Vinyl reading matter - what's good?

**Tom B** · 07-06-2007, 09:53 AM

Since the demise of Big Daddy & the short-lived Grand Slam I haven't found any magazine that's worth reading regularly on music. What am I missing?

(I'm sure I'm putting my foot in it as there are bound to be fantastic VV edited publications out there. It's just that I've never found them)

**Brother Logic** · 07-06-2007, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Tom B

Since the demise of Big Daddy & the short-lived Grand Slam I haven't found any magazine that's worth reading regularly on music. What am I missing?

(I'm sure I'm putting my foot in it as there are bound to be fantastic VV edited publications out there. It's just that I've never found them)

Wax Poetics: http://waxpoetics.com/

and (maybe shamedly) I enjoy reading Record Collector...

**Old School Tramp** · 07-06-2007, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by Brother Logic

Wax Poetics: http://waxpoetics.com/

and (maybe shamedly) I enjoy reading Record Collector...

As Gang Starr said "No Shame In My Game"...I still enjoy the odd read

**eric-adams** · 07-06-2007, 12:19 PM

i quite like record collector and Mojo!
i just got the wax poetics parliament special and thats really good.

**Tom B** · 07-06-2007, 12:38 PM

Thanks - never bought Record Collector. I've always been put off by the lack of coverage of soul / funk / disco etc etc. (have they ever done a James Brown feature??)

I quite like Wax Poetics but it's a bit too smug - those Andre Torres editorials make me cringe. And too many cod-intellectual articles on the zeitgeist

And the clincher is no cover CDs - the Big Daddy ones were fantastic

**benjamin hatton** · 07-06-2007, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Tom B

I quite like Wax Poetics but it's a bit too smug - those Andre Torres editorials make me cringe. And too many cod-intellectual articles on the zeitgeist

yeah, I'd agree with you there...I hate those editorials, to be honest I've stopped buying Wax Poetics, aside from the odd great article it's pretty crap...

**eric-adams** · 07-06-2007, 01:00 PM

dont read the bits you dont like then.

every month i buy
Record Collector - though theres hardly anything in it i like.
Mojo - good apart from to many 80s bands in it
Terrorizor - im nearly in it every month
Bizarre - nice photos, the features are rubbish
and anything with hendrix on the cover

**pitch** · 07-06-2007, 01:42 PM

In addition to RC and Mojo, I get:

Wire (sometimes pretentious, sometimes great, but always interesting - always love the Invisible Jukebox interviews)

Uncut (though I'm thinking of giving up on it - gone down hill in the last few months - most annoyingly they have started doing repeats - reprinting old articles from past issues I read the first time - not a good sign!)

Word (I like this as a magazine - usually some good articles across the board)

ETK introduced me to The Sound Projector occasional magazines - I got Vinyl Viands 2006, which is basically a load of reviews of obscure vinyl releases... I shall look for more.

**DJ Sheep** · 07-06-2007, 01:48 PM

I read Scratch magazine too... lots of crap in there, but some excellent articles every issue too!

**Brainbomb** · 07-06-2007, 03:32 PM

I really like Roctober - semi-proffessional publication - you never know what you'll get in an issue but there's usually loads a great things.

Which reminds me it was a long time ago I bought it so might be time to order the latest issue and a couple of back issues as well.

Check out www.roctober.com for contents and selected articles from back issues.

**beddoes** · 07-06-2007, 04:18 PM

I'm with you guys on those Wax Poetics editorials. That dude's insufferable. But I often like the rest of the magazine.

**mr sayers** · 07-06-2007, 06:37 PM

the only one i buy is wax poetics. although i do find some articles hard work like the reggae articles.

i was a fan of big daddy and grandslam

. shame grandslam folded it the only magazine ive ever subscribed to and look what happened

that said ive been thinking of subscribing to wax poetics as it takes rpm (the only shop that stocks it in newcastle) takes ages to get it in.

any one on here subscribed to it? does it work out any cheaper?

**Tom B** · 07-06-2007, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by mr sayers

any one on here subscribed to it? does it work out any cheaper?

