I'm such an easy mark

So this morning some high school twerp showed up at my door peddling magazine subscriptions and by the time the little shit had hightailed it off my front porch I'd signed up for two year subscriptions to Spin and Alternative Press.

Spin - eh, whatever. Ira and Klosterman write for it on occasion, so that's not so dreadful, but Alternative Press I lost interest in back around the time they started treating the Insane Clown Posse like they were worthy of anything besides being buried alive in horseshit. The last issue of it I ever attempted to read I bought at the airport because I'd forgotten to bring a book to read, and I ended up stuffing it in the holder on the back of the seat with the airline magazine and barf bag and leaving it for the next poor sap in my seat to discover.

Oh well, I guess in the next couple of years I'll learn more about emo and skatepunk than I really think I need to know, but whatever. I'm sure there's a lot of that stuff that actually is worthy of attention and hell, people like Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy probably have just as much right to claim the bands revered on this site as ancestors as people like Interpol or the Strokes do.

And I've never really been able to answer to my own satisfaction whether or not I don't care much about the bands covered in Alternative Press these days because I just don't think they're any good (my preferred answer) or because I'm just an old fart (the answer I fear is probably true). So maybe I'll know the answer in two years.

On the plus side, I picked up the new issue of Big Takeover today, so that makes it all better. Although Big Takeover Day always kind of sucks, too, because now I have to wait until December for the next issue.



Post Edited (06-17-07 00:04)

The decline of the Alternative Press is pretty heartbreaking stuff. I remember them doing a fascinating "Best of 85-95" list, and the albums on that list would be mostly foreign to their current readership. I think Magnet does what AP used to do pretty well within its snobbish limitations.

SPIN used to have some thought out reviews back in the Eric Weisbard era although his biases would seep into every aspect of the mag (seriously how many different ways did he come up with for saying the Pixies and Pavement were better than everyone, and here's why you're wrong if you don't agree).

The Blenderization of their reviews really leaves me cold now though. The recent reviews of the Arctic Monkeys and Wilco (each the featured review for their respective issues) were written in the shallowest and least insightful ways you can imagine.

For the most part, American criticism sucks because you never get the impression our magazines even like music. That's the secret behind the enduring success of the NME and the UK press - oh sure they may be telling you that some lame band like The Horrors is the best band of all time, but you always get the impression they want to believe it too.

Rock fans in the US are always making fun of that "NME mentality" but it sure seems alot more fun than our too cool to get excited about anything approach.

We've forgotten the thrill of the manic pop thrill.



Post Edited (06-17-07 07:21)

regarding American music criticism - it is the lack on enthusiasm that really turns me off. It's either the critic has to show off their knowledge "the band sounds like the Boredoms meet the Captain and Tennille and play Jimmy Cliff covers" or write about themselves "when I was 10 I discovered girls and then I decided that I had to learn about music to meet them, blah, blah, blah". Whatever happened to write about the music?

I know I might get crushed by this, but that is why I prefer the allmusicguide. Yeah, they like a lot of lame musicians but the enthusiasm isn't lacking. Plus, it's the only place that reviews all of the Trotsky Icepick albums (a personal fave) and ends with a rave Jack Rabid review!

Plus, it's the only place that reviews all of the Trotsky Icepick albums (a personal fave)...

ahem...

TROTSKY ICEPICK (Buy CDs by this artist)
Poison Summer (Old Scratch) 1986 (SST) 1990
Baby (SST) 1988
El Kabong (SST) 1989
Trotsky Icepick Presents Danny and the Doorknobs in 'Poison Summer' (SST) 1989
DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS
Poison Summer (Old Scratch) 1985

Formed by the unification of two talented veterans of the LA indie-rock scene — ex-100 Flowers guitarist/singer Kjehl Johansen and ex-Last keyboardist/guitarist/singer Vitus Mataré — Trotsky Icepick began life as a trio (with ex-Last drummer John Frank), striking a workable stylistic compromise between the two fraternal bands. Rather than just play airy/edgy pop (friendlier than 100 Flowers and more modern than the Last), the group hit on a Big Concept: keep the same title for every album, and change the band name instead!

Recorded two years prior to its 1985 release, Danny and the Doorknobs' clear-vinyl Poison Summer is a neat little pop record — underproduced and haphazard, perhaps, but sprinkled with good songs (like the title track) and skillfully varied arrangements. (Granted a more explanatory title, this debut was later overhauled — replacing several tracks with vintage outtakes — remixed and reissued in an inferior sleeve as Trotsky Icepick Presents Danny and the Doorknobs in 'Poison Summer'.)

The second Poison Summer, an entirely different 1986 LP credited from the get-go to Trotsky Icepick, was recorded as a quartet in which the arrival of a keyboardist allowed Mataré to concentrate on guitar. Harmony vocals and improvements on every front — studio sound, twin-guitar arrangements, melodies, lyrics — make the LP a treat, a crisply uncommercial demonstration of unstylized pop with intelligently offbeat lyrics.

Abandoning the name game and dispensing with keyboards entirely, Mataré and Johansen then drafted two new bandmates — ex-Leaving Trains drummer Jason Kahn and ex-Last bassist/guitarist John Rosewell — for Baby, a louder, thicker rock album of tuneful songs about hated crooners ("Bury Manilow"), lost loves ("Mar Vista Bus Stop," the fingerpicked folk of "Robitussin Rag") and the evils of advertising ("Don't Buy It").

Upon Kahn's departure (to join the Universal Congress Of), the Trotskys absorbed another Last alumnus (drummer Hunter Crowley, a sorry substitute) and another 100 Flowers alumnus (singer John Talley-Jones, a solid asset). Thus constituted, the quintet made El Kabong, a well-integrated blend of fascinating lyrics and intricately textured catchy guitar rock. Besides a cover of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me," TI takes another swipe at rampant consumerism ("The Conveniences of Life") and explores bizarre corners of the imagination in weird character studies. (The CD has three bonus tracks.)

[Ira Robbins]
See also Last, 100 Flowers

ira wrote:

> Plus, it's the only place that reviews all of the Trotsky
> Icepick albums (a personal fave)...
>
> ahem...
>
> TROTSKY ICEPICK (Buy CDs by this artist)
> Poison Summer (Old Scratch) 1986 (SST) 1990
> Baby (SST) 1988
> El Kabong (SST) 1989
> Trotsky Icepick Presents Danny and the Doorknobs in 'Poison
> Summer' (SST) 1989
> DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS
> Poison Summer (Old Scratch) 1985
>


that's not ALL of the trotsky icepick albums.

you forgot ultraviolet catastrophe, carpetbomb the riff and hot pop hello.

i stand corrected. update, please...

Jeez, that was a short stint on the dole, erik.
Without much fanfare, It sure sounds like ira just passed you the torch, now that HE's pleading for updates like everyone else!

If so congratulations!
I don't wanna piss on the parade or anything, however, I should therefore, begin to deal with the fact that the ted leo CD I just bought at the ole masters recommendation just might be the one that closes out my collection. And goddamnit, if that fucking fat lady starts to sing, someone shove a cork in her mouth!

On the brightside, there's still plenty of R Stevie Moore Cassettes to buy.

PS allmusicguide IS good general, if hindsight oriented reading.
But TP was there in the beginning.
Beginning?
Yup, well, still in it's teens when the second revolution hit who, dylan, VU, Small Faces & beatles, but TP was there for the rest...Dolls, Ramones, (and how about that '75 Milk n Cookies interview that is floating around on the net? where WAS allmusicguide then?) Costello, Roxy, Clash, Pistols, the eighties, 90's to today.

Hence, not hindsight oriented.

And while good points are chalked up before me on this thread, about the future of music criticism perhaps the most indicative point I can make comes directly from steven ward's interview with the creator himself (I'm paraphrasing) WARD: Would you ever want to run a magazine again?
IRA: "maybe for a million bucks and total creative control "
'Tis now more than ever...
Talk is cheap.
Unfortunately, so is the cost to buy most other music critics.



Post Edited (06-19-07 17:17)

With all due respect, that was a "buck" not a "torch" that was passed...and it was passed to Heff, not me. I'm awaiting my AMG pink slip.

see what i mean.

I'm going to take a stance here as someone who has written for both (much more for AMG, frankly). You're really sacrificing accuracy at times at AMG...TP has major quality control for accuracy, and the insights in AMG fall far short of TP with the exception of a few writers.

But you all knew this.

