Having actually included MAGNET as one of my favorite things (and I promise that’s not sucking up, I really love the publication), you can imagine how chuffed I was at the prospect of a guest editorship. Over the past, well, several years of the Sharp Things‘ existence, Eric Miller has been a friend and an advocate, even when no one else was, so I’m honored to be able to ramble on a bit about a bunch of shit that I dig, because I want everyone to know about it and, more significantly, because it makes me feel important. 😉 Over to you, me …
Again, I have to reiterate that I am not pandering to Mr. Eric Miller and his longstanding baby when I say that MAGNET is easily one of the world’s finest music publications. Eric and I have been connected for two decades now, easily—me, mainly as publicist, he has editor, journalist, publisher, etc. … working on possibly hundreds of things together, but, Eric has been very kind to the Sharp Things over all this time. Knowing Eric as long as I do, I can tell you that he is a man of top-notch integrity, and if he didn’t like what we did, we’d know by now. And so, we’re honored. But, as a fan, a reader and a music fan, I look forward to getting my copy of the magazine every month, as I have for years now. Why? Because MAGNET is one of the few outlets covering music that has managed, somehow, through some incredible feat of business acumen and pure sweat, I would imagine, that balances astute and intelligent coverage of a variety of genres, letting us know what the veterans are up to, while giving the upstarts a chance and displaying amazing bravery in its cover choices, that range from fringe comedians (Sarah Silverman is the current issue’s choice, Fred Armisen, a few issues ago), then tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus, Tom Waits, Weezer, Tweedy, Spoon—just awesome interviews, great and fair reviews and choice sections that always jazz me, man: Where’s The Street Team?, and the brilliant Phil Sheridan’s The Back Page, to name a few. It just doesn’t get much better.
