Mark Robinson Interview with John Davis December 27, 2018 College Park, MD
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Mark Robinson Interview with John Davis December 27, 2018 College Park, MD. 0:00:00 to 0:50:11 ________________________________________________________________________ 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.