| Author | Message | ||
     kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1127 Registered: 05-2005 |
There is an interesting and fairly humorous article in the current issue of The Word called The Cool Wall. Basically it has pictures of musicians on said Cool Wall with their cool status rating being Definetely Uncool, or Uncool, or Cool, or lastly Subzero. In the "subzero" category are Tom Waits, Eno, Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Iggy, Jarvis, Radiohead, Capn Beefheart, Willie Nelson, Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Am I correct in saying that all or most of these have recently received much discussion and much praise here recently? "Definetely Uncool" artists include Sting, Ferry, James Blunt, Rod, Keane, Dido, The Darkness and Snow Patrol. Most, if not all of these have been panned here regularly have they not? "Uncool" includes REM, Oasis, The Who, Arctic Monkeys, Bowie, Madonna, Franz F, Springsteen, Lou Reed, Van M, and Blur. A mixed bag - we have praised and panned most of these here "Cool" includes The Streets, Morrissey, Patti, U2,Joanna Newsom, Jack White, Pete Doherty, Scissor S, Kanye, Beck and Macca. Is anybody in that list cool? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 945 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kev, Beck definately. The guy just oozes cool my man! He doesn't need to try. Other than that, I don't feel Morrissey or any of the pothers are cool do you!? Its quite obvious in a way who is and who will always remain uncool, like you or the Word mentioned above. In a way its all a bit childish innit! Slack journalism maybe, I thought the Word was above that, but maynbe the Word really isn't as cool as I thought it was! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1128 Registered: 05-2005 |
Spence, as I said above I think its supposed to be humorous, as well as evoking debate. Agree about Beck I suppose. I dont think the Word take themselves too seriously, its always full of little articles like this. I suppose half the mag is irreverent stuff like this, the other half is the "serious" stuff like album reviews and interviews. I like this mix, sometimes Uncut and the rest can be too precious, as well as predictable. As I said earlier you just knew Dylan was going to be Uncuts album of the year. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 951 Registered: 05-2005 |
True Kev. Its not a bad mag. I thnik it was this mag that featured an article on album cover art tributes, of a single cover of my mate Jules old band Onionhead, Electric Ladland featured a tasteful tribute to the naked women cover of Jimi Hendrixs Electric Ladyland. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 856 Registered: 05-2005 |
With these magazines I have found in recent months that my loyalty has waned. There have been a couple of Word and Mojo editions that I haven't bought because I know they will just lie unread beside my bed for ages and the CDs with them will just be added to now very large unplayed piles. I have yet to miss any edition of Uncut since it first started having CDs with it in about eight years ago; but I can see a day coming when I will not want to read yet another Beatles story and the CD tracks will not impress me. The last straw with Mojo was the Hendrix edition which featured the execrable Jamie Cullum covering a Hendrix tune on the CD. FFS, are they trying to get a crossover audience from Q? I know at some point, probably soon, I will buy Mojo and Word again, but I've broken the "must get it every month" habit! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 857 Registered: 05-2005 |
BTW, this fall from grace for these mags has been quite swift with me. When I arrived in Heathrow from Sydney last June the first thing I did after having a shower was to spend about 25 pounds buying the latest editions of Uncut, Mojo, Word, NME and Q, along with football magazine When Saturday Comes and that day's edition of The Irish Times (my alma mater) and The Guardian. I read all the others, but it's only now that I've gotten round to reading that edition of Word. Another problem with Word in Sydney is that the cheaper sea mail editions don't seem to come anymore, though you can still get the pretty expensive air mail editions. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 434 Registered: 10-2004 |
Joanna Newsom is most definitely NOT cool. I don't care what anyone says. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 866 Registered: 04-2005 |
None of those magazines are cool enough themselves to the arbiters of what musical artists are cool. Also, I didn't get how artists who sell their songs for advertising or endorse corporate products (Iggy, Dylan, Eno, Willie) could possibly be judged "subzero" cool. | ||
| Paul N Member Username: Pauln Post Number: 6 Registered: 10-2006 |
Padraig, you've made feel better. I've also missed a number of editions of Mojo and the Word. Thought it must be, perhaps not now though. Intersting to see you are still getting When Saturday Comes. I still think it is a good read. Still enjoy Uncut, No Depression and Maverick - have not broken the habit with them yet. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 956 Registered: 05-2005 |
Word mag feels thin. And thin usually means it'll go bust next year, I always feel reading the Word mag that it'll be my last read and it will fold next month! Music mags have had their day in many ways, because we've run out of things to say. So like the multi nationals who remaster, repackage and rerelase time and time again the same old stuff, so too are the mags. Also, I don't think we have any real geniuses in music any more, so really the amgs are more disposable, unless you have a featur on Hendrix or wheover, then you might keep it, readit or buy it again. Sorry if I son't make sense been up since 5am. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1131 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, agree about the advertising thing. tom waits is listed as "subzero" - doesnt he make a big deal of not endorsing his music for ads, even going as far as suing some companies for unauthorized use? I am still a "slave" to these mags, its an addiction that has shifted from buying NME, Sounds and MM every week in the late 70s/80s, to buying these mags monthly. I am as tired as the next man of the endless Dylan/Stones/Hendrix/Beatles features in these mags and actually skip these. I still like to read the album reviews though because its a good barometer of what could be a potential purchase. Although as I said, the reviews for Joanna Ns album are way over the top and wrong in my opinion. Spence, Word is gradually becoming my favourite because it doesnt take itself too seriously. From what I can gather it is the most "indie" of all these mags and is very much a labour of love for Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. They have just a small, tightknit, bunch of journos and I could be wrong but I think you will find Word will outlast Uncut and Mojo. Probably not Q, which is more adverts than music, dont know how they get away with it. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 959 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kev you are quite right, Word is that something a little different, and the fact that like you say ME & DH are behind it is cool. I hope it does last, lets see. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 746 Registered: 03-2005 |