I think I'm out of a job.

Breno, if this situation ever happens to you again, you just ask the following question to the salesperson: "Does welfare pay for it?"

I haven't been able to stomach the american music mags for a while now. I shell out the bucks every month for Mojo and Uncut (both from the UK). The amount of content they have in their magazines (both reviews and articles) are amazing compared to Spin and Blender and they treat the old stuff with as much respect as the new.

And you get a free CD which sorta justifies my $9.00 and issue I guess.

Honestly, I think the two best mags to read are The Wire and Kerrang

The high brow mixes with the low brow and you get a good picture of music today.

My 2 cents.

DD

you're the Trotsky candidate
submit an update
go Heff!

(and let's work on the wikipedia presence problem)

I'm old (OLD, I tell ya!) enough to remember back when Spin was actually GOOD, which was the first few years of its existence (including good "singles" and "underground" sections). Alas, it lost a few steps when it came back after the first time it went under and eventually it became a case of diminishing returns (though it was still WAY better than what passes for it now).

Uncut USED to be good, but then they changed format/"editoral direction". Alas I prefer the longer, more in-depth articles of yore to cover stories featuring 50 musicians (many of whom I could care less about) blabbing about their fave Smiths/Beatles/etc. tracks.

In my estimation, SPIN was good through 1998. (Alan Light took over in 1999; take that as you will.) I still remember one of my favorite pieces from 1998, a sociological piece entitled "What the White Boy Means When He Says 'Yo!'."

he likes UNLV basketball?

> I'm old (OLD, I tell ya!) enough to remember back when Spin was
> actually GOOD, which was the first few years of its existence
>

bathing suit issue

paula pierce

nuff said

[s27.photobucket.com]



Post Edited (07-07-07 20:42)

rant-
SPIN turned me over to a freaking collection agency for a subscription that hadn't been received in many years (and had been cancelled peacefully for several years). Imagine a $15 mag subscription on your credit report. Calling them wouldn't clear it up so I asked for all the back issues I'd never received that they said I owed them money for. Focking idiots. One of the managers asked me if I was sure I wasn't reading SPIN. I said, "c'mon, I;m past the age of 22 and have taste in music, why on earth would I read SPIN? Do you not understand your own demographic?". And therein lies their second problem. An absolute waste of trees.

They lost me when their 90 Best Albums of The 90s list featured TLC and The Fugees as well as saying the best Nick Cave album of that time was The Boatman's Call.

I've probably read every issue of SPIN while hating it for the past 10 or 15 years... whichever year it was Faith No More was Artist of the Year was the year I realized I hated SPIN.

Re. Uncut, I was a fan & subscriber for a number of years, then they polled numerous luminaries and concluded "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" the greatest Clash song... Around the same time they paid tribute to Bruce Springsteen by quoting Holly Johnson (of Frankie Goes to Hollywood) referring to Springsteen's "Born to Run" as inferior to his band's remake. Taking the piss and all that, right?

Nothing against "White Man in Hammersmith Palais", but everybody I've ever discussed this with tends to have the same reaction: it's among the better tunes by The Clash, but their best...? Perhaps I was turned off by Moby (Moby? Yes, Moby, the same guy who covers Joy Division and Mission of Burma for Hollywood) taking part in the survey. Unlike Holly Johnson judging Bruce Springsteen, because, as we all know, Holly Johnson is a singer-songwriter's singer-songwriter.

The Brits are taking the piss again!

So anyhow, Alternative Press...Have gotten the last couple of issues (got kind of curious, now that I'm a subscriber again) and it's just a weird experience - it's like running across an old buddy who's had a religious conversion. Still the same guy, yet completely different.

They definitely have an emphasis on emo/pop-punk/Hot Topics target market music that borders on fanzine-ish, yet they still make token attempts to maintain continuity with what they used to be, probably to keep the interest of old geezers still hanging around like Jason Pettigrew, Aaron Burgess and Dave Segal - people I still respect and trust from the old days of AP who seem kind of out of place there today. So the current issue has pop-punkers Paramore on the cover, but there's also a review of the new Mary Timony album and an article on Spoon.

