I was kinda avoiding this for quite a while. To name just best reasons: last time I did scene report for my zine and website, instead of positive critic for effort and work, I got vicious criticism from those who just sit on their arse whole day and whose only job is to find something to mouth-off in someone's work...all those "...they are not playing any more", "...that zine is not focused on that...", "...that band is not pure HC..." made me wanna puke and so I regretted for starting it in the first place, but funny thing is that no one else made their version...OK, to be honest I'm not really into "domestic" scene, but since I formed and started playing in my own band (RED UNION) I got to learn more along the way recently. It must be said that punk HC scene down here is really DIY, but not so much as some anarchist ethics but more because that is THE ONLY WAY for us to stay in existence and fight with deviated mainstream. I should explain that British and any other country's meaning of a word "Mainstream" is way more different than Serbian...Down here, mainstream is a mix of Turkish, Greek and Serbian folk powered by fascist deviated ideology of nationalism, sexism and twisted mob morality. So, it's not just music, but corrupted and perverted way of life (after all, we had a guy called Slobodan Milosevic in power for 12 years who did his best to keep us stupid and sheepish)!

    So, naturally, I'll be starting from my home town Novi Sad.

    First off, some rude self-promotion. RED UNION is your humble author's band. We formed in the year 2000. We managed to hit the studio two times so far, firstly we recorded a demo /EP and just recently a full-length. We are all into punkrock in the vein of Clash, SLF and recent American school of so called "streetpunk" like US Bombs, Swingin' Utters, Rancid and Dropkick Murphys...We grew quite popular in local scene by playing frequently and co-organizing events like "Anti-Nazi day gig" ...We also played in Belgrade and other (smaller) towns in our country and even in Macedonia. If you want more info about us contact me. Just recently, we released our album for German label Bandworm .

PRESSING is a very energetic young old-school HC band from our town, they have self-released album and are constantly giging throughout the country and sometimes in Hungary. A ear-holiday for any Gorilla Biscuits or Chain of Strength fan. Recently they added one more guitar.

BLITZKRIEG like to think about themselves as of an genuine streetwise band, which they are + a lot of Social Distortion in their sound. They've been kinda lazy. 10 years of existence with just one album...but, in my opinion, one of the best punk records of all time in Serbia (available on Bandworm rec. in Germany). Guys are simply getting old haha! I'm not sure if they're still going on...Nope, they called it a day...

KOROZIJA, Vintage furious garage RnR Novi Sad's monster. Also a bunch of skillful lazy bastards. Every show is a blast. For everyone into hi-powered guitar driven RnR punk. I'm hassling 'em all the time to do something with their stuff and find some decent label to publish it. It will be a bestseller! Think Crypt rec. crew + Swedish rockers + Ramones/Damned...

DMT is together with THE MIGHTY DOGZ also NS RnR live attraction, they been around for quite some time. They've been to studio a month ago and brought some rockin' new trax and now we're hoping to see more from them. THE MIGHTY DOGZ are their neighbors and brothers in arms (i.e. guitars)...something like Hellacopters but way better! Just finished recording of a full length, looking for a label.

Novi Sad's funniest band UMT are having some ambitious plans with the stuff they recently recorded. They style is a hilarious spawn of Punk, ska and funky pop. Definitely an unique act! Although they sing in Serbian and chose local topics for songs, they are enjoyable worldwide.  There are also PENETRATORS (Street HC punk), NO REGRETS (metal HC), BRUTALLICA (piss-take project, great!), LOST PROPELLEROS (authentic and only ska band from my hometown, on the rise!), BONEBREAKER a kind of all-star scene veterans + a juvenile drummer, really a kick ass dag nastish punk HC, HOPERS (youngsters punk’n’rollers), SHOPLIFTERS (very interesting band playing kinda emo-punk...but not emo in that boring way)...