Spence, I assume there are still geniuses at work in music. But remember, people don't usually recognize them until after the fact. This is especially true with the marketing consultant mentality of the multinationals you mention. I do not, however, expect that any of the geniuses will be retreading their personal favorites from the past like so many people are doing now. I instinctively recoil from the word "cool" because it's usually been applied to jerks. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 859 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think Uncut could be the first one to fold. They've lost 20% of their sales in the last year (from 100,000 down to 80,000). That is a disastrous fall. It's why I have not renewed my subscription - no point paying for a year if it folds in a few months. This, of course, just precipitates its possible eventual closure! I almost never buy Q. Once or twice a year when they have a good CD with it. But even these 'good' CDs always have some woeful shit on them too. I am always amazed when I get it that it's exactly the same as it was 20 years ago! The exact same references to Spinal Tap are in every issue for instance. My theory is that it survives precisely because it doesn't change. It's a comfort for people to see that though the Berlin War has fallen and there is war in the middle east, you can still read the same Spinal Tap joke you enjoyed 20 years ago in this month's Q magazine. The guys from Word set up both Q and Mojo in the first place btw. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 860 Registered: 05-2005 |
Oh, and I agree with Randy. There are still geniuses working in the music business. There is always something new and wonderful to be discovered. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 964 Registered: 05-2005 |
True thre are geniuses, but to match the likes of Hendrix, The Who, Nina Simone and the King?? and have the staying power?? quality of output?? | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 100 Registered: 06-2005 |
he company i work for has the music press delivered so i get to read it all without having to buy any of it. there seems to me a real desperation in uncut slapping dylan on the cover again and giving him album of the year. as I have said elsewhere, in my opinion the album is pretty dull and I haven't played it in months. I used to enjoy uncut but it has become so predictable and when you can pre-guess exactly what kind of revue and album will get or what features you’ll find each month there doesn't seem much point in it. it has become the daily mail of music mags, giving its readers the same turgid ego trip down memory lane to some land where they made ‘proper music’. They never question anything; Dylan is god, the who are great, zepplin are fantastic but mention any of these new-fangled young bands and it gets very sniffy. It may patronise one or two newish bands but it comes across about as convincingly as Gordon Brown bigging up the arctic monkeys. I can well understand why its sales might be down 20%. ditto for mojo except it comes over as twice as smug, even the nme is preferable to these two. Q I don’t bother looking at. Word always strikes me as trying too hard and comes over as a slightly better quality version of a sunday supplement. there are a few good mags available though, plan b, artrocker even wire. They’re not brilliant but they’re a damn sight better than any of the above. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 480 Registered: 08-2004 |
The majority of the subzero category are very old Legends. Are they cool for still being alive? | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 101 Registered: 06-2005 |
er... of course meant review in the above. oh and look, i passed 100 posts as well. perhaps i should retire. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1135 Registered: 05-2005 |
Maybe these mags are like bands. The first few years are the best, they may then hit a dip but come back strongly for a few years which I think Mojo did, it seemed to reinvent itself in the early 2000s. Then they get in a rut and should really just give it a rest. Mojo, Uncut and Q = Rolling Stones, The Who and Bruce Springsteen. Time to pull the plug!! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 873 Registered: 05-2005 |
The US version of Rolling Stone magazine is still a good read. Not for the music mind, but the politics. The edition a few months ago with various people writing on how Bush is the worst US President ever was fantastic. They had him with a dunce cap on on the cover! | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 11 Registered: 07-2006 |
i'd agree with kevin on word. i'd almost go as far to say it revels in being unashamedly kinda trashy, but also a lot of fun. i loved that thing in one of the first editions which compiled excerpts of amazon.com user reviews of records. ie...revolver - "one word people - production!?!" | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 884 Registered: 04-2005 |
I nearly choked when you said the U.S. Rolling Stone is still a good read, Padraig, until you used the word "politics." I gave up on it long ago because the music coverage was so bad (all the shirtless boy band idols on the cover, etc.) and never considered the possibility that it might still have good political coverage. I guess it's good to know RS hasn't totally abandoned everything it once stood for. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 876 Registered: 05-2005 |
RS seems to have had a renaissance with its non-musical coverage in recent years Kurt. Their coverage of Iraq has also been excellent. And they also did a terrific on some dumb ass mid-western kids who were smuggling marijuana across the Canadian border. What started small scale eventually was worth millions and involved guns, girls and grass. And then they got caught. It was a really well researched and written story. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 752 Registered: 03-2005 |
Was Rolling Stone ever NOT bad on music? I hope Abigail doesn't retire. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 482 Registered: 08-2004 |
Uncut should never have axed The Reaper. The amount of angry letters they got for it was worth buying the mag for alone. Were you The Reaper, Abigail? | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 104 Registered: 06-2005 |
in a former life i was melody maker's mr agreeable | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 30 Registered: 07-2006 |
ha. me too abigail. and slightly moreso with select! |