“Awakening” – debut album and zine by Lavender Witch

Hi, my band Lavender Witch is releasing our CD + zine “Awakening” today on bandcamp: https://lavenderwitch.bandcamp.com/album/awakening!

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Brussels-based band Lavender Witch launches their debut album titled “Awakening” today!

Influenced by the riot grrrl movement, grunge, postpunk and female fronted bands, “Awakening” is the missing link between Hole and Bikini Kill. Lyrically and as activists we are inspired by second wave feminism such as the groups WITCH and Lavender Menace as well as by trans-revolutionary, anti-racist, and intersectional feminists of today. Our lyrics address feminist issues such as manspreading, menstruation, and rebellious muses as well as more personal stories of feeling like outsiders or being disrespected in relationships.

For 10 EUR you can get a physical and digital copy of the CD as well as a 24-page zine filled with song lyrics, Q&As and cover art. The digital-only version is available for 7 EUR. You can order directly via our bandcamp page or pm us on facebook.

(“Awakening” will be released on tape very soon too in collaboration with Nosebleed Records!)

You can listen to and order the album at https://lavenderwitch.bandcamp.com/
Contact us via https://www.facebook.com/LavenderWitchBand/ or lavenderwitchband@gmail.com
Blog: https://lavenderwitchband.wordpress.com

 

International Zine Month (IZM) 2020 starts today!

IZM aka International Zine Month starts today! Alex Wrekk who invented International Zine Month has designed another brilliant poster with daily activities you can do in July (scroll down to see it) as well as this logo… ->

What are your plans? Will you participate in all the IZM activities? Make your own zine(s)? Read lots of zines? Blog about zines? Buy and swap zines that have been on your wishlist? Write to zinester penpals?

Find out more information on Alex Wrekk’s Stolen Sharpie Revolution website.

Download the poster here: IZM2020Poster

Prompt of the day: “What is a zine?”

For me a zine is not just a self-made and self-published booklet but it is also situated within DIY culture. This means it is non-profit, non-commercial, non-professional, low-budget, and non-competitive. Topics and styles can vary but it’s important that zines remain accessible, both to readers (everyone can afford to buy or trade them) and to writers (everyone can make them). Zines don’t exist as little paper islands but are connected and blossom within a mutually supportive zine community.

My plans for IZM 2020:

• Write my definition of a zine (as I just did)
• Make a diary comic zine
• Print the lockdown diary comic zine(s) I’ve been making in the past two and a half months.
• On July 3rd it’s the release date of “Awakening”, the zine (and CD/tape/digital music) of my band Lavender Witch!
• Decorate envelopes
• Design and cut out an ECHO lino stamp
• Learn a bookbinding technique
• Read zines
• Buy and swap zines
• Blog about IZM
• And hopefully as many of the activities listed below…

LIST OF ALL THE IZM2020 ACTIVITIES:

Zines I’ve read in 2020 (June)

Here are all the zines I read in June! These include wonderful paper treasures about travelling, colonial history, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tattoos and piercings, finding your writing voice, boardgames, what artists can do during fascist times, witchiness, diet culture, anarchist views on the Covid 19 pandemic, queer disability and mental health, consent, and more…

Where to find some of these zines:

• All in Your Head
• DIY Culture (download)
• Fanzine Ynfytyn
• Five Things I Wish I’d Learnt at School about Empire
• Making Art During Fascism
• Negative Scissors and Hugging a Tree
• Purple Moon Spawn
• Rainbow Mother
• Rocky Horror Picture Zine and Johnny Flash Tattoo
• Spontaneous Waffles
• Suomi
• Towards a Pro-Consent Revolution (download)
• What Now? Little Things You Can Do to Make a Difference
• Witch
• You Gave me the Blues and Sing Until there is Nothing Left to Sing about
• I got Scorpio Moon via Vampire Hag Distro

(If you’re curious about a zine that I didn’t mention a website for, let me know, and I may be able to get you in touch with the zine maker.)

Enjoy reading and remember that tomorrow is the start of International Zine Month!

Lockdown diary comic zine – work in progress

Since somewhere halfway in April I’ve been drawing a diary comic. The plan is to publish it as a zine soon – or better: a zine in at least 2 parts because I already have too many pages for just 1 zine! I’m enjoying making this comic so much I don’t want to stop yet.

In the comic I draw about what my life is like these days and how I deal with the (semi)lockdown. I guess it’s a mix of a perzine and a comiczine. 🙂 There is stuff about guerrilla gardening, having to go back to work, recording music at home, protests, and mini-adventures, while Chainsaw Bunny keeps me company.

