The music world (and the world at large) was certainly saddened to hear the news of the recent death of Slash Records founder Bob Biggs. Actually, Biggs’ label grew out of L.A.’s Slash Magazine, which was a worldwide punk bible from 1977 to 1980. As Brooklyn Vegan notes, the magazine was “was founded by Steve Samiof, with photographer Melanie Nissen, Claude “Kickboy Face” Bessy, and Philomena Winstanley. Contributors included cartoonist Gary Panter, Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Flesh Eaters’ Chris D, and more. Biggs contributed to Slash as well.”
Now though, all 29 issues of this iconic magazine are available as one PDF from Circulation Zero. This becomes a valuable punk source as the book, Slash: A Punk Magazine from Los Angeles: 1977-1980, was published back in 2016 but is now out of print and very hard to find.
From their initial issue from May 1977, Slash covered everybody from punk’s golden era – from X, Germs, Fear, and The Bags to PiL, X-Ray Spex, Blondie, and Talking Heads, and it also included writing on film, art, and culture.
For its part, Circulation Zero is like a punk hub, as it also features as downloads other punk-era zines, San Francisco’s Damage, NYC’s Dry, and Boston’s Boston Rock.
