Issue interview is just Mitch Parker. And I think he was also doing Crippled Pilgrims at the time. So, I think he’s talking about that a little bit too… Davis: Nuclear Crayons.
Robinson: Nuclear Crayons, which was another—that was kind of like—they did Outside Records. They had Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack.
Davis: Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack.
Robinson: Yeah. Right.
Davis: So, it was Bernie [Wandel] who you interviewed?
Robinson: Yeah, right.
Davis: Who I knew years later as the guy who managed Black Cat.
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, exactly.
Davis: But I just think it’s kind of cool—even in this first issue, you sort of see, like, your eye for what’s happening on the edges of things. And with your label, you would often release bands that—I think of No Trend, or Bells Of, or something like that…
Robinson: Sure, yeah.
Davis: …who maybe were viewed as not—well, Minor Threat was always at the middle of things, or the Dischord bands were always at the middle of things. And that’s just sort of what stood out to me, right at the beginning, this first issue—that you had an eye for that.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: And if there’s a question in that, I guess it would just be—is there something in particular that has always appealed to you about the margins? Of music scenes or of art scenes?
0:15:03
Robinson: …kind of almost like in the punk way…I don’t want to listen to Journey because everyone else is listening to Journey, so I'm going to listen to Minor Threat. And then maybe once you get into that Minor Threat world, you're like, “Well, Minor Threat’s actually really popular, and nobody’s watching this band.” So, I think there is something to that.
But I also think it’s just like—we just liked everything. …I didn’t do this fanzine myself. I mean, probably 90 percent of it—but like me and my friends would do it…we just liked everything. We would just listen to everything. ‘Cause I know there was this—I did know some other people who were in the punk scene, obviously, and it was just like punk, punk, punk, punk, punk.
Davis: Yeah.
Robinson: And we would just—I would listen to—I remember buying [laugh]— because I was a big Elton John fan, from like, you know, whenever I was like eight years old or whatever. And I remember buying like—it was like 1983, so I'm buying Minor Threat, I'm buying Elton John, I'm buying Elvis Costello, buying all the punk stuff, but I'm also buying like Billy Joel—Glass Houses or whatever. [laugh] So yeah, I just kind of liked everything. And then also there’s this interesting very obscure Factory Records band, 52nd Street, which was kind of like a funk—I think they were trying to be a mainstream kind of funk band, and they played at the 9:30 Club. So, I don’t think there’s an interview with them, but—but we took pictures of them.
Davis: Yeah, that’s sort of the turn that—thinking of A Certain Ratio or any of those kind of bands that I associate with that area, with Factory.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: And was there much interest in that either, with your friends at the time? Were you alone in being really interested in what was happening with Factory or any of the other sort of…?
Robinson: Yeah, we were all pretty cohesive. This is like a group of friends at the high school I went to—Wakefield, in Arlington…we all had a Crispy Ambulance record, which was a Factory Records band. We all had, you know, the Marginal Man record, or whatever. We all had Velvet Underground. Probably all didn’t have Billy Joel. I think that was probably just me. [laugh]
Davis: Well, you never know!
Robinson: [laugh]
Davis: At some point, there had been a Billy Joel record in their collections.
Robinson: [laugh]
Davis: So, when you would—say, this first issue—do you remember how many copies would you make?
Robinson: That’s a great question. I would guess like 50 to 100? Something like that.
0:18:00 And we sold them at school. And that was kind of our primary—even with the record label, when the record label started, that was how we sold them. We’d just bring them to school, tell people about it—cassette one dollar, the fanzine 25 cents—and that was our primary market. And then I think we tried to visit record stores or go to shows and try to sell them there. The fanzine was not the main thing. The main thing was playing music in the band and then releasing that music. So, the label was definitely more of a priority, although this predates the label. But I feel like I didn’t put as much emphasis on making this successful that I did the label. Or not successful, but pushing it on people. [laugh].
Davis: But this was kind of training for putting together a project that you then put out into the world.
Robinson: Definitely.
Davis: Especially something like this, that this is an aesthetically-minded project.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: Just like records can be, even though you're releasing music. The package matters.
Robinson: Exactly, yeah. It was kind of good just to even do—not that you can call this great graphic design or anything, but it was good [laugh]—good practice for a page layout and things like that. [laugh]
Davis: And how would you do this? This is just a typewriter?
