Mojo Magazine: Classic Or Dud

Uncut is better - has better writers and an overall less stuffy outlook. They need to cut down the amount of 'Americana' though, and they seem to fall for any singer songwriter who comes along (Slaid Cleaves, Eileen Rose, Jim White -no thanks). We could do without coverage of Neil Young's every fart, too. That said, I have to say it's great as Mr. Jones the esteemed editor and doyen of rock journos is a neighbour and we use the same fish and chip shop. OK - no more namedropping in future.

Uncut covers more of what I like but in a True Path Of Rebel Rock way I find increasingly rubbish. Too much mythology, not enough insight.

Take the March issue for example. Though it has a disturbing amount of space devoted to ELP and a wretch inducingly hideous front cover, there is a really fantastic article on the Pixies by David Cavanagh. It is worth buying just for that, though I did feel embarassed buying it.

But on other occasions when covering people I like, Mojo pull it off magnificently. The Gainsbourg piece was the last such example.

Tom and Dr C are right about Uncut, I think. Half the time it's fascinating (Reynolds's Kid A thinkpiece, Paul Morley's everlasting way with the language, Chris Roberts making even the hackwork of the film soundtracks roundup read as though he's taking the utmost pleasure from the whole thing), but often you feel as though those involved should get out a little more and stop thinking Americana and singer-songwriters are, like, timeless and worth covering in perpetuity. It's all Jonesy's fault, of course. I could rerun some of Taylor Parkes's jokes about Jones spending most of his spare time roaming the prairie but actually knowing so little that he thought a Jimmy Nail track was by Mark Eitzel, etc., but you've probably got the idea.

I think there'd be a consensus round here about who the good and the bad Uncut writers are. And the bad ones would be those who would fit best into Mojo.

Whatever I may have thought of Mojo, I've never considered it to be nauseatingly smug and self-satisfied as Q is. Q, after all, is edited by the sort of people who jack it all in to write scripts for EastEnders.

Anyway let me spring to the defence of Allan Jones. I think it's to his credit that he's managed to put together so many interesting writers (Penman, McDonald, Morley, Stubbs, Roberts) on one journal. For that we should let him have the odd Waylon Jennings interview.

Does anyone else find Nigel "5 stars" Williamson as unintentionally funny as I do. Is there an artist or genre that this man does NOT like? He seems to give everything from Spooky Tooth to Sade the same cheerily favourable review.

"Anyway let me spring to the defence of Allan Jones."

Oh, I wasn't trying to criticise him - I think even the MM writers who took the piss had a respect for him, and an admiration for him; he wrote hardly at all for the Maker in his last few years there, and he was probably wise to adopt a background role, but he's clearly the sort of person who knows how to hold the thing together (more than he actually knew the music it was covering by then), and he mercifully steered it away from dumbed-down discourse, tacky features and flagwaving during his last 3 years there (when such things were already a disease over at the NME). Jones was the sort of editor whose importance you didn't realise until he left; the speed of the MM's decline immediately after his departure in March 97 proves that, and I'm ultimately prepared to forgive him however many dodgy things he may like. Reynolds excepted, you've listed all the "good" Uncut writers I was thinking of.

"Does anyone else find Nigel '5 stars' Williamson as unintentionally funny as I do"

He was the sort of "bad" Uncut writer I was thinking of. Dreadfully gushing writing and horribly retrogressive tastes for the most part. Uncut's bland dadrock downside.

Question: How come all the obsessive mags like this come out of the U.K.? Are there ANY American mags that cover music in the manner of a Mojo? I honestly can't think of one. Somebody point me in the right direction.

DUD!!!

But the long historical pieces I do find useful, especially when regarding acts/artists about whose history I feel I ought to know more, e.g. Patto or ELO.

As great as The Beatles, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young are, there is still a limit to how much new stuff you are able to dig out about them.

Which makes Mojo more interesting because they aren't afraid to do a feature on Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Pete Seeger or David Crosby instead.

Plus Mojo does actually attempt to turn their (mainly 30-40-50 something) readers into more recent stuff too, that is, recent stuff that Mojo finds good (and the Mojo staff has a considerably broader taste in recent music compared to the Americana crazed Uncut staff)

Stevie Chick does get some good bands in Mojo(and Kerrang too).
I suppose having read Mojo for years now ive read about every band they cover. If they stopped repeating themselves and covered some more obscure acts I either haven't read much about/or heard of, i might buy. Then again would that sell?

