Formerly "Loitering Is Good", "Raw Deal" picks up in the West Oakland trainyards, an ode to California's sun-drenched post-industrial shitscape. Partially about acclaimating to a job as a rookie brakeman for the Southern Pacific Rail, RD#13 incoroporates plenty of curmudgeonly appreciation for the yards' old-timers and lots of salty anectdotes of train history. With a palpable sense of love-hate for West Coast wastelands, the segway gets made to the obsessive neccessity of punk botany. Like a beligerent Johnny Bad Appleseed, the heart of this issue is an account of cultivating rare trees, seed smuggling, survival and botanical accountability, renegade urban improvement, and the deep feeling of connection once you set your sights on an ecosystem as the big picture. Written with a ton of passion and a little swagger, it's a little similar to Erick "Iggy Scam" Lyle's personal-is-political-is-punk writing, totally badass and hungry to get at the core of it. Best two bucks yer going to spend all day.  -EF