This holiday season, MAGNET is asking you to please think of the children. You’ve seen them loitering outside the iTunes music store. You try to look away, try not to notice. But they are in dire straits*. There are young people in your city—maybe even in your very own family—who are so disadvantaged as to not even have a subscription to a decent music magazine. These wayward youths find themselves making dead-end choices such as Thrice, My Chemical Romance and Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Every time your little sister listens to Yellowcard, Carl Newman cries**. So please, for the love of Bob “Jesus Christ” Pollard and Sleater-Allah-Kinney, invest in our future and buy someone a holiday gift subscription to MAGNET. We can begin your gift subscription with the Year In Music issue (details below), which is practically a 12-step program to getting kids on the right track. Thanks, and sorry for all the blasphemy. *not Dire Straits. The dudes in Dire Straits are super old. **Carl Newman has never cried. *** INSIDE MAGNET #70 (JAN/FEB) - COMING SOON! COVER STORY: ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Antony Hegarty is claimed by the British, championed by Lou Reed and charged with a soulful, scarily tragic voice that blurs the lines between male and female, sorrow and joy. THE YEAR IN MUSIC 2005 It’s like a yearbook from a high school that doesn’t exist or an almanac that’s useless to farmers. MAGNET’s annual review profiles the major players (Sleater-Kinney, Spoon), the veteran stars (Michael Penn, Low), the breakthrough rookies (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and—an exciting new category this year—Canadians (Broken Social Scene, Stars). Some albums are cruelly ranked and declared the best of the year, others are viciously celebrated for being obscure-yet-fantastic. STATIC Marah gets into fighting shape again; Echo & The Bunnymen keeps going and going; the Decemberists’ tour diary; Steve Wynn makes MAGNET a mix tape; a documentary film follows a New York Doll from holy terror to holy roller; the ethereal world of 4AD Records; Mark Eitzel wimps out; and Liz Phair faces the music. MAGNIFIED Head Of Femur, dios (malos), High Dials, We Are Wolves, Micah Blue Smaldone REVIEWS New releases from Animal Collective, Beta Band, Clientele, Comet Gain, Elected, Fall, Fiery Furnaces, Edith Frost, Guided By Voices, Joggers, Lambchop, Long Winters, Moistboyz, Okkervil River, Supergrass, Talking Heads, Vandermark 5, Craig Wedren, Wilco and more. *** NEW AT MAGNETMAGAZINE.COM New Q&As: Low, Greg Dulli, Juliana Hatfield, Ken Vandermark and Ride’s Mark Gardener. Plus: new album reviews, live reviews, exclusive photos and staff picks. Visit our secure online store to purchase subscriptions, back issues and T-shirts. http://www.magnetmagazine.com