FYI -- Trouser Press Returns

How about the perry farrell, kelly rowland, 50 cent NFL spot with all the flashing Pontiac auto logos ... I saw it this past Sunday and my jaw hit the floor - horrible sounding song ... or maybe I was just depressed after hearing one of my buddies' bands cover 'Mountain Song' the night before ...

Hahaha, I love Jane's (version mark I) but I adore that review still. A masterpiece of outrage.

(xpost)

Well hey, Perry called it for his own career almost 20 years earlier: Nothing's shocking.

This is just one of those late at night things that run through my head, but it would be great if ilxors and writers otherwise who pop in and out of the ilx universe were to take up the long-dormant mantle of the TPRG. I don't know who would even be interested in publishing it, and I don't know how many articles would have to be written (the third edition boasts 1,900 bands critiqued and 6,200 records reviewed), but it's fun to think about anyway.

In pre-internet days, this book used to be my music buying bible.

Yeah, agree it shouldn't languish. I even wrote a handful of entries, but isn't Ira Robbins still involved?

Oh, I didn't mean we should LITERALLY take up the TPRG mantle. Just put together an ilx version. But if Ira could be talked into publishing an updated edition, I'd be the first to order a copy.

I thought about that but I personally like the historic integrity of it. Newer bands and trends should "get their own". It's bad enough we have to read about Jane's Addiction in it, although the review is funny.

Doesn't it seem like the problem with updating that or the Spin alternative record guide isn't just the internet but how alternative music doesn't mean as much, or means too much more, than it used to?

http://pitchfork.com/

fyi, the search box is in the upper right hand corner

Screw that. I WANT A BOOK! (And not that Pitchfork book with 500 records.)

Just noticed a cool feature on the revamped Trouser Press site. Within every artist entry there's the usual discography listed on the upper right corner. If you put your cursor over a particular title, these little record or CD icons appear, and if you click on any of them, it takes you to the Discogs listing. (For albums that were reissued by different labels, the different labels will appear with the icon next to each one.)

I did notice that the other day, and was terrified at these little records popping out.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/a-diy-fanzine-fifty-years-on

Robbins has been planning a party at Bowery Electric, in March, for a fiftieth-anniversary compilation titled “The Best of the Trouser Press,” which he hopes will also draw attention to his recent resuscitation of the name, as a small imprint called Trouser Press Books. “It’s self-publishing, with a little cachet,” he said. Stranded at home during the pandemic, having just retired from a job in syndicated radio news, he found that his labors became retrospective. “I have the mind of an accountant,” he said. “I inventoried my record collection, and then I did an anthology of my writing.” The anthology, “Music in a Word,” fills a thousand pages and three volumes.

Cool!