Archive

If mid-'90s hardcore like Threadbare, Unbroken or Struggle sends a shiver down your spine, or if you regret recycling your HeartattaCk zines, check out Operation Phoenix Records. They've archived full issues of Kent McClard's legendary HaC (man, I can still smell how those pages felt), as well as other iconic zines 10 Things Jesus Wants You to Know, Maximumrocknroll, Suburban Voice and Flipside. This will inevitably lead to whatever-happened-to googling (Portraits of Past have a MySpace page?), nostalgic (and half-true) "hardcore was better then" daydreaming and red-faced regret at the overtly simplistic heart-on-sleeve declarations this early generation of zines relentlessly engaged in. But this is a great snapshot of a pre-online time that involved a lot of UHU stics, anxious days awaiting a seven-inch in the mail and a huge amount of youthful idealism that is practically dripping off these... er, PDFs.