We've digitized one of the most crucial issues of xXx Fanzine, issue no.14 featuring interviews with the Bad Brains, Motorhead, plus additional content that did not make the book. You can read issue no.14 in its entirety HERE. xXx Fanzine founder Mike Gitter had the following to say about this issue...
"This was the issue where xXx really hit its prime. xXx #14, which featured a generation-charging HR of the Bad Brains by Cindy Mendes, was the first of a triumvirate of covers (#14-Bad Brains, #15-Samhain, #16-Cro-Mags/Agnostic Front) where the zine had really come into its own: layout, pictures, writing, the works. That was a span of issues that is probably the leading reason why xXx still gets a bit of love (and a full book treatment) some 35 years later! It was also the issue where you could see Hardcore's sea-change really start to take hold. The interviews with Dag Nasty and Slapshot saw old schoolers like Brian Baker, Choke and DYS' Jonathan Anastas open up new musical chapters while still sticking to their punk lineage. Meanwhile, Youth of Today had just emerged from the suburbs of Connecticut to reinvigorate old school straight edge with a sound equally cribbing from Boston and NYHC and, in the process, give birth to the divisive sound of "Youth Crew". From what I understand, the interview I did with Ray and Porcell at the old Anthrax club in Stamford, CT was at their fourth-ever show as a band!
As you shift through the 28 pages of this issue, you'll obviously catch a bit of content that didn't make it into the xX Fanzine 1983-88 book. The big hold-out was The Dickies interview...not that I don't love Stan, Leonard and their history of tuneful irreverence. We only had so much space (228 pages) and 20 issues to cull from. In retrospect, the book does have a hardcore bent and there are some glaring omissions including interviews with California's CH3 (issue#3) and the UK Subs (issue #5) that will hopefully see light of day again at some near point.
In addition to focusing on the sound of energized old schoolers and younger scene-shifters, the issue's interviews with binary legends: Motorhead and Bad Brains make it one of the zine's strongest. Our conversation with Lemmy and Phil (who remained Motorhead mainstays til the end) on the 1986 Orgasmatron tour at a show at the Channel opened by the Cro-Mags (!) really shows how plugged in and aware they were of the scenes around them - to the point of Lemmy name-checking Wattie and The Exploited! Meanwhile, my interview with HR set the stage for the Bad Brains I Against I era in our chat backstage at Providence's Living Room.
Add to that record and show reviews including Samhain, YOT, Verbal Assault, Jesus and Marychain (I panned 'em - a teenage me didn't get the J&MC's live show!), Circle Jerks, Husker Du and the very first Slapshot show and it's clear that things were cresting for xXx and the second generation scene around us! Hell, there's even an ad for the Pushead-released Pusmort version of Poison Idea's Kings of Punk on the back cover! Hope you enjoy E-flipping through what is perhaps the strongest overall issue in the zine's 6-year run. Safe to say, there's plenty more xXx to come!"
