We asked Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller to guest edit magnetmagazine.com this week, and he pawned it off on a bunch of his famous friends: other musicians, actors, writers and comedians. Well played, Rhett. But you can’t hide behind a self-titled solo album. Rhett Miller (Shout! Factory), a Beatlesque beauty featuring Jon Brion, is out this week.
Jon Langford is a renaissance man. Rocking with his bands the Mekons, Waco Brothers and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. Painting heartbreaking folksy pieces that you’d be lucky to own. Writing fiction (alongside yours truly) for the new Amplified collection of stories. In the mid-’90s, he made my decade by announcing that I was his American son. Also, he once told me that in his native Wales, they don’t vote; they just stuff a pair of panties in a box marked Tom Jones. Is this true? Jon Langford recommends:
Cochon Butcher
Cochon Butcher is the best deli in the Warehouse District of New Orleans.
Tijuana Hercules
Tijuana Hercules of Chicago has a noisy, swampy, dark and manky new album out called The Almanack Of Bad Luck, which you really should buy.
Amplified
Me and Rhett wrote stories for Amplified, a collection of stories by people who play music and don’t really write stories; it’s published by Melville House, which means we actually are real authors.
My Dearest Dear by Michael Rossiter
My Dearest Dear by Michael Rossiter happens to be a particularly splendid folk album.
WLUW
If you live in Chicago, listen to WLUW for Terry Nelson at 11 p.m. on Friday nights and Tom Jackson the next morning.
Striplight
If you live in London, go and see Striplight, an angular little rock band with glittery eyelids.
Padre’s
If you’re in Marfa, Texas, visit David Beebe’s new Padre’s dancehall; he built it with his own two hands.
Down On The Farm
If you’re in Norway in August, go to Down On The Farm, a fantastic festival just outside Halden, and buy me a beer.
Jack Pendarvis And Wesley Stace
Read anything by Jack Pendarvis or Wesley Stace.
Walter Salas-Humara
Buy Walter Salas-Humara‘s dog paintings (pictured).
