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New Music Paper...

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Regrettable Juvenilia

10:45 / 07.10.04

One more thing - honest: "we're all agreed that the editorial in question from the ezine mail out was toss....
but as that was an article sent out in January". Sorry, but Tom Artrocker's political views (including support for the invasion of Iraq, complaints that people aren't allowed to talk about race - whatever could he mean? - and some 'interesting' ideas about crime in London) have cropped up in many editorials. He's pretty unapologetic about this, and I doubt he'd want it to be downplayed.

11:35 / 07.10.04

fly, Bush, Rizla...

i agree with your sentiments re right wing cack- maybe i'm not as familiar with the editorials as you, its upsetting when misguided poltics mix with something you like. To be honest I feel a little embarrassed- like a friend has let me down? I don't want to defend that kind of dirge- its just a little frustrating that great evenings at the buffalo bar- watching great bands- can be hijacked by such ludicrous wank- and a worthy agenda of supporting new bands and a scene has - by proxy put its name to political nonsence.

It's a little annoying that when quoting me you failed to quote me fully...

"but as that was an article sent out in January and we still don't know what the magazine itself is like- so lets get back to the original question is there a need for it?"

I have from the start of this thread been asking about the magazine and what it is like- which has constantly been side tracked to a really dodgy editorial on an ezine- whether rightly or wrongly- i would love for the thread to return to the original topic- or rephrase the question...
Do we need a music paper that isn't the NME/ Q/ Mojo.
I think this includes the likes of Plan B, and Loose Lips in the wake of Careless Talk costs lives and artrocker- as well as ezines such as Drowned in sound...

The plan B stuff looks ace, and noticing that it's Everett True and its about to go into its second print edition it definitely looks worthwhile- maybe this is how music mags should be run? It also looks like it covers a really good spectrum of bands- so maybe the underground is covered- i just wasn't underground enough to notice!

On a kaitO note- kind of imagine Elastica- but more minimal- or a squeeky version of the Fall- difficult to describe really- i bit odd definitely...

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:09 / 07.10.04

I tried to cover this in an earlier post, and now there's a thread about it: basically, do we need other ways of getting to read good writing about music? Yes, definitely. Do we need a new print publication to do that? I'm not sure. Certainly there are always advantages to a magazine you hold in your hand - things that can't be replicated online - and one thing Careless Talk, Plan B and Loose Lips have often done is ensure that the magazines themselves have aesthetic value as objects. But I'm not sure the relatively small number of music publications that exist at present means that we should want there to be more to the extent that we overlook problems with a new addition, if that makes sense.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:16 / 07.10.04

Do we need a music paper that isn't the NME/ Q/ Mojo.

Well, we do... Kerrang, Metal Hammer, Word, Plan B... lots of different magazines serving different markets - Mojo is nostalgic, Q smug, Uncut nostalgic *and* smug. If anything, we seem to have a slew of monthlys that are unduly reverential while also reviewing a fair amount of "indie-mainstream" gubbins. In that context, is there a need for a magazine about comparatively obscure UK music? Well, yes, if there's a market for it. I think the ezine thing is quite important - it allows the traditional fanzine a potentially far greater reach. Whereas if you are aiming something basically at metropolitan connoisseurs, a print thing distributed through record shops might make sense - Artrocker, I imagine, is not much aiming for the lonely teenager in the provinces reading about the MSPs in the Melody Maker. Perhaps it and Plan B coudl either compete or coexist, with Artrocker as an editorial-free guide to gigs in London by those bands it covers...

12:53 / 07.10.04

as the questionable editorial proved there seems to be a link with music journalism and smugness.
Maybe this is the advantage of ezines? I will post on your thread about this haus... i think as i was writing my last mail you were posting your new thread and i think i may start repeating myself...

12:56 / 07.10.04

Would it also be derailing the thread if I asked what Kaito are like? Rizla, you're a fan are you not?

Last time I looked, KaitO were fuzzy, mutilated guitars, silly rollicking stop/start songs, warped kids toy noises and largely wordless sing-song girl yelping. Obviously all of these things are good and lots of fun, though possibly an acquired taste - I'd say they're a larger portion of underground indie nuttiness and a smaller portion of Pop.

Either way though, they sure look cool.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

14:41 / 07.10.04

Kid toys? Do they circuit bend?

14:49 / 07.10.04

I dunno.

Last time I saw them play I seem to recall seeing a kiddies honking electronic trumpet thingy being played through a guitar pick-up. Which was nice.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

15:17 / 07.10.04

Dude, that's really awesome. Someone I know reckons he bent a speak n' spell to say "fuckhole".

14:58 / 13.10.04

so has anybody seen a copy yet?

Miss K where do we buy it? I tried the newsagent but was told they didn't stock it?
Any ideas?

15:10 / 13.10.04

I saw a copy in my local record emporium. The cover looks really cool, but after a brief flick through I didn't see that much that immediately grabbed my attention, and so taking into account aforementioned doubts about the editor's politics (he sounds like a right one), I decided to give it a miss.

