Spin, Blender Finally Identical
On that Jewel post, one of you commented "Funny how Spin and RS look more and more like Blender every year."
So that inspired me to do something I was planning to do when I first got the June issues in the mail: scan the covers. (I hate scanning things.)
Can you say Separated At Birth? Of course the insides are the same too -- slanted red and yellow text in easily digestible blurbs, blogger mugshots (Blender: Perez Hilton, Spin: Ultragrrrl), and 3-star Pearl Jam CD reviews that reference Ticketmaster and conclude with "DOWNLOAD: 'Parachutes'" -- but you'll have to take my word for it. I hate scanning things.
As for former (?) Spin EIC Andy Pemberton, Gawker's still stalking him.
Does anyone still read music magazines? Which ones?
Posted at 11:23 AM
Aside from the tabloid-like cover, I think I first realized I wasn't reading Spin when there was a huge feature article about families in Chernobyl. No, not the nuclear music scene (which would've been awesome), an actual attempt to reflect on Chernobyl after 20 years.
I used to get both Blender and Spin, expecting very different kinds of entertainment. Blender was cancelled months ago, yet apparently I'm still getting it every month.
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looks like tabloid crap. what is that cool free mag they have around on newsprint again? arthur? it's based out of the dc area.
i dunno anymore.
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looks like tabloid crap. what is that cool free mag they have around on newsprint again? arthur? it's based out of the dc area.
i dunno anymore.
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I haven't read either one in a long time, but I somehow began getting Maxim and I've noticed that the average "article" length is 1/6 page. So far each issue has only had one article that is longer than one page (but always less than 3!) and thats not an exageration. Is this also the format for Spin and Blender?
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If you want to read a music mag, The Big Takeover is a really good one. Maybe the only good one left. Tons of content for a decent price. I used to read Q, but a few years ago they apparently made a decision to stop being funny and clever about music and just start reppin hard for shitty bands. Shame.
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I read Waxpoetics.... does that count?
I did come across a recent issue of Spin, and I have to say, they really f*cked that one up good. Not that it was brilliant to begin with, but it has seriously taken a dive with his attention-span-shrinking blurbs and lack of any depth, and their wholesale firing/removal of several higher-up writers and editors. Oh well. No loss.
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i was also cracking up on the chernobyl coverage. was this spin's bid at having "serious" journalism ?
there are no good mainstream music mags in the states.
even under the radar, filter, big take over, all of them kinda blow.
uncut/mojo are still decent.
i agree about Q no longer funny, just getting pumped on crap UK dance/punk bands
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A former Spin writer said that the magazine will soon be back to it's indie rock ways, with "even longer stories about even smaller bands" because Pemberton's on his way out.
The only music mags worth reading are British. Mojo's pretty good when they're not covering what Bob Dylan was doing this month 30 years ago.
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Paste is good for eating and reading.
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I skim through Filter. I also enjoy CMJ Music Monthly, although it rarely comes out on a monthly basis anymore.
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I read paste on occasion. The articles are usually boring, and the music and movies it covers usually aren't hip and cool, but at least it covers different territory than most of the blogs and indie media
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I know you hippies will hate this, but there is a magazine called Rolling Stone that is still pretty decent.
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I read Paste and No Depression
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everyone should download "parachutes."
whenever I read paste I feel like I should be 35 years old wearing a tweed jacket and smoking a pipe. Their target audience is Steve Malkmus.
Rolling Stone is still a good magazine...its just a reflex to say it sucks.
I like that that Under the Radar magazine.
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http://www.harpmagazine.com/
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i can only read magnet now. well written and very insightful.
i still have a subscription to spin, which i just want to cancel after the last couple of issues because i was just shocked by how bad it's gotten and how it has become exactly like blender.
i guess somethings cant stay good forever.
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Wasn't there a time when every issue of Spin had at least one serious journalism piece? Topical, well written pieces too, I always thought it was the best thing about the magazine...
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Yeah, i'm thinking Spin had that Chernobyl piece in their files since the late '90s, and had a few pages to fill in the latest issue.
Magnet is a fine indie-rock magazine. What Spin should be.
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MOJO
UNCUT
MAGNET
HARP
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arthur mag
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Nobody ever hear of FADER ?
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i vomited all over the last issue of SPIN after getting it in the mail. now i pay way too much to get Paste to get that awful taste out of my mouth.
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anything with more than one exclamation mark on the cover is usually a 'don't read me' indicator. unless panic! and !!! are on the cover.