Its time they gave Parliament/Funkadelic a front cover and just devoted the entire magazine to them and all the spin offs. That would make great reading.

Someone should write a really good pfunk book.

(I speak from the perspective of someone who for two years unsuccessfully lobbied U***t to give Todd Rundgren the front cover and 30 pages inside)

4-5 Public Enemy
Evens Beastie Boys
7-4 Outkast
2-1 Eminem
4-1 Wu Tang Clan (Up from 5-1)
8-1 Jay Z
12-1 50 Cent (down from 8-1)
15-1 Run DMC/LL Cool J
40-1 Dizzee Rascal
50-1 bar

Odds to appear on the front cover

Wire 20-1
Throwing Muses 40-1
The Stranglers 75-1
Underworld 100-1
King Crimson 200-1
Killing Joke 250-1
The Associates 400-1
The Chameleons 500-1
Rush 1000-1
Porcupine Tree 10,000-1

Nick Hornby - evens

Again that's the problem about funk/hip-hop fans. Your extreme intolerance towards anything that is not funk/hip-hop/R&B related.

Mojo have never devoted their entire magazine to one single genre, and never will. They have done funk specials, and they will again. They have also done hip-hop specials, and the likelyness of Mojo putting Public Enemy on their front page is way bigger than the likeliness of Mixmag or Kingsize putting Coldplay on their front page. Who who is the most intolerant here?

Daddy you're a fool to cry....

weirdly, i wouldn't have thought that would be a tough pitch there - isn't paul lester a huge Todd fan?

As for Todd Rundgren, you would have been more likely to succeed with Mojo. Select usually prefer "safe" cover stories.

weirdly, i wouldn't have thought that would be a tough pitch there - isn't paul lester a huge Todd fan?

You couldn't get a huger Todd fan than PL. But neither of us was able to get past Jonesey Customs...

And, btw. they have yet to make a "Mind Games" special, a "Tug Of War" special, a "Flowers In The Dirt" special or a "Cloud Nine" special. All of those were way better albums than "Plastic Ono Band".

You couldn't get a huger Todd fan than PL. But neither of us was able to get past Jonesey Customs...

There is an inhouse rule in Select that if they are ever to do a cover story of a more obscure act, it will always have to be some Americana act. :)

Where is Duke Ellingham Swing Band band?

But I guess they are sort of too narrow for the Mojo readership. Whenever they do keyboard based 80s music they do something a bit broader and more commercial.

The quality of an album has no bearing on whether the story behind it is interesting or not.

I guess it's unlikely Duran*2 will ever aquiesce to do a 'making of' "Thank You" special, but hey it must have been interesting making a totally rub* album.

*received wisdom, haven't heared any of it.

Yes, Les Harvey.

Again that's the problem about funk/hip-hop fans. Your extreme intolerance towards anything that is not funk/hip-hop/R&B related.

Geir's reply is the funniest thing I've ever read on here by him.

Sometime in the future a hip-hop band will sample that piano riff on clocks.

x-post

But didnt some hip-hop/RnB bands do a phil collins tribute?

In a hip-hop style. Doing it in Collins' original style would have been very unlikely.

That just doesn't count. When will a hip-hop band do a cover of "Clocks" that contain every single verse sung from the beginning to the end, containing absolutely no rap parts, and with a backing track containing all the chords of the original, over a straight 4/4-beat?

Then the brilliant "A Trick Of The Tail" and "Wind And Wuthering" albums would never have happened.
(And as for his 80s solo work, it cannot compare to the brilliance of the 70s Genesis stuff, but it is at least a lot better than anything ever released in the hip-hop genre)

When will Coldplay, Travis, Keane cover rap songs while actually rapping instead of singing?

