Search & Destroy: Music Publications (Ancient and Modern)

the wire, pro and con

Search: Motorbooty; MOJO

Destroy: The rest of them

Who does anybody altually waste valuable brain energy reading Rolling Stone these days? They've been falling out of touch since at least the mid 80s and I haven't read anything even remotely astute in since the early 90s.

Search: Puncture (RIP), Magnet, Chickfactor, Select, Comes With A Smile

Destroy: Alternative Press (ugh), Pop Culture Press (content OK but layout is shockingly bad)

Not sure what it's like these days, but I used to love Les Inrockuptibles (silly name aside) when I was in France. their website suggests it's still way cool.

SEARCH::xlr8r is pretty good for covering a wide variety of electronica and hip hop. also ,"Grooves" magazine is coming on as a nice mag for electronica as well....

destroy:: rolling stone,rolling stone,spin,rolling stone....

It's funny, the Rolling Stone articles I enjoy reading the most are the ones that have nothing at all to do with music. I scan pretty much all the music mags every month. I get a kick out of all of them, as I'm not necessarily looking for absolutely brilliant music journalism.

Actually, my favorite mag, if it could ever be bothered to show up in my mailbox these days, is CMJ New Music.

"Who does anybody altually waste valuable brain energy reading Rolling Stone these days? They've been falling out of touch since at least the mid 80s and I haven't read anything even remotely astute in since the early 90s."

William Greider?

Anyways, the Wire is my favorite print music pub. I found it a year ago, and while I admit its trend towards inclusion of the indie-rock- scene is what nicked me (the Sigur Ros article, since I was travelling to Iceland soon), it's the best music mag I will probably ever read.

Search: the interweb

Destroy: paper

Search: Too Fun Too Huge, a 'zine whose second issue is probably the single greatest influence on my musical taste.

Also: mid-'80s Creem, its alt-rock period (Robyn Hitchcock and Robert Smith on the cover)--funny, snarky, nicely written.

And the later issues of Forced Exposure, especially the final one, with that flabbergasting Chris Knox interview.

I quite liked some of the Forced Exp. zines. But living'n'breating I'd have to go with Wire. And NME for *guilty* please (hah!).

Answering this is going to involve crawling to a couple of regular posters but oh well.

Ones I Adored/Big Influences:

Smash Hits circa 1983 - 1985 - the best ways of writing about pop ever. Melody Maker circa 1991-1994 - inconsistent yeah but the ideas and spirit were irresistible. Select 1992-1993 - the best ways of writing about indie music. The Wire circa 1991-1995 - especially, yes dammit, the Mark S edited issues with pictures of robots or armchairs on the cover - the best ways of writing about difficult music.

Mike Daddino sent me a couple of photocopied fanzines a few years ago which looked fantastic - Swellsville and Throat Culture. Probably too late to be influential but as good an example of how to do a fanzine right as I've ever seen. (Thanks Mike!)

Ones I Respect: The first 10-20 issues of The Face and the first 20- 30 issues of Mojo, for changing their markets completely and being OK reads too.

The Best Music Mag I've Never Read: Why Music Sucks, Frank Kogan's zine. I read about it in The Wire once and thought, this is a fucking brilliant idea. It kind of made me want to do a fanzine myself. But I've still never actually read it!

Search - 1983-86 - Kerrang - as good as Smash Hits in '84. Kerrang was all over the place before the metal war ov glam vs thrash in the later eighties.

1989-1993 - Melody Maker - made me want to listen through enthusiastic writing and dodgy alliteration

The Wire - first one bought had eno, public enemy innit - 1990? - i was hooked - i still flick through it in whsmif but no longer subscribe

i was never really into NME but did read Select in '92 and Muzik in '94.

nowadays I read the blogs of distant frenz and ILxRz.

destroy - 80% of Uncut

Agree with ben about Lime Lizard, it was fantastic, as was Spiral Scratch. Adrain Pannett's Under the Surface is great. There does seem to be an inverse relationship between glossiness and quality where music mags are concerned, with Smash Hits being the exception. To my mind the best period for MM was slightly earlier than the one Tom mentions; I'd say it was 1987-90. At that time I could rely on MM to introduce me to bands I hadn't heard of previously, unlike NME which had a tendency to praise what was established (within its favoured genres) to a greater degree.

The early 80's Creem had a big impact on me.

Last Plane to Jakarta is excellent, of course, but everybody knows about that now (it was kind of fun when it was a secret, small-run print thing, but the Web is the right way to go.)

I rarely hear people talking about Space Age Bachelor, but that's one of my favorite print 'zines. The blend of the personal & factual was just right, and the writing was usually very good (albeit humorless). Don't know if there will be another issue.

When people mention Punk Planet, I assume they're not talking about their music coverage.

Option was great, but I only had an opportunity to read a couple of issues before they folded. What a shame. I wonder if any States mag will take its place?

One of the very first music magazines that I ever read was "Debris", which was edited by Dave Haslam in the late 80s. It covered a wide range of music (jangly guitar-pop, hip-hop, house, alternative rock) in an intelligent way. "Debris" also tried to examine the wider cultural scene. The only issue that I still own contains an interview with Hubert Selby Jr. and essays on Raymond Williams, the Situationists and t.v. sitcoms. For me, very few music or style magazines have matched the independence and ambition of "Debris".

Lime Lizard was OK, but no more than that. Whatever it had going for it was crippled by ridiculous, I've gotta a Mac and I'm gonna use it design ideas and uber-indieness. The Lizard (its semi-successor) was much better and broader in outlook but still rather limited.

My first indie zine was the L.A. mag Slash, which folded in 1980 or 81, and it still figures large in my pantheon. ReSearch was a very good free one, but I haven't followed it much since it went to non- free and book-style.

The Big Takeover's a pretty decent one. Covers mostly collegerockish stuff that was not big in the late 80s ( i was going to say "post- punk", but that doesn't really do it). Some very good interviews. I also liked Option (RIP) and Puncture (RIP). Settle for Mojo now, though I can't say I like much of it. Ugly Things is a fine fanatical one that covers 60s garage punk, and is expanding into the late 70s variety now, too.

Les inrocks (magazine) has rather limited music coverage these days - not necessarily a bad thing: they seem to do the other arts a lot better anyway (or perhaps their prejudices in these fields are less obvious to me). Their free CDs are still great, tho', as is the online equivalent, lesinrocks.com.

Search (Ancient): Record Mirror c.1980, MM c.1987-88, Rorschach Testing (glossy fanzine straight outta Bedford, England, there may only have been one issue).

Of the current mags not already mentioned, I like Halana. Covers some of the same experimental/avant ground as The Wire in a slightly more personal way, has v. nice design, comes w/ a good free CD, and features good interviews w/ the likes of Keiji Haino and Loren Mazzacane Connors. Haven't seen a new ish in quite a while, tho. On a similar tip, Ed Pinsent's 'Sound Projector' fanzine usually has something of interest in it.

Destroy: Your Flesh. Poorly written/designed by wanna-be hipster dullards.

Chunklet. Sarcastic bastardy ahoy, and the design is truly great.

destroy - 80% of Uncut
You mean the ads?

Jeff W why stop at 80 for Record Mirror? I seem to remember it being pretty good up until '83 then the numerous 'style' changes took it's toll.

I wish I'd kept them all now if only as an archive of James Hamilton's soul and disco reviews.
123-124-126-123-125- 127 bpm Clinton funk workout with chirruping chix, extended fade on instrumental 123-124-126-123-125-127-126 bpm

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