The *CORRECTED* UK Music Magazine Poll.

HHC, easily.

I'll give Rock-A-Rolla it's only vote

sound on sound is probably the only one of any worth. mostly because the only music they talk about is rubbish i will never hear anyone else mention, ever

also mic reviews

You missed Straight No Chaser, btw, even though nobody would have voted for it.

It would have to be The Wire. Even if it can be pretentious, there are no other print mags out there i'd consider paying for these days. The latest cover pic of Luomo is pure dodgeville however.

FACT is a good read and it's free. Someone mentioned Jockey Slut in the old thread. Great mag until it went seriously off the boil in about 2000. 'Bring back Select' SECONDED! I loved that mag so much.

Muzik was also good for a while when I was discovering dance music for the first time.

is fRoots any good?

But which has given ILM the best thread fodder? NME, certainly.

Predictable vote for the Wire. It's the only music magazine I've ever paid money for.

Q. Forever and ever.

Mixmag

Scott - you're not allowed to purchase or read fRoots until you supply Ian Anderson (not the Tull-meister) with full and valid documentation of your having paid your dues...

If only this had been the WORST UK Music Magazine poll it would have been a lot more fun; so many to choose from...as it is I'm not inclined to vote for any at the moment.

I flick through the Wire in the newsagent but reading it is like going to school - a bad one. When they're not telling me things I already know they waste too much space with pretentious D&C photo spreads.

Q is always sealed up in the newsagent so I can't flick through that; not that I would want to from the look of the cover, these days more often than not the latest excuse to rejig the same list of 50 people/albums/songs.

Mojo's getting worse and worse. Uncut is probably beyond salvation. Living people on their covers might help matters.

Don't really look at Word magazine but their website links to my blog so maybe I ought to give it a read.

The rest are either not my bag or I'm too old to read them.

Plan B is OK but inconsistent.

OMM needs to sort itself out; more reportage (it's their strength and they should make the most of it), fewer lists, fewer dodgy school age themed issues, less nepotism.

Good article on the Wu-Tang Clan in Mojo. The one with the Smiths on the cover.

OMM seems to give every single album they review either 4 or 5 stars.

Usually in sharp variance to the reviews themselves (e.g. the second Scissor Sisters album was given four stars despite what was unmistakeably a two-star review).

How odd that Mojo didn't run a feature on Wu-Tang in 1993, when it mattered.

How odd that Mojo should prefer having the Smiths on their cover to Wu-Tang.

Not.

Who's going to be the Barack Obama of British music magazines?

I find it odd that Mojo chose to run a feature on Wu-Tang at all. None of Mojo's readers want to read about them. Never ever have Mojo gotten as many angry letters as when they had Destiny's Child on the front cover.

Whenever Mojo write about current music, they should concentrate on what people without musical taste tend to call "dadrock".

Mojo features a nice run down on On-U in the current edition, so there's some love flowing towards that corner i have to say (and thats not just cos yours truly gets a quote for the #1 spot), but the reality is HHC is the one i look forward to the most these days.

'Mojo readers revolt over Destiny's Child front cover'

What a horrible image.

Mojo like their black musicians safely old and/or dead.

None of Mojo's readers want to read about them

Geir, I do, so that's your theory blown out of the water. I'd rather read about them than The Smiths again.

Destiny's Child was on the NME cover fwiw.

Straight No Chaser ceased publication a couple of months ago.

Yeah, ditto.

Also, does the article not matter now, more so? An article on them 'at their peak' would be unnecessary and incomplete as too much about their story was 'in progress' and unresolved. They are issuing a new album, and it's sales potential is less assured.

I have more Smiths records than wutang, and I daresay I'll get around to reading the smithybits, but hay.

(Oh, and my first point on this subject was stated w/irony, but you knew that)

Whenever Mojo write about current music, they should concentrate on what people without musical taste tend to call "dadrock".

-- Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 08:55 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

NO!

Nonononononono NO!

