PRESSING ON: Even longtime underground music fans...

PRESSING ON: Even longtime underground music fans have had trouble keeping up with the explosion of acts and styles of the last few years. With that in mind, Trouser Press, the outgrowth of the now-defunct alternative music magazine of the same name, is preparing the fifth edition of its music guide book. But unlike the predecessors, which reached back to ‘60s and ‘70s precursors of punk, this will concentrate on artists active in the period since Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album came out in 1991.

“The terrain changed so much after ‘Nevermind’ that the way things were looked at before are so different now,” says Ira Robbins, Trouser Press editor and a music critic for Newsday. “This will treat the context of the ‘90s in a unique way.”

Rather than update the last edition, the new book, due in fall, 1996, will consist of entirely new entries. Robbins says that he hopes it will complement, rather than replace, the last edition, published in 1992. He’s open to suggestions of acts that should not be overlooked, which can be sent via his America Online computer e-mail address, TrouserHQ.