Robinson: This is a typewriter. At some point, we had a typewriter at home, but I would go to my mom’s work—she worked at Southern Railway, which was in McPherson Square—and go there on the weekends, and I would type everything out. And then she had a Xerox machine there, too.
Davis: Oh, great.
Robinson: She doesn't work there anymore, so she won’t get fired.
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: So, yeah, it was all kind of—I don’t think we ever—I think maybe by like the last issue in ’88, I think we were going to Kinko’s or whatever the copy place was. But other than that, it was all done on adult office equipment.
Davis: Oh, wow. Which also explains sort of the limited run of, whatever, 50 to 100 issues. Robinson: Right. I remember [laugh] like using the Xerox machine and thinking like, “Can they see…?” Like, “Is there a record of the things that are being photocopied? Are they gonna find out?”
Davis: Yeah, totally. Right. [laugh]
Robinson: [laugh]
Davis: “It says here a thousand copies were made this weekend.”
Robinson: Right…Are they gonna be like, “What the hell is this?” And then when we did the second issue—I think this is like senior year—there was a flyer…like the front cover, and we pasted these up. I don’t know what the rules were at high school, but we would just put stuff up on the wall, in the hallways. And understandably, one of the teachers…
Davis: Yeah.
Robinson: …was not happy about the band—the band Half Japanese was kind of know…their nickname was Half Japs.
0:21:02
And we were called into the principal’s office for that one.
Davis: Wow.
Robinson: I remember sitting down, and the principal, who was like an alumnus— and he was really short, but he was like a basketball star like in the ‘60s [laugh] or something like that—but he was like, “Listen, I really don’t care about this, but Mrs. Levine is really pissed off, so just take all the posters down.”
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: [laugh] And we were like, “OK.” That was the only time I went to the principal’s office.
Davis: So, were you primarily selling these just to your classmates and stuff?
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: And did you ever try to sell them at shows?
Robinson: I think we did try to sell them at shows, and just try to bring them to stores and things like that. I can’t remember how many a store would take, and what was the markup or something.
Davis: Like five? Three? Robinson: Yeah, five or three, or something like that. And when we did the record label—I don’t know how much you want this to be about the record label, but I feel like they're—it happened at the same time.
Davis: We should include that, definitely. Yeah.
Robinson: But that was the same thing. We’d bring the tapes the school, sell them for a dollar. But before we even could figure out how to dub cassettes, we would just have one cassette. Because we were like, “How do you…?” Because back then, they didn’t have those double cassette decks.
Davis: Right.
Robinson: And, so, you would need two cassette decks…like how do you even hook those things up? I don’t know. And how would you even get two cassette decks? [laugh] Because…
Davis: Extravagant.
Robinson: …kids didn’t have money for those things. So, we would just like tape a practice…it was all a lot of improv stuff. So, we would just tape the practice on the boom box, and then we’d bring it to school. We’d make a cover for it and everything. It was just one copy. And then it was like a lending library. We were like, “OK, you can have the tape for a few days, and then bring it back to school.” And it’s funny cause I don’t think a lot of the kids at school probably had punk music taste, necessarily. There was like the core group, but there were other kids that were at least, you know, reading our fanzines and listening to the music without really being into it. [laugh]
Davis: And you would always get the tape back?
Robinson: I don’t know if we always got the tape back. Yeah.
Davis: Yeah, gosh.
Robinson: I've tried to recover some of those…we actually lettered them, so instead of numbering them, they're lettered, like A, B, C. And I have like three or four of them. I don’t know. And I think we went up to like letter V or something like that.
Davis: Oh!
Robinson: And then once we figured out how to dub the cassettes, we went to number one. Went numeric. Davis: And as far as interviews you were doing or reviewing records in here, was there ever any tension within the scene where you were playing music and you were also writing about other bands? Did that ever lead to any issues?
0:24:01
Robinson: I don’t think so, because we were more—we didn’t know who—we knew that the scene existed, but again, it was almost like playing a show—we only played shows at like high school parties. We didn’t even know—like, “How do you get a show? I have no idea.” So, going to d.c. space or 9:30 Club was like going to the Capital Centre or something. Like, “I don’t know how you get booked at a place like that.”
Davis: How did you finally get a show?
