Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music

Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music

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Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music
Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music
An Archaeology of Musician Magazine (Summer Reading Part 2)

An Archaeology of Musician Magazine (Summer Reading Part 2)

The late, great American music magazine (1976 - 1999) has finally been archived online. Dig in.

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Will Hermes
Aug 09, 2024
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Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music
Will Hermes: New Music + Old Music
An Archaeology of Musician Magazine (Summer Reading Part 2)
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This 2nd summer reading post is about top shelf music writing on the internet — sorry if you get sand in your device.

I’ll start with Substacks. These aren’t the first I’ve recommended and won’t be the last; there’s lotsa great stuff here if you know where to look.

I mentioned Neko Case’s forthcoming memoir last week. Check out Entering The Lung for a taste of her voice, wit, passions and musical taste, which may surprise you. Her latest entry (paywall dropped) is on mighty power-pop-punks Redd Kross.

Entering The Lung
HOW DOES MUSIC FEEL TODAY? REDD KROSS
Hello readers. Welcome to another edition of “How Does Music Feel Today?” This is usually a PAID subscriber feature but Redd Kross are on tour RIGHT NOW and I don’t want a single one of you to miss the opportunity to go see them because they are quite simply THE BEST FUCKING LIVE BAND IN AMERICA! (and they are taking their sweet sauce to Europe too!) PU…
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a year ago · 116 likes · 26 comments · Neko Case

Carl Wilson is one of my all-time favorite music writers, in part because his work uses music as a portal to wider truths. See his touchstone book Let’s Talk About Love, which is about personal taste and identity formation while nominally being about Céline Dion (trust me; just read it). This recent essay is about songs and crying, a connection also explored fruitfully by various writers in Brandon Stosuy’s latest, Sad Happens. Have tissues handy.

Carl Wilson, 'Crritic!'
Weepers' paradise
First of all, I want to welcome the rash of new subscribers that arrived this week via a recommendation from Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s newsletter So It Goes. Coincidentally, Tom has just been laid off from his decades-long gig with the AllMusic Guide, owned by Xperi, where his knowledgeable and incisive writeups and reviews of countless thousands of art…
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a year ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Carl Wilson

Finally, Stephen Thomas Erlewine has written volumes for the AllMusic database, plus more expansive things for Pitchfork and elsewhere. I echo Carl’s recommendation; he’s got wide-ranging taste, encyclopedic knowledge, and keeps his spotlight on the music. His latest newsletter surveys worthy new country / country-adjacent LPs and other notables.

So It Goes
July 2024 Music Highlights
This will be the first newsletter I've published since receiving the news that I've been laid off from Xperi, the company that owns the music database once known as Allmusic. I'm still sorting out all the ramifications of this change but I do know that it will allow me to publish a newsletter more frequently, as it won't be something I do in my spare ti…
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a year ago · 28 likes · Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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