Conspiracy M.E.D.I.A was formed in 1982 as a vehicle for the zine publishing efforts of Rev. Keith A. Gordon, the "Reverend of Rock & Roll." For 15 years, ConMEDIA published over 50 issues of various music and anarcho-leftist zines like ANTHEM, RADICAL PIZZA, R.A.D! (Review And Discussion of Rock & Roll Culture) and R SQUARED (rock & roll). Through the years, ConMEDIA zines have featured the writing and art of such underground icons as the Rev. Gordon, Bob Black, Mike Gunderloy, Bill Claypool, Scott Ritenour, Kent Orlando, Andy Anderson, Ron Hogan, Jacob Rabinowitz, daData, Neal Keating, Jeremy Dickens, Bob Z and many others.
ConMEDIA's R.A.D! zine was one of the very first two or three music zines to begin publishing online, posting text-only versions of the zine to various Internet newsgroups and later evolving into a more graphic "webzine." R.A.D! was cited as one of most "well-written and intelligent" e-zines by print publications like BOSTON ROCK, FACTSHEET FIVE and RIFF! After a two-year legal battle over trademarks to the zine names R.A.D! and RADIO STAR (which never really got off the ground), ConMEDIA took its publishing efforts directly to the web, launching ALT.CULTURE.GUIDE,,. This popular music webzine was hosted at Rev. Gordon's Mondo Gordo BBS web site, named after a Nashville-based free-speech/anarchist/hacking computer bulletin board system run by the Reverend in the early-90s.
From its 1999 inauguration until its death in 2006, ALT.CULTURE.GUIDE, had grown from a handful of readers to over 100,000 unique visitors monthly. The webzine featured over 900 CD, DVD and book reviews as well as artist interviews contributed by writers like Rev. Gordon, Tommy "Hashman" Hash, Ivadd Grimstone, Eric Saeger, Bill Glahn and others. The webzine primarily covered indie rock in the punk, metal, blues, roots rock and prog-rock genres.
Conspiracy M.E.D.I.A moved into the realm of book publishing in 2003, releasing the first of three volumes of material culled from the webzine. Each ALT.CULTURE.GUIDE, book features reviews and interviews from the webzine as well as material exclusive to each book and unavailable online. ConMEDIA has also published ROCK TALK, the first of two books collecting the best artist interviews from the Rev. Gordon's personal archives.
For 2008, Conspiracy M.E.D.I.A plans to move into video production, podcasts and more blogging, such as the Reverend's Ryan Adams Sucks music biz blog or the Trademark Of Quality audioblog . First up for the company is THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book, an incomplete history and discography of Nashville's rock underground circa 1976-2006, due in the summer of 2007. The Reverend is also keeping a blog of the project's progress at www.thatdevilmusic.com . The second ROCK TALK collection is scheduled for late 2008 and will feature interviews with Jason & the Scorchers, the Ramones, the Hoodoo Gurus, They Might Be Giants and many more!
In addition to the aforementioned blogging activities, Rev. Gordon also pens CD reviews for Harp Magazine and contributes editorial material to Associated Content.
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