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//former Spin writer said that the magazine will soon be back to it's indie rock ways, with "even longer stories about even smaller bands" because Pemberton's on his way out.//
Whatevs. Music monthlies are dead. They have been for a long time.
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I was just thinking about how awful Spin is when I got the new issue in the mail yesterday, with Beyonce on the cover. I don't need Spin to be indie, I just need it to be interesting. It's just not anymore. And I can't wait until my subscription is over.
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Chunklet.
i read cmj a bit til audioslave showed up on the cover; that was the end of that.
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So sad. SPIN had a purpose in the 80s/early 90s, especially for those of us out in the boonies.
It's been irrelevant for at least 10 years, ever since 'alternative' music (remember that?) was embraced by the mainstream.
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So sad. SPIN had a purpose in the 80s/early 90s, especially for those of us out in the boonies.
It's been irrelevant for at least 10 years, ever since 'alternative' music (remember that?) was embraced by the mainstream (remember that?).
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Why didn't you use the Fall Out Boy Spin cover??!! It would have emphasized your point even more.
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Magnet (www.magnetmagazine.com)
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Another vote here for Fader...
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Somehow I got a free subscription to Rolling Stone when I bought tix for a concert at the Avalon in Hollywood. I skim it to confirm why I stopped reading RS in high school. I also always check out NME at the newsstand but never buy it. I like to see what they overenthusiastically hype each week.
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Oooh! Chunklet! Good call!
Okay, I take it back, paper music journo has its place when done with imagination...but music "periodicals" have passed their expiration date.
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FADER.
I also read Rolling Stone, it's actually pretty good, except every 3 or 4 issues or so they make a real dud.
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Magnet and The Big Takeover are pretty much it. Remember WAAAAAY back when Alternative Press used to be good? Jesus, that was like...15 years ago? I even enjoyed CMJ back then...now they're shite.
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Well, doesn't Spin still have Klosterman? For that alone, they remain better than Blender. Course, Esquire has him too, so maybe I'll just go read that.
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NME is the fookin' grea'est music rag in the world. D'You Know Wha I Mean? Tell Mr. Albarn he's still a twat.
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Uh, anyone here like Urb? They have slanted their coverage from all hip-hop and DJ culture to include a lot more electronica and indie rock. Really the only magzine that does a good job with underground acts (except for XLR8R). LL Cool J will never be on the cover but some cat from Anticon will. And yet they are not full of themselves.
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Sentimentalist
Harp
Under The Radar
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Fader is excellent...for the most part.
Harp isn't bad either.
Definitely worth a trip to b&n to read for free: NME, excellent reviews of shows and pictures
Q mag
Word mag (both european publications)
Interview magazine surprisingly has some interesting articles and no...i am not talking about the lindsey lohan/devendra interview.
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magnet, fader, no depression, harp, paste...all those are decent reads
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I'm flying the flag for Giant Robot Magazine. I've been getting some album tips from that rag. I picked up a Hartfield CD because they were featured in one issue.
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I still get Rolling Stone (for the political coverage, if not always the music) and Spin (but not for long), but Big Takeover is the goods.
Monthly music mags are mostly irrelevant now, since music news hits the web so quickly, but Big Takeover has never been about breaking stories or hip new bands, anyway. The interviews are long, and, aside from the many tangents that Jack Rabid seems to encourage about touring and shared acquaintances, interesting. The epic review section is nice, too.
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It's funny, these music magazines. Rap magazines are among the most poorly written publications on the magazine rack. Yet they provide us with terrific news, gossip and photos about America's largest musical expert. On the other hand, legit and established rock/pop magazines still take a "not quite sure what to do" attitude when writing about or examining hip hop. Especially the British ones who often lack the cultural insight to report accurately on why Ghostface Killah is so underrated. Hell, I'm sure they're not quite sure what crunk is.
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Mojo's the only mag I'll read monthly.
I love Chunklet, guess I need to subscribe.
I recently bought an issue of DIW and was disturbed by the fact that there's no substance to it. That's what I get for buying something because of Animal Collective gracing the cover.
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i hate rolling stone because i find the articles to be boring and plainly, if not poorly, written. they cover material that is completely irrelevant to music and their political articles are totally predictable.
i loved spin because, while covering bands that i liked, it wasn't too pretentious to cover more mainstream bands that, sure, i don't care for, but whatever. that, and they were hilarious. ever read the captions?
the last issue i read, the one with the raconteurs on the cover, almost made me cry. i couldn't tell if i was reading rolling stone or spin.
