More Independent Music Magazines Fold

More depressing news from the world of independent music magazines this past week: Seattle’s Resonance has officially closed up shop. Resonance was a regional, controlled circulation magazine for many years before it was finally picked up by one of the bigger distributors. And that’s probably why it never became hugely popular nationwide, at least when compared to its closest competition: URB, XLR8R, and so on. By the time its national distribution started, in other words, it had already enjoyed such a long life a Seattle-only publication. But for my money, it was one of the best designed books in its category, and one of the best curated, too. I worked as an editorial intern at the magazine about four or five years ago, and every issue I was a part of was put together with incredibly precise care, and with a passionately unique attention to detail.

Still, it was a truly independent operation: Andrew Monko was the magazine’s founding editor; he also handled the design and the ad sales, and he did the hiring and the firing. The content and photography came from an almost all-volunteer staff, and the magazine had no office: The entire beast was put together in Monko’s apartment. In his finished attic, actually. So the fact that the magazine lasted as long as it did is really quite an impressive feat, and many of the independently like-minded companies that did business with Resonance over the years were very well aware of that. In fact, Monko sent out an email this week to all the writers and artists who’d contributed to the magazine over the years, and in it, he included quotes from some of those very people. They were little notes of sympathy, really, but in today’s business landscape, how many other publishers can you actually image getting letters like these:

I’m really sorry to hear the print version isn’t viable anymore. I can’t say I’m terribly surprised, I have a pretty good perspective on the economic realities, but that was all the more reason why I was always impressed by Resonance’s longevity. The print world is losing yet another good voice, and that’s a bummer and a bigger deal than our ad balance. I’d be happy to plug the new site on our blog or whatever when the time comes. Stay in touch!      

– Eric Reynolds, Fantagraphics Books  

I am so sorry to hear this news. I was actually just composing an email to the editors of No Depression as well, just heard they are closing their print doors too. Man, a bad day for print all around. I wish you the best of luck and def keep me informed as to how this all shakes out for you guys next year. Who knows where we’ll be by then? I may have been replaced by an mp3 player by fall of 09′ (insert worried face emoticon here).       

– Taylor, Touch & Go Records

Two final notes:

1. The entire final issue of Resonance (#55) is available as a free PDF on the magazine’s website. The proverbial plug was pulled, in fact, right before this one made its trip to the print shop. So if you’d like to see the team’s inadvertent swan song, this is the only way to do so. (Click “Downloads”.)
2. A letter of explanation from Monko can be found here. (Click ”From The Editor”.)

And yes, you read that last letter correctly: No Depression, which was originally a Seattle-based publication as well, has also called it a day. This one is even tougher for me to understand, because aside from being one of the finest music magazines on the market for a long, long time, No Depression didn’t have any competition whatsoever. It seems that they should have had such a potentially large advertising market all to themselves, but I guess the reality is that if you were to break down the ads in any given issue, some could just as comfortably fit in a country music magazine, and the others could go in the pop and rock magazines, or in the independent music zines. Nevertheless, it’s a damn shame; No Depression was enjoyed by many differing stripes of music lovers for many years.

1. Here’s a decent report about the magazine’s folding. [NPR]
2. And here’s something that includes a letter of explanation from the No Depression editorial heads. [Harp]
3. I suppose by now, everyone who cares knows just about everything there is to know about the Punk Planet implosion. But if not, here is a massive list of eulogies. Everyone from the Village Voice to the San Francisco Bay Guardian to MTV loved their Punk Planet, apparently.

Marriage Without Monogamy

About a month ago, I was contracted to write a biweekly column about open relationships and alternative marriages for Tango (www.tangomag.com), a magazine that covers all manner of sex and relationship issues. It’s quite a bit like Nerve, but without the overt hipness, if you know what I mean. Women, supposedly, are the magazine’s intended demographic, but my suspicion is that just as many men are studying its content and taking good notes. At least, they should be. 

Anyway, my column’s first entry, Marriage Without Monogamy, was posted on Tango’s website about a week ago. A few days after that, it was picked up by the Huffington Post, which plugged the story in its Living department under the title, Marriage, Minus the Monogamy. And then all hell broke lose in the Huff Post’s Comments section.