17:31 / 13.10.04

You should be able to get it at shops like FOP and Selectadisc, Sister Ray and Reckless in London, Copey's Brick. Not sure whether there's any newsstand. I doubt it at the moment.

Tom Artrocker isn't the editor any more, Rizla. He's still the co-proprietor but editorial duties for the paper have been handed to Marc Sallis, a splendid guitarist and former member of The Dirty and for online to Dave Taylor, another splendid guitarist and a member of Electric Shocks. Tom is now just writing reviews.

07:55 / 04.11.04

I finally saw a copy- and despite all the negative thoughts on this board decided to buy a copy to make up my own mind..
My own thoughts were- as I suspected- why does this need to be a magazine? The paper was largely underground garage rock (KaitO, Gin Palace, Willowz) with the odd concession to more corporate 'indie'- an interpol and a mooney suzuki live review- and the tokenistic page of hip hop- reminiscent of my youth, when I actually bought the nme & melody maker...
Everett true gave us a feature on Bands against bush- and we had lots of indie releases courtesy of rough trade....
I was slightly suspicious of The Gin Palace getting a blinding review for their 'kicking on' album- (i have it, its ok -but album of the week?) bigger than any other review- and mysteriously the only band not to have their label listed (yup artrocker..)
By and large the right wingers were thin on the ground although I did suspicisously eye one article entitled 'Music Facist let loose on the River'- but it turned out to be a week of live music reviews by one of the ladies in the scha la la's.
By and large the paper was nothing to write home about- most of the reviews i could have read online- with a message board attached to provide a forum to discuss, lots of articles were scrappy and felt a bit school magazine/ fanziney...
I had hoped for more- i guess my own nostalgia for my teenage years had buttered me up to believe that a new magazine about music was a great way to fight 'the man' (as if he needed fighting)- the truth is it looks old and outdated- the real reason why we don't have Melody maker, Sounds, Bang, Lime Lizard etc I'm sure is the internet- why wait for a weekly/ monthly release when a live review can be online the following day?
I will still go down to the great nights that the guys put on down at the Buffalo bar & Frog, I'll still buy the artrocker releases and I'll probably occasionally log onto their website, however as far as the magazine goes- it may be one step to far and it'll take a a lot for me to part with my cash for it again...

12:41 / 04.11.04

Actually, I ended up buying a copy of Artrocker too.

I was bored, and the cover looks really cool - I love the logo, name, decision to put Kaito on the front and, y'know, when a publication boasts of being "the world's only weekly rock n' roll newspaper", I'm gotta at least give it a try.

It's ok. In general tone it kind of reminds me of an issue of Punk (the magazine), in the sense of being a kind of semi-fanzine "we're big city scenesters and we like rock n' roll and here's our piecea shit magazine, take it or leave it" kinda thing. Only without most of the stuff that made Punk so good.

Some of the writing strikes me as pretty bad, some of it borders on good, the layout's weekly-newspaper-functional (the endless "cntd. on p.49" stuff is infuriating, but doubtless allows them to fit more stuff in, so fair nuff).

Most of the bands it covers are ones I quite like, but with few that really blow my mind. The album reviews are obscenely short.

I guess it makes a pleasant alternative to the NME for anyone who demands a weekly fix of scruffy characters with guitars.

Not a very thorough analyis but I'm in a hurry.

15:09 / 04.11.04

God that sounds really snippy and grumpy doesn't it?

Sorry. As I say, the magazine's ok. I'd rather have it exist than not exist, even if the editor-in-chief is a fascist and stuff. (At least he's keeping it to himself and not actually writing much.) It must be a great resource for people in London - good listings etc.

17:54 / 26.01.05

just bumping this thread cos I went to an artrocker night last week and couldn't get in! The queue ran around the black past the tube station- appartently this is becoming a regular event- the paper maybe responsible?

I haven't bought one since the first issue and hadn't been to the club since September when it all started kicking off- has anybody been following the papers progress? Rizla you seemed to quite like it? The name seems to be getting conected to lots of new nights- at the marquee, the garage, buffalo, frog etc- are the kidz buying in? as i said earlier in the thread the writings pretty bad- but the nights are pretty good (they got the only other Comets on Fire gig in London- about midnight at the dirty water club after the Copey gig) so doing something right? any other thoughts- certainly a little bit refreshing - even if they are facist pigs...

10:04 / 01.02.05

The clubs have been very heavily attended recently. I think Artrocker's focus is shifting more towards promotion and the magazine and away from the label, which hasn't been good for them, with positive results.

Lst week was also insanely busy due to the added factor of the "next big thing-ness" of Swedish punk poppers Mando Diao who were headlining.

Much touted Clor headline tonight. Should be busy again.

10:11 / 01.02.05

Last week was also insanely busy due to the added factor of the "next big thing-ness" of Swedish punk poppers Mando Diao who were headlining.

Sorry, I meant week before last. My mind's been a fog since last weekend when we went to play in Berlin.

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