-- Geir Hongro

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official_s&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=nme+cover+coldplay&spell=1

meanwhile nominations are in for this year's MOJO Honours
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/article570939.ece

The nominations

Best New Act

Corinne Bailey Rae

Guillemots

Amadou and Mariam

Teddy Thompson

Archie Bronson Outfit

The Raconteurs

Inspiration Award

Sparks

Johnny Cash

Buzzcocks

Paul Weller

The Fall

Icon

David Bowie

Scott Walker

Johnny Cash

Neil Young

Van Morrison

Songwriter Award

Joe Strummer

Richard Hawley

Nick Cave

Chrissie Hynde

Kate Bush

Catalogue Release of the Year

Johnny Cash: Legend

Talking Heads: Reissue Series

Orange Juice: The Glasgow School

Various: Anthems in Eden

Various: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal

Jeff Wayne: War of the Worlds

Vision Award

Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home

Ramones: The Story of the Ramones

Dig! [documentary on the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre]

The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks

Mayor of the Sunset Strip [documentary on the history of fame]

the stax CD comp that comes with the amy winehouse cover is pretty awesome.

the article about her is "okay" i felt bad for the writer cuz he was supposed to have a big interview with her than she has a meltdown and he's gotta do the story anyway.

i haven't read the stax feature but it will probably be cool cuz it's about stax.

also had a buried treasure about some band called Home that was a weirdo/roots-rock/prog/concept album deal that featured cliff richard from AC/DC!

Cliff WIlliams??

duh haha yeah williams not the elvis of england dude

Hahaha!

I thought you might have meant Cliff Burton.

I'm sorry, I'm off to the paralell universe that has Cliff Richard of AC/DC in it!

Mojo is still a quality mag, but it's about time the CD coming with the mag contains some decent music soon.

the free CD's with mojo are the best reason to buy it

Actually they have done a pretty good historical job with those CDs lately. The only thing lacking now is that they choose some good genres to make CDs from. They write about a lot of great genres, so I am sure it'll happen...

i used to wonder what james brown had to do to get on the cover of mojo. apparently dying wasn't enough. when he was given the mojo honors lifetime achievement award, the cover went to jimmy page, winner of the far-more-coveted best dvd award.

The Heavy Nuggets thing is awesome. Thanks Mojo.

Was that the one before the Amy Winehouse/Stax one?

yes.

I bought it today, for the electronica CD on the cover. John Foxx! Gary Numan! Tangerine Dream! Great stuff.

this month's free CD is great..comp of old school Ska and Reggae stuff.

That's last months, UK dudes.

This months is a Paul Weller gets someone to pick stuff that they reckons Paul Weller probably thinks is endemic to what Paul Weller is all about, plus three Paul Weller Rarities. (being: One cover version of one of his very first songs that he never recorde dwith The Jam, one etc...)

well it's new to me! but yeah i guess we are late.

i don't really like the specials that much but i really enjoyed the article about them a lot.

Just reading "SKa'd for Life" Horace Panter's book, he the bassman of the specials.

Updated (2008) odds for the first hip-hop act to get a full Mojo front cover:

4-5 Beastie Boys (up from evens)
evens Public Enemy (down from 4-5)
3-1 Kanye West
4-1 Wu Tang Clan
5-1 Outkast (down from 7-4)
6-1 Eminem (down from 2-1)
8-1 Jay Z
20-1 50 Cent (down from 12-1)
25-1 Run DMC/LL Cool J (down from 20-1)
33-1 T-Pain/Li'l Wayne
40-1 Dizzee Rascal
50-1 bar

I fancy a punt on Jay-Z, especially if he pulls off Glastonbury.

probably won't be wu-tang because they just did a big feature on them recently that pretty much covered everything...

Yep, but they managed to prove to themselves that they can cover rap and do it interestingly.

Mojo hardly ever features new acts on the cover.

If Mojo ever put rap on the front it's gonna be "canonical" stuff like Public Enemy or De La or something. Maybe in five years time 36 Chambers will be some sort of fogey rock-crit classic, who knows?

I'm unloading about 23kg of Mojos from the mid-late 1990s. I'm going to dump them all on eBay, but if there's anyone here looking for fills drop me an email - I'd rather folks here got first dibs.

will swap 8lb 4oz of UNCUTs?

i've been trying to give away my deadweight of mojos for ages now.
free to anyone - collection basis only.
issue 45 onwards with one missing (richie edwards cover, ended up in river avon)

One thing I absolutely love Love LOVE about Mojo: The layout. You can read the whole thing cover-to-cover and not have to do any backtracking. They print each story IN FULL and don't start the next one til the previous one is finished - none of this infuriating "Continued on page 83" nonsense like you'll find in "Rolling Stone" or other inferior rags.