To say that the essay raised a few eyebrows would be an enormous understatement. Not to put too fine a point on it, but these people ripped me a new one. Personally, I think they’re just jealous. And probably undersexed. And they’re definitely taking their lives at least a touch too seriously. But I’ve been in the writing business for a long time now, and it takes a lot for a reader to offend and/or upset me. That said, give these comments a look if you’re interested (but only after reading the essay!), and let me know what you think.

The column’s second entry, by the way, has already been filed. It should be appearing soon on the Tango site, and I’ll post an announcement here as soon as that happens.  

The Return of the Labor Party

Well what in the hell do you know? The Labor Party is officially back in action. How nice. My sincerest apologies for the recent lack of posts, by the way; I’ve been busy with a seriously extreme load of never-ending labor myself lately, and so unfortunately, fun projects that for whatever reason don’t result in actual cash-money have been pushed, every so slightly, onto the back burner. But never mind all that: We’re posting again, we’re keeping strict tabs on the wild, wild world of unusual entrepreneurship, and all is therefore right with the world.

And just in case you’re curious to know exactly what sort of labor has been keeping me so busy as of late: Well … as it happens, not too terribly long ago, my fiancee and I went and bought ourselves a very large house, smack dab in the middle of a relatively large city. And as any of you fellow homeowners out there are already very well aware, being a new homeowner can sometimes be a bit of a pain in the ass, and it can also sometimes feel like a part-time job. Which is to say, it keeps you eternally busy, even if sometimes you can’t really account for exactly what it is you’ve been doing with your time. 

Still, it rules. To wit: As I sit here at this very moment and write, I’ve actually got a contractor and his young lackey hard at work in my basement, three floors beneath me, doing some sort of complicated sealant job that I personally can’t even begin to imagine understanding. So that’s the fun part of being a homeowner: acting all grown-up and serious and shit. And so that’s that, essentially. Welcome back, readers. (Real posts with actual entrepreneurship-related information coming soon. Promise!)      

OMG! I almost forgot: Want to know what it was that actually inspired today’s re-awakening of the Labor Party? Sure you do. It was a totally kick-ass essay by long-time internet writer and current Deadspin editor Will Leitch about how the concept of writer’s block is absolute bullshit if you’re a professional blogger, as he is. (Or if you’re simply a serious writer with a big pile of real work on his/her desk, as opposed to an artiste who can afford [literally and metaphorically] to bitch and moan about how terribly hard it is to fill that horrifyingly blank page with precious prose.) 

Deadspin, by the way, as far as I’m concerned, is an absolutely genius sports blog, and this is coming from someone (me) who has absolutely, positively no interest in sports whatsoever. Deadspin’s schtick, as far as I can tell, is that American sports journalism is complete horseshit, and needs to be overhauled entirely. The thing about it is, I just can’t think of too many blogs out there that are as instantly addictive as Deadspin — and I’m talking about addictive in the same way Gawker used to be addictive before it started to suck — and once again, let’s not forget that I couldn’t care one lick about any sort of professional sport. So, there’s my little pitch for Deadspin — go check it out.

Will Leitch’s essay about writer’s block being an entirely false construct of trustfunders and other lazy fucks who don’t care to actually work for a living is here, on the Publisher’s Weekly website.

Seriously, if you’re a writer, please do yourself a favor and read this one; it may actually give you some much-needed inspiration, as it did for me. Leitch makes a great point about journalism — and for that matter, about writing in general – that I have always agreed with: What we do is a craft, and it is a job. It’s not art. It’s never art. As Leitch says in the PW essay: “Writer’s block is the luxury of those who have no one expecting to hear from them today.” (Amen.)

Finally, if you like Leitch’s PW essay and if you happen to also be a Mediabistro AvantGuild member, take a look at this Q&A between Leitch and MB’s Noah Davis, which was posted today, and in which Leitch talks about how he finished his new book, God Save the Fan, in five months, while also working full-time on Deadspin. (If you’re not an AvantGuild member but you really, really want to read the interview, go ahead and send me a really convincing e-mail, and I might just send it your way as a Word doc. If you’re nice. And if you’re lucky.)