MAGNET Presents A Behind-The-Scenes Look Inside The Publishing Industry: Right about now all the music, entertainment and get-a-lifestyle magazines are happily assembling their Best Of 2002 issues, going about it ahead of schedule like busy little elves. (Or evil little trolls, if you’ve ever had the misfortune of glimpsing the inner chambers of some of these publications ... shudder.) “Flibbety-floo,” says MAGNET. [We didn’t actually say that. - Ed.] We’re not really psyched about our year-end issue, and to tell you the truth, it’s putting the staff in a bad mood. We’re not going to come right out and say music sucked this year, but um, a lot of it did. Help us spread the negative vibe. Instead of complaining in general, we ask that you email us in specific your Worst Of 2002: your most hated and overhyped artists, bands, albums and hairstyles. Please tell us why you didn’t like the cut of whoever’s jib you care to mention. (We know you will anyway, you opinionated, self-sure, overeducated jackals.) Email your vitriol to magnet@magnetmagazine.com, and the hurlers of the sharpest barbs get MAGNET T-shirts and might even get published in the magazine. Note: This is not a reader’s poll. If you email us a message such as “Nickelback suxx,” well, there’s really nothing we can do with (or about) that. And leave Michael Jackson alone. **** INSIDE MAGNET #56 (OCT/NOV) - IN STORES AND MAILBOXES SOON! COVER STORY - POWER POP It’s really uncool, you’ll go broke playing it (or writing about it) and it’s the soundtrack to every dream you ever had. It’s the pop with the power—definitely not the glory—to keep a Big Star lyric, a Cheap Trick chorus or a Matthew Sweet vocal harmony exulting in your mind’s radio for three days. MAGNET surveys three decades of American power pop, goes to Memphis to tell Big Star’s story, then cycles back to 2002 and profiles four bands worth their weight in guitar hooks: Phantom Planet, Mayflies USA, Arlo and the Bigger Lovers. Plus: MAGNET’s top 15 power-pop albums of all-time. FEATURES Why do so many magazine stories have the writer “hanging out” with the subject? Are they buddies? Old school chums? Are there snacks and Nintendo? Hanging out in L.A. with QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, hanging out on Coney Island with the SHINS, hanging out in the afterlife with late, great Texas-music legend DOUG SAHM and hanging on the telephone with AIMEE MANN. Plus: Interpol, Ladytron, Six By Seven, Ill Ease, Mia Doi Todd, Ari Up and funnyman David Cross. What? It’s the 10th anniversary of Pavement’s Slanted And Enchanted? We wrote about that, too. ALBUM REVIEWS Still located near the back of the magazine! Apples In Stereo, Frank Black, Black Heart Procession, Steve Earle, Future Bible Heroes, Jets To Brazil, Low, Doug Martsch, Mekons, Rhett Miller, Nightmares On Wax, 16 Horsepower, Soft Boys, Jenny Toomey and more. **** MAGNETMAGAZINE.COM: Open 24 hours for loitering. New Web-only interviews with Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, 16 Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards and Frank Black. Plus concert reviews, album reviews and music news. magnetmagazine.com Fun Fact: We have a photo page devoted to the band Nashville Pussy, and that page gets, like, a million hits a day. (The rest of the site’s pages are, shall we say, slightly less trafficked.) We can only imagine the disappointment of the porn surfer when he discovers the content of the rest of our site. Sorry, loser. This is also true: You can subscribe to MAGNET and buy back issues and T-shirts online. Far out.