Mojo Magazine: Classic Or Dud

Uncut is better - has better writers and an overall less stuffy outlook. They need to cut down the amount of 'Americana' though, and they seem to fall for any singer songwriter who comes along (Slaid Cleaves, Eileen Rose, Jim White -no thanks). We could do without coverage of Neil Young's every fart, too. That said, I have to say it's great as Mr. Jones the esteemed editor and doyen of rock journos is a neighbour and we use the same fish and chip shop. OK - no more namedropping in future.

Uncut covers more of what I like but in a True Path Of Rebel Rock way I find increasingly rubbish. Too much mythology, not enough insight.

Take the March issue for example. Though it has a disturbing amount of space devoted to ELP and a wretch inducingly hideous front cover, there is a really fantastic article on the Pixies by David Cavanagh. It is worth buying just for that, though I did feel embarassed buying it.

But on other occasions when covering people I like, Mojo pull it off magnificently. The Gainsbourg piece was the last such example.

Tom and Dr C are right about Uncut, I think. Half the time it's fascinating (Reynolds's Kid A thinkpiece, Paul Morley's everlasting way with the language, Chris Roberts making even the hackwork of the film soundtracks roundup read as though he's taking the utmost pleasure from the whole thing), but often you feel as though those involved should get out a little more and stop thinking Americana and singer-songwriters are, like, timeless and worth covering in perpetuity. It's all Jonesy's fault, of course. I could rerun some of Taylor Parkes's jokes about Jones spending most of his spare time roaming the prairie but actually knowing so little that he thought a Jimmy Nail track was by Mark Eitzel, etc., but you've probably got the idea.

I think there'd be a consensus round here about who the good and the bad Uncut writers are. And the bad ones would be those who would fit best into Mojo.

Whatever I may have thought of Mojo, I've never considered it to be nauseatingly smug and self-satisfied as Q is. Q, after all, is edited by the sort of people who jack it all in to write scripts for EastEnders.

Anyway let me spring to the defence of Allan Jones. I think it's to his credit that he's managed to put together so many interesting writers (Penman, McDonald, Morley, Stubbs, Roberts) on one journal. For that we should let him have the odd Waylon Jennings interview.

Does anyone else find Nigel "5 stars" Williamson as unintentionally funny as I do. Is there an artist or genre that this man does NOT like? He seems to give everything from Spooky Tooth to Sade the same cheerily favourable review.

"Anyway let me spring to the defence of Allan Jones."

Oh, I wasn't trying to criticise him - I think even the MM writers who took the piss had a respect for him, and an admiration for him; he wrote hardly at all for the Maker in his last few years there, and he was probably wise to adopt a background role, but he's clearly the sort of person who knows how to hold the thing together (more than he actually knew the music it was covering by then), and he mercifully steered it away from dumbed-down discourse, tacky features and flagwaving during his last 3 years there (when such things were already a disease over at the NME). Jones was the sort of editor whose importance you didn't realise until he left; the speed of the MM's decline immediately after his departure in March 97 proves that, and I'm ultimately prepared to forgive him however many dodgy things he may like. Reynolds excepted, you've listed all the "good" Uncut writers I was thinking of.

"Does anyone else find Nigel '5 stars' Williamson as unintentionally funny as I do"

He was the sort of "bad" Uncut writer I was thinking of. Dreadfully gushing writing and horribly retrogressive tastes for the most part. Uncut's bland dadrock downside.

Question: How come all the obsessive mags like this come out of the U.K.? Are there ANY American mags that cover music in the manner of a Mojo? I honestly can't think of one. Somebody point me in the right direction.

DUD!!!

But the long historical pieces I do find useful, especially when regarding acts/artists about whose history I feel I ought to know more, e.g. Patto or ELO.

As great as The Beatles, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young are, there is still a limit to how much new stuff you are able to dig out about them.

Which makes Mojo more interesting because they aren't afraid to do a feature on Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Pete Seeger or David Crosby instead.

Plus Mojo does actually attempt to turn their (mainly 30-40-50 something) readers into more recent stuff too, that is, recent stuff that Mojo finds good (and the Mojo staff has a considerably broader taste in recent music compared to the Americana crazed Uncut staff)

Stevie Chick does get some good bands in Mojo(and Kerrang too).
I suppose having read Mojo for years now ive read about every band they cover. If they stopped repeating themselves and covered some more obscure acts I either haven't read much about/or heard of, i might buy. Then again would that sell?

Its time they gave Parliament/Funkadelic a front cover and just devoted the entire magazine to them and all the spin offs. That would make great reading.

Someone should write a really good pfunk book.