It's not that they should not write about 'dr', they should write about artists that are INTERESTING! It matters less if I like their music or not.

A band could have ogh etc, sigh and over&out....

Dom: Straight No Chaser folded last year.

I cast my vote for OMM, because - despite some massive irritations (Record Doctor, sheesh) - I find it the most useful/instructive/relevant to my own interests.

The Word is the only one that I buy regularly; it certainly ebbs and flows (think it's just pulling out of a dip at present), and the album reviews don't do much for me, but there's always plenty of personal interest in there each month.

Songlines and fRoots are occasional purposes, and some of the fRoots covermounts have been superb.

I respect Plan B, and should probably buy it more often, but the sheer weight of the unknown territory can feel a little daunting and it's not always too good at stimulating interest; there's a certain amount of assumed knowledge. Which is absolutely fair enough, of course.

I buy about one Mixmag per year, depending on the covermount. That M.A.N.D.Y. one from last year was great. It's better than it used to be, right?

When this one runs its course, I might do a "most missed" poll, but limited to mags which folded post-1990. Sounds, Record Mirror, Select, Muzik, Jockey Slut, Blues And Soul... sniff...

"Occasional purposes"... er, purchases. (?!)

Ah yes, Record Doctor, where world-famous iconic music writer Paul Mardles tries to fob off on a D list celebrity whatever Dog Day Press or Hearthen PR has lobbed at him this month.

With most of them they could reverse the roles of 'doctor' and 'patient' and it'd be more valid.

I'm quite tempted to vote for FACT in here cos no-one else will and aside from a suspicious lack of bad reviews they come off like they have a love for the game.

Wow, there's still a TOTP magazine?

What's the name of that "The Fly for urban music" thing that you get in all the record shops in the Midlands? It has JME on the cover, like, every third issue.

RWD ?

Yeah, that shit sucks.

Nuh uh, always worth a read for Hattie Collins' attempts to 'talk street' when this obviously comes about as naturally to her as Middle English

Mojo like their black musicians safely old and/or dead.

Mojo (readers, anyway) like their black musicians (and white musicians) to make proper songs with tunes and not too much empasis on rhythm.

they should write about artists that are INTERESTING!

Part of the problem here is that some of the best music ever has been made by really boring people.

That was partly the reason for the backclash against Dodgy. The music press had nothing to write about them that didn't have to do with the music itself, so they decided to hate them.

Nuh uh, always worth a read for Hattie Collins' attempts to 'talk street' when this obviously comes about as naturally to her as Middle English

-- DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 10:44 (57 minutes ago) Link

This bitch turns up on message boards if you criticise her Hearts of Darkness approach to music journalism, so keep it on the DL.

Dodgy, their lead singer split because he was bored with his own music!

Anyroad, that's by the way....

Why would Mojo be 'better' if they wrote about Dodgy?

Has anyone here ever actually protested about a favoured magazine's choice of cover star, beyond just 'lol Tiny Ultrasound/Beth Ditto can't you see you're just playing into their hands by posing nude'?

Jockey Slut was the only music magazine, dance music or otherwise, that mattered for me. Genuinely ethusiastic and funny writing and their cover CD's ruled. Sadly they were cojoined to the wretched Sleazenation and when that deservedly went down the shitter so did the Slut. I haven't read another music magazine since as none come close. Some of their writers contribute to Spannered if anyone's interested.

A mate of mine reckons The Wire is for people who catalogue their record collections with their cocks. He's got a point.

You could buy Dodgy's complete back catalogue in mint condition with the £3 you'd get for one of those individual Saint Etienne fan club CDs. And still have enough change left over for the Evening Standard.

How could Dodgy's music be at all interesting to write or read about?

Credit to Hip-Hop Connection for surviving all these years. It helps that they've never had a major rival I guess. I remember the first issue I saw in '88 with a free LL Cool J 7" giveaway. But I haven't read it for about 17 years.

