Moisst Epitaph

Once again here’s another issue of your dear old MOISST. Another issue to throw a little stink in your face with all the type o’s and hate we could dish out in a zine. So hey, if you have a problem with the format or anything else dont pick up the next issue!!!! This is not a Relex magazine, nor is it U.S.A. Today. Keep an eye out for it, for chriiiissssst’s sakes.

With those words, the mighty Moisst wreaked havoc on the printed word. Throughout the 1990's and the beginning of the 21st century, Moisst covered a wide range of music and art from the inferno known as Arizona. Started as a school project, it mutated into.... well it mutated into something. The brain child of Kevin (The Sponge) Donaldson, Moisst published around a dozen print issues and a "massively popular" website. Interviews, poetry, music reviews, short-stories, comics and more, Moisst covered it all.



The Sponge and his merry band of delinquents, addicts, artists and drunks, managed to come up with some amazing stuff over the years. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. The mighty Moisst is no more. All that remains are some old print issues stored in boxes (somewhere) and tons of memories.

I was involved with Moisst from just about the beginning. It was a fantastic time in my life. It gave me access to tons of free music, access to shows and bands like I never dreamed, not to mention, in a very strange way, helped get my professional career started. I contributed what I could. Wrote some reviews (badly), helped with graphics, did some interviews (well, I held the tape recorder) and eventually created and managed (procrastinated) the website.

Its been about 10 years since Moisst died. The website disappeared years ago. That is until now. With a stroke of weird luck, my computer crashed. Not the end of the world, but it forced me to restore some backups. During this search, I found an old zip file in a backup on an old cd labeled "Moisst". When I opened it, I found all of the my old files I had used throughout my time working on the zine. I started reading and was amazed at the shit we pulled off. Some really great interviews, with some really big bands. I kept thinking how it really was a shame that none of this was on the web anymore.

I started to consider posting the entire website, just like it was when it ended, covering all the issues, but I just could not do it. It was cool as nostalgia, but it was really dated, frames and all. If I posted the whole thing, I could sit back and watch a page hit counter. What fun was that. I figured instead, I would use it as an opportunity to play around with blogging and social networks. Which leads me to this little experiment.

I am going to post on this blog everything that I have from my time with Moisst. But I'm gonna do it a little at a time, and I'm going to include my own jaded opinions and comments along the way. Keep checking back to this blog as I will be posting the interviews, poems reviews and more. You can expect stuff from: Descendents, The Vandals, Youth Brigade, Avail, Marky Ramone, Rancid, Zeke, Fifteen, R.L. Burnside, 7 Seconds, Face to Face, The Muffs, Murder City Devils, NOFX and much, much more.

Enjoy.
NV