I’m just looking for a title now… I have some ideas but haven’t made the final decision yet. I hope to release both parts some time in July.

As you may or may not know, International Zine Month will be upon us soon (July is dedicated to all-things-zine) and I intend to just continue drawing and make another comic diary zine during that month. Not sure if it will be part III of the lockdown diary comic (since there’s almost no lockdown left anymore at the moment) or a second issue of Scissors & Chainsaws. The first issue of Scissors & Chainsaws was made in July 2013 and I think it was also the first zine which featured Chainsaw Bunny.

More news soon!

Support anti-racist, POC, and Black Lives Matter struggles

Some ideas and resources for how to support anti-racist, anti-colonial, POC, and Black Lives Matter struggles:

Lavender Witch

Today, June 19th (from 9 am till 9 pm CET), Bandcamp will donate 100% of its profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an American organization that has a long history of effectively enacting racial justice and change through litigation, advocacy, and public education. More information here.

So this is an excellent moment to buy music from independent bands and artists on Bandcamp!

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Lavender Witch​ too will donate 100% of the profits of the pre-order of our album “Awakening” today, to Belgian Network For Black Lives​. You can pre-order and support on our Bandcamp page.

If you want to donate directly to Belgian Network For Black Lives, go to their GoFundMe page or PayPal.

At this moment Belgian Network For Black Lives is raising funds “to help out all the people who were brutalized and/or arrested by Brussels police after the Brussels manifestation…

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Zines I’ve read in 2020 (May)

With a bit of delay, here are all the zines I’ve read last month. These include zines about travelling to Berlin, old cinemas in Leeds, the relation between food and music, miniature train collections, anarchist thoughts on love + police violence + fun ways to resist capitalism, magic and witchcraft, traumatic childhood memories, finding yourself after bad relationships, the meaning of home, dealing with the Covid 19 quarantine, and more.

Pre-order: “Awakening” – debut album and zine by Lavender Witch

Exciting news from my band Lavender Witch! Our debut album is now available to pre-order (official release date is July 3rd). With the CD comes a 24-page zine filled with an interview, photos, and lyrics (we like to call them spells). Want some feminist fury, witchy punk, passionate powerpop, and dark 90s influenced tunes? Listen to our songs!

Good morning ✨ The witches are awakening and adding some magic to your life… ✨

Our first album ‘Awakening’ is ready to be pre-ordered! The official release is the 3rd of July but you can already pre-order it on Bandcamp and discover right away some of our new songs, including ‘Not My Sister’!

Order the CD pack with the zine or the digital version. You can also contact us directly to make the transaction (via email or pm). The CD + zine costs 10 euros and the digital version only is 7 euros.

Today, as on the previous first Fridays of the month, Bandcamp supports bands by waving their share of the sales. So it’s a good moment to support bands and artists!

Thank you and see you soon on a stage near you!

🎵Listen and order here: https://lavenderwitch.bandcamp.com/album/awakening

More info: Lavender Witch’s website

 

L7 video for “Fake Friends”

L7 has a new video out for their song “Fake Friends” and it rocks (of course)!

The footage includes artwork and photos sent in by fans, including a drawing of Jennifer Finch, their bassist, made by me (at 00:46)! Do you know in which zine and issue that drawing first appeared?

Some day I really need to make a fanzine about L7 but for now I’m working on a diary comic zine with lots of references to this great band… 🙂 More news about that soon! For now, let’s do some bedroom dancing to L7’s video:

 

Witches’ Brew – mini-zine about some of my favourite herbs

New mini-zine:

Witches’ Brew #1

OUT NOW!

During the lockdown I made this mini-zine about herbs. I had this idea in mind for a while now but while I was spending more time outdoors in parks filled with herbs during this time, it felt like the right moment to create this little booklet.

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Why zines are important to me – also in quarantine times

Zines have a central role in my life. Ever since I first heard about (fan)zines in a Courtney Love biography that mentionned zines in the context of riot grrrl, my interest was awoken. I then found more books about zines and websites with texts taken from zines and then some actual zines too (woohoo!). It was the late 90s so in rural Belgium they weren’t easy to find or order. But I soon connected to online riot grrrl communities who produced their own zines which I started to devour and this encouraged me to start writing some too. To be honest I probably didn’t think that two decades later I’d still be making and reading zines. But on the other hand, why not? Zines are an absolutely awesome medium and I just can’t get enough of them.