Robinson: We put a record out. The first actual record, because we were just doing cassettes. And then one summer, it was like right after we graduated, I worked delivering pizzas, so I saved up enough money to press a record. And we put the record out when I was at Maryland, so it came out in like November of ’85 when I was a freshman. And I gave it to Olsson’s, and then people started buying it.
Davis: And this is Unrest?
Robinson: Unrest, yeah.
Davis: Which record was it?
Robinson: It was a 45—three-song 45. There’s a cover of The Byrds’ song, “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” an instrumental, and then this kind of like very kind of like new wave kind of thing with like synthesizers in it. Kind of like almost a ballad or something like that. That punk version of, yeah, “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.” Almost like a punk side and then like this new wave side to it. And I remember selling it at—I don’t know if it was a Rites of Spring show, but it was at like Bethesda Chevy Chase Community Center, or something like that, and Guy Picciotto bought a copy of it. Like most people, you're bringing it by, and people are like…
Davis: [laugh] “No thanks.”
Robinson: [laugh] And then Guy Picciotto bought one. And then…he like told all his friends, and then they all bought it. And then he—Amy Pickering, who was a good friend of his, was booking 9:30 Club. So, we played—I think it was like January 1st or January 2nd, 1986, at the 9:30 Club. So, that was our first club show.
Davis: So, you were at the University of Maryland at that point? Robinson: Right.
Davis: Where’d you say…? Elkton? [Which residence hall] were you?
Robinson: I was in Ellicott, which was…
Davis: Ellicott, right.
Robinson: It was an all-male dorm. All the, like, football players were there…the scholarship athletes… So, I only lasted six months—the one semester there. Then I moved out to—we just actually looked at—before we got here, we looked at my old apartment, on like Metzerott Road.
Davis: Oh, right. Of course.
Robinson: [laugh]
Davis: So, when you were on campus then, the punk scene—there certainly had been people here for years already at that point.
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: Did it feel fairly strong, then?
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely.
Davis: Who were some of the people that you knew then, that were here?
0:27:01
Robinson: Right. Well, Mike Schulman was here from Slumberland Records.
Davis: Right.
Robinson: I'm trying to think of like—I could give you names of people that are not famous rock stars.
Davis: [laugh] That’s OK.
Robinson: [laugh] This guy Dave McDuff was a great DJ at MUC. What was that guy’s name? Mike [Dougherty]—I can’t remember his last name. Logan Perkins. I think he’s from New Orleans, but he had a show—I don’t know if he was—he must have been a student at some point. But a lot of people would continue their shows after they were students.
Davis: Right.
Robinson: His show was amazing. Randi Schaffer was his girlfriend. She was really into heavy metal. She had a show. And all the—there was—I can’t remember—was it Kenny Inouye? Or—no, it was Andre Lee from Marginal Man was here. I think a few of the Marginal Man people were here. And then they would have—there’s a lot of great on-campus shows. Allen Ginsberg performed. That was really cool.
Davis: Do you remember where? Grand Ballroom or something?
Robinson: I feel like it was in the Union. It was not a giant room. But we did see— like Jesus & Mary Chain played at the Ballroom. I'm trying to think of who else. And then of course later, all the, like, Velocity Girl, Slumberland people were here, too.
Davis: What years were you in school here?
Robinson: I was here Fall of ’85 to Spring of ’87. I think I went to school during the summer between those two, too. And then I just kind of—I don’t know whatever happened. I just was like—took time off and lived in like a punk rock house in D.C. for like a year. And then I went to University of Wisconsin for a year, and then pretty much gave up on it. Because by that time, my band was getting more offers to play shows and things like that, and I just didn’t have any interest in going to school.
Davis: Did you maintain a radio show, or no?
Robinson: I did a radio show. I know I was doing it during that year, I guess, when I was living in D.C., because I know I met the later bass player for Unrest. She was a listener of the radio show.
Davis: Wow.
Robinson: So, we [Mark and Don Smith] would take phone calls, and she like called us every week, and we just assumed that she was a Maryland student, but it turns out she was like a high school student within the area.
Davis: Hmm. It was pretty hard to get the station off campus.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: But on cloudy days, it could kind of get into Silver Spring.
0:30:01
Robinson: Yeah. I had this crazy—'cause I lived in South Arlington, in Fairlington, which is the very bottom of Arlington, Virginia. And on certain—with certain weather, I could get MUC.
