What and how much do you read about music?

i read books about PAVEMENT

Let's see:

nme.com for the reviews and news. AMG for additional info on future purchases. www.kindamuzik.net (my homies so to speak) www.rockcritics.com The Wire when the cover artist is interesting (i.e. not a beardy jazz player ;). Their website for old articles (some classic stuff there). Every month: The Face and i-D (always good stuff on music in there).

Have every article that appeared in Melody Maker 1990-1995 memorized. Sad really.

I've wanted to try Uncut for the last few months but the cover, which always features a Has Been, always puts me off.

Occasional book on artist/scene or anthology of critic. Currently reading Ian Penman's 'Vital Signs'.

1. It may surprise you to learn that I spend most of my time reading this forum. In fact, I have a special chip implanted behind one of my ears that goes off at a high pitch every time the words 'Lloyd Cole' appear on ILM.

2. If you have 4 minutes to wait for a train, then the WH Smith copy of the NME can be worth perusing. Well, I don't know. 2 minutes?

3. I would always read - no less than avidly, and probably repeatedly - anything that Steady Mike or Stevie T wrote about music, but they don't write about music anymore, just old TV programes and holiday destinations.

4, Nonetheless Papercuts is a good UK publication for sports fans. It always gives extensive coverage to Liverpool FC, and has an excellent occasional tennis section.

5. I have a stock of old Melody Makers late 80s-early 90s. I, too, have whole reviews and interviews imprinted on the back of my brain, wherever that is. Merry Christmas, Dave!

6. I also have a nearly complete stock of chickfactors. If anyone has a mint chickfactor #1, they should let me know. When I say 'mint', I mean the chocolates given away on the front cover, obviously. The condition is immaterial.

I do all my reading on the internet and compare various sources back to back, listen to sound samples. I bought one issue of Spin recently for a train ride and it sucked. Magazines are crap in comparison to listening to some guy or group of guys on the internet. I'm also starting to read pitchforkmedia more frequently and am learning to understand each of the critics a little better rather than lumping them all into one pot as the same guy. They certainly do have their finger on the firing button when it comes to new stuff, so that's good.

As far as reading books about music, I never do. I don't want to know anything about the performer in great detail. They tend to dissapoint.

It tends to shift from year to year depending on my tastes. Lately I've been spending more time with Magnet, MOJO and No Depression. I occasionally pick up The Wire, but in general I find it too pretentious and uppity to provide any useful information. Although it used to be one of the best US publications, I also gave up on Spin a long, long time ago, when they made a shift into lifestyle and such.

Online, I often go to wallofsound.go.com for current info. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a plug to allmusic.com for archival information, and that's not just because I write for it. I'm also finding ILM to be really good for giving me different opinions-- thanks, folks, with very few exceptions I find this to be a consistently thoughtful and intelligent forum.

It changes but the regulars are Mojo, Q, the Wire, Magnet (ace!),...
On the net I check Kindamuzik.net, Pitchfork and most importantly Allmusic.com (although it does contain errors in some of the bios I have noticed).
I also read books but less than I used to. I am still trying to finish Aesthetics Of Rock (dud!).

I used to read a lot more, but now that I'm a starving college student I can't afford any subscriptions. I used to read Rolling Stone and Spin in high school, and whatever Brit music mags I could get my hands on (usually Q or the NME were the easiest to find).

As for books, I've read a few that I've loved dearly. "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage, "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" by those guys from Mixmag, but my hands down all time favorite has to be "Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung" by Lester Bangs. Never have I laughed out loud so much at the sheer vitality.

You may flame me... wait for it... erm, now.

"England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage
One of the few books I stopped reading. I utterly dispise the man. Well no, I just think it's a crap book.

Best stuff I've read was on the net.

Check Erik Davis, writes for the Village Voice, but his stuff about music is at his homesite.

Most recently - Freaky Trigger - an education.

ILM is on a good day the best music writing I know of currently - big geographical range, fairly broad tastes and getting broader w/each new participant, lots of disagreements, generally friendly and more to the point at least four or five good/provocative/fun ideas turning up per day. It can't last, but I'm certainly enjoying it - good work all of you.