^^^You should, Pippo Mlynar is the best music writer in the UK currently.

Although apparently he once tapped Miss AMP, so, y'know, he hasn't got perfect judgement.

IIRC Mojo got an avalanche of protests when they featured Abba on the cover.

I regularly read : Mojo
I quite often read : guitarist, guitar and bass
About once a year I leaf through a copy of : Uncut, The Wire
I once read a copy of : The Word
I skip read and then chuck straight in the recycling : OMM (God, it's shite)

Your search - "pippo mlynar" - did not match any documents.

Results 1 - 10 of about 72 for "PHILLIP mlynar". (0.24 seconds)

Sorry, but I'm better.

for me it's a toss up between man like Lex and Emma Edmondson

^^^Has The Secret World Of weighed in on Vampire Weekend yet?

Sorry, but I'm better.

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 12:12 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

You're certainly the big man on ILX.

I would say Lex is the best UK music writer at the moment.

Not afraid to voice his opinions despite hivemind of all publications for which he writes.

Mary J Blige interview in Grauniad particularly exemplary.

Thank God for The View. They're different from the usual run of the mill indie pap that gets force fed down our throats, but what is it that makes the band so different? ".It's because we fucking mean it. There's too many bands going around worrying about being famous and I couldn't give a shit. It's about the music, not about prancing around being cool".=. Pete adds, "We write tunes. We don't write stuff just because it's what everyone's into at the moment". Spoken like a true musician. And with influences as far flung as The Pogues, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Queen, Fleetwood Mac and The Sex Pistols it seems as if they're taking heed from their heroes and doing it for love and not celebrity. And that's usually when the fame comes..

Emma Edmondson

Why would Mojo be 'better' if they wrote about Dodgy?

Dodgy is an example of the kind of "recent" band that the baby boomers who mailbomb Mojo with angry letters would actually like if they checked them out.

There is absolutely NO reason to believe that Beatles-loving baby-boomers would ever possibly like rap, hip-hop, contemporary R&B or dance/electronica. Dodgy, however, they would love.

http://www.megomuseum.com/teevee/images/robot.jpg

When ah whatever.

I would say Geir is the best ILM poster at the moment.

but...y'know...

hadn't heard about STRAIGHT NO CHASER closing until now - not a great mag by any means, but the editor was a really sweet guy. he actively encouraged new writers/designers and remained an enthusiast for all diff kinds of jazz etc (he once told me abt a great story abt Cecil Taylor dancing at the Wag Club!)

if i was gonna vote i guess it wld be for the wire cos its the only music mag i ever buy, but im really not down w/ the Bohn/Kopf era at all

I would say Lex is the best UK music writer at the moment.

Not afraid to voice his opinions despite hivemind of all publications for which he writes.

Mary J Blige interview in Grauniad particularly exemplary.

Seconded. Exemplary is the word; it actively made me want to raise my game (which is pretty difficult when you only get 15 mins down the phone as opposed to 30-60 mins in person, but still).

where is zero tolerance?

Zero Tolerance Magazine

another missing magazine from this list:

Knowledge Magazine

Actually I might go for HHC as well if only because without it, Chester P from Task Force's myspace blog wouldn't be one of the most painfully hilarious things I've ever read in my life: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=144797835

another missing, although not particularly good:

Alternative Magazine

what was the name of the rubbish music monthly aimed at teenagers that combined the worst elements of NME, Rock Sound and Artrocker? it stopped publishing sometime last year

Actually I might go for HHC as well if only because without it, Chester P from Task Force's myspace blog wouldn't be one of the most painfully hilarious things I've ever read in my life: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=144797835

-- DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 12:56 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

My god, I knew Chester P was a complete twat, but that's just some next level shit right there.

<stage hush> I think he might have smoked marijuana once </stage hush>

rubmag: Kingsize?

no

Bang Magazine, marty.

no, that was years ago

this magazine was rather chunky and sold in whsmiths, someone must know.

it was called: play music

yeah, that was it: "HEY KIDS, GREAT MUSIC 4 U 2 DOWNLOAD!!! "

i think their slogan was "get involved"

Man, yeah, that was awful.

