Jim Ruland

When I was 15 my mom took me and my younger brother to see the Ramones at the Wax Museum. It wasn’t just my first punk rock show, but the first rock concert I attended. Even though I’ve been in thousands of dark rooms to see bands play since then, that show really stands out. I even remember some of the t-shirt the other people were wearing. That was the night everything changed. 

I’ve been writing for punk rock zines for over 25 years. I started doing record reviews for Flipside and then graduated to interviews and a column. I wrote for a bunch of other LA zines that came and went. When Flipside folded, I jumped over to Razorcake when it started up and I’ve been there ever since. Razorcake por vida! 

Tony Adolescent  invited me and Sean Carswell to do a reading before his gig at the Knitting Factory, which was a pretty big deal. This was when Tony was in the ADZ and Brendan Mullen was the DJ. We didn’t find out until later that the ADZ weren’t the headliners. We were opening for X. No pressure. 

These days I work as a writer in San Diego, CA. My latest book is Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records. I also write a weekly newsletter called Message from the Underworld. 

@jimvermin

(Watercolor and gouache on hot press paper, 9”x12”, December 2022)