Davis: Wow! Robinson: I remember pulling out like the grill from the refrigerator—it was like a metal shelf or whatever—and like hooking that up to like the antenna, and somehow getting it. Because I was desperate for college radio.
Davis: I remember hearing the probably apocryphal stories about how they could sort of boost the transmitter, and you know…
Robinson: Right.
Davis: …without anyone really knowing, and then it goes from 10 watts to 100.
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Davis: And then you do start getting phone calls from elsewhere in the city, but…
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…
Davis: But who knows if that really happened!
Robinson: Probably. [laugh]
Davis: So, the third issue of The Straight Line…
Robinson: Right.
Davis: …was a little bit later, it seems like.
Robinson: Yes.
Davis: Visually, it’s pretty different.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: Can you sort of explain—that cover is sort of what stands out to me as especially different. How did you put that cover together? Do you remember?
Robinson: Yeah. Well, by that time, we had been releasing the Teen-Beat releases. And there’s a couple Teen-Beat releases that also have this—I was kind of in that kind of just cutting pictures out of books [laugh], and this religious art for some reason stood out to me. And you can kind of tell—I guess I'm getting—what do you call it—dry transfer lettering and things like that. Yeah, I don’t know what to say about it.
But I feel like this was kind of more of a chore, doing the last issue. It was kind of like, I just, “I want to do this,” but it wasn’t like—these just kind of came out. These just like came out of me, with a lot of energy. And I think by the time I was doing this one, it was kind of more like—maybe I just wanted to advertise the Unrest record or something like that. [laugh] There is an interesting thing, though, when I was looking at these, that I should mention—I don’t know if it was this one; it’s probably the high school ones—is that my friend’s mom like wrote articles in here.
Davis: Huh!
Robinson: Right. Like this is Carol Moran, so that’s my friend’s mom. It’s like, “Steve Goodman died September 21st, 1984, in Seattle Washington. He was a Chicago singer and songwriter who grew up under heavy influence of Chicago blues and folk musicians.”
Davis: Yeah. “Go Cubs, Go.” That’s him.
Robinson: So, it’s just interesting.
Davis: How did that happen?
Robinson: I guess we would rehearse at his house, and we just knew his parents. And I think his brother—his brothers wrote in that issue, too.
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: So, it was just like anything goes, you know? There were no rules, and everybody’s invited.
0:33:00
And then I also worked on the yearbook, so there’s a lot of—sometimes I would just clip random stuff out of old yearbooks from our high school. Which was another big source of the Teen-Beat record covers.
Davis: So, this last issue—would you say it was similar in terms of you would only do a small run?
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: A hundred copies or something like that?
Robinson: Yeah, definitely.
Davis: Did it change by the end of this, as far as where you would sell it? Were there more record stores that were interested in selling it because you had any relationship with them from doing Teen-Beat?
Robinson: That’s a good question.
Davis: Or outside of the city? Was it like now you knew people in New York that could sell it, or wherever? Robinson: I wish I could remember.
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: But I wouldn't doubt if we sold these to like a distributor at that point. Because we were selling records to distributors. Which was really easy, back in the day, cause back then…you would have to call them up, and you would say, “My band has a record out.” And they're like, “What do you sound like in three words?” or whatever. And they're like, “We'll take 50.” Or you know, “We'll take 200.” Or whatever it is. I guess they would initially take a little bit, and then they would listen to it.
I don’t even know if—does that even happen anymore? They would listen to it, and then the salesmen, if they were into it, would push it. And then they’d call you back for more. So, when we did the first Unrest LP, we had kind of a distribution network going on, and this one distributor was selling—like every week, they would call us for more records. So, I wouldn't doubt if we were selling the fanzine to them as well. What was I gonna say? Strange Boutique. That's another fringy band. [laugh]
Davis: Yeah, for sure.
Robinson: And this is done by—I actually just looked this person up on Facebook, because I was like, “I know that name, but I cannot remember…”
Davis: Who is it?
Robinson: Krishinda Powers.
Davis: Mmhmm. That name is familiar.
Robinson: She lives in like Scotland. I have to connect with her. [laugh] But yeah, Fred Smith was in that band. And then Calvin Johnson. And then it was kind of funny, because there’s also—there’s a lot of pseudonyms going on in here. So…
Davis: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about your pseudonym in this.