I was given a subscription as a present a while ago. It didn't mean a big discount, and what *really* pissed me off was that it was in the shops for a month before my copy turned up.

So my advice is don't bother

**The Divine One** · 07-06-2007, 06:53 PM

B-Music fanzine? Actually, still haven't got the new one.

Maybe they'll read this and just send a box up, eh lads????

**mr sayers** · 07-06-2007, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by Tom B

I was given a subscription as a present a while ago. It didn't mean a big discount, and what *really* pissed me off was that it was in the shops for a month before my copy turned up.

So my advice is don't bother

cheers mate

. don't think i'll bother then.

**bobusan** · 07-06-2007, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by The Divine One

B-Music fanzine? Actually, still haven't got the new one.

Maybe they'll read this and just send a box up, eh lads????

any other good fanzines out there?i still have a longing to read a good fanzine,something thats stuck with me since the ol c86 days.

**Monobrow** · 07-06-2007, 07:50 PM

For new stuff of a dancy persuasion I would recommend FACT - its produced by Phonica records in London. Good writing and reviews sections and its free! Good website too for some stuff www.factmagazine.co.uk Always has a good top 20 of a particular genre - 78's, Italian disco etc

**mendoza** · 07-06-2007, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by mr sayers

any one on here subscribed to it? does it work out any cheaper?

No cheaper and takes forever to get here... I agree on the editorials (i thought it was just me) but think overall it delivers the goods. The B Music freebie mag's great. FACT's good but is a bit 'too cool for school'. MOJO i get and then wonder why

??? I still mis big daddy and grand slam (i also subscribed and lost some £).

**pencilface** · 08-06-2007, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by mendoza

No cheaper and takes forever to get here... I agree on the editorials (i thought it was just me) but think overall it delivers the goods.

i get my subscription to Wax Poetics for free as i drew the pictutre of DJ Jazzy Jay what was in issue 13 (or there abouts..). i think it might be a lifetime one as i seem to have had it for a few years now!!! ace. t'was my first published illustration!!! i dont have much interest in some of the poncey modern soul stuff bit its SOOOO well designed and printed that its great.

- and just to add : mine used to come dead late but the last 3-4 issues have arrived loads before ive seen it on sale anywhere. maybe theyve bucked their ideas up.

**pencilface** · 08-06-2007, 02:29 AM

Originally Posted by mendoza

I still miss big daddy and grand slam

yeah -- they were the best!!! those jerks must be dreaming up another way to relaunch the magazine again, surely??

i enjoy reading Vice (mainly because its free...) for the music stuff (and the cunty jokes)-- i have never ever heard of any band they feature in there!!! im totally out of the loop with modern music ..... i wish i wasnt.

i cant afford to be slightly obbsessed with both old AND new music though...

**mr sayers** · 08-06-2007, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by pencilface

yeah -- they were the best!!! those jerks must be dreaming up another way to relaunch the magazine again, surely??

i enjoy reading Vice (mainly because its free...) for the music stuff (and the cunty jokes)-- i have never ever heard of any band they feature in there!!! im totally out of the loop with modern music ..... i wish i wasnt.

i cant afford to be slightly obbsessed with both old AND new music though...

i used to pick up vice because it was free but i find it too irritating so i leave it now!

**wayne** · 08-06-2007, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by mr sayers

i used to pick up vice because it was free but i find it too irritating so i leave it now!

Vice is the sugaRape magazine from Nathan Barley unaccountably manifested in the real world, isn't it? Always feels like it to me, anyway...

Not a magazine (and come to think of it, strictly a read about bits of cardboard rather than vinyl) but I did recently pick up Dori Hadar's excellent Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career Of An Imaginary Soul Superstar (Princeton Architectural Press) which should appeal to most VV folk I think. Fascinating stuff, and very lavishly illustrated.

**benjamin hatton** · 08-06-2007, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by wayne

Vice is the sugaRape magazine from Nathan Barley unaccountably manifested in the real world, isn't it? Always feels like it to me, anyway...

spot on...
(btw your record should be with you by now Wayne? with a couple of B-Music mags in there too

)

**Hadrian Elephant** · 08-06-2007, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by pencilface

yeah -- they were the best!!! those jerks must be dreaming up another way to relaunch the magazine again, surely??

http://www.inyourarea.150m.com/georgemahood.html

Scroll down to the second from last question (and then read the whole interview in full of course!)

