Metal Sludge Gossip Board

Lots of scanned pages here. Pretty fun.
https://www.adsausage.com/la-rock-review-1988

Featuring two bands named Skid Row and Damn Yankees before Bach's SR and Tommy/Jack/Uncle Ped's DY became a thing, I see. Also Tuff in the bottom row.

More bands in the second section (1989) plus another one of the CEO and Tuff:

https://www.adsausage.com/rock-city-new ... -rockdolls

And Taz and Swingin' Thing! Two more bands that should've gotten a major label deal for at least one album because Taz's "Coid Shoulder" and Swingin' Thing's "Groove of Love" sound pretty good. Maybe not exactly Warrant/Crue/Poison-level single material, but both pretty good songs on the same level as some of the other Sunset Strip acts that got a major label record deal like Tuff, D'Molls, Wildside, Bang Tango, etc.

Excellent stuff...

Those zines were a huge part of the scene, and over the years, there were tons of them.

LA Weekly was the cities biggest entertainment directory, but covered all variations of entertainment from live music (of all styles) to movies, plays and all night life.
Founded in 1978 > https://www.laweekly.com/about/

BAM was more music related, but also covered everything from Rock to Jazz to Metal to New Wave, Punk and the rest.
Founded in the Bay Area as 'Bay Area Music', but at some point an L.A. version launched > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAM_(magazine)

The Sunset Strip's scene was more dialed into, by Rock City News, which I believe started out as LA Rocks, but split into 2 zines, with Rock City News being run by Ruben Blue and L.A. Rock Review being headed up by Kelly Q., who left LA Rocks/Rock City News. These zines were all bi-weekly.

There was also Screamer which was a monthly and Hollywood Rocks which was Gerry G. and some other former RCN staff.
Founded in 1987 ? https://screamermagazine.com/

Like the bands, most of these Zines Editors, Publishers, Founders, etc... ALL feuded with each other, lol. Facts. Which also happened on the National level, with Metal Edge, Rip, Hit Parader, etc... everyone battling for supremacy.

At some point there were others as well, like CRASH, BANG!, Endless Party, and a few other goofy ones. Most of these didn't last very long, some only printing a few issues.

Actually, a quick Google search and found this... http://www.rockcitynews.com/archives/history.html

1983 - Rock City News was founded as SCRATCH MAGAZINE
1986 - Scratch Magazine changed it's name to "L.A. ROCKS!"
1987 - L.A ROCKS! changed it's name to "ROCK CITY NEWS"
1988 - ROCK CITY NEWS changed it's name to "ROCK CITY" / "ROCK CITY NEWS"

$tEvil

Loved those. When I'd go to Main Street Huntington Beach I'd grab all those and read them while I laid out on the beach. Great way to make plans for later. I once was in one of those at the Marquee's anniversary party getting a temporary tattoo. Never got to see it, dammit.