(I speak from the perspective of someone who for two years unsuccessfully lobbied U***t to give Todd Rundgren the front cover and 30 pages inside)

4-5 Public Enemy
Evens Beastie Boys
7-4 Outkast
2-1 Eminem
4-1 Wu Tang Clan (Up from 5-1)
8-1 Jay Z
12-1 50 Cent (down from 8-1)
15-1 Run DMC/LL Cool J
40-1 Dizzee Rascal
50-1 bar

Odds to appear on the front cover

Wire 20-1
Throwing Muses 40-1
The Stranglers 75-1
Underworld 100-1
King Crimson 200-1
Killing Joke 250-1
The Associates 400-1
The Chameleons 500-1
Rush 1000-1
Porcupine Tree 10,000-1

Nick Hornby - evens

Oh those music guide ones were nice, about four of them I believe

yeah, they really were.
the "Raw Soul" or the "Roots of Hip Hop" one was originally meant to be a David Holmes sequenced mixtape, but problems re track clearance, meant it ended up as a standard compilation.

I still have several of those CDs around: Instant Garage, Raw Soul, Roots of Hip Hop, and Stax Soul Power. Had the Made in England one but let it go out in a purge.

There's a review of my book in the latest issue of Mojo, which is kinda cool if you're me.

My favourite Mojo CD is Change The Beat (14 Tracks From Madonna's New York Scene):

https://www.discogs.com/release/6614131-Various-Change-The-Beat-14-Tracks-From-Madonnas-New-York-Scene

There's a review of my book in the latest issue of Mojo, which is kinda cool if you're me.

― but also fuck you (unperson)

ooh this is very cool.
bravo.
going to have to try and find a copy and have a scan to figure out which review.
don't have access to a WH Smiths these days (or a lunch hour !) which was always the way to check on reviews/articles without buying the magazine.

Clostridium

Ok, how did my spelling corrector get that word from me typing xpost?

Anyway.. message starts:

Xpost (but yes that is cool)

Yeah, that’s another mojo save cd.

I’m loathe to throw cds away (but have done) so I have a lot of the uncut/mojo cds going back. Some have sold to completion nuts (I assume) via discogs. Some have made it to my ‘keep’ boxes, most if not all of the ones mentioned so far (I think someone bought that ‘drugs in music’ one but)

Will check out others that are in the keep box…

Heavy mod
Heavy soul
heavy nuggets

Most o fthe psychedelic ones even going back to early days have been good.
The stuff like the Grapefruit compis on hard rock, britfolk and things
I think there's at least one New York Punk one.

Yeah I've got a handful I keep around that I like, even relatively recent ones:

In Search of Syd: MOJO Presents 15 Mind-Bending Freak-Outs!
This Is A Call! (15 Brainmelting Dispatches From The Golden Age Of U.S. Alt-Rock) (despite the Foo Fighters namecheck, it's a nice little comp with The Grifters, Built to Spill, Shudder to Think, Red Red Meat)

Yeah those Music Guide ones were great! Lovely cover art too; I’ve still got them and I’ve chucked out a million other free CDs.

https://www.discogs.com/release/9092883-Lou-Reed-A-Life-In-Music

One track from each of his first (however many) solo albums.

Including Metal Machine Music!

The fave Mojo comp is The Score, an outstanding comp of movie soundtrack music.
https://www.discogs.com/release/979016-Various-The-Score

^ Yes, that’s one of the ones I’ve kept

I missed that one!

what would be nice is of this thread could be bumped every time mojo has an interesting cd on the front of it to prompt me to visit whsmiths...

Punk Nuggets this month featuring a few bands i know but no individual tracks.

but i think that one is only on the shops for a few more days - someone on Twitter posted that he already had his subscription copy of the next one, smiths cover

actually, found it...

It scares the health out of me... Here we go, the full tracklisting of this month's delectable @MOJOmagazine CD. In UK shops by Tuesday; in subscribers' letterboxes already, or imminently. pic.twitter.com/O893LoeS4U

— John Mulvey (@JohnRMulvey) August 12, 2023

The Beatles avant garde CD looked pretty cool, but annoyingly the mailer the magazine came in split and it fell out en transit.

Ugh, sorry

Note that US newsstand copies no longer have the CDs, only way you can get them in the US is with a print subscription.

Completely missed that Beatles avant-garde CD. Going to have to buy it second hand now, it looks great.

This was the last one I bought on the strength of the CD https://www.discogs.com/release/15945258-Various-Escape-From-Reality-15-Baroque-N-Roll-Art-Rock-Fandangos

The Smiths cover posted above is now in shops so i've just bought my second copy of Mojo in 5 days

Mojo is the only mag that I still persist with, my wife used to get a copy sent to her workplace for years too.

I do enjoy reading it although if I'm honest, it's probably out of habit really as the subscriptions are very cheap and nowadays I live nowhere near decent newsagents. I don't have all of them but I've been buying it since the beginning and have a bunch stacked away in a Kallax shelf that I can reach for. I dug out an issue the other day that was made when Blur were recording The Great Escape.

