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A couple of years ago I was a fanatic fan of The Wire Magazine, easily one of the best music magazines ever. I remember being so bummed about not ever being able to find all the cool records and artists they wrote about (this was before the internet boom and I lived in a shed in a forest of darkness without money, food, water, air, earth, fire… kind of). All I could do was sit at home dreaming about that stuff, in the end making music by myself and in a way trying to simulate what I imagined some of those records would sound like.
Looking back it’s obvious that The Wire made a huge impact on me and the way I listen to music. I discovered so many great artists – artists that I still rank super high today. It’s the kind of stuff I always return to. Check the covers below and you’ll see what I mean… I worship most of those bands and their creative efforts.
Somehow, when record labels started making use of the internet for real, I kind of lost interest in that particular kind of obscure music. Damn stupid move. Nowadays it’s easy as fuck getting hold of the stuff they’re writing about, but back then it was kind of a drag.
Every now and then I return to my collection of magazines, or I simply buy a new copy and just get going with listening to and ordering some really cool albums from artists I’ve never heard of. The Wire has that effect on me – it inspires and makes me want to listen to music. It doesn’t speculate about uninteresting shit like family tragedies, abortions and mindless crap like that that has got so little to do with music and so much to do with profit, wanting to sell loads of magazines to loads of idiots. No, The Wire deals with quality and reality, pretty much like the amazing TV series…
Way before music like Sunn 0))) became the latest hype among sheep, The Wire was writing about the most extreme sounds of the underground. The first issue was unleashed in May 1982 (!) and started out as a jazz magazine (“jazz, improvised music and…”), and then gradually expanded its content to “modern jazz” like noise, avant garde, techno, dub, drum’n’bass, rap and experimentalism. The tagline says it all: Adventures in modern music.
Now pay tribute to the kings of experimental coverage by visiting the Wire site, read the fresh Sunn 0))) interview and perhaps consider buying an issue or two. It’s well worth it.
Come to think of it, the modern online record store equivalent of the magazine could very well be Dotshop… Check it out as well. Then go b.a.n.a.n.a.s. with your VISA card.
