Mary Rose Cook's notebook

The public parts of my notebook.

My homepage.


Chainsaw Records

Chainsaw put out some of my all-time favourite records:


The Fakes, Real Fiction

[Sleater-Kinney, Sleater-Kinney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleater-Kinney_(album))

Tracy + The Plastics, Muscler’s Guide to Videonics


About Chainsaw

Chainsaw started as a fanzine around 1988.


I made the fanzine as a kind of tool to help me find other freaky people like myself. I had always wanted to be part of an underground network of freaks, queers, radical thinkers and artists.


I made chainsaw as a way to introduce myself to the ones I read about in fanzines around the world (and to girls at shows).


Around 1991 I found myself in Washington DC with a box of 500 throwaway cassettes.


I decided the best use for them was to make a compilation cassette of all my favorite bands and people of the time. I mostly gave them away or sold them for food money when I was on tour with fifth column.


When I moved back to Olympia I got encouragement from my good friend Gary to start a label with my current job. I put out an authorized bootleg and then the frumpies 7″ and from then on I was a label.


I’m proud of every single chainsaw release. All these records are special to me. I’m inspired by the artists who create the music. I’ve always said the reason why I put out the records by the bands I do is because I really want my very own copy to listen to.


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