I suppose they're akin to the back catalogue departments of record companies, and can keep knocking out articles about heritage acts and only filter through newer bands that they feel are in keeping with the general aesthetic rather than worrying about having to write about more modern, off-brand trends.

there's a smiths cover every year, a beatles cover probably every 6 months

(seemingly)

I think people still share the cd on pirate bay regularly.

I get a digital subscription and the music is not included, unlike The Wire.

Sometimes, when flicking through this at the big supermarket, the CD will fall off into my trolley and only be discovered once I have left the shop.

dardnest thing....

Last time that happened was the Grateful Dead live CD.

I tried that with the Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde"

#WhatThese2LPSOfficer?

#notreally

I think people still share the cd on pirate bay regularly.

Someone has been posting the monthly PDFs of the magazine to usenet since 2015. Also, they're very easy to find on slsk, just search on "mojo 2023 pdf" (or whatever year). You can find many other mags on slsk the same way.

30th anniversary edition out now

"THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is Buried Treasures – a compendium of tracks from the secret classic albums uncovered by MOJO’s Buried Treasures column. Features The Prisoners, R.J. McMahon, Joe Meek, Nic Jones, Connie Converse, The Beau Brummels, Third World War and more!"

didn't actually pick up a copy because the contents didn't look great, Dylan, oasis... probably more

It’s a rather self indulgent issue. Includes a short article for each year of the magazine’s existence featuring the usual suspects among a bunch of articles on how great the magazine is and has been. The cover disc is pretty good though.

yeah enjoyed teh cd. Still don't have it all elsewhere which just ain't it.
Don't know why I don't have Third World War
& hadn't heard of that closing folk track.

I keep buying magazines that I don't read all of and still intend to. Mainly reading books and not keeping up with what I'm picking up there either. May be reading more tahn I did last year still though not sure.

They've announced that starting with this 30th anniversary issue, the CDs will once again be available on international newsstand copies.

my experience of working on magazines when they achieve eg their 30th is that everyone (justifably) sees it as a good excuse for a little holiday

hence all the reprinting of ancient content: it doesn't need re-copyreading or re-proofing so we have time pat ourselves properly on the back for longevity and general amazeballsness

I'm still waiting on mine.

It's in the shops, but.

Rolling Stones and a cd of "old weird blues"

https://images.bauerhosting.com/marketing/sites/16/2023/10/MOJO-361-cover-Rolling-Stones.jpg?auto=format&w=1200&q=80

Disappointing that "Bob Dylan's Secret Treasures" isn't a revelation that he's been burying caches of gold along the stops of the never-ending tour for dedicated fans to find after he's passed.

was kinda hoping the people who regularly get Mojo would update this thread on every new issue, save me having to make a special trip to whsmiths every month (or whs as it is now)

anyway, i think december's cd was a roundup of the year, featuring nobody that i can remember, and january's, which is in the shops now, is another Heavy Nuggets volume

I get the digital version which does not come with the cds or even a download, which I somewhat regret. I’m generally not a fan of the new stuff Mojo champions but I liked the heavy nuggets series in the past and other historical trawls.

(December was a Beatles cover, Jan is Stevie wonder

i could just post this and then have to remember to click it once a month
https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/ )

Doesn't sound completely terrible xps

THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is The Best Of 2023. Features tracks from MOJO’s favourite albums, by artists including: Lankum; Everything But The Girl; Rickie Lee Jones; The Coral; Wilco; Grian Chatten; Julie Byrne; Young Fathers and more!

Last act calculated to outrage the Mojo core reader on name alone

Still very “chuffed” the album I made the art for won Mojo’s Best Electronic Album Of The Year. Been reading this magazine for 20 something years, I think.

Congrats!

Thanks!

It's a great album (and cover).

Still think of James Holden as a progressive/trance DJ so didn't realise he was now making albums like this

Thanks, groovypanda.
His albums have morphed and progressed over the last few releases. Check out his Animal Spirits project if you haven't. It was a huge honor and surprise to be asked to contribute since I've been a fan of his recordings for a while.
As for the artwork - I also made a 12 page booklet that comes with the vinyl and cd (and pdf with Bandcamp digi) versions of the album.

It's a lovely sleeve, Captain - congrats!

I'm obliged to mention that someone Out There is posting most/all of the Mojo CD comps to alt.binaries.sounds.lossless.rock. If you know what that is, you'll know how to find them.

Feb was Wings, including a compilation called Jet

Mar is The North Will Rise Again with a compilation of Manchester bands and liam on the cover. didn't entice me to buy it.

sucks so bad that as a digital subscriber I don't have access to the CDs.

Must have been in another thread that I posted this, but it also sucks that Mojo and Uncut seem to have largely disappeared around here. Between a nearby killer newsstand and the local Barnes & Noble I was always able to pick these up, but I haven't seen a new issue of either in many months.