That aside I read tons about music, much more since I moved to Oxford and started travelling every weekend - music mags = essential Friday evening / Sunday evening coach reading. Last weekend was Q, The Wire and CD:UK in increasing order of enjoyability if not usefulness. With a heavy heart I've just bought Uncut - I like Dylan a lot but FORTY PAGES by IAN MACDONALD!! It's just Mojo with swearing now. CD:UK has shaken up the staid popmags a tiny bit - Smash Hits is making more of an effort currently (check out its "house music special") and TOTP is awful but has the best free gifts - a Britney alarm clock! I'm in two minds over the Wire's new layout: 25% more words is a mixed blessing and its review style just seems perversely baroque currently.

Books - last good book I read which touched even tangentially on music was Nothing. I've picked up Ben Thompson's new one a couple of times but haven't bought it: it's a compilation of short bits, sure, but I'm starting to think that such things are the best/most apt way to do a book about music - you get lots of energetic nuggets rather than a big long and occasionally dull flow (singles/albums comparison here as per usual).

Tom, if you don't want those 40pp on Dylan then I'll read them for you. Or at least pretend to; cos come to think of it, I never even got round to finishing the MOJO Smiths feature yet. I guess I must be saving it up for my next decade.

Music journalism hasn't been worth getting excited about since the demise of Melody Maker circa 1996 (I don't even acknowledge the paper it became after Allan Jones left). NME has never been worth its cover price. Uncut is a very good mag (staffed mainly by ex-MM people), but I occasionally think it's just a more obscure Q. Takes itself a bit too seriously. Best music book I ever read was 'The Sex Revolts' by Simon Reynolds and Joy Press. More about the politics of gender within music than a straight rock-crit book, but pretty damn interesting nonetheless. Best music bio would have to be 'Everything (A Book About Manic Street Preachers)' by Simon Price. A great read written with real insight into the band. If only all music biographies were as well written.

Oh yeah, and 'Time Travel' by Jon Savage was a good collection. . .

through libraries i got to read bios of artists i'd never buy stuff by which i found interesting, read most of WH Smiths music stuff - love hip hop connection - the funniest mag, i like the WIRE - though the free cds are usually crap - it was the only mag i've ever had a subscription to.

i have never got hold of blissed out, wont order it online for security reasons - is it any good or just a rehash of mm stuff ?

Oh yes, just when I started to really like a mag (Revolution) it had to go and fold.

I spend way too much on music mags--Magnet, Spin, Mojo (which costs $8 in the states!), picked up the "Media Revolution" issue of Punk Planet, and now, Blender, the new music rag put out by the lecherous (sp?) fellas of Maxim. On the debut issue's cover, Janet showing off her panties. Inside, a Mojo-like layout and some pretty good content, including an explanation of how Beyonce Knowles writes and produces her songs, a two-page breakdown of the Neptunes, and one of those fans-email-in-questions interviews with Thommy Yorke.

Any other U.S. ILMers read Blender? Opinions?

I've scanned through Blender at the bookstore - cool mix of genres, lots of reviews, some cool writers (Michaelangelo Matos, Douglas Wolk, Barry Walters) and cutesy little features about Motley Crue's girlfriends and such. Not the place to look for analysis, but a nice light read, and they deserve props for trying to de-ghettoize popular music a little. Terrible name, though.

Also, anyone with a passing knowledge of German should check out De:Bug, it's a free(!) monthly music paper with very good writing and a very wide scope. It's basically a techno/dance/electronica mag, but it comes in four parts, 2 parts with interviews and essays on dance- music (and not only Oval & co. ;) 1 part always contains very good sociology/philosophy on computer/Web/musicgear culture and 1 part is filled with about 6000 reviews per month. Far more interesting than anything written in the British/American music press these days (I'm sad to say) They also have a website somewhere.

Whenever theres a new Album Guide out, I get it. I have a stack of album guides over 4 feet high. Also I read Mojo and Q every so often and Spin once in a blue moon. But we all know the most informative source for Music info is, of Course, Freakytrigger. Either that or Mark Prindles Stupid Music Site.

Freaky Trigger is completely useless for music info.

So I guess I have to stick to Mark Prindles Stupid Music Site, then.

mark prindle is the worst source of music- related opinions i can imagine. or any opinions, for that matter.