I don't know if this admirable approach is Mojo-specific, or if it's typical of other UK magazines (music or otherwise). Either way, it earns my approval. If only other magazines (newspapers even) could follow their example...

ha, i have the opposite experience. the only US mag i read with any regularity is Wired and the 'continued..' thing in that bugs me silly (especially when the continued piece is less than a full page or if the continued bit is itself continued)

(Wired has recently felt like it's 50% adverts. there used to be a lot but recently they've been more noticeable, probably because they switched to the right hand page of each spread. that and the bloody stiff pages they insert, normally for things like cigarettes made by native americans, stuff i couldn't buy even if i wanted to.) (offtopic!)

cigarettes made by native americans

LOL!

currently selling my mojo archive for a wallte busting 99p : (#45 > #195)
so had to clear them out of the attic.
quite interesting to see the gradual change in the magazines layout
also, it really drives home just how few women are given cover status.
out of the 150 issues, only 5 have been by women
guesses for the 4 that have been awarded this status most welcome (one woman was granted the priviledge twice)
may have to count up the total of beatles/related covers just to see ..

Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Tiffany.

kate bush : correct #111, #145

Debbie Harry was a cover for an NYC punk package, wasn't she? And that was that bizarre Amy Winehouse cover story a couple of years ago ..

ithappens hits the spot :

debbie harry : #63
amy winehouse : #170

so, who's the last one ..

Mo Tucker?

Hang on: Yoko!

actually, thats a good point re yoko.

but dont recall seeing her gracing one amongst the pile i have

i could have sworn she did !

unless that the one that ended up in bristol harbour.

Janis?

That leaves Sandy Denny and Madonna.

ok, she is on a cover with john.

therefore not part of this gang (solo covers)

same goes for abba.

xpost : bravo - janis .. #79

which is pretty shocking i think.

i mean it was something i was aware of, but to see the stats so black and white it really drives it home.

also, out of 150 issues, 15 of them are beatles/related (more if including oasis .. )

Compare it to any other British music publication of the era you'd get an equivalent percentage I reckon.

"of the era" = back in the sixties?

The 60s were a lot less obnoxiously 60s-ish than the last 20 years.

true.

ok, shall we do black solo artists next ?

i suspect the list will be even more limited ..

Michael Jackson

Curtis
Jimi Hendrix

I might just be speaking for myself here but I reckon ILM is not short of "is the music press and its audience a bit racist?" threads.

Amazed there's not a Joni cover in there.

re rascist point.

i aint saying that at all.
especially for mojo given the artists covered over the years.
just the cover choices are always so predictable/limited.

re joni : agree.

was looking at this for the first time in forever at the newsstand the other day (ok, truth be told it was a borders, but that doesn't sound as romantic). anyhow there are some pretty good pieces in the current issue devoted to the heyday of elektra. they shoulda put a shirtless jac holzman on the cover instead of jim morrison, though

have to admit, i had a little emotional moment as the man who got my mojo magazine archive for 99p drove away into the sunset.

xpost I dunno, all the Borders' are gorn in the UK, so...

Has Mojo just stopped doing a cover mounted cd after like a decade and whatever.
Wasn't sure what to think when I saw a new edition with no cd on its front.
Monkees as cover stars.,
Oh yeah finally got the Album Classics set of solo Michael Nesmith cos i wanted to check my credit card was working on Tuesday morning thanks to the nonsense with 3 not topping up my phone

That used to blow my mind how magazines and sometimes newspapers in the UK had CD's in them. Especially felt that way the first time I ever visited the UK was around 2007 or 2008, when publishing was already collapsing in the U.S. I also noticed a LOT more people reading magazines and especially newspapers everywhere I went, so I guess that helps prop up the cost of doing so.

a few years ago i decided to call it quits re mojo (same stories, same bands, no longer relevant to what i listen to etc etc)
so, i went online and logged into my account place, and cancelled my sub.
for about 9 months after i was still getting it sent to me.
do like the whole subscribers covers thing though.
they are much better than the covers with all the text all over the place.
also, i do miss the monthly drop through the letterbox and the quick flick through to find the odd reviews for electronic music ...

