Bought a copy of Wire magazine.

Already know plenty about Fugazi (one of my all-time favourite bands) but that primer was immense.

Love looking at the job section. “Yes, I think I will apply for the role of [squints] CEO of the World Bank”

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Yeaaaaaahhhheehhhh
Jazz sections in Wire

One of my favourite discoveries from The Wire

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Pick up a copy every now and then, had a digital subscription at one point and would carefully work through the reviews section listening to each. I gave up on it because although there were undoubtedly some gems, the majority of artists covered seem to be ambient and avant jazz, which just isn’t for me.

I was reading a pretty old back issue there the other day from around 2003. What struck me, particularly leafing through the reviews where there wasn’t much of anything that interested me, is that the magazine has definitely become a lot more expansive, probably hand-in-hand with the fact that most of/a lot of its writers come from very ‘online’ origins, or indeed have become more ‘online’ (was also surprised at seeing some very familiar names on the bylines, didn’t think they’d been writing for the magazine so long).
Back in 2003 it seems to me that it was very much covering music along the lines of Fennesz, or Ambarchi, or Jim O’Rourke - whereas now you really don’t know what you’re getting genre-wise from page to page, and it’s a lot more interesting and less narrow imo - and also probably partially accounts for why it seems less obscure than before.
I could be talking complete bollocks here. I’m only basing it on one issue, from a time that I wasn’t as plugged in to new music. But by god, it was a bit boring.

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I have

have I listened to any of the interesting records I circled? um

Ended up reading it actually. Actually found loads more from the adverts in the mag than the reviews

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the cartoon’s the worst bit, comfortably

I have at least 82 copies of Wire

most of which I have read, up until the last two years during which I have been too sad

I can no longer afford to buy it so I’m working through the back issues.

like this lots

can’t place where it’s even from, which is ace

the second half! I didn’t expect it to get all pretty and drifty

ÂŁ5.95! I guess they must be paying people properly

I try to keep up with buying it, but reading it and digesting it is harder in recent times for personal reasons

discovered a wealth of brilliant stuff in it through the years, tho

remember being put off by it in 2006 or whenever it was I first bought a copy. there was a bit in the Melvins interview about ‘wallowing in the filth of existence’, and I was triggered because I was a sensitive boy and going through some mortal dread depression

(I also sold my friend my copy of ‘Nothing’ by Meshuggah because the lyrics gave me the same death chills)

but the aspects that repelled me ended up fascinating me more and more

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I think it’s closer to a tenner in Ireland when you add in taxes or postage or whatever :frowning:

I want to say Belgium?

Yeah it’s great innit. A delightfully more-ish track.

ooft! that’s a bit rubs

suppose it’s digital as well now? no?

not quite the same, though. can’t circle stuff in biro.

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ah okay! I though maybe former French or Belgium colony because of the language + the sound, but okay

gonna get on it for defs

also feel renewed in my urge to go through back issues looking for gold

Ah yeah. Last thing I need is more time staring at a screen!
Nah i don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about the price of the mag as such - it’s a good magazine and it’s not an unreasonable price at all, especially with the precarious position of most music publications. And Irish prices being a bit higher is nothing new.
It’s just me, I’ve had to cut discretionary expenditure wherever I can of late.

I’m actually enjoying reading the old mags more. Less of a feeling of trying to stay up-to-date, and it’s interesting seeing how things were greeted a few years back. Read a scathing LCD Soundsystem review there last night, it made my evening which admittedly isn’t saying much.

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ah yeah, that’s what I wanted to do, what with all the spare time. properly digest it, try and give stuff a listen?

always found it curious when stuff like that popped up. I feel like a vaguely remember that review? was it the third album?

It was a review of the live album from 2014. Wasn’t really slagging off the music so much as the self-regard of the project by that point.