EDITOR’S NOTE: This story first appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of MAGNET MAGAZINE BY JONATHAN VALANIA so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. That was written by William Carlos Williams, an American poet. Best I can tell, he was talking about the significance of insignificance, that little things truly do mean a lot—like if you could surf the past in a time machine and you did something as small as, say, kicking a stone in the Stone Age, it could send a ripple through the entire fabric of history. […]
FROM THE VAULT: Touch Me I’m Dick
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mudhoney plays Union Transfer on Thursday with Pissed Jeans. To mark their impressive 27 years of service, I’ve dug deep into the archives to retrieve the article I wrote for the September 1998 issue of MAGNET about going on tour with Pearl Jam and Mudhoney for three days. The story was titled WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE, and, if memory serves, was a little more honest than the band and the label were expecting. It wouldn’t be the first time. Enjoy. __________ In the decade that’s passed since Mudhoney emerged as the Seattle beer barons of […]
INCOMING: The Importance Of Being Morrissey
For the deeply devoted—and they are legion—there are but two periods in the history of mankind: The time Before Smiths and the time After Smiths. The years B.S. ended in Manchester one May afternoon in 1982, when Johnny Marr—his rockabilly quiff stacked high and retro, Brando-esque Levis cuffed just right—ambled up to 384 Kings Road and knocked on the door. One Steven Patrick Morrissey, unemployable bookworm homebody, who at the ripe old age of 22 was beginning to get the distinct feeling that life had passed him by, answered the door. Marr did not bother with the inane niceties of […]
MATS WEEK: The Last Temptation Of Bob Stinson
EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of the re-activated Replacements playing the Festival Pier on Saturday, we’re re-running Mats Week. Look for Replacements lore and legend all week on a Phawker near you! BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Replacements were made to be broken, and it’s a minor miracle they lasted eight albums, spread out over the course of a lost decade. In the end, the dream got too tired to come true, but for a brief and shining moment, it seemed like anything was possible. “For a while there, Paul had no idea how good a songwriter he was,” says Jesperson. “I […]
tUnEyArDs: The Real Thing
tUnE-yArDs has confirmed a string of December dates including 4 intimate nights at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on Dec. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th and a performance LA’s Wiltern Theatre on Dec. 10th. Cibo Matto set to open all December dates. A limited ticket pre-sale will begin Tuesday, 10/7 at: http://tuneyards.com PREVIOUSLY: Merrill Garbus has this weird obsession with eating babies. It comes up a lot, and she doesn’t even try to hide it. For example, there’s a spoken-word track smack dab in the middle of the highly anticipated new tUnE-yArDs album, Nikki Nack (4AD), called “Why Must We […]
ABOUT A GIRL: The Complete Magnet Magazine Q&A With Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace
EDITOR’S NOTE: I interviewed Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace for the cover story of issue 106 of MAGNET MAGAZINE. Because of space restrictions, more than 2000 words had to be cut from the Q&A. In advance of Against Me!’s performance at The Mann Center’s Skyline Stage tomorrow night, as well as the welcome news that Laura Jane Grace will be getting her own reality show, we are running the complete Q&A. All 7,200 words. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA In 2012, Tom Gabel, the 33-year-old year old frontman of Florida-based million-dollar major label punk band Against Me!, announced to the […]
EXCERPT: Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are From Dave Matthews Band-loving-anarcho-hippie-feminista-puppeteer to indie rock’s warpaint-smeared world-beating It Girl in just 10 years, tUnE-yArDs wonder woman Merrill Garbus has been chasing The Real Thing from the mythical savannas of Africa to the humid ruins of Haiti, from the leafy Birkenstocked redoubts of New England to the sun-kissed liberal paradise of the Bay Area. MAGNET goes Left Coast to find out why she still hasn’t found what she’s looking for. By Jonathan Valania Merrill Garbus has this weird obsession with eating babies. It comes up a lot, and she doesn’t even try to […]
Talking Guided By Voices w/ Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, United States Of America
Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally ran September 12th 2012. We present this encore edition to mark the news that Carney has just resigned his White House Press Sec. post, with a lengthy, never-before published exchange about 9/11 wherein Carney speaks at length about being on Air Force One as a reporter for TIME Magazine on that day. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in the spring, MAGNET’s collective jaw dropped when we learned that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declared, in the middle of a briefing with the Washington press corps, that Guided By Voices was “the […]
BEING THERE: MAGNET’s 21st Birthday Bash
Photo by PETE TROSHAK MAGNET magazine celebrated its 21st Anniversary with a concert headlined by Robert Pollard’s Guided By Voices. Dayton’s finest have existed on and off for over thirty years and during those years Pollard has proven himself to be one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of this or any era, having released over 40 albums between his solo and GBV releases. In 2012 Pollard reunited the seminal lineup of GBV that recorded 1994’s Bee Thousand album and together they have released six albums in the last four years including two in 2014 alone. If Nirvana’s 1991 […]
FREDLANDIA: The Nicest Punk In Show Biz
Fredlandia Everyone knows (and loves) funnyman Fred Armisen from Portlandia and SNL but few know how he got there. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, kid. How do you get to Portlandia? Trenchmouth. MAGNET goes to 30 Rock to walk a mile in the wing tips of The Nicest Man In Show Business and untangle his punk rock roots By Jonathan Valania “Do you have Questlove’s cellphone number?” Beyonce’s drummer asks nobody in particular. She twists around from her perch in the front seat of a black Escalade that NBC has sent to ferry us from a […]
EXCERPT: The Boys Are Back In Town
After a decade of cheap beer, positive jams and killer parties, there’s ‘blood on the carpet, mud on the mattress.’ MAGNET (well, just me, actually) goes to Brooklandia to watch The Hold Steady sleep it off and wake up with that American Sadness. I’m still hungover. As promised, here’s that meaty, beaty, big and bouncy excerpt. Enjoy: BY JONATHAN VALANIA When Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn was growing up in suburban Minneapolis in the shag-carpeted ’70s, there was nothing musical about the family Finn, nothing at all. Nobody played an instrument. Nobody played records on the stereo. They did not […]
EXCERPT: How To Grow Up To Be A Debaser
Armed with a bottle of wine and a little chien andalusia, Black Francis — in an extremely candid 7,000 word interview with yours truly — bares his soul and sets MAGNET straight on Kim Deal, Kim Shattuck, dope, daddyhood, new songs, old wounds, and how, after 26 years, he finally found his mind. Here’s an excerpt of our in-depth discussion of The Kim Deal Situation. Enjoy. — JONATHAN VALANIA MAGNET: I’m not going to make this whole thing about Kim Deal, but I would like to give you the opportunity for you to respond to this narrative that’s emerged […]
FROM THE VAULT: Wayne’s World
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared in MAGNET MAGAZINE BY JONATHAN VALANIA We’d been traversing the spine of Tornado Alley for the last two hours when the stewardess announced that we would be landing in Oklahoma City in a few minutes, and that we should fasten our seatbelts and return our minds to the upright position, when the drugs took hold. We are, as the saying goes, off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Odd—or, if you prefer, the Wizard of OK, a.k.a. Wayne Coyne, frizzy-brained mainman of the Flaming Lips, the P.T. Barnum Of The Stoned, a.k.a. […]