I think Mojo are testing the waters with regard the free cd withdrawal.

There’s a note in the mag about it, production costs, etc. Think there’ll be one next month.

But. Didn’t do Flexipop any good!

right, I've just seen th ecover.
Maybe the format is getting less popular. A download code or some music platform playlist might substitute but doesn't work with th eway I listen to those things. Not sure if it would get the multiple plays these things do for me .

Something that still makes me chuckle from the cover of Viz "Free Prince CD for Eddie Reader! If you are Eddie Reader, don't hesitate to contact us today to claim your FREE Prince CD"

I remember when Mojo didn’t always have a CD!

I do too it's just a very long time ago. IK remember when they started being an occasional thing and normally seemed to be done quite well. Which might be why it became a standing thing

I thought the CD production costs were covered by the ludicrous amount magazines charge the artists/labels for inclusion, maybe not then

I have kept 2x MoJo CDs, both great compilations

https://www.discogs.com/release/2088114-The-Amorphous-Androgynous-A-Monstrous-Psychedelic-Bubble-Exploding-In-Your-Mind

https://www.discogs.com/release/782404-Various-Made-In-Britain

Yes, and also these ‘artist compiled’ jobs:

https://www.discogs.com/release/6137554-Various-Its-A-Wonderfull-Life-A-Journey-Into-Sound

https://www.discogs.com/release/2290694-Various-Step-Right-Up

Hmm, what to have as a closing track?

I still have a “Drugs in Music” one from nearly 20 years ago. It came in a plastic baggie. But for the last decade or so those CDs have been not of interest to me. All those “Current Indie Bands Play ‘Revolver’” are just landfill.

Yeah, you have to keep an eye on them for the occasional goodie.

This is my all-time favorite Mojo comp, an excellent addendum to the Nuggets box:
https://www.discogs.com/release/520015-Various-Instant-Garage-Music-Guide-Vol1

i found that the best ones were the cds that stuck to a particular genre.
the AA is brilliant and sits in amongst my FSOL/AA collection as opposed to in my box of Mojo freebies.
also, that Instant Garage one is really good, as GMM says, totally fits with Nuggets.
oh, the reggae based ones are always superb.

Oh those music guide ones were nice, about four of them I believe

yeah, they really were.
the "Raw Soul" or the "Roots of Hip Hop" one was originally meant to be a David Holmes sequenced mixtape, but problems re track clearance, meant it ended up as a standard compilation.

I still have several of those CDs around: Instant Garage, Raw Soul, Roots of Hip Hop, and Stax Soul Power. Had the Made in England one but let it go out in a purge.

There's a review of my book in the latest issue of Mojo, which is kinda cool if you're me.

My favourite Mojo CD is Change The Beat (14 Tracks From Madonna's New York Scene):

https://www.discogs.com/release/6614131-Various-Change-The-Beat-14-Tracks-From-Madonnas-New-York-Scene

There's a review of my book in the latest issue of Mojo, which is kinda cool if you're me.

― but also fuck you (unperson)

ooh this is very cool.
bravo.
going to have to try and find a copy and have a scan to figure out which review.
don't have access to a WH Smiths these days (or a lunch hour !) which was always the way to check on reviews/articles without buying the magazine.

Clostridium

Ok, how did my spelling corrector get that word from me typing xpost?

Anyway.. message starts:

Xpost (but yes that is cool)

Yeah, that’s another mojo save cd.

I’m loathe to throw cds away (but have done) so I have a lot of the uncut/mojo cds going back. Some have sold to completion nuts (I assume) via discogs. Some have made it to my ‘keep’ boxes, most if not all of the ones mentioned so far (I think someone bought that ‘drugs in music’ one but)

Will check out others that are in the keep box…

Heavy mod
Heavy soul
heavy nuggets

Most o fthe psychedelic ones even going back to early days have been good.
The stuff like the Grapefruit compis on hard rock, britfolk and things
I think there's at least one New York Punk one.

