trouser-press-collage

Trouser Press' entire '70s/'80s magazine run now available online for free

Named after a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song, The Trouser Press was a fanzine created by Ira Robbins, Dave Schulps and Karen Rose in 1974. It began its life as a “sort of British rock collectors magazine,” and as the decade progressed, became one of the best American sources for punk, power pop, and new wave. The magazine stopped publication in 1984, but it spawned the very influential Trouser Press Record Guide that was considered by many (this writer included) to be the indie/alt bible of the pre-internet era.

The Trouser Press Record Guide has been online for over 20 years but they just redid the website, which now is publishing new articles. They’ve also digitized all of the old issues of the magazine for the first time. The whole thing is free to read and is a real treasure trove of interviews, criticism and generally great music writing. There’s also pithy new commentary from the editors like this for the January ’79 issue that featured Devo on the cover with the headline “Future of Rock or Total Crock?”

Great rhyming headline, hunh? Jerry Casale looks suitably impressed in this Ebet Roberts photo. Inside, we had three separate articles on the spudboys from Akron: YES! by Cole Springer, NO! by Steven Grant and MAYBE! by Ira Robbins. Nobody could accuse us of taking sides on this pressing issue as we neared the dawn of a new decade.

Dig through the whole archive — and read the Trouser Press Record Guide‘s entry on your favorite group — over at the newly revamped TrouserPress.com.