    Now for some capital city info...While Novi Sad is known for it's irresponsible, drunken scene, Belgrade is Mecca for serious and thoughtful bands. Perfect example would be UNISON. It's very successful and serious hardcore act in the vein of Ebullition rec. bands They have three albums (first one is a minor disaster, from the straightedge days of the band, which they somehow reject now).
Although that sound is not my cup of tea, I must say they are very good at what they are doing.  Old Schoolers HITMAN are always a refreshing thing to see and hear. Frontman Aca owns the only underground store in Serbia "Chan-doo" and independent punk HC label F.U.R. (whose roster is a very good example of the Serbian punk HC scene) and you should reach him for any further info on bands, records, info and tourbooking. CONCRETE WORMS are one of the FUR rec. exclusives. Mixing sound of early pre-punk a la Sonics with energy of early Misfits and Motorhead. A rare example of a female participation in a band (one of the best bass players around - Dragana). DOGHOUSE are only punk band in Serbia who got some decent media promotion and a decent record label contract. It's great melodic punkrock like Good Riddance, NUFAN and Strung Out...They're big but with good reason. They just released their new (2nd) album for Automatic records. Next on the melody front are kids NO COMPLY who are doing it Bad religion style, one CDEP out now. Teamed up with TEA BREAK (also pretty pro!) in an informal collective called Melody makers. N ext, there are also some melody-punks: MONSTER MOUSE, SPITLIVER, BARFLY...

Must also mention some other BG bands which I'm not quite familiar with: ANOTHER ONE (HC), TIBIA (Metallic new school emo HC...huh!), LET'S GROW (some kind of HC punk), CHARLIE DON'T SURF (introspective HC also in the vein of Ebullition rec. sound, now defunct) ...lot's more I forgot!

I'm sorry to admit but I know very little (almost nothing) about activities in other towns...I would gladly stand corrected, but for right now, that's it concerning bands.

    Oh, I could never forgive myself if I had left out ISSUES OF LIFE, great HC punk band from the town of Stara Pazova...watch out for these guys: a blend of DC punk HC and some style of their own. Just recorded new full length "melting man"...

    Recovering from long period of badtimes, Serbia is begining to take its breath in gig organizing, and finally some good foreign bands are coming to our country. We can always promise a good time to every band who wants to visit us. Possibilities for organizing live events are growing, but it's pretty sure to say that every band can have great gig in Belgrade or Novi Sad or even both! A lot of people are involved in punk HC scene and even more crowd is anxious to hear good new bands.

    We are very short on fanzines at the moment and right now I can give you just few: Get On the Stage(punkrock fanzine, edited by a guy who is kinda confused with what punk is all about, but good layout and frequent publishing is what makes it relevant...in Serbian language), Shaved Women (anarcho zine run by Andrea, a girl who is a real scene veteran...new issue in progress right now...Serbian lang.), Third World ( now part of OOPS! zine, very good punk HC zine from Negotin...also in Serbian ), S.C.A.B. (zine I'm doing, designed as a punk culture bulletin with its version on the web @ www.scabzine.com , seems like the most serious and ambitious zine down here at the moment...in English).

    Well, that's it for now...I know I must have dropped out a lot , so seek out more for yourself. I can help you out with these useful addresses:

-BLITZKRIEG, Nikola Gvozdenovic, Marodiceva 8, 21000 Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, gvozdnik@eunet.yu
-PRESSING, Djordje Popvic, R.Radujkova Rase 7, 21000 Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, fipa5@hotmail.com
-UNISON, Srdan Stankovic, Veljka Petrovica 12, 21000 Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, stanks@eunet.yu
-CONCRETE WORMS, conworms@ptt.yu
-MELODY MAKERS collective: alpej@eunet.yu
-F.U.R. Collective/Chandoo store, Alexandar Todorovic, Ivana Milutinovica 7, 11030 Beograd,  yuhcgo@yahoo.com
-S.C.A.B. zine, Vladimir Gosic, Mileticeva 49, 21000 Novi Sad,Yugoslavia, vlada@scabzine.com, www.scabzine.com