JOIN US AS WE GO PAINTBALLING WITH BROMHEADS JACKET.

another dud of a magazine just after bang, was a magazine that was based in the north east - that was doomed to failure from the start. what was it called?

Pashmina?

(That was me asking Pash, not my suggestion for the magazine name, etc)

Clash still no good then?

Clash has improved from the recent issue I saw. It is based in Dundee.

Are you all just self-conciously trying to get yourselves on the ILEpitaphs thread?

I'd go for Hip-Hop Connection, but Mixmag often pleasantly surprises me when I flick through it.

Zero Tolerance, Knowledge, Alternative... DAMN.

Jim Carroll - "Magazines who died"...

Tom Jones - "Magazine Me Tonight."

is Big Cheese UK or US mag?

UK, although I'm sure its placing in this poll would have been heavily swayed depending on whether they went for Sevenged Sevenfold or Bowling for Soup on their next cover

UK

The new Terrorizer has a 2 page feature on Van Morrison - Astral Weeks, Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica, Tim Buckley - Starsailor, Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music , AR Kane - Sixty Nine, Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden.

Honestly.

And recently a Krautrock special.

There must be a mistake. Those records are all way too melodics for Terrorizer...

I stopped reading Uncut and Mojo a couple years ago, as they seemed to have run out of inspiration. Judging from their year-end issue, The Wire is veering more into pop again (they did this for a while in the mid-90s too). I think they've taken on some younger writers too, which is good. It might actually be the first magazine that makes it past 25 years without crawling into it's own embalmed asshole.

I've yet to see Girls Aloud in the Wire. For me the magazine went proverbially anal some years ago.

Younger writers = under 50.

Last issue of the Wire I read had a positive review of "Umbrella" in it.

I like Classic Rock, i like the photo captions. You guys have much better music mags than we do Stateside.

A few more that I missed: Juke Blues, Power Play, Maverick.

and another Rock'n'Reel... (although not my thang)

Rock'n'Reel - Roots, Rock, Blues and Beyond

Sorry, Mark G, I can't remember.

Acoustic: never heard of it
Artrocker: 1 issue I read was a bit boring
Bearded: never heard of it
Black Velvet: never heard of it
Blues Matters: never heard of it. Mag title would put me off.
Clash: Name puts me off even picking a copy up.
Classic Rock: I pick this up maybe once or twice a year. It's OK if you like old-school metal I guess.
Computer Music: boring
DJmag: subject matter is of no interest to me
Echoes: Have noticed this on wh smith's shelf, no idea what it's steez is
Fact: never 'eard of it
fRoots: theoretically I should want to read this, can't get too interested in it though TBH
Future Music: Anyone who reads this shd grow up and start reading "sound on sound" instead.
Guitar & Bass, Guitarist: pick these up if there's a guitar I fancy on the cover. There's a big pile of them next to the bath that I read when I'm having a soak.
Guitar Techniques: NO.
Hip Hop Connection: too specialised, I'm a dabbler, not a genre obsessive.
International DJ: not interested in subj matter.
Is This Music? never heard of it
Jazz UK: never heard of it
Jazz Review: never heard of it (yes I have heard of jazz)
Jazzwise: likewise
Kerrang! Lost interest years ago
M8: Is this still going? You've got to be kidding me.
Metal Hammer: not interested
Mixmag: not interested
Mojo: Used to be good, got v v repetitive & boring a couple of years ago, haven't bought a copy for over a year.
Music Tech: never looked very interesting
Music Week: likewise
NME: Close this shit down ASAP. Wretched.
Observer Music Monthly: Don't buy the Observer anymore, so never see this.
Performing Musician: never heard of this
Pianist: I am not a pianist
Plan B: Excellent, buy regularly, though I tend to like the writers more than the music they cover (similar to MM of old days)
Q: I hate this magazine, lazy, cynical old fart shit. DIE.
Record Collector: Boring.
Rhythm: For drummers? I'm not a drummer.
Rock-A-Rolla: heard of it but have never seen a copy anywhere
Rock Sound: never heard of it
Songlines: never heard of it
Sound On Sound: Buy every month. Totally essential IF you're into recording, synthesisers etc, probably totally incomprehensible if yr not.
Terrorizer: but about once every three months, it's a great zine, but that's often enough
Total Guitar: boring
Touch: never heard of it
The Fly: never heard of it
The Stool Pigeon: ha-cha-cha-cha. Never heard of it.
The Wire: Tedious beyond measure. Buy about once a year, reading it is a singularly joyless experience, I find.
The Word: Never looked interesting enough to want to try
Top Of The Pops: they still print this? I've never seen a copy for years
Uncut: see mojo, though it never was that good in the first place.

