Hip-hop magazine Vibe announced today it’s shuttering its print product. It was 16 years old.
Though it lies at the heart of one of my favorite movie punchlines — Office Space’s “What am I supposed to do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?” — Vibe matured into the wide-circ hip-hop rag of record, chronicling the ever-evolving landscapes of urban music, itself no easy task, without ever relenting on its critical focus. It treated hip-hop as an important social and cultural force while maintaining a keen historical perspective and without taking itself too seriously. In short, Vibe called it like it saw it, and its editorials, for a rag of its size and circ, rarely felt like advertorials, a sin committed by so many modern music rags. (I’m looking at you, Rolling Stone.)
The question, then, is this: What becomes hip-hop’s de rigueur mag of record?
This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. Sounds fucking creepy, too:
A bald, child-like creature dangles its legs from a chair as its shoulders rise and fall with rythmic breathing and its black eyes follow movements across the room.
[via]
Governor Sanford,
I am one of the millions of South Carolinians whom you serve, and as a result I will be directly affected by your refusal to allow the Federal government to do what they think is best to help us at this time when we are most in need of their help. While I agree that it sure would be nice to pay off some of the state’s accrued debt, I have to ask: Is now the best time to dig one’s heels in over the issue? While you may not personally be in this situation, the majority of us are in no position to refuse help from anyone for any reason. Judging from that fact (yes, I believe it is a fact), I’m not sure you have the best interests of those whom you serve in mind at this point.
I am perhaps more directly affected by this because I am a public school teacher. The damage that your refusal to accept the Federal Stimulus money will do to the well-being of my family is huge, as I’m sure it will be to countless others, who I must reiterate, you serve. How do I explain to my three young children that they can’t go to the doctor or get the medicine they need because Daddy lost his insurance along with his job? And all because the Governor wanted to have the peace of mind of knowing that the state government’s financial situation is a bit better than it was? I’m not sure they’ll get it, because they are 6, 4 and 3. I’m 30, and I don’t get it.
As a taxpaying South Carolinian and an experienced teacher, I am begging you to consider the well-being of your state’s citizens when making your decision. I am in agreement that I just don’t know how much this stimulus package will really do to right the ship, but I am fully aware of the damage that will be done by refusing the money, especially considering the fact that we will be held responsible for it regardless. You know more about politics than I do, but the way I look at it, there’s no upside to choosing this moment, when we need it most, to steadfastly refuse help when it is offered. Thanks for your time.Most sincerely,
Albert J. KnuckleyEmail this guy and let him know you agree with me (if you do - please do).
E-mail, or call: 803-734-2100
Do it. Do it now.
To be honest, I don’t know that I can say I’ve ever truly liked Bob Dylan. I understand his place in pop music history, and I’ll grant that he’s written some absolutely incredible songs. But I’ve always thought that in lieu of searching for the next Dylan, we should be searching for the next John Prine.
This man is the next John Prine. His name is Joe Pug. He’s 23 years old. He’s from Chicago, and Nation of Heat is one of the finest listens I’ve had in a long time, especially from a singer-songwriter standpoint.
“Hymn 101,” posted above, is the lead track from Nation of Heat. In its four minutes and forty seconds, it weaves complex, poetic lyrics through minimal, plaintive picking, and it’s absolutely beautiful. If you don’t get it, you’re lost to me.
It was less the Citizen Kane of graphic novels than the Ulysses — a vortex of astonishing ideas that could take you years to fully compute.
Been on a big Low kick recently; the above is a performance of “Murderer,” my favorite track on the Minnesota trio’s underrated Drums and Guns, on Minnesota Public Radio. Tonally, this performance is indicative of everything Low is about: Rather than bogging it down in the busy production that characterizes Drums and Guns, this live version of “Murderer” centers around Alan Sparhawk’s hypnotic guitar riff and his utterly fantastic tone — which breaks up ever so beautifully when he digs into his strumming starting around 1:45. The subsequent crescendo, underplayed on the album version, is devastating here, and Mimi Parker’s crystalline harmony with Sparhawk’s melody is heavenly.
Addendum: Below is an exceptional — if poorly recorded — cover by Damien Jurado.
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