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rolling stone sucks. i like spin, but i don't like the direction they're going in.
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if you want to read a good article pick up this weeks rolling stone and read jonathan lethem's james brown article...it’s top notch stuff. What other magazine can produce a piece like this from such a great writer? Not many, so rolling stone ain’t all that bad.
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Blender is fun.
Spin has sucked since day one.
Current reading:
Q (good reviews)
Rolling Stone (they printed my letter)
Harp (i like their beer too)
Magnet (if i'm really bored)
Creem (what?it's out of print?then why am i still reading it?)
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i like wire. it isn't all noise records and john cage either. they had a great article with the animal collective and another good one recently about fahey.
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I read AP. Then again, I sit at the card table on Thanksgiving, too... Seriously, anybody going to Warped this year?
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the believer
wax poetics
teen people.
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I agree about Sentimentalist. Good Read.
Arthur is decent too.
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+1 on Urb as well. I love the change of direction. I was dumbfounded when they had a blurb on Early Man in one of their issues.
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No, Klosterman is not longer at Spin: http://www.gawker.com/news/chuck-klosterman/chuck-klosterman-spun-out-157796.php
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Does anyone remember "Ray Gun"? Designed to almost unreadable perfection by David Carson, the mag made Spin (when it still cool) look like Rolling Stone. I've kept the first year's issues, and some of the bands they profiled in the mid-nineties are still underground favs today.
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Fader is ok, but what's up with their writing style? They make up words in their attempt to sound cool and hip to the street. Even firing Elliot Aranow hasn't helped them in that regard...
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We subscribe to both Blender and SPIN, but we're calling SPIN "Splender" now. I *hate* their new format, and it sucks that we had just renewed our subscription a few months ago. I'm sure they won't refund if we unsubscribe.
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magnet's the only print magazine worth reading. paste is all right sometimes, but it's way too expensive with those cds it comes with and they have an obvious agenda, always pushing the same artists. i love magnet. anyone who puts antony on the cover is great in my book.
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magnet's the only print magazine worth reading. paste is all right sometimes, but it's way too expensive with those cds it comes with and they have an obvious agenda, always pushing the same artists. i love magnet. anyone who puts antony on the cover is great in my book.
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The only music magazine I take seriously right now is The Fader. I still read Rolling Stone, though it is not my source of new music. They have good political coverage, though.
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Damn, sucks about Klosterman getting sacked/quitting. I guess there is no reason at all to read that shitty rag.
I read:
Paste
Harp
Mojo
Under the Radar
At times: No Depression, Magnet, Uncut
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Reading about new music isn't as much fun as listening to it.
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Dude - why would firing Elliot Aranow make any diffence for Fader when they run stuff written by Nick Catchdubs?
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Who knew Blender was such a pioneer in the first place? Either way, Spin has fallen far and Blender is actually the superior of the two at this point.
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see, i thought the loss of klosterman was an excellent thing. it was when they lost eggers that things really started to take a turn for the worst.
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I actually miss the old Spin. It wasn't the greatest magazine, but Spin covered some decent bands and contained some interesting music-related articles. But after being bought by Hartle Media, everything took a turn for the worst. Everything about Spin now sucks: the new layout, the featured musicians, the photos of stupid drunk hipsters partying, and an ex-porn star/stripper/whatever is the new columnist?
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and check out their websites! they must not have paid for their hosting this month. how lame.
spin.com, spinmagazine.com, and spinmag.com
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Guess I'm a loser. I subscribe to both SPIN and RS. I actually get RS for free, so I find it okay. The 2004 election article by RFK, Jr. made it all worthwhile.
SPIN has gone way downhill. It was already, and now they have ANOTHER new editor-in-chief, who seems to love the idea of making all the big music mags look alike. But at least the reader's letters breakdown pie chart is back.
I've never even looked at Blender.
It is strange how all three adopted the same look and feel at the same time. Who will change first? My guess is SPIN.
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blender may be tabloid like and garish, but it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than spin has been lately [although i've read neither magazine in months]
MOJO
UNDER THE RADAR
FILTER
FADER
i also hit up general magazines to read about good music cause they're alot better than actual music mags sometimes...
L MAGAZINE
NYLON
PAPER
VENUS
yeah and i know that rolling stone is a classic mag but lordy does it bore me to tears. i mean really. and their writers kiss more ass than necessary.
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