By douglasm (68.113.15.28) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:13 pm:

HELP....
....at 54, I don't read a great deal of the current writing on music, it being geared to 20 year olds. I picked up the most recent Rolling Stone the other day and was bitterly dissapointed.
Can anyone recommend to me a SERIOUS music publication that doesn't 1) pander to it's audience, 2) doesn't deal in the flavor of the month and 3) treats all forms of music as equal, in the same way most literary magazines do?
I guess I'm looking for the NY Times Book Review of music, although I'd settle for File 770 (insider S-F joke).

By stephanie (64.63.221.75) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:16 pm:

Its time for Sue Whithall to the rescue to answer this one ..I would like an answer to this Rolling Stone is not what it used to be..
Stephanie

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:18 pm:

Doug,
Before I finaly let my subscrition to Rolling Stone lapse I had been reduced to reading some of the fine non music related articles by P.J. O'Rouk and the like. Most of the music related stories I no longer bothered wasting my time reading.

By Eli (151.197.38.28) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:21 pm:

Echoes, Blues and Soul are several.
Tower records usually carries a supply of soul imports, at least they do here in Philly.

By Sue (63.85.105.20) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:25 pm:

There's a huge gap in the U.S. market -- I only find Britain's Mojo to my liking (and that's not just because they pay well!) Apart from that I read individual columns/internet newsletters by guys like Dave Marsh.

I was just reading the "new" guy at the Washington Post and was amazed at how bad he is; he actually said some concert was "awesome." Dude!

By BankHouseDave (195.93.50.9) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:30 pm:

Mojo is good, and so is Uncut, if you can ever find it. What needs to happen is Sue to start one.

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:35 pm:

Doug:
ICE Magazine covers new & upcoming releases both new and reissued. They run interviews with the artist/group and producer (or in the reissue case, reissue producer) as well as a laundry list of upcoming new releases & reissues divided up by release date (every Tuesday of the month). ICE even has a column called "CD Watchdog" where consumers can write in with a question regarding discrepencies in CDs and ICE magazine gets the answers from the producers and/quality control people at the labels (Harry Weinger has answered to the CD Watchdog a few times).
]
MOJO Magazine from the UK is a decent music magazine that doesn't pander to the artist or the label (they ran a very interesting article years ago on what Marvin Gaye went through to create and record "What's Going On"). Same with Q Magazine.
There are many more magazines that may suit you - I'm sure the others can recommend other mags too!
Kevin Goins - KevGo
Hope this helps, Doug!
Kevi

By john dixon (63.101.17.207) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:36 pm:

Yeah, Mojo and Uncut (both UK based) are the best. As far as US publications go, if you like melodic pop, Amplifier is good. If you like roots-oriented stuff, No Depression is good. Blender isn't too bad; it beats Rolling Stone(admittedly not hard to do these days).

By BankHouseDave (195.93.50.9) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:40 pm:

Does Soul Music Monthly still exist, or is Roger St Pierre just a radio personality and fellow motoring journalist.

By mc5rules (148.61.97.30) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:55 pm:

Hey, I think that dude from Washington is AWESOME!

Seriously, I've been digging Wire lately, as well as Mojo. I haven't been able to choke my way through an issue of Strolling Bone for a few years now.

By Nancy (24.101.72.243) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 06:11 pm:

Hey doug In the Basement Magazine comes out quaterly and is published out of Britain if you want to email me I can tell you how to contact the us editor his Name is Larry Cotton and he sells the magazines in the States
motherhouseoff@msn.com

By stephanie (64.63.221.75) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 06:17 pm:

That Basement Magazine is AWESOME!!!
There's a huge gap in the U.S. market -- I only find Britain's Mojo to my liking (and that's not just because they pay well!) Apart from that I read individual columns/internet newsletters by guys like Dave Marsh. >>>>>>

Sue I like anything that David Marsh writes he is one of the few good rock and soul critics left on the earth!! I have a few of his books. If I were rich Sue I would give you a million dollars to start a music publication. The only one I read is the Rhino catalog and Goldmine and Discoveries.
Ill have to look into this Mojo thing,
Stephanie

By nikki (24.46.200.124) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 07:19 pm:

For a list of great reading, discographies, magazines (both in and out of print), autobiographies, and books in general about the artists and music (mostly of the 50s and 60s), go here:

http://members.aol.com/dowoplives/books.htm

You'll find on most of the listings, I've also included a direct link to the author and/or publisher.

