ZERO CRED

A chat about compiling a giant book of emo band photos.

A conversation with Ratboys frontperson Julia Steiner about their new album The Window, as well as iPods, The Simpsons, and where good song ideas come from.

Talking about working out and Perfect Saviors with the (not so) mysterious cult member.

A conversation with the NY photographer about compiling a massive book documenting the history of an already iconic venue, St. Vitus.

A chat with the songwriter on the release of her new album, 'The Answer Is Always Yes.'

A conversation with the mastermind behind Single Mothers and the Drew Thomson Foundation.

A chat about writing, creativity, and starting an indie press with the Rose Books founder and author of 'Tonight I'm Someone Else.'

A conversation about writing rock books with Jim Ruland, author of Corporate Rock Sucks.

Hello and welcome to REPLY ALT, the only and therefore greatest email newsletter about music in the known universe. I’ve been running a series here over the last few weeks called SELLOUT STORIES where I post extended chats with some of the people who make appearances in my BELOVED and BESTSELLING new book SELLOUT. Please see past episodes with Chris #2 of Anti-Flag, Norman Brannon of Texas Is the Reason, and Riley Breckenridge of Thrice. They’re all on Spotify and Apple and blah blah blah.

Today’s guest is Sarah Lewitinn, who leads much of SELLOUT’s chapter on My Chemical Romance. Sarah has internetted her way into a ton of career opportunities. In the early days of the web, she used AOL to befriend Mikey Way, which eventually led to a brief stint managing My Chem. She also used her message board savvy to network her way into an internship at SPIN where she gained a following for her off-the-cuff online writings under the moniker Ultragrrrl. Obviously, using the internet to leverage yourself into gigs seems fairly intuitive now, but at the time, she was sort of a pioneer in the online-to-IRL-career pipeline. In fact, I’m not sure how much of this conversation will even make sense to a person who grew up on social media. Much of what we talked about involves the trials (and benefits) of networking during the dial-up days.

Among other topics, we discussed making your voice stand out on the internet, why culture might have been better off with gatekeepers, how the role of A&R reps has changed over the last two decades, and Sarah’s famous controversial hill to die on: that My Chemical Romance is the Nirvana of their generation.

(Also, some photos of Sarah as well as Frank Iero were published in my companion zine MAJOR LABEL DEBUT, which is still available in my merch store.)

Obviously, only true posers have not read SELLOUT yet, but on the off chance you haven’t or in case you’ve been meaning to pick up ten additional copies, visit my website at SELLOUT.BIZ. (I paid $20 for that URL and I’m gonna get every penny’s worth!) But if 450-page books are too daunting for you and you’re looking to just read the part about Sarah, good news, Rolling Stone ran that section here:

Oh and speaking of Rolling Stone, apologies to their social media manager but this was a very good typo and they should’ve left it up. RIP to this banger tweet:

Order my book, SELLOUT, here: B&N | Amazon | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Goodreads

Shop the SELLOUT merch store.

Follow me on the internet. Instagram | Twitter | Website

Hello and welcome to REPLY ALT, the best/only newsletter about music. I’ve been doing a lot of supplementary interviews around here lately about my book SELLOUT since it has consumed my damn life over the last two months. As such, I’ve run interviews about the major-label experiences of The Bronx, Less Than Jake, Anti-Flag, Texas Is the Reason, Thrice, and Murder by Death. But today I figured I’d get back to some good old fashioned non-SELLOUT content by interviewing my elusive friend Chris Norris who, now that I’m thinking about it, designed one of the SELLOUT shirts I have for sale. Dammit. OK so I guess it’s not completely unrelated to SELLOUT. (You may also recognize Chris’ work from the book I released with Laura Jane Grace in 2016. He designed that book and some of you have its artwork tattooed on you forever.)

Chris has a book of his own out now called HUNCHBACK ‘88. Actually, the book came out a few years ago (and I interviewed him about it then), but he’s just released a brand spankin’ new expanded edition. It’s a horror story which doesn’t really have a resolution. Bodies come apart and teens get disemboweled in poetic fashion. Call it a mystery, or a puzzle that doesn’t need to be solved.

The expanded HUNCHBACK has a ton of original grotesque artwork from Chris as well as guest contributions from artists like Mark McCoy, Chris Farren, John Jr., and others. It’s like a tiny brick of compressed macabre art that I cannot recommend enough. The original HUNCHBACK was sort of a daunting undertaking that read like one unbroken train of deranged thought, but this new version is a bit more manageable. I personally keep my copy next to my nightstand and flip it open to a random page before bed. Then I have nightmares about being sliced in half on the beach all night.

Anyway, please enjoy this interview with Chris where we discuss among other things: Being introduced to art through Marvel comics, doing the bare minimum, being notoriously and deliberately difficult to work with, and growing up in America’s two most undesirable locations: Florida and Salem, Massachusetts. Enjoy! Listen above or anywhere you listen to podcasts: Spotify, Apple, blah blah blah.

And pick up the new HUNCHBACK ‘88! Give it to your goth crush this holiday season. (Note: If your goth crush is me, I already have a copy, sorryyyyy!)

And to see who’s really paying attention, I am gonna mark down the Steak Mtn. SELLOUT shirt in black by 20% in my store in honor of this interview. Just enter the discount code HUNCHBACK88 at checkout.

Order my book, SELLOUT, here: B&N | Amazon | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Goodreads

Shop the SELLOUT merch store.

Follow me on the internet. Instagram | Twitter | Website