I've pretty much always ignored most of the type of music covered by AP now and kind of disdained them for covering it, but I don't really know why. This stuff has been almost completely ignored by people like Magnet, Under the Radar and Big Takeover, but reading the interviews with the AP youngsters has me realizing that they definitely have as much right to the name alternative rock as the bands covered in Magnet, etc. But where Magnet, etc., were willing to embrace (up to a point) Green Day, Weezer, Rancid and Blink-182, they haven't really been willing to follow the bands inspired by them, while AP has.

I guess basically, AP these days is similar to No Depression - they've chosen one branch of alternative music to concentrate on and followed that. But no one wites off No Depression for covering the Old 97s (who once played the Warped Tour, btw) while ignoring Radiohead, but people (myself included) tend to get pissed off at AP for concentrating on their specialty.

But anyhow, in the interest of keeping an open mind I've checked out a few things based on my renewed interest in Alternative Press, and so far I've been pleasantly surprised - the proportion of great to not-great is pretty high. Of course, I've been pretty selective in checking out stuff that actually sounded interesting to me, so still can't vouch for people like Hawthorne Heights or the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, etc.

Excellent:
Against Me - NEW WAVE: The Strokes + Slade + Roger Daltrey.
Tiger Army - MUSIC FROM REGIONS BEYOND: The Clash + The Cramps + a weird bit of New Order

Pretty Great:
My Chemical Romance: THE BLACK PARADE: Queen + The Cure + Sunny Day Real Estate (that sounds dreadful, but I loved every second of it).
Straylight Run - THE NEEDLES THE SPACE: The Cure (again) + Pianosaurus + Laura Viers (why this band is ignored by Magnet, etc, is beyond me)

Good, with potential to be great:
Paramore - RIOT: Green Day + The Primitives (They're pop-punk that's pretty good but nothing great, but they're only about 18 or 19 years old. The song "Misery Business" is great and pretty mature, though, and as they grow up they might be a band worth watching.)

Eh, okay:
New Years Day - MY DEAR: pretty generic pop-punk with a sassy girl singer. Not bad, but nothing special.

So anyhow, I think I'm looking forward to the next couple of years of AP subscription. I've liked enough stuff based on their recommendations to be optimistic about it. (And heck, even in their dark days of nu-Metal emphasis, I discovered the Deftones because of them). Think I'm gonna go hang out at Hot Topic for a while today.

I don't know if the No Depression comparison works; having done a little work for them (which somehow resulted in a lifetime free subscription--a great deal for 3 years of contributing), I would say that their modus operandi has been open-ended enough in recent years (now it's simply "the past, present, and future of American Music" not "alt-country") to allow in a lot of unpredictable choices: features on Bright Eyes, Shins, and Elvis Costello...and sometimes even a stab at a borderline mainstream country artist. The most recent issue had articles on country legend Porter Wagoner, former teen-pop star Mandy Moore, baby-boomer folkie Loudon Wainwright III, and Nick Lowe. Tough to nail down or categorize.



Post Edited (07-14-07 10:34)

True, but what I meant was that No Depression, by and large, does deal with a specialized niche (alt-country/Americana/roots music) but has a pretty broad view of that niche. Alternative Press these days deals in narrow niche (pop-punk/emo/skate-punk) but is broad enough view to cover people like Spoon, Bright Eyes, Mary Timony or Queens of the Stone Age and gives shout-outs to Wilco and They Might Be Giants (and I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they also covered the new Mandy Moore album, although their readers would probably crucify them even more than some No Depression readers will).

So I stand by the comparison - both mags largely cover specialized chunks of alternative music, but I would say No Depression hits the parents and Alternative Press hits the kids. And Bright Eyes seems to be where they overlap.

So does that make Conor Oberst all things to all people?

(I just discovered there's no Bright Eyes entry on TP. Another person I could've sworn had one.)



Post Edited (07-14-07 11:34)

Excellent:
Against Me - NEW WAVE: The Strokes + Slade + Roger Daltrey.


This is very intriguing

Thanks for the insight/critique, Reno. I definitely will be checking out Against Me and Straylight Run.

I already picked The Black Parade out of the used CD bin, and like you, enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.

On the other hand, I've seen Tiger Army as an opening act at least three times. They delivered a lot each time, in terms of energy and sheer pummeling force, but I thought they came up awfully short in the songwriting department. (I did a little checking, and yep, this is the same band we're talking about.)