There are FAR too many of these magazines being printed!! Who would even notice if nine out of ten of them ceased publication tomorrow!

I voted "Plan B"

I think this is one of those occasions when abstention is the only option.

Half a lifetime ago, The Wire's current editor was one of the best inkie writers ever. But he's long since got lost in his own private universe (developed in his last couple of years at NME when it became sufficiently polarised for IPC to do what they'd always wanted to do to it). He hates surprises, he will never be surprised again, he will never surprise us again. And the mag is overwhelmingly in his image: a man in his 50s sticking to what he knows. I'd love to be able to vote for it, but never has the phrase "avant-garde Mojo" seemed more apt.

The only magazine I read now is Computer Music, I've even renewed my subscription. I just like having the software, you know. I still browse through Mojo, Uncut, Q and The Wire, but with diminishing returns in all cases. I can't remember the last time I bought a copy of any of them. The Mojo top 50 indie singles in the latest Smiths issue is such lazy writing, it doesn't tell me anything new. I really can't be bothered with them.

xp:

Yes, it's a bit of a shame really; I've had dealings with Chris in the past and he's a perfectly nice and decent fellow, but he's clearly been working towards this for some time - a house which he's now co-bought and which he can now furnish with the end results of what he was trying to build in the '83-6 NME; trouble is that would have worked far more effectively in '83-6 whereas it's become sort of Q for old Industrial heads and doesn't do anything to draw me towards, and quite a lot to draw me away from, its core of derriere garde rep reliables.

I'm gonna echo the man djmartian and say Zero Tolerance should be in here. This is because I flicked through it in the shop yesterday and learned that Amy Winehouse went to see Boyd Rice play in the Slimelight. I didn't read that in any other publications

OK I'll bite Pashmina's idea, why not. I don't know any of the 'musician' ones though

