Brett Bakker, editor of local zine Wig Wam Bam, has written about every music show he's seen in the past 10 years.
"I think there's an amazing amount of local talent here in a lot of different styles," said Bakker, who writes under the name Captain America. "I've definitely got some favorites: the Foxx, the Grave of Nobody's Darling, Lousy Robot, Ronoso - they're like a crusty hardcore band."
Bakker prints about 200 copies of each issue and leaves them at record stores such as Natural Sound and music venues such as the Launchpad and the El Rey Theater.
"Some people get angry if I talk shit about their music or their band," he said. "That's fine. Everybody's got their opinion. That doesn't matter to me in the least. I tell people, 'I'll talk shit about your music, but I won't talk shit about you.' It's not personal about that person. But, when you're talking about someone's art, it is kind of personal, too."
Wig Wam Bam's masthead says "Ignoring objectivity since 1998."
"I didn't want to be objective, because I was passionate about what I was hearing, good and bad," Bakker said. "You can tell the writer is pretty much using the press kit the band sent out. It's kind of regurgitating. I wanted to put out what I thought. Some people like it; some people hate it, and that's OK."
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Once in a while, he prints submissions when he gets them, but for the most part Bakker writes all the publication's content.
Eva Blaylock, who used to write and edit at Local IQ, as did Bakker, wrote a show review for the April issue.
"Captain America - he has the esteem of a lot of musicians for his reviews because he draws comparison and has such a wealth of knowledge," she said. "He's an archivist as far as music goes. You'll find in most local shows most of the audience is comprised of other band members."
He was inspired to start his own zine when the medium boomed around the country in '96 and '97, he said.
"There was a great store here called Mind Over Matter, which had hundreds of zines," he said. "They sold records and zines and books. It was incredible. I was really inspired by people who were just making their own music, doing their own zines, doing their own art, and there wasn't a whole lot of coverage of what was going on
here locally."
He boiled his articles down to tangential rantings that don't go through much editing.
"It's a hobby, I guess. I have to write a lot of stuff for work anyway," Bakker said. "I have a whole professional way of writing that's entirely different. I certify organic farms in New Mexico."
He named himself Captain America when working on a pirate radio station.
"We did it all over the student ghetto. We weren't licensed or anything, so everyone picked names, and I picked that one as my air name," he said. "We were busted - the feds came down from Denver and tracked us down about three times. They threatened jail time and fines and all this stuff. I've got the letter hanging on my wall from 10 years ago. We finally shut it down, but we left the transmitter on."
