Hello there!

There is one week until the summer ‘24 zine is out.

I will email this very list as soon as the zine is available to order on next Friday, September 20th.

The sooner you order, the lower the number you’ll get.

There are 3,502 first editions of this zine being printed, and each zine cover will be hand-stamped and hand-numbered by a train_songz elf.

If you want to get a friend on board, make sure they subscribe: https://buttondown.com/trainsongz

A few changes to the zine this time around…

• While the zine is still “pay what you want” from $0 to whatever, your contribution will be at time of order

  • It’s an e-commerce “order online” situation

• Recommended contribution is $7, but you can edit depending on what you’d like to give

  • Orders of at least $7 will ship a bit sooner, as a thank you for your generosity and support

• The zine will be available for purchase on a site called Metalabel, which is a really cool site meant for selling and collecting limited-run artwork.

  • I had to apply to host the zine on the site, and they accepted it.

  • You don’t need to make an account to order next Friday, but if you would like to, you can go ahead and do that.

LET ME GUSH A BIT…

I’m really proud of this zine, and I’m really proud of all the non-me talent and energy that went into the zine.

The back + front cover are really good artwork done by very talented artists within the scene, as is the zine’s design and layout…and the not-yet-released train_songz website got a very cool visual upgrade.

The data section also has some serious talent behind it, with a small crew of Engineers.

There’s a crossword puzzle from our usual puzzler!

And the writing (by The Conductor & Promontory Paul) has been masterfully edited and proofread by Brakeman, and we had a few Mysterious Music Experts lend a hand with some of the writing, as well…

And I’m fortunate enough to have 16 small business sponsors from within the scene, whose generosity really helped with about 30% of the upfront costs of printing, postage, and labor. (The 70% toward fully breaking even is the “pay what you want” from you all.)

(And yes, I said “labor!” All artists and helpers involved with the zine were paid a flat rate or at $20/hr, depending on the work. This is important to me, and it will continue to be worked into the true cost of the zine.)

That’s all I got for you. Talk next week.

-The Conductor