Five favorite music magazines

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1. Decibel
2. Revolver
3. Mojo
4. Classic Rock
5. Rolling Stone (That's right, I said it.)

Runners up:

Kerrang!
Metal Hammer
Terrorizer
Blender (Actually, I hate the magazine but it it does have one of the better record review sections.)

Worst magazine: Spin

― Steven Ward (rockcrit88), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:32 (eighteen years ago)

Print, web or both?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:36 (eighteen years ago)

Let's stick with print.

― Steven Ward (rockcrit88), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago)

I stopped reading Terrorizer a couple of years ago. When they put Nightwish on the cover I knew it was time to spend my money on something else.

The Wire covers most of the heavy bands I like anyway, so it's no big loss, though I am missing my grindcore fix. Anybody have any good recommendations?

― MacDara Conroy (MacDara), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:49 (eighteen years ago)

the Wire
Arthur
Wax Poetics

I don't really read anything else (print-wise), its all crap.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:51 (eighteen years ago)

Decibel is always good for grindcore and all types of extreme metal.

― Steven Ward (rockcrit88), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:52 (eighteen years ago)

Arthur
Groove (for the lists, I don't read German)
The Wire

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:54 (eighteen years ago)

(sw)

― mahalo 4 ur kokua (grady), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

I mean hell -- if wasn't for the legendary Scott Seward and Decibel, I never would have discovered Katatonia and "The Great Cold Distance."

― Steven Ward (rockcrit88), Monday, 8 January 2007 22:57 (eighteen years ago)

Does Arthur count as a music magazine?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:00 (eighteen years ago)

that's the primary subject matter of the magazine, innit? Is it less of a "music magazine" than fucking Rolling Stone?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

shakey ... AMEN

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

wax poetics (DUH)
(old) scratch [fuck this XXL nu-scratch bullshit]

Wow I can only come up with two. Granted I've never read The Wire (I hear it's essential despite its supposed pretensions, but what do I know.)

Shakey I've only read one issue of Arthur (the one with Brightblack on the cover) and it seemed to me more of an anarchist propagandist's manual with a Brightblack interview thrown in. Did I read the same magazine?

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

well that issue also had the Godsmack thing and the usual pages and pages of album reviews (C and D, Coley/Moore, etc.)... it does cover other stuff but music's a central element, if not the exclusive focus (much like Rolling Stone).

I've read every issue.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

Riddim Mag is good.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)

Haha right but I didn't think of the Godsmack ambush as music coverage, I thought of it as political. Perhaps my categories need blurring.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:38 (eighteen years ago)

1. mojo
2. hip hop connection
3. stool pigeon (when i can find it)

― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 08:24 (eighteen years ago)

1 Halana
2 Music
3 Conflict
4 Matter
5 Bandits 1 to 5

― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 08:43 (eighteen years ago)

one of many old threads on magazines

Opinions please - the state of "music magazines"

Magazine I like (well some of it)

The Beat (Los Angeles based publication covering reggae, afropop, Caribbean and Brazilian sounds) . It's not pop enough for some...

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:09 (eighteen years ago)

Real Groove is the only music magazine I'm buying these days. I recently gave up on Q because of their rubbish new design (how many new designs do they need?!), and because they're getting a bit boring. They've pretty much turned into a monthly version of the NME, and the NME sucks.

― GLC (ZakAce), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 18:12 (eighteen years ago)

Full Watts is still good.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 18:15 (eighteen years ago)

Arthur's great, certainly, but I don't quite think of it as a music magazine in my head for some reason. Probably b/c I don't care for either of their usual review section, the Moore/Coley one or the two guys talking about records. But it's one of the best print culture mags to come around in a long time.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 18:16 (eighteen years ago)

The Word
Decibel
Wax Poetics
Blender
as much as I hate to say it, for certain regular features, The Wire

― Make a Beck Song #1 (M Matos), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

The Wire
Loose Lips Sinks Ships
Skyscraper (I have to buy this from the USA)
Plan B
Terrorizer

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 20:13 (eighteen years ago)

Arthur's not a music magazine like (say) Decibel or The Wire, but it *does* have a lot of music coverage in it. To wit: the current issue (No. 25) features Erik Davis's 12,000-word cover feature on Joanna Newsom; interviews with Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) and Chuck Dukowski (Black Flag, etc), respectively; Nabob Shineywater reviewing that new Sandy Bull live album; Chris Ziegler reviewing the White Magic and Sunno)))/Boris albums; and Thurston Moore & Byron Coley reviewing stuff from from Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar, Silvester Anfang, R.O.T., Sammy Harkham's Kramers Ergot, Private Stash, Comic Art, Arf Museum, Drawing Hand, Alex Nielson, Alastair Gabraith & Richard Youngs, Oren Ambarchi, Scott Horscroft, Hado Ho, Henry Kaiser, Noxagt, Ultralyd, S. Clay Wilson, Crown Now, Bone Rattle, Dreamhouse, the Halflings, M.O.A.C., Coco & Fiend Friend Mononoke, Hello Trudi, Dave Newman, Shuffleboil edited by David Meltzer and Steve Dickinson, Ong Ong, Macronympha, C. Spencer Yeh, Jim O'Rourke, Two Dead Sluts One Good Fuck, Helios Creed, Outtakes, Sub City Girls, Trockeneis, Harrius, WZT Hearts, Michael Layne Heath, Wesley Eisold & Charles Rowland, Carol Lewis & Regine Polenz, Haunted George, Demon's Claws, The Golden Boys, Evil, Enema Syringe, Commando Laarz, Drap En Hund, Ports Bishop, Hurray, Timo van Luyk & Kris Vanderstraeten, Sarah Becan, Jerusalem and the Starbaskets, Skarekraouradio, Child Pornography, Quem Quaeritis, Copper/Yellow, Mudsuckers, and Paul Flaherty/Chris Corsano/C. Spencer Yeh. Yeah!

