Alt.Culture.Guide #3 / $13 / 2:45 / 268M / http:/www.mondogordo.com / This is a huge magazine. When someone looks at the 268 page count, pay attention to the fact that these pages are nearly the size of a normal piece of paper. The font is not large, but it is not small to the point that it is sightist; what I’m trying to say is that there is a lot…
The first week of Einsturzende Neubauten’s new album “Alles Wieder Offen” has resulted in impressive airplay. The record debuted on the CMJ Top 200 at #129! Eighteen stations gave the record enough play to chart it in their Top 30 lists. Of those eighteen, eight were priority stations. ————————-
Nine-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys continues to make musical history as her fourth album As I Am debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums and R&B Albums charts with first week sales of 742,426 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Released November 13th on MBK Entertainment/J Records, As I Am, Alicia now holds the prestigious title as the biggest debut for a female R&B artist in SoundScan history, and the…
This is the only zine that I have read with its thirteenth issue that doesn’t mention the significance of the number at least once. No, forget that, the two editors of the magazine have much more important and fun things to do with their time, and I believe the magazine does better as a result of that. Having articles about old school education films and the most fun roller coasters…
Recorded and filmed on her 2007 Get Loose World Tour, the DVD features 17 songs from her set list (including a cover of Gnarls Barcley’s “Crazy— previously not released in the U.S.), plus 30 minutes of documentary footage. The CD version offers live recordings of 11 songs.
Barenaked Ladies – Talk To The Hand: Live In Michigan / 2007 Shout! Factory / http://www.bnlmusic.com / I have been a fan of the Barenaked Ladies for well over a decade, ever since I first heard “The Old Apartment†on Muchmusic (back before it became a lame MTV knockoff here in the states). Their artist focus show (which had a half hour dedicated to videos by the band) turned me…
With the increasing popularity of its video features, MySpace is no longer simply “a place for friends,†now it’s also a place to watch never-before-seen music videos!
Alco-beat #6 A5/28 Pages, published irregularly from Bowling Green, Ohio. This magazine makes me feel giddy. The writing is so much better in Alco-Beat then pretty much any magazine that I have reviewed for NeuFutur. Articles in this magazine go all across the board in subject matter, but are for the most part tied together by the intelligent style of writing and the humour on each page. How can you…
San Francisco Bay Area’s First To Leave are continuing to generate a buzz since the October 9th release of “Forging a Future.” The record has received rave reveiws from Punknews.org, Wonka Vision, Redefine Magazine, and Neufutur to name a few. The record will also be featured in the January 2008 issue of Alternative Press. To follow this success, the band will be traveling to Japan to perform with Lifetime. Just…
Kelly King – Live The Dream / 2007 TresKneeHows / 15 Tracks / http://www.kellykingsings.com / Kelly King provides a brand of pop music during “Tame Me†that does not really put anything forth that has not been done before in the genre. What is interesting about the track is the chorus, which will put individuals onto the dance floor in masses. The track rapidly slides back into its original state…
Described by Time Magazine as “the album of the 20th century,” Bob Marley’s masterpiece EXODUS celebrates its 30th anniversary and will be commemorated across all media platforms with the release of an special edition CD and DVD/CD combo, available now, as well as the release of a new hardback book and a theatrical tour of cinema screenings of LIVE AT THE RAINBOW in key college markets and major cities across…
Alarm #13 – Full Size/108 Pages[Burnt Zine] $5 / No Trade / Full-Size / 108 Pages / info@alarmpress.com / http://www.alarmpress.com / Alarm Press, PO Box 200069 / Boston, MA 02120 For a magazine that is so glossy (with a color insert in the middle of the zine), there is absolutely nothing in the content department. Seriously, there are three opinion pieces, about 10 interviews with bands and individuals, 1 short…
2007 Performance By Meat Loaf Spans All Three Albums, Including The Hits ‘I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),’ ‘Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad’ And ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’ For the first time, 30 years after the debut of BAT OUT OF HELL — one of the most popular albums in history — all three of the albums in the series come to life with…
Amy Grant – Greatest Hits / 2007 Sparrow / 19 Tracks / http://www.amygrant.com / http://www.sparrowrecords.com / I know that for a while back during my senior year of high school and the summer before the first year of my undergraduate college career, I liked a lot of Christian music. I still never went (and really never have been) to church, but I liked the sound of sounds in that style…
Nothing that makes this world a better place lasts for only three minutes. Nothing of relevance embraces you and abruptly leaves afterwards. Music does not need to be divided into five minute long chapters, verse-chorus-verse. Music needs room not rules, it needs freedom not boundaries – Long Distance Calling make sure to do exactly that.
Agitprop Vol. 2 / :20 / 28M / agitpropzine@hotmail.com / This zine is a very informative look at resisting the system, and it covers much of the “Health and Safety at Militant Actions†booklet, often down to the “Tâ€. I’m not sure which came first, but the “copyleft†present in the zine really makes the question a moot one. Some of the stories are funny, like “Brussel Sprouts and the…
Out on Friendly Fire Recordings January 22nd, 2008. Sharing two members with the ever-popular Shout Out Out Out Out and hailing from Edmonton, Alberta this heavily 60’s influenced psych-pop band will be releasing their debut January 22nd, 2008 through Friendly Fire in the US and Pop Echo Records in Canada. The Whitsundays certainly have a knack for writing yellowed, reverb-wrapped pop music, borrowing from the grand tradition of English psychedelia,…
Matt White – Best Days / 2007 Geffen / 11 Tracks / http://www.mattwhitemusic.com / http://www.geffen.com / Matt White is one of the few artists that we have reviewed that does not have anything in the way of a Wikipedia. This is odd, considering that the vast majority of individuals that have achieved prominence in music have one. This is not to say that White isn’t famous; a quick perusal of…
Kindercore Records is pleased to announce its first official music release after rising from the dead earlier this year. King of Prussia’s debut mini-LP, Save the Scene, will be released on January 29, 2008. It’s the kind of erudite, sparkling pop music that would do the label’s sterling back catalog (Of Montreal, I Am The World Trade Center) proud.
Afunctional #1 / June / Half-Sized / 20 Pages / afunctionul@hotmail.com / http://afunctional.tripod.com / 2 East Franklin Ave. #11 , Minneapolis MN, 5504 / This zine is a real-life representation of all those “independent†publication that magazines like Artnews fondly recall, although no one has ever heard of them. I hadn’t heard of Afunctional until AMC 2003, where Gerald Prokop was tabling. This issue is very carefully done, with a…