Yeah I've got a handful I keep around that I like, even relatively recent ones:

In Search of Syd: MOJO Presents 15 Mind-Bending Freak-Outs!
This Is A Call! (15 Brainmelting Dispatches From The Golden Age Of U.S. Alt-Rock) (despite the Foo Fighters namecheck, it's a nice little comp with The Grifters, Built to Spill, Shudder to Think, Red Red Meat)

Yeah those Music Guide ones were great! Lovely cover art too; I’ve still got them and I’ve chucked out a million other free CDs.

https://www.discogs.com/release/9092883-Lou-Reed-A-Life-In-Music

One track from each of his first (however many) solo albums.

Including Metal Machine Music!

The fave Mojo comp is The Score, an outstanding comp of movie soundtrack music.
https://www.discogs.com/release/979016-Various-The-Score

^ Yes, that’s one of the ones I’ve kept

I missed that one!

what would be nice is of this thread could be bumped every time mojo has an interesting cd on the front of it to prompt me to visit whsmiths...

Punk Nuggets this month featuring a few bands i know but no individual tracks.

but i think that one is only on the shops for a few more days - someone on Twitter posted that he already had his subscription copy of the next one, smiths cover

actually, found it...

It scares the health out of me... Here we go, the full tracklisting of this month's delectable @MOJOmagazine CD. In UK shops by Tuesday; in subscribers' letterboxes already, or imminently. pic.twitter.com/O893LoeS4U

— John Mulvey (@JohnRMulvey) August 12, 2023

The Beatles avant garde CD looked pretty cool, but annoyingly the mailer the magazine came in split and it fell out en transit.

Ugh, sorry

Note that US newsstand copies no longer have the CDs, only way you can get them in the US is with a print subscription.

Completely missed that Beatles avant-garde CD. Going to have to buy it second hand now, it looks great.

This was the last one I bought on the strength of the CD https://www.discogs.com/release/15945258-Various-Escape-From-Reality-15-Baroque-N-Roll-Art-Rock-Fandangos

The Smiths cover posted above is now in shops so i've just bought my second copy of Mojo in 5 days

Mojo is the only mag that I still persist with, my wife used to get a copy sent to her workplace for years too.

I do enjoy reading it although if I'm honest, it's probably out of habit really as the subscriptions are very cheap and nowadays I live nowhere near decent newsagents. I don't have all of them but I've been buying it since the beginning and have a bunch stacked away in a Kallax shelf that I can reach for. I dug out an issue the other day that was made when Blur were recording The Great Escape.

I suppose they're akin to the back catalogue departments of record companies, and can keep knocking out articles about heritage acts and only filter through newer bands that they feel are in keeping with the general aesthetic rather than worrying about having to write about more modern, off-brand trends.

there's a smiths cover every year, a beatles cover probably every 6 months

(seemingly)

I think people still share the cd on pirate bay regularly.

I get a digital subscription and the music is not included, unlike The Wire.

Sometimes, when flicking through this at the big supermarket, the CD will fall off into my trolley and only be discovered once I have left the shop.

dardnest thing....

Last time that happened was the Grateful Dead live CD.

I tried that with the Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde"

#WhatThese2LPSOfficer?

#notreally

I think people still share the cd on pirate bay regularly.

Someone has been posting the monthly PDFs of the magazine to usenet since 2015. Also, they're very easy to find on slsk, just search on "mojo 2023 pdf" (or whatever year). You can find many other mags on slsk the same way.

30th anniversary edition out now

"THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is Buried Treasures – a compendium of tracks from the secret classic albums uncovered by MOJO’s Buried Treasures column. Features The Prisoners, R.J. McMahon, Joe Meek, Nic Jones, Connie Converse, The Beau Brummels, Third World War and more!"

didn't actually pick up a copy because the contents didn't look great, Dylan, oasis... probably more

It’s a rather self indulgent issue. Includes a short article for each year of the magazine’s existence featuring the usual suspects among a bunch of articles on how great the magazine is and has been. The cover disc is pretty good though.

yeah enjoyed teh cd. Still don't have it all elsewhere which just ain't it.
Don't know why I don't have Third World War
& hadn't heard of that closing folk track.

I keep buying magazines that I don't read all of and still intend to. Mainly reading books and not keeping up with what I'm picking up there either. May be reading more tahn I did last year still though not sure.

