Blastitude

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Blastitude is an online music publication (rumoured to be edited anonymously by either Colby Stark of Head of Femur, Bobby Conn fame or his midwestern acquaintance Matt Silcock) dedicated to finding the genius behind the wonkiest and noisiest music available from avante-rockers, most of whom are generally influenced by artists like Thurston Moore and Sun Ra. Its contributors include Weasel Walter among them. Its content is amazingly comprehensive, displaying a particular, studied love of frenzied, complex and dorky virginal freakouts -- call it emo-squonk. Its style is written in a "yeah boy" gonzo manner, conflicting with its often prim farmboy point of view -- both particular attributes of midwestern music critics in general. The exception to this rule is former B.U.M. Equipment model Tony Rettman's typically dolorous column, which, fortunately, appears erratically. Rettman brings a point of view to the magazine that derives from a singularly shabby upbringing in the shadow of a Ballantine's bottling plant based in Trenton, NJ. He is otherwise known for his contributions to Jello Biafra spoken word albums, as well as his world-famous duel with Marc Orleans (in which three of his fingers were shattered and remain useless to this day), known as "The Battle of the Tom Bruno Concert" within the rather dubious circles in which Rettman travels. That said, Blastitude can't be beat for a blow-by-blow narration of some of the weirdest, coolest music happening in Chicago and surrounding areas.

The Wire is probably the most obvious predecessor to Blastitude, but Blastitude focuses much more on the noise music of labels like Load Records and Freedom From, and focuses particularly on the music of the midwest. Its contemporaries include the texas publication Dead Angel and the bi-coastal Arthur Magazine.