Artrocker: Tory prick helms quality control-free pish
Bearded: unless this is in fact Beard that Stew sometimes of ILX does, no idea
Black Velvet: can you even buy this in shops? I thought it was just a zine with a glossy cover
Blues Matters: lol this is from the Welsh valleys
Clash: if I've read this I don't remember doing so, would be very surprised if I got much out of it
Classic Rock: they seem to have a love for the game so fair play
DJmag: never got the impression there's much to elevate this above Mixmag et al
Fact: really pretty good for a free publication. The top 20 lists at the back are frequently great reading
fRoots: what Pash said basically
Hip Hop Connection: good, maybe tries a bit hard to please all the people all the time but apart from that
International DJ: see DJmag
Jazz UK: freebie thing, they have an office along the balcony from my work. Seems OK
Kerrang! Seen better days but has maintained a bit more dignity than NME while dropping its target age to a similar degree
M8: lol happy hardcore
Metal Hammer: always been really surprised this managed to survive
Mixmag: missed one 'Drugs Issue'? Don't worry, another one'll be along in two issues' time, right after the Ibiza Issue or possibly the Acid House Nostalgia Issue
Mojo: Does its thang competently, sneaks some interesting stuff in the back door but I never feel like buying it. Good free CDs sometimes
Music Week: it's Music Week
NME: whatever. It arguably did well to pull through at all and now it's just something to point and laugh at
Observer Music Monthly: not irredeemable but v v wrongheaded
Plan B: Pretty great they've made this into a success of sorts, possibly the only mag in this list where I'll read articles about bands I think are boring, because of the writing
Q: Buh. Do they even do the 'Q injokes' anymore?
Record Collector: Has its moments
Rock-A-Rolla: I've seen scores of newsprint zines with better layouts than this. Bad writing about good bands, and if Southern distribution vanished tomorrow what the fuck would it do?
Rock Sound: it's for kids really but they do a pretty good job and arguably cover more good stuff than their readership might expect or want of them
Terrorizer: stopped buying this for a while cos it covered a bit more power metal, death metal etc than I'm personally interested in. They just let me start writing for them though so I should buy it again. Good overall
Touch: never read it
The Fly: ghastly, like Brilliant Kid off The Fast Show sitting in a room of one-track promos
The Stool Pigeon: inexplicable. Where do they find people willing to interview 700 indie bands for what I assume to be either no money or a tiny amount?
The Wire: Pretty good, sometimes suffers from complacency but generally at least one largeish feature I'm interested in
The Word: lol old people
Top Of The Pops: yeah wtf is this really still going?
Uncut: can't recall the last time I read it. I assume the innards must be a *bit* more interesting than whoever they decide to out on the cover most months

lol old people

my office Mon 9 am sharp

9am dull morelike?

9am sharp, surely old people have been up for six hours already by then?

The hilarity lies in the foreknowledge that Old Dom is going to be the grumpiest old man ever.

lol at the idea i'm not gonna be gone by a heart attack before 50

I did warn you about all those Paxo-flavoured Wagon Wheels.

whoever they decide to out on the cover

not a typo BTW

I would say Lex is the best UK music writer at the moment.

Not afraid to shamelessly shoehorn his hatred of indie into everything he writes, even when it's not in the least bit relevant.

(See last week's Flm & Music Hot Chip review.)

Is Plan B a kind of freebie mag that you just pick up in bins on the street, in record shops etc?

I am asking because there is a Plan B in Oslo, which is exactly that.

The Lex is probably the worst music writer at the moment, with his irrational unwillingness to acknowledge that music has a history, and that said history has produced a lot of great music, in fact a lot greater than today's music.

no, plan B is a top-notch paid-for mag. easily the best-written on the market.

BTW, re: Lex, I should have included sarcasm tags.

And Geir, you are Lex. And Lex is Geir. Same dogmatic coin, two sides.

The Lex is probably the worst music writer at the moment, with his irrational unwillingness to acknowledge that music has a history, and that said history has produced a lot of great music, in fact a lot greater than today's music.

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 8 February 2008 11:18 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty.

Just reread that Hot Chip review, the weird thing about it is that Hot Chip *did* come from the 'indie scene' which is what you assume the second paragraph is gonna go on and tackle; instead it just goes "well at least it's not indie amirite?" which means that opening bit could be used as a review of basically any non-British guitar pop record ever made

And Geir, you are Lex. And Lex is Geir. Same dogmatic coin, two sides.

-- m the g, Friday, 8 February 2008 11:21 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Hey, let's do a "Update "If the kids are united" " thread!

Where do they find people willing to interview 700 indie bands for what I assume to be either no money or a tiny amount?

Hey, see an indie band, throw a stone and you'll hit at least two people queueing to interview them for "no specific magazine"

(hang on, m the g?)

Hot Chip deserve the Lex.

Who deserves Geir?

Scottish Young Conservatives?

Uncut Magazine.

I've just had a word with Lex - you're up for the Ned's Atomic Dustbin retrospective in the next issue.

