By CLAYTON PARK

For the better part of two decades, local rock journalist Dawn Anderson has had an unusual love-hate relationship with The Rocket. When she wasn't working for it as one of the magazine's longtime contributing writers, she could usually be found competing against it as publisher/editor of smaller upstart publications.

In recent months, Anderson managed to do both at the same time: continuing to freelance for The Rocket while publishing a new music fanzine called Backfire.

Unlike Anderson's previous 'zines (the original Backfire, which ran from 1983-84, and Backlash, which ran from 1987-91), this latest version of Backfire has resisted the urge to take jabs at The Rocket, not that she hasn't had disagreements with it in the past.

The last thing Anderson expected when she resurrected Backfire last year was that her shoestring-budget 5,000-circulation quarterly, which is published out of her home in North Seattle's Haller Lake neighborhood, would outlive the mighty 75,000-circulation biweekly. Well, Anderson doesn't have The Rocket to kick around, much less collect an occasional paycheck from, anymore.

Beset with mounting debts, Dave Roberts, publisher of The Rocket, recently announced he was suspending publication and laying off his staff. The final issue of the magazine, which chronicled the Northwest music scene for 21 years, was published Oct. 16.

While some critics of The Rocket might say good riddance, Backfire's publisher isn't among them. "I think it's a shame really," said Anderson, who began writing for The Rocket in 1980 when she was a student at Seattle University. "I would have gloated (about The Rocket's demise) at one time, but I'm not now. ... It did serve a definite purpose. It will be missed."

The question is: with The Rocket out of the picture, does Anderson have plans to fill the void by increasing Backfire's frequency of publication and distribution? "I'm thinking about it," said Anderson, who added: "If the market seems to be supportive of it, I'm open to it. I'm willing to take this thing anywhere it will take me."

Unlike The Rocket, however, Anderson has no intentions of trying to make Backfire all things to all people. She resurrected the magazine with a single-minded mission: to cover rock music, period. Sorry, Britney Spears fans.

"I started (the latest incarnation of) Backfire because I thought there were a lot of amazing rock bands right now, yet the mainstream media kept saying 'Rock was dead,'" said Anderson. "I figure when that happens that's a really good sign that rock is alive, that it's really healthy.

"I also started it because the local media weren't writing about these bands either. The Stranger, in particular, seems to take a condescending attitude towards rock, when it chooses to cover it at all. ... It's not that (rock) is the only music I like, but I'd rather do one thing well."

Some of the rock bands that Anderson and her staff of freelance contributors have championed in recent issues of Backfire include The Hellacopters, a band from Sweden, and local bands The Makers, The Murder City Devils, Cookie and Blood Hag.

Over the years, Anderson has demonstrated a keen knack for spotting talent. In 1988, she became the first journalist to write about Nirvana, three years before the rock trio from Aberdeen turned Grunge Rock into a national phenomenon. She profiled them again in 1991 for the final issue of Backlash, shortly after the band signed its big record deal with Geffen Records. Anderson admits she was as surprised as anyone at Nirvana's meteoric rise. "Nothing I liked had ever become big!" she said.

Ironically, it was the breakthrough of Nirvana and other Seattle bands that led to Anderson's decision to pull the plug on Backlash. "When it (grunge) became big, it wasn't a Seattle music scene anymore," she said. "It belonged to the rest of the world, not just Seattle. It wasn't like you could go down to the Central Tavern and see Nirvana like we used to do."

When asked how she defines rock these days, Anderson responds: "You just know. ... It's anything hard basically."

In addition to music reviews and profiles of up and coming bands, Backfire also runs a regular feature called "The Backfire Dream Machine," which Anderson says is "a photo of some musician and his car or (motor)bike." "I'm into muscle cars," she adds, noting that she, herself, is the proud owner of a royal blue 1965 Mustang.

This spring will mark a personal milestone for Anderson, when she publishes the 50th issue of what she calls her "Back" publications - the two incarnations of Backfire and Backlash. The big Five-Oh issue is slated to hit the stands in either May or June, she says.

In North Seattle, copies of Backfire can be picked up at American Music and Sonic Boom Records in Fremont, The Trading Musician and The Landing record store in the Roosevelt neighborhood, Bop Street Records and Sunset Tavern in Ballard, and various locations throughout the University District. Backfire is also distributed in music stores, rock clubs and bars throughout Greater Seattle, as well as in Bellingham and Portland.

Anderson handles the editing, distribution, layout and most of the ad sales herself for Backfire, but has recruited some big names to contribute cover art, including Fantagraphics cartoonist Peter Bagge and ace graphic artist Art Chantry. She has also gotten some former Rocket staffers to contribute stories and photos, including former Rocket editor Joe Ehrbar. Anderson has even persuaded her husband, Jack Endino, to write a couple of articles - which disproves the saying that those who can't play music become music critics. Endino is not only an accomplished musician who plays electric guitar, bass and drums - he is also a noted record producer, whose claims to fame include having produced the debut albums of Nirvana and Sound Garden.

Endino currently plays bass in a band called Well Water Conspiracy, which is scheduled to open for Pearl Jam at Key Arena on Monday, Nov. 6.

Anderson is a Seattle native who grew up in Columbia City and later, as a teen-ager, in Mountlake Terrace ("a big rocker town"). After graduating from Seattle University, she and a friend started the original Backfire, which drew its name from the Anderson's partner, who funded the publication from his job selling auto parts. After the fanzine folded, she got a job editing a community newspaper called the Lake Union Review, which led to a subsequent job as editor of Backlash. Her current day job is as a court reporter. She notes yet another North Seattle tie: she received her diploma in court reporting from the Court Reporting Institute on N. 130th, just off Aurora Avenue N.

Anderson invites bands interested in having their recordings reviewed to send submissions to Backfire, P.O. Box 77311, Seattle, WA 98177. "It has to be reasonably new and it has to be rock," she said, adding, "We define rock very loosely. If they think they're rock, they probably are." Writers interested in contributing articles are also encouraged to contact her at 206-361-5193.