Moon Pix

I just mean that all the times Ive picked it up in the store its had at least one article in it about either the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan.

Theres seems to be a lack of new music mentioned in it apart from the odd article. The last time I looked at it there was something about the Arcade Fire but that was like one article out of twenty or something.

My honest opinion of music journalism is that its just a slave to advertising dollars anyway and isnt worth reading. Theres a fairly famous example of an intensely negative review of a Hootie & the Blowfish album getting a writer fired from Rolling Stone magazine. The writer was Jim Derogatis and in the review he described the bands lyrics as "the trite clichés of hack songwriters who just wanna get laid." Rolling Stone ran a more positive review written by Jann Wenner and when asked to explain a spokesman for Rolling Stone said that even though Wenner was not a Hootie & the Blowfish fan he was "a fan of bands that sell eight and a half million copies."

I basically rest my case. Music magazines are bent and can't judge music based on its merits because if they did theyd lose tons of advertising revuenue every year.

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There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Strummer521

I love Derogatis. He wrote Let it Blurt about rock critic hero Lester Bangs (which makes his clash with RS unsurprising, given where his influences lie). He's still stirring up trouble too. Last I heard from him he was on a radio show discussing the angry phone message he'd recieved from Ryan Adams for a bad review. He brings an unflinching honesty to the table that I miss in reviews. I like Jann Wenner to though. In his early days, when he was having heart-to-hearts with Dylan, in which he displayed the passion missing from today's pages where music journalism is often handled like "just another job" Getting to interview people like Dylan is supposed to make a music fan feel incredibly lucky, and I want that excitement transmitted to me as I read. As for your issue with MOJO, I guess it doesn't bother me, because I find old music way more interesting than what's going on today.

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Moon Pix

Im reading Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung at the moment and I really believe having read his article "John Coltrane Lives" that had he wanted he could have been one of the greatest short story writers who ever lived. His passionate style really gets to me.

The ironic thing is that the book is compiled by Greil Marcus, a writer who's overly cerebral style I find to be some of the worst, most unreadable writing ever committed to paper. His book Lipstick Traces is one of the worst crimes committed against music that I can think of. Its even worse than the first Led Zeppelin album and the Tommy movie put together.

__________________
There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall