The new issue of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts, is now on sale across Canada and our zine, Now Or Never #1, was reviewed:


Zine, Broken Arts, Issue 1, info@brokenarts.ca, $4

Toronto’s suburban music scene has produced some of Canada’s most well known musicians including Ajax’s Sum 41 and Whitby’s K-OS. But Broken Arts’ Now Or Never puts a spotlight on the promising music climate of neighbouring Oshawa and nearby towns in the outskirts of Toronto’s suburbs.

Complete with interviews, photos, reviews and events, you’d likely think that your copy of Now Or Never is a homemade issue of Rolling Stone. It’s a handcrafted music zine, where the creators have poured their heart and soul into its making. This may mean that the drawings, cover design and layout are a bit cruded but you shouldn’t be surprised to find a lot of solid content wrapped up this a zine with a lot of heart.

To make things even more interesting, Now Or Never includes a six track CD of one of the bands interviewed in the issue. Once you get started, Now Or Never isn’t easy to put down and it’s a promising first issue for a zine I hope to see again. (Dexter Brown)