Hot Chip sound as though they have never so much as heard of the accepted pillars of indie. In interviews, they wax enthusiastic about Destiny's Child, Will Oldham, German minimal techno, R Kelly, Fleetwood Mac and Prince; while they have learned lessons from each of those acts, it's to their credit that they sound nothing like any of them.

lex's review of the awful hot chip is pretty weak marcello. i don't think he knows what the "accepted pillars of indie" are; but how is will oldham not one of them now? but anyway this is all kinda ilm c. 2003 -- lol indie not as good as pop. hot chip, who are awful, aren't particularly indie anyway. so where's all this coming from?

Hot Chip actively engage with the idea of pop as an aesthetic.

means precisely what?

Classic Rock did a retrospective on Mick Ronson in the latest issue to come out in the US that almost brought a tear to my eye. Very well done.

I think it means they nick interludes from Todd Rundgren albums (xp).

I've owned a copy of The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom for nearly 40 years and I still couldn't name one of them off the top of my head if a pub quiz depended on it.

Is that View review upthread real?

I was going to do a Pashmina but now I am laughing too hard at this:

The Fly: ghastly, like Brilliant Kid off The Fast Show sitting in a room of one-track promos
-- DJ Mencap

you missed two new magazines ive seen - woofah (reggae/JA stuff and dubstep/grime) and shook (straight no chaser type stuff but a bit edgier).

Friend of mine claims that he's seen a 2/5 review of an album in The Fly. I refuse to believe he's telling the truth.

im always amazed that hhc have managed to keep going. hope some big name rappers come out this year otherwise theyre going to be stuck covering ho-hum stuff like kidz n the hall all year.

Friend of mine claims that he's seen a 2/5 review of an album in The Fly. I refuse to believe he's telling the truth.

in the current issue.

The Jim Muir Slideshow : 1.5/5
One Night Only : 2/5

the fly and rwd are both good examples of how we are living in a golden age of music criticism.

That One Night Only score is still far too generous

It's early in the year, but Hot Chip have set a strong contender for Album of 2008; euphoric, quietly tender and equally progressive - the message now being ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re funky enough’.

lol

Haven't read a music magazine for years, though I used to enjoy Metal Hammer so I voted for that. It was edited by Krusher!

“Music magazines are uniformly crap,” says Tom Artrocker, a self-described “ragged trousered rock’n’roll philanthropist in Cuban heels”

Fatknocker really is the limits.

i voted for ucunt, because it's the most consistently readable, despite mostly covering dad music. i'd love to stick up for plan b or the wire but they both do my head in in different ways

"Bearded: unless this is in fact Beard that Stew sometimes of ILX does, no idea"

Nah, they done bit our name! No, it was probably perfectly innocent, but still, grrr!

Beard will be back soon...

As for mags...

Plan B and The Wire are my mainstays. Wire can be a bit dry and I can understand some of the objections to its current editorial policy, but nevertheless, it covers things few others would touch and has run some excellent cover features recently (Wyatt and Undeground Resistance spring to mind).
Plan B feels much more personal and engaging. It's not perfect but for what is ostensibly an indie mag it does a good job on metal, improv, noise and grime etc. Also Frances Morgan is one of the best music writers in the UK right now. Her Robert Wyatt feature was outstanding.

Was Artrocker dude the one who was all "lol asylum seekers"?

Yes - he used to include all these sub-Daily Mail rants in the email newsletter.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

tbf..

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

(wonders who voted for NME)

you guys sure do love your shitty music mags

Who was the one person that knew TOTPS Magazine still existed and voted for it?

Speaking as somebody who voted for a magazine I've never read, just for the lulz, well I doubt I'm the only one who did that.

Congratulations to the Wire and all its fans on a tremendous achievement.

I'm calling "jokes, bruv" votes on OMM, The Stool Pigeon, Classic Rock, NME.

Observer Music Monthly 1

^^^ithappens still lurks, I see.

God, you're a grudgy fucker, Dom!

grudgesiren.gif

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Grudge Reinhold