Robinson: Right. So, me and a bunch of my friends took German classes at school. So we would have like a German name. So my name is Wolfgang Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft Chemnitz. So Wolfgang, I think it just sounded cool. Wolfgang. I don’t know.
Davis: Were you a fan of the band DAF?
Robinson: And then DAF? I don’t even know if I really knew what they were, exactly, but it seemed cool. [laugh] Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: And it kind of fit with the name, like German American.
Davis: Sure.
Robinson: And then Chemnitz is a city which was in East Germany, which was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt.
0:36:04
So that was the original name of the city which is again, the name of the city. But there’s all sorts of—right, like Calvin Q. Johnson— I'm sure the Q is a joke. “Calvin Johnson was interviewed by “jk. Vandelly”— Vandelly was the name of our senior year government teacher… [but] obviously I'm doing the interview. And then all the questions have nothing to do with the answers. So, it’s like—[laugh] I think all the questions were stripped out and different questions were put in there for comedic effect.
…the whole thing with the fanzine and the record label was, we are just entertaining ourselves. We are not trying to do anything else. That’s all [laugh] we're trying to accomplish. [laugh] It’s all one big inside joke, and if someone else wants to read it or listen to it, then that’s fine.
Davis: Right. They're welcome.
Robinson: Yeah. [laugh]
Davis: Were there any relationships that you remember coming specifically from the zine? Like people you went on to work with, or even whatever record labels or distributors? Because it seems like there are other contributors to this, or…
Robinson: Right. And like Steve Kiviat is on here. How weird is that?
Davis: Right.
Robinson: Oh, and Randi Schaffer. …These are University of Maryland people. I don’t know if there was anything—I mean, I worked at the radio station with these people. And some people, I don’t even remember. I don’t know if there was any long-lasting relationships that were built specifically from the fanzine, but it was kind of like whoever I was friends with at the time, like, “Hey, do something for my fanzine.” Like, “Let’s all be friends and create some art together.” … then there’s also just a lot of kind of like, I don’t know, snarky or rudeness, kind of, in these interviews. [laugh] Strange Boutique—“Where did the stupid name come from?” Davis: [laugh] What was their response?
Robinson: They actually are not offended, weirdly. They're like, “We were frantically trying to come up with a name.” Because Prince bought their name. Do you know that?
Davis: Madhouse, right?
Robinson: Yeah, exactly. So, Prince gave them $10,000 or something like that, and they bought a van with it. But they had to also quickly come up with a name, because they probably had another show coming up. So, “We were sitting around and I was getting ready to put on a record by The Monochrome Set, and their first album is called Strange Boutique.” Well, there. There you go.
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: Doesn't sound so bad. [laugh]
Davis: Are there any interviews that sort of stand out to you, in thinking back over everything in all three issues, as particularly memorable?
0:39:00
Robinson: …I think today, you would probably have to pre-arrange all these things. But when Section 25, which was a Factory Records band from Manchester, England, played at the 9:30 Club, we just showed up there, went down into the basement, and said, “Can we interview you guys?” And they were totally fine. And here, we're like 15 or 16 or something like that. So, it’s pretty incredible that they actually just sat down and actually talked to us, which was kind of amazing. I think they actually had a manager on tour with them, so we had to like talk to the manager.
The Don Zientara and Ian MacKaye thing was fun, because they were recording a band while we were doing the interview, which seems pretty weird. [laugh] And then that band was—was it 7 Seconds? It says—yeah, 7 Seconds. Which we didn’t even know who that was, at the time. And it was all in the old Inner Ear, so it was like the room—I feel like there was like a water heater or something in there.
Davis: Yeah, it was in the basement, right?
Robinson: That was the control room. Right. It was just in the basement. And it was a tiny room. So, Ian MacKaye and Don Zientara are in there, and then me and like two or three of my friends are in there, very crowded. And it’s also obviously back in the day, when you would just tape-record the interview, and then you would just transcribe the whole thing. There’s no background story or anything. Davis: How would you record it? Did you have a microcassette recorder? Was it just like a little tape deck? What would you…?
Robinson: Yeah. It was not mine, probably. I think it was one of those—I know Tim [Moran] had a Walkman thing with a microphone on it, and I remember we used to try to sneak that into shows sometimes, like bigger shows where you couldn't bring a tape recorder. He’d put it down his pants.
