Sometimes, Norbert “Rev. Norb” Rozek wrote entertainingly about rumblings on the punk-rock underground, catapulting from his indie-level notoriety with the band Boris The Sprinkler during his five years writing a column for MaximumRockNRoll. But while the Green Bay native occasionally touched upon that trope, his collected columns, Fear of a Norb Planet, is more often about a self-proclaimed goofy, possibly genius intellect given to sharing copious autobiographical detail while drawing iconoclastic cultural connections. If one can successfully navigate the lack of paragraph breaks and font tinier than that of his own often hilarious ’80s fanzine, Sick Teen, among the rewards are a nostalgic rewind for those who inhabited a similar subcultural sphere as the Rev. during the Clinton presidency and the workings of a singular mind preoccupied with an array of subjects that filled his Wisconsin life. Norb Planet is a compelling read from a strangely, amusingly obsessive dude.
