Feel the Burn
Milemarker, which just released its fifth album, Ominosity, was one of the first groups to merge heavy punk guitars with synthesizers. With his self-published introspective ‘zine, Burn Collector, the first nine installments of which are now available in a book, singer Al Burian presaged another omnipresent modern movement: the blog. However, he won’t be transferring his thoughts about relationships, degrading employment and alternative culture to an online outlet anytime soon.
“I wouldn’t have any idea how to go about putting such a thing into action,” he says from his home in Chicago. “Looking at screens is just not something I’m into.”
During past Milemarker tours, Burian found himself surrounded by Burn Collector-reading strangers who knew all about, say, his response to his parents’ divorce. Now fans are eager to reveal their own intimate details. On Milemarker’s MySpace page (“I don’t understand what MySpace is, which makes it ironically titled in my case”), the group’s virtual friends write public posts such as “Thanks for being the first band I fucked ‘White Pants Ashley’ to.”
“That example is a good reason for me not to look at that page,” Burian says. “I don’t need to get any more self-conscious. But that’s great for them — go for it!”
In the ’90s, ‘zines such as Burn Collector offered their authors a form of instant release, allowing them to bypass editors and publishers.
“The appeal was that it was so direct,” Burian says. “You would stay up all night, write your thing and go copy it.”
Blogs erase the production time (cut-and-paste design, mailing labels) that ‘zines entail, streamlining the process so that rants about today’s teenage dramas appear online before slammed doors stop shaking on their hinges. By contrast, Burian now prefers to spend more time between Burn Collector issues, reflecting on his essays to avoid immortalizing rash reasoning.
“I’ve become more aware of being flippant and hurting someone’s feelings or expressing something in a way that wasn’t necessarily the way you wanted and being stuck with it,” he says.
Though Burian prefers actual ‘zines, he says blogs bode well for unfettered communication.
“It’s cool that words are not this elite domain,” he says. “There’s a decentralization of information, and that’s definitely a good thing.”