The Mitch Parker interview was fun…Mitch Parker I think was probably like 28 or 29 years old or something like that, and we were like 16. And it just seemed like “Wow, you are, like, so old.”
Davis: [laugh]
Robinson: [laugh] That was another kind of weird thing about the…
Davis: And was that just—you just approached him at a show, and said…?
Robinson: Yes, that was at that Space II Arcade space.
Davis: So that wasn’t even planned. It was just you just saw him there and said, “Let’s talk”?
Robinson: Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Davis: What about the Don and Ian one?
Robinson: I think that had to be pre-arranged, obviously, because you can’t just walk into… [laugh]. So, I don’t know how we did that. Did we call Ian MacKaye? I have no idea. How do you get Ian MacKaye’s phone number? Look in the phone book, I guess. [laugh]
Davis: That’s actually how I did it. I looked up Dischord in the phone book when I was a teenager. I just called them.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: And that’s the flier.
Robinson: This is the flier. Exactly. So, it has the original masthead on it. Yeah. And then this is like from the Wakefield High School yearbook, like circa 1966 or something like that.
0:42:02
And then this is—so my dad—I'm actually from New York, New Jersey area, and my parents got divorced, and we moved here in 1975. So, I would go back during the summers and Christmas and things like that, and I went to a lot of hardcore matinees at CBGB’s. So, this is actually like California Youth Brigade…
Davis: The Youth Brigade. Yeah.
Robinson: Taken out CBGB’s.
Davis: So, you had already said when you were working on the third issue that it already was feeling kind of over to you…
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: …or at least like you had to really make an extra effort…
Robinson: Right.
Davis: …to do it. So as soon as you put that third issue out, you knew it was over? Or did you start another…?
Robinson: I think it was definitely over, yeah. And we did number—because by that time, the label was going, and we did give it a catalog number, so that’s Teen-Beat 24. So yeah, I think it was just so hard to put that last issue together, for some reason, I guess because I was just concentrating on music, more than publishing. I did attempt to do a zine after that. What was it called? Travel…? It was going to be a travel zine. [City Slicker]
Davis: Hmm!
Robinson: And, so, there was going to be—and I did work on it, but I never published it. That was probably 1992 or something like that. So I had started working on issue three—310 [the Los Angeles area telephone area code] or something like that, which was going to be Los Angeles. [laugh] So I interviewed people from I think it was—was it Option magazine or something? Some guy from L.A. was nice enough to answer all my questions. And then I didn’t end up publishing the zine.
Davis: Didn’t reward him with a…?
Robinson: I had a lot of plans for that zine, but it never happened.
Davis: Do you still have those materials?
Robinson: I think so. Yeah.
Davis: Hmm. It’s never too late.
Robinson: OK. [laugh]
Davis: You know? Robinson: That would be cool, actually. Just like, “This is what it was like in 1992.” [laugh]
Davis: You should finish that. You should put that out. So, were there other D.C. zines in this—you started in ’84, and by ’86 or ’87 or whenever it was when you were in school here and doing the last issue of Straight Line, did you read Greed or WDC Period or…
Robinson: Of course.
Davis: …stuff like that? Do you have any thoughts on any of those zines?
Robinson: I mean, I loved all of them. Greed seemed very slick, expensive, but well put together, well written. I don’t think they would have had—they probably didn’t transcribe their interviews. They probably actually wrote them like…
Davis: Features.
Robinson: Like real writers.
Davis: Mmhmm.
Robinson: WDC Period, I feel like it came out—I don’t know if it was once a month or once a week, but that was—that was like the City Paper; You always picked it up with everything else. But those were two great things.
0:45:00
That was Gordon Gordon…
Davis: Right, right. Were there other ones you remember reading at that time? I'm trying to think who else was…
Robinson: Right. You probably know better than I do. [laugh]
Davis: And you were continuing to do the label and the band, and you were obviously super busy with that.
Robinson: Right.
Davis: Uno Mas was one that had kind of emerged by the turn of the ‘90s.
Robinson: Right, yeah.
Davis: Was that something you read?
Robinson: Definitely, yeah. That was Jim Saah, right? Davis: Yes.
Robinson: Yeah, I read everything. I mean, you had everything. It was kind of like— you said before, once I—when I first got into punk, like how did you know where the shows were? You just knew. [laugh] You had every zine that came out. You knew where every show was. And I don’t know how that happened…
Davis: And people were sending you zines at this point?