Nikki
http://www.harmonytrain.com

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 07:23 pm:

I'll have to jump on the bandwagon regarding "Mojo"; I really look forward to each issue. There are a few webzines that are good : "Cosmik Debris" is quite well-rounded.
What's happened to 'Rolling Stone' is pretty sad. In the early days, it was like a big treat every couple of weeks. Like Ralph mentioned , occasionally there's an interesting non-music article, but their music coverage and reviews are just horrible. I looked through an issue a year or so ago and there was surprisingly a pretty decent article about Chuck Berry ; I flipped to the reviews and there's a huge 5-Star review of Mick Jagger's latest solo cd , which I had heard (pretty inconsequential IMHO). Surprise surprise - the review was written by Mick's boy (RS publisher) Jann Wenner. That kind of summed up their review section. Not to be cynical (Hell, naw) , but a quick perusal of the other reviews would lead one to believe that the difference between a 2-Star and a 3 1/2 star review is directly linked to which label does more advertising in the mag.
Plus every cover seems to have some flavor of the month pop star posing in their underwear. I remember when they had people like Sun Ra on the cover. He'd have to be wearing a thong and licking his lips to be on there now.

SteveK

By Jim G (64.12.97.7) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 08:33 pm:

LTLFTC,
Yeah, you right!!!
I still have dozens of old RS's, late 60s vintage.
It was a cutting edge mag then, it's lost focus/direction/something!
Trying to picture Sunny in a thong is just too difficult, maybe a planetary tutu or something...

By FAYETTE (205.188.209.38) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 08:51 pm:

i like autobiograhies,i mostly go to the book stores or library.just finished reading,YOU
SEND ME,BY SAM COOK and ARETHA FROM THESE ROOTS,
I JUST STARTED READING,A TOUCH OF CLASSIC SOUL
OF THE EARLY 1970'S

By mhc (172.162.103.29) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 09:17 pm:

MOJO is the only English-language Popular Music (meaning Rock and R&B) magazine that I bother with.

By Weldon A. Mc Dougal III (68.80.164.254) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 09:31 pm:

I have been getting a magazine from the UK its called The Manifesto, in fact I did the cover on the December issue, with Bunny Sigler, the February issue has Ann Nesby on cover, the interview is good,
WELDON

By Sue (205.188.209.38) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 09:31 pm:

MC5rules --

That Wash. Post guy was trashing Robert Christgau -- there's a link to it at poynter.org -- so I was all set to enjoy the piece and admire him, but it turns out, he writes like a frat boy. I came to like Christgau MORE after reading this guy ... I admit Christgau's writing is purposely inpenetrable, but at least he has a definable aesthetic and never says "awesome."

Re Rolling Stone -- they sold out so long ago, who can remember how long it's been? They admitted at one point that they routinely promised artists cover stories, to get interviews. We never did that at Creem, we'd tell the record companies no, it's for us to decide who's on the cover: Do the interview or don't. We never had to promise covers and we were much smaller, so why would they roll over like that?

By Fury13 (12.2.196.17) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 09:49 pm:

From now on, I promise to only use the word "awesome" if I'm talking about a good California band.

By douglasm (68.113.15.28) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 09:50 pm:

So as I understand the musings, the best music mag out there apprears to be the British based Mojo?
And the best U.S. based mag is.......none?

By Sue (205.188.209.38) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 10:14 pm:

Doug -- In a word -- yeah. There's nothing in the U.S. that compares to Mojo.

It's kind of a business opportunity for someone. Americans keep starting up music mags that are too narrowcast, focusing just on Americana or whatever.

Another mistake Rolling Stone made was going overboard covering "popular" but trashy acts; the Britneys, Christinas, etc. Totally losing their hipster cred.

I wouldn't want to be a mag editor again -- I was too young when I did it at Creem, although technically we were writer/editors. When you're just a writer you get to remain in perpetual adolescence. Editors have to do adult things -- budgets, assigning stories, blah blah.

By mc5rules (148.61.97.30) on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:20 am:

Sue:
I actually caught that piece on Poynter -- I seem to remember he said something about a band being "in the hizzy the other day." He just sounds ridiculous, like something the Simpsons would make fun of.

I don't think the best reaction to hyper-intellectualism like Christgau's is to resort to hyper-stupidity...

By Jim G (12.47.224.13) on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:24 am:

If we focus on Blues/Soul, Juke Blues (UK) is excellent.

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 11:23 am:

Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner decided over a year ago that he felt that the magazine needed a change in direction so he hired an editor who worked closely with the Maxim & Stuff magazine people to help accomplish this task. It must be working because the covers' headlines "scream" louder & the content is more "fluff" & less serious. What kills me are the covers - one had Christina Aguilera covered by a guitar & nothing else. I expect this from Playboy or Penthouse - not RS.
This may explain why RS has turned off so many of us music lovers. I stick to Mojo & ICE.
Kevin Goins - KevGo