Mike Bennett reviews the latest from Pansy Division, Chris von Sneidern, Maple Mars, The Trolleyvox, British Sea Power and Poor Luther's Bones. Mike also presents capsule reviews of releases by The Deanna Varagona Trio, Toothpaste 2000, Asteroid No. 4, Freddy & the Four Gone Conclusions, Crash Into June, Danny McDonald, James Kirk, The Fugs, The High Dials, The Pulltops, Kraftwerk and Big Kid. Mike also has another CD-R of The Month. Gary Glauber reviews the latest from Marshall Crenshaw, Lynchpin, The Sleepy Jackson and True Love.

Michael Lynch reviews The Contrarians New York's Newest Hitmakers. Kurt Sampsel reviews a classic reissue by The Cryan' Shames.

Ben Collins contributes reviews of the latest from Exploding Hearts, Junior Senior, Barely Pink, Quasi and The Flops

Robert Pally contributes interviews of Lisa Germano and Bruce Cockburn. If you are a first time visitor, visit our About Us page. Please scroll down for this month's columns and interviews. Click here for back issues.

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Masked but Not Anonymous: Bob Dylan, Live, 1966
and the Death of Rock 'n Roll

as seen by Gary Pig Gold

It seems every time Our Boy Bob scores big with a contemporary piece of new work, he feels secure enough to bless us with another timely peak into his vast, remarkable cache of unreleased gems and once-forgotten treasures. Quaintly dubbed The Bootleg Series, these excavations into the vaults began over a decade ago following the release of the critically acclaimed, Daniel Lanois-produced Oh Mercy album. Said inaugural three-CD bundle of out-takes, subtitled Rare And Unreleased 1961 – 1991, improbably remains one of the more formidable collections of recorded work ever assembled under one box, and has since become an essential part of Dylan’s already more than weighty catalog. Ahh my… if only The Beatles...

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Andrew W.K., the Music Industry and the Pandering Print Media: The Wolf is an Awful Record but Nice Guys Finish First

by Kurt Hernon

My friends Lucas, Geoffrey, Andy and I were in the midst of a third night of vigorous debate as to what exactly the name of our forthcoming Raspberries tribute band should be when I'd finally gotten fed up with the process and announced in a rather dramatic Popov fueled frenzy that I, in fact, was quitting the band. Jaws dropped. Andy was quick with a contrite, "Jesus man. Okay, okay, we'll call ourselves the fucking Nazzberries." I chuckled to myself. "Nazz-fucking-berries," I disdainfully laughed. Nazzberries, you see, had been my choice from day one. My original idea had been to cover both the Raspberries and the Nazz - thus, the clever moniker Nazzberries. But somewhere along the way the cynical prick within brought me around to thinking that the Nazzberries ought to be called the Nazzberries...

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Mike's Blog: NYC, Sparks and Les Paul

by Mike Bennett

This month, my column is going to be more like a blog. Except I hope it's more readable. First things first, I finally made my way to the Big Apple. Yep, 37 years on this planet, and I'd never been. Spent most of my time in Manhattan, and I'm already hankering to come back. It makes the busiest parts of Chicago look like Crossville, Tennessee, almost.

One of the reasons for my visit was to go to Central Park and see Sparks perform...

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Further Observations From a Jangly Music Fan

by Eric Sorensen

When the great blackout of August 14th occurred, I happened to be on business in Manhattan and I had just emptied the contents of my overnight luggage in my hotel room. I was able to fly back to the Washington area from LaGuardia Airport the next morning - because the airline held up a scheduled shuttle until all seats were filled. Never has a $100 cab fare (the usual fare to get from mid-Manhattan to LaGuardia is $25) been so well-spent! Lady Luck smiled on me throughout this experience, as I was able to find a Blimpie's that was still serving sandwiches; I was able to return to my 40th floor room via elevator and sleep in the comfort of my room; and I was able to return to the lobby the next morning via elevator. Many in Manhattan were less fortunate than...

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So Much Music...too Little Time

by Kevin Mathews

Traditionally, it is a record industry norm to flood the market with new releases in September and presumably this year will not be any different. Sometimes it is astonishing to note how much music is actually out there. With technological advancements allowing artists and bands to record competently at home without any significant loss in production quality, the business of recording music is so liberalized now that many CDs out there are D-I-Y projects. Which, believe me, is a good thing. It might leave music consumers with a bit of a task in separating the wheat from the chaff but (and you knew this was coming…) that's why the role of reviewers in pointing music lovers in the general direction does take on greater importance. No, really….

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Quality Print Media, The Almighty Dollar and The Truth

by David Fufkin

As Fufkin enters a second stage with its redesign, I have received requests to advertise on the site and inquiries as to my motivations for upping the ante on what we do here. The truth is that our motivation is the same as it has always been: to tell the truth as we see it in a modern musical landscape. It's tough, because everything costs money, and the major label conglomerates are the ones with the money. Like Kurt Hernon says this month, you really can't trust major print publications in today's society because they rely on advertising from the major media labels. The medium truly is the message, but as Fufkin and sites like PopMatters, In Music We Trust, bangsheet, Swizzlestick and other online publications have shown, the internet is an outlet for The Truth. Luckily, there are still print publications with similar ideals.

In a landscape of media manipulation led by EW, Rolling Stone, Blender and others, there exists publications who deserve support of your hard earned dollar at the newstand and through subscription. This month marks the ten year anniversary of Magnet, a publication...

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