They've announced that starting with this 30th anniversary issue, the CDs will once again be available on international newsstand copies.

my experience of working on magazines when they achieve eg their 30th is that everyone (justifably) sees it as a good excuse for a little holiday

hence all the reprinting of ancient content: it doesn't need re-copyreading or re-proofing so we have time pat ourselves properly on the back for longevity and general amazeballsness

I'm still waiting on mine.

It's in the shops, but.

Rolling Stones and a cd of "old weird blues"

https://images.bauerhosting.com/marketing/sites/16/2023/10/MOJO-361-cover-Rolling-Stones.jpg?auto=format&w=1200&q=80

Disappointing that "Bob Dylan's Secret Treasures" isn't a revelation that he's been burying caches of gold along the stops of the never-ending tour for dedicated fans to find after he's passed.

was kinda hoping the people who regularly get Mojo would update this thread on every new issue, save me having to make a special trip to whsmiths every month (or whs as it is now)

anyway, i think december's cd was a roundup of the year, featuring nobody that i can remember, and january's, which is in the shops now, is another Heavy Nuggets volume

I get the digital version which does not come with the cds or even a download, which I somewhat regret. I’m generally not a fan of the new stuff Mojo champions but I liked the heavy nuggets series in the past and other historical trawls.

(December was a Beatles cover, Jan is Stevie wonder

i could just post this and then have to remember to click it once a month
https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/ )

Doesn't sound completely terrible xps

THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is The Best Of 2023. Features tracks from MOJO’s favourite albums, by artists including: Lankum; Everything But The Girl; Rickie Lee Jones; The Coral; Wilco; Grian Chatten; Julie Byrne; Young Fathers and more!

Last act calculated to outrage the Mojo core reader on name alone

Still very “chuffed” the album I made the art for won Mojo’s Best Electronic Album Of The Year. Been reading this magazine for 20 something years, I think.

Congrats!

Thanks!

It's a great album (and cover).

Still think of James Holden as a progressive/trance DJ so didn't realise he was now making albums like this

Thanks, groovypanda.
His albums have morphed and progressed over the last few releases. Check out his Animal Spirits project if you haven't. It was a huge honor and surprise to be asked to contribute since I've been a fan of his recordings for a while.
As for the artwork - I also made a 12 page booklet that comes with the vinyl and cd (and pdf with Bandcamp digi) versions of the album.

It's a lovely sleeve, Captain - congrats!

I'm obliged to mention that someone Out There is posting most/all of the Mojo CD comps to alt.binaries.sounds.lossless.rock. If you know what that is, you'll know how to find them.

Feb was Wings, including a compilation called Jet

Mar is The North Will Rise Again with a compilation of Manchester bands and liam on the cover. didn't entice me to buy it.

sucks so bad that as a digital subscriber I don't have access to the CDs.

Must have been in another thread that I posted this, but it also sucks that Mojo and Uncut seem to have largely disappeared around here. Between a nearby killer newsstand and the local Barnes & Noble I was always able to pick these up, but I haven't seen a new issue of either in many months.

supermarket stocks mojo so i do notice when they change. anyway the new one.

Jun 2024

Kate Bush – The Early Years is this month’s cover story. Everything from her early demos through Wuthering Heights to Never For Ever. Plus! An insider relives the incredible Tour Of Life. Also in the issue: The Yardbirds – the whole story; Scott Walker’s Climate Of Hunter at 40; Beth Gibbons returns; Tangerine Dream’s synth madness; Labi Siffre – famous at last. And: Crowded House; Curtis Mayfield; Anita Pallenberg; Steve Harley; Nirvana; Leyla McCalla; Richard Thompson; Lou Reed; Buzzcocks; Minutemen.

THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is MOJO WORKING!: 15 slices of raucous, raving, rumbustious British R&B by The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Geno Washington, Alexis Korner and more!

I wrote the Minutemen story - 4-page oral history on the making of Double Nickels, with new/unpublished interviews with Mike Watt, Bob Mould, Kira Roessler, Joe Baiza, Joe Carducci, Ray Farrell and David Fricke.

Buy magazines, they rule.

