quote:

The recent Oasis and Ben Folds records came out as DualDisc and regular disc, although the Ben Folds regular disc was in the special book package only.

Is Springsteen out in a regular CD?

Not that I know of.

I thought of that, after the fact. I think the Springsteen and Ben Folds were made available only as DualDiscs (except the special edition of the Ben Folds in the book pack).

I haven't tried to play my only DualDisc (the new Oasis) in my car...I'm curious now.

Least fav's are the usual suspects...Blender, Q(although I like to read their takes on Canadian releases...mostly they are good), Pitchfork was funny in the beginning but snobby and tiresome now.

I still like my Rolling Stone, and for my monthly in take, Exclaim! is my ultimate fav, as I read/re-read it several times over the course of 2 months, always checking in with it, and...it's FREE!!!! (June coming out today...yes, I am salivating). Spin is not bad, I usually gloss over their ratings and pick a few interesting reviews to read.

On-line....I check out The Guardian, Stylus, and Dusted more frequently than others.

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I haven't tried to play my only DualDisc (the new Oasis) in my car...I'm curious now.

Be careful. Slot players can scratch the flip side, meaning you could destroy the DVD half of it.

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
has anybody mentioned tinymixtapes?Their random mixtape generator is good fun.I have not read all the posts here...so if someone has i appologize.

No, no one's mentioned TMT. Two other threads spend time bashing it though. Thanks, Imprezu21. At least someone got some enjoyment from the site. Got my first hate mail the other day too. Apparently the Kings Of Leon have fans.

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Originally posted by Smenkharon:
Exclaim magazine, a free newspaper in Canada that does an excellent job. Check them out at exclaim.ca.

I love Exclaim too. It's free and way better than Rolling Stone for reviews...a little lacking in some areas but, after Chart, that's the Canadian mag I'd most like to write for some day.

Is it just me or does it seem that Pop Matters has an insane amount of daily reviews lately.

Today they have 9!!!

Yeah, Popmatters is a pretty comprehensive site. I've found myself going there more and more often lately. They also have a lot of great features.

I agree to an extent with what Fastnbulbous said about interviews often being tainted by marketing juggernauts. Just as much depends on the skill of the interviewer as on the disposition of the interviewee. Asking questions like 'so what is that song really about' is of course so annoyingly pointless that it makes you want to gouge out your own ear drums, but a good interview can occasionally be quite entertaining.

For good publications and interesting reads I would recommened Stereogum, Word Magazine and a new online mag called Rockbeatstone, I apologise if they have been mentioned heartily before...oh and of course Loose Lips Sink Ships (mentioned before, but I felt I had to endorse)

I've started to like cokemachineglow more and more. Their scores match up to my taste quite a bit, and I like a few of their writers a lot.

I'd say the worst is Rolling Stone, which I say only because they used to be so reputable. Just about everthing gets 3 or 3 1/2 stars now. It seems like they're afraid to really pan anything, especially stuff released by established artists. Sure the new Sufjan Stevens album got 4 stars, but it doesn't mean that much considering they gave the new Oasis album 3 1/2 stars. At least Pitchfork has the balls to call a turd a turd.

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Originally posted by DanW:
I agree to an extent with what Fastnbulbous said about interviews often being tainted by marketing juggernauts. Just as much depends on the skill of the interviewer as on the disposition of the interviewee.

Yep.

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Originally posted by dano:
I've started to like cokemachineglow more and more. Their scores match up to my taste quite a bit, and I like a few of their writers a lot.

Yeah, I feel like they have some of the best writers out there, particular a guy named Amir Nezar. They just redesigned their site and added some new features. I also like how they list reviewer's and combined scores. Even better, they're going to start including comments from the writers who didn't review the album. I think that's a great idea.

I was actuallying thinking of Amir specifically when I wrote that post. His critique of critics was excellent.

One online review source I'm respecting is Shakingthrough. It seems under-resourced but they have an interesting 00's best-of on their page right now.

Alex Petrides at the Gurardian is pretty good too.

I got my own mixtape at Tinymixtapes. How sweet is that?

Of course, the worst sources for reviews are those magazines/webzines that just pretend to be about music, like Rolling Stone, NME, Q etc.

Choosing a best one is hard. Pitchfork used to be great, but has gone way downhill. From the reviews of theirs I've read, Fakejazz seems pretty good (despite their silly review scale, which seems to have been custom-designed to make calculating a percentage score more difficult), but I'm not going to jump the gun and name that one as a favourite yet.

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Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
I got my own mixtape at Tinymixtapes. How sweet is that?

Which one was yours? You know, we're always looking for mixtape help too if you just like making mixtapes.

Mine was the "Where is Little Orange Bear?" tape (hence the name RL). I've never really made mixtapes before, and I don't know if I'd be any good at it. Maybe I'll decide to give it a shot sometime though.

imo, blender have no place being a magazine of serious music reviewing. they so self-consciously push some populist view of music, encouraging everyone to deride anything that hints at the grandiose or overly ambitious.

the guardian is pretty lazy.

i dont know why Q and NME bother to review records that *aren't* rock. it seems that they write about dance music because they enjoy thrashing it, so i pass on that too.

my personal faves would be NY times and Stylus.