― JayBabcock (jabbercocky), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 01:26 (eighteen years ago)

1. The Word
2. The Wire

(wish I had the time and the money to also read):

3. Terrorizer
4. Plan B*
5. Decibel
6. Fact

*Used to love Plan B but, although it hasn’t really changed, I grew tired of it. Maybe it’s because you read it and it sounds like it’s controlled by some hairy, sweaty, hippie-punk-maoist-diy brigade. Maybe it was always like that and I never actually bothered to pay attention. Maybe it’s because I came to realize I don’t really care about most of the music it writes about. Maybe it’s because I now realize that, although it covers great mainstream pop & commercial hip-hop & r&b & dance music, and does have great writers writing about all that stuff (and about non-musical stuff too), none of that stuff will ever take the place of hairy noise makers/ freak folkies/ shambling indie starlets on the cover and at the heart of the magazine. Maybe it’s because the articles are usually wonderful but, as I finally noticed when they began giving away covermount CDs, lots of what they write about and pay special attention to is, well, boring/ awful/ uneventful/ zzzzzz. Maybe I’ll change my mind in six months. Maybe not.

― Jorge Manuel Lopes (JML), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

Scratch....uhh sometimes XXL...if I'm really bored, Rolling Stone...if I'm really really bored, Spin...used to read Magnet and Alternative Press a little in the 90s...

― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

chunklet dudes!

― 69 (plsmith), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

The Wire, Swingset, Kicks, Ugly Things, Muckraker

― be home by 11 (orion), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:32 (eighteen years ago)

The Wire

I think that's it, actually. My subscriptions to Blender and SPIN haven't expired yet, but I'm not all that interested in renewing either one.

At this point I read alt-weeklies and music review sites more than anything else in the regard.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

the one issue of Arthur i found and read was great

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

wax poetics is getting better and branching out; its like the fader audience has re-dictated who they should be covering, but wax poetics always has these in-depth well-written pieces so it comes out nicely, like the last piece on 8ball and mjg. I'm not so big on the collector-type shit but the articles about the music itself are almost always great.

used to read scratch. murder dog is good, because of how little of it (unlike most rap mags) is centered around gossip+badly written reviews

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 11 January 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

I have just realised. thinking about this thread, that 06 was the first year I didn't buy a single music magazine.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 January 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

The Wire
Arthur
Wax Poetics

Haven't bought anything else.

― Harpal (harpal), Thursday, 11 January 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

you stole my list

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 11 January 2007 23:13 (eighteen years ago)

I am subscribed to Spin, XXL and Revolver. But they were gift subscriptions. XXL is the only one I really enjoy.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Thursday, 11 January 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

ihttp://www.gcsclothing.com/lsdsummer00.jpg

― Expell (HGULTRUILLUM), Friday, 12 January 2007 02:46 (eighteen years ago)

meaning http://www.gcsclothing.com/lsdsummer00.jpg

― Xpell (HGULTRUILLUM), Friday, 12 January 2007 02:48 (eighteen years ago)

i'm not sure if it's truly a music mag, but i still like punk planet.

― Emily Bjurnhjam (Emily Bjurnhjam), Friday, 12 January 2007 04:16 (eighteen years ago)

MRR has been on the upswing lately, fwiw.

― be home by 11 (orion), Friday, 12 January 2007 04:17 (eighteen years ago)

maria got me a recent mrr. i liked the gilman oral history and the subhumans(uk) history(part 1).

my faves are mostly the same ol' same ol':

decibel, terrorizer, sod, ugly things, brave words & bloody knuckles. and arthur! i like arthur. i love the c&d(?) review thing in arthur. probably my fave review thing to read in a magazine even if i never end up hearing 95% of what they are talking about. i used to say mojo, but they don't sell it here and i'm too cheap to subscribe. i'm sure it's the same though, so mojo too!

and speaking of upswings of sorts, rolling stone is actually readable these days. and not just for the usual ace killer kidz/true stories stuff or the you have been lied to political expose stuff. but other stuff. and i do like taibbi even though most here probably hate on him. i still don't understand how x-ian hoard writes 400 reviews every month. what do they feed that guy?!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 12 January 2007 04:53 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.kazemag.com/

― raging against the bull (HGULTRUILLUM), Friday, 12 January 2007 05:53 (eighteen years ago)

I gave up on The Wire midway through last year and except for the occasional Plan B for train journeys and freebies like FACT and Stool Pigeon I don't buy anything. The only mag I buy at all is the London review of Books, which kinda depresses me as I used to love getting mags, particularly with WH Smiths having 'honesty' boxes.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Friday, 12 January 2007 09:35 (eighteen years ago)

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