Greatt article! Gotta go back and listen to the album

Haven't read it in age, but I was at an airport, saw it and thought now is the time. Enjoyed all of it, but especially the Minutemen article - nice work stevie! Quite moving tbh.

Yeah Mojo and The Wire have just completely disappeared around here, haven't seen an issue in bookstores or newsstands for many, many months.

For me it's that I don't really go into newsagents much any more - I never see it to think about buying it. Anyway, just subscribed.

Ah thanks Boring and Woof! Have interviewed Mike W a number of ties and he never fails to leave me verklempt - the thing about thinking Ulysses was a happy, exciting book until rereading it when he was 40 ("The book didn't change, but I had") hit me hard on this one.

yeah it was very insightful. I love autodidacts

[xp by which I mean when he reread it at 40 he found it to be a sad book]

I wrote the Minutemen story - 4-page oral history on the making of Double Nickels, with new/unpublished interviews with Mike Watt, Bob Mould, Kira Roessler, Joe Baiza, Joe Carducci, Ray Farrell and David Fricke.

Wonderful. I was actually hoping for this earlier this month when I played through all of their records after seeing so many people on social media commemorate D. Boon's birthday on April 1. Still frustrating that Mike Watt was never able to release an uncut remastered edition of Double Nickels - he definitely tried but I guess Greg Ginn blew him off.

Have yet to hear anyone (other than Mugger) speak fondly of Ginn.

How did other bands get their masters back? Offer Ginn a lot of money or go through the courts? Money something I assume Watt and others don't have.

Mojo is absolutely killing it as of late. I know rock is dead and all but it's kind of wild that there's no American magazine left that's going to put Pearl Jam on a cover in 2024

xp I think you just need to get some solid lawyers to confront SST and Ginn rolls over. A couple of catches: doesn't work if the band members can't agree to terms and clear the way for lawyers to move forward (see Hüsker Dü) and even if Ginn concedes, he hasn't done shit to properly maintain or store the masters, so even though you get back the rights, the physical masters may be lose (see Meat Puppets)

*lost

I know it's the wrong mag, but Select has a cover mount of Can Live tracks this month..

I think that's Uncut, didn't Select go away a long time ago?

Oh yeah. Uncut. Opps.

xp I think you just need to get some solid lawyers to confront SST and Ginn rolls over. A couple of catches: doesn't work if the band members can't agree to terms and clear the way for lawyers to move forward (see Hüsker Dü) and even if Ginn concedes, he hasn't done shit to properly maintain or store the masters, so even though you get back the rights, the physical masters may be lose (see Meat Puppets)

― birdistheword, Tuesday, April 30, 2024 3:29 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i spoke with this directly with terry katzman about the husker du stuff (terry ran reflex records for the huskers) before he died, they did have lawyers - the same lawyers that dino jr. and meat puppets used i think he said -- but the husker contract was different and had some more onerous language in it that they could not overcome. the band was actually all fairly united (at least as united as huskers get) and behind the project. ginn does not just roll over by any means.

so they could do the savage young du boxset, because that was largely based on terry's tapes and pre-sst. the original plan was to work with numero on a reissue series of the entire catalog - i think he said the idea was to have sets where it would be a remastered album then another disc of outtakes and/or live performances of that era.

^^^ oh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

yeah it's a tragedy that it never happened and now that Terry is gone it never will, he had so much energy to make it happen he cared way more about that band than the members did

Yeah, the impression Bob gave me last time I interviewed him is that they had lawyers, they'd approached Ginn, but that it was just too hard, and in the end he's just written it all off as a lost cause. It's such a shame.

SST seem to have bumped up their vinyl represses over the last couple of years, but I don't see them doing any deluxe reissues with outtakes, etc, and that's a shame. I remember telling Carducci when I was researching my Flag book that it was a tragedy they weren't celebrating the back catalog that way, and that the CDs didn't sound great and could do with a remaster at the very least, but he argued that they sound fine. Still...

Interesting and very sad. I was going by that interview Grant did where he claimed Bob was asking for too much control and too big of a share of the catalog in order to get it away from SST, but I guess a lot happened after that bump in the road.

https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/mojo-368-july-2024-paul-weller/

Weller cover, Byrds related cover cd