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: Like the locals would send you zines for your record label?
Robinson: Sure. And even people from all over the place would be sending you stuff.
Davis: As head of Teen-Beat Records, how long were you really in charge of advertising in zines?
Robinson: In charge of it? [laugh]
Davis: Because someone had to place ads in those zines. Someone had to…
Robinson: Yeah, it was me. [laugh]
Davis: Someone had to say yes to that. When I called Teen-Beat, when I was doing my zine in high school…
Robinson: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Davis: …I'm pretty sure it was you…
Robinson: I dealt with you directly.
Davis: …that would say…
Robinson: Of course. We didn’t have like a vice president of advertising or something like that. [laugh]
Davis: You were doing publicity, you were doing everything?
Robinson: Yeah. I mean, we had a lot of interns, which we did not seek out…but people just started asking, like, “Can I…?” Like college students would be like, “Can I come over…?” High school students. “Can I come over and work and intern?” But a lot of their work was stuffing 7-inches, because all the 7-inches were those folded paper, and then you had to fold the catalog. Catalog folding was a big task. But yeah, generally all the advertising, I did. All the design. Dealing with the pressing plants and the distribution was all me. Yeah. Davis: So, did any zines from here then stand out to you, as like the ‘90s emerged and there were so many more zines coming out at that point?
Robinson: Right.
Davis: Who Cares? was another one from here.
Robinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right.
Davis: And gosh, what else? There was just a bunch.
Robinson: …I do have like a stack of stuff that I should find and see what I have. But yeah. My memory is not that great.
Davis: [laugh] Well, I don’t have any other questions for you. Is there anything you think we've missed in the creation of The Straight Line that we should talk about?
Robinson: I don’t think so. It’s just—as I said before, it’s kind of embarrassing to read some of this stuff. Just how like snarky some of the stuff is.
0:48:00
But you know, we were 16.
Davis: That’s youth, right? I don’t think anyone looks back at anything, any sort of fanzine or writings that they did decades earlier, and they're like, “Yes! Love that!” [laugh]
Robinson: Right. Oh yeah, The Young Caucasians. See, Young Caucasians, 1983, live performance at the Washington Monument. [laugh] …“I was pretty critical of them at first, but when I heard that psychedelic dance music come out of the speakers…” Oh, that’s pretty positive. But then there’s also weird stuff, like I'm reviewing a Windham Hill record. [laugh]
Davis: What did you say?
Robinson: “This is not a record for everyone.” [laugh]
Davis: It’s a positive review. As it should be.
Robinson: I think I got into that label, because they had that very—it was a look.
Davis: The artwork was great.
Robinson: Yeah, the artwork was the same.
Davis: And totally distinctive. Robinson: Exactly. Which is probably why I bought it. And then they had really nice pressings with like clear plastic inner sleeves too. [laugh]
Davis: Yeah, those George Winston records definitely had a lot of care put into them.
Robinson: Yeah. But yeah, I was happy—'cause I was reading it, and I was like, “Am I the only snarky one?” But then I read other people’s, and I was like, “OK, good. Everybody else has the same kind of teenager style.”
Davis: And you've said you were OK with these being digitized and put online, and I know…
Robinson: Yeah.
Davis: But what are your thoughts on that, more specifically?
Robinson: I mean, I think it’s fine. You mean like that people are going to read…
Davis: Yeah, that people will see this.
Robinson: …my embarrassing childhood? [laugh]
Davis: It’s one thing to like have a paper copy in a folder in a box here at the University of Maryland. It’s another that conceivably, it’s a little easier for someone, anyone, to really—to read it.
Robinson: True. Maybe that’s why I did all the pseudonyms. [laugh]
Davis: Yeah. You knew.
Robinson: [laugh] Yeah, no, I think it’s fine. All the music we did at this time is very embarrassing as well, but since it’s part of like the label history, I feel like it has to be out there… [laugh]
Davis: Yeah.
Robinson: Some of the other people that are on the records probably don’t think the same way, but…
Davis: Well, I don’t have any other questions, so…
Robinson: OK, cool.
Davis: Thank you.
Robinson: Yeah, thank you.
[End of recording] [NOTE: This transcript was edited for clarity]