Huh. Looks like this is an anthology of Free Beer, a fanzine out of Wisconsin that’s apparently been around for over fifteen years. I dig the hand-done cardboard covers and the definite feeling of “make due with what you have” that permeates this thing. The interesting thing about the zine and its author is that while he maintains that he’s done zines for nearly twenty years now, there’s such an air of enthusiasm and vitality here than CBSOASP reads like it was penned by someone much younger. Granted, this is an anthology, a chronological collection, but as a whole, Free Beer (with its typewritten anecdotes and crushes and unabashed joy of music and first bands and willingness to admit when something’s scary) harkens back to a time in punk culture when we all weren’t quite so cynical or slick or business savvy. I certainly don’t want to raise the banner of the “good old days,” but Free Beer reminds me of a time—intentionally or not —when personal zines (or zines in general) weren’t anomalies but essential vehicles of communication and instigation. The layout’s consistently pretty dull, but, again, it’s Barney’s enthusiasm that carries him through here. –Keith Rosson (Barney c/o Tea Krulos, PO Box 511553, Milwaukee, WI 53203)