SLUG Retrospective: 30 Years Under the Influence

With a goal of creating “some sort of guide to help you find your way around this town’s sorry ass but rising underground scene,” SLUG Mag (Salt Lake Underground Magazine) was born. Much in the same way the 1970’s punk music scene in London adopted the Situationist International agenda, SLUG, whether knowingly or unknowingly, filtered similar ideas and aesthetics into their representation of Salt Lake’s punk subculture beginning in the late 1980’s.

For three decades, SLUG has been a highly visible and influential cultural anchor for many of Utah’s disenfranchised youth, musicians, artists, writers and other cultural misfits from SLC’s punk subculture.

The publication started as a black-and-white magazine primarily about punk rock culture. It gradually transformed into a full-color, well-designed magazine that has expanded its cultural territories to include many aspects of the local music, art and film scenes as well as issues highlighting fashion, beer, bicycling and action sports. It has become a prodigious event sponsor, including the annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival.

This exhibition comprises a treasury of SLUG memorabilia as well as copies of every issue since the magazine began publishing in1989. It illustrates the Situationist lineage, the history of SLUG magazine, and the lasting effect of both on Salt Lake’s underground scene.