Sunday, April 18th, 2004

Words On Music

It’s always nice to find something new and interesting on the newsstands. Case in point: Harp Magazine. Their tagline is “Words On Music” and indeed, it contains many many words, mainly about music. The content leans to the singer-songwriter side of the indie/alt worlds, and it comes off as the bastard child of Magnet and No Depression, but somehow slicker and glossier than both. What’s curious to me is the abundance of ads for musical instrument manufacturers – who exactly is the target audience of this publication? Musicians who just want to read about good artists and look at ads for gear? Sign me up. The ads are the only thing I really like in guitar magazines anymore, so if I can get them with some decent editorial content (this month – Sparklehorse, Magnetic Fields, Will Oldham and a Minus 5 cover story), all the better. I haven’t really read anything yet, but it looks to be a very well-put together mag. Anyone know who publishes this? I can’t imagine it doesn’t have someone with deep pockets behind it. It’s a bi-monthly, and I only wish it was published on off-months from Magnet instead of the same month so that I would have something to pick up at the newsstand every month.

The Jay Farrar live album, Stone, Steel & Bright Lights, will come with a bonus DVD that contains 11 live songs from a San Francisco show in January of this year. This practice of issuing DVDs chock full of content with albums? I like it. It’s out June 8.

I bit the bullet and picked up some stuff yesterday that had been on my ‘to get’ list for ages now.

  • Neil Young / Tonight’s The Night – It’s to my shame that I didn’t have this record before now. Hell, I’d never even heard it before now – pretty lame for a self-professed Neil disciple. In fact, I’ve let Decade stand in for his prime 70s material in my collection for too long now. I’m beginning the slow (but thankfully inexpensive) task of building up my collection of Neil.

  • The Replacements / Hootenanny – Holy shit, this thing’s rough. Finally I witness the drunk and disorderly ‘Mats of legend – If nothing else, it makes the achievement of their next album, Let It Be, that much more amazing. These guys must’ve taken some awesome pills sometime between making these two records.

  • Emm Gryner / Asianblue – Been an Emm fan for a long time, but I’d put off getting her latest album for a couple years now for whatever reason. Actually, I know why – her last few releases have all been pretty quiet, piano-led collections. Really nice stuff, but definitely on the sedate side. Much as I liked it, I didn’t need to add more of that to the stacks, so Asianblue stayed on the ‘will get eventually’ list. Well now that I have, it’s like – wow. She’s been saving the rock out for this. While I’d have preferred a little more live drums and a little less programmed drums, it’s easily her most energetic and fully-produced work since Public, this thing is crackling. Bravo, Emm. I knew you still had it in you.

    np – Neil Young / Tonight’s The Night

    By : Frank Yang at 10:49 am
    Category: Uncategorized
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    1. 4/18/04 3:56 pm

       Jeff says:

      If you think Hootenanny is rough, you should get your hands on a copy of Sorry Ma… That one redefines the word rough.

    2. 4/18/04 7:14 pm

       [ Juan ] says:

      I love Emm Gryner. Thanks for reminding me that she had something new out there.

    3. 4/18/04 8:15 pm

       Chachi says:

      If you’re a Replacements fan then you’re probably going to find Hootenanny working its way up your list of favorite records. Paul was coming into his own as a songwriter, and the band was loud, loose and having fun. On the cusp of greatness but not hung up on that potential or bitter about getting passed over by less talented bands.

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