**peretti** · 08-06-2007, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by eric-adams

dont read the bits you dont like then.

every month i buy
Record Collector - though theres hardly anything in it i like.
Mojo - good apart from to many 80s bands in it
Terrorizor - im nearly in it every month
Bizarre - nice photos, the features are rubbish
and anything with hendrix on the cover

So... are you in it nearly every week or just nearly in it every week?

**vinylism** · 08-06-2007, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by wayne

Vice is the sugaRape magazine from Nathan Barley unaccountably manifested in the real world, isn't it? Always feels like it to me, anyway....

totally. it's a real f**k-up of a magazine. even when they get an interesting feature (recently they had a small piece on the italian cosmic scene from the early 80's) they somehow manage to make it unreadable.

**alanmck** · 09-06-2007, 01:21 AM

so nobody reads "straight no chaser" any more, then?

nor do I.

**pencilface** · 09-06-2007, 01:47 AM

Originally Posted by wayne

Vice is the sugaRape magazine from Nathan Barley unaccountably manifested in the real world, isn't it? Always feels like it to me, anyway...
.

it is like that, yeah... but surely thats the point. rammed full of pointlessly contrary view points and infuriatingly snide features. i always guessed you were supposed to take it all with a mouthful of salt... i'd rather read something with a bit of spark and balls (no matter how disgustingly smug and trendy) then yet another "Mojo - the Who special" or something like that.

but there's always people knocking about who seeem to be like vice magazine personified. cunts, in other words.

whether i would still be reading it if it wasn't free is another question...

**wayne** · 09-06-2007, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by alanmck

so nobody reads "straight no chaser" any more, then?

Used to look at it quite often way back, but think I listened to several dozen too many bland coffee table records on their recommendation to maintain an interest. Still gets stocked at the local newsagents, though, so I suppose somebody's reading it. I feel I should stick up for Folk Roots here too - not a regular read, but occasionally has interesting features on stuff you can't find elsewhere. Observer Music Monthly is mostly not much cop, but to be fair has raised its game a bit the last couple of issues: Cambodian Rock, Iranian music scene, Iron Maiden in India, the less credible end of the German cosmic synth scene of the 70s...it can't go on, I'm sure, but a few good reads in there while it lasts. My favourite magazine of the moment isn't a music title at all, but Mark Pilkington's Strange Attractor which comes as a hulking paperback book, full of very well written articles on outsider artists, tunnels under Liverpool, Burmese transgender shamanic possession festivals, psychoactive bestiaries, Hans Christian Anderson's collages and the music of Martin Denny...

**wayne** · 09-06-2007, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by pencilface

it is like that, yeah... but surely thats the point. rammed full of pointlessly contrary view points and infuriatingly snide features. i always guessed you were supposed to take it all with a mouthful of salt... i'd rather read something with a bit of spark and balls (no matter how disgustingly smug and trendy) then yet another "Mojo - the Who special" or something like that.

but there's always people knocking about who seeem to be like vice magazine personified. cunts, in other words.

whether i would still be reading it if it wasn't free is another question...

To be fair to them, their Poverty Issue had some decent stuff in it, and there's the odd decent piece in with all the posturing shite, but generally its approach strikes me less as real 'balls' and more as the creation of marketing teams and media students whoring after advertising spreads from fashion corporations who want to be seen as a bit 'edgy', which I suppose it is. If you're talking free reads, and ever pass through Nottingham, grab a copy of Leftlion, which really does have grit and balls, and can be found online as well - last issue managed to interview James Last along with everything else. Besides, Al Needham's 'May Contain Notts' columns are one of the funniest things currently getting into print. If he ever decides to go to That London, he'll be the new Charlie Booker/Victor Lewis Smith...luckily he's decided to stay here and not get paid instead. I think some of the old Big Daddy people are regular contributors, too.