Month: March 2011

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GUEST EDITOR

Smoking Popes’ Josh Caterer Needs You Around: AC/DC’s “Powerage”

Aside from having the coolest name of any punk-leaning Chicago-area band since Big Black, Smoking Popes have been blessed with core fan base that refused to quit on the outfit. When leader Josh Caterer pulled the plug on the Popes in 1998, it came little more than a year after releasing what might have been the group’s best album, Destination Failure, perplexing many but apparently offending few. Seven years later, a sold-out reunion show in the Popes’ hometown was all it took to get Caterer back in a creative mood. From there, Josh and brothers Matt (bass) and Eli (guitar) pretty much picked up where they left off, releasing Stay Down in 2008 and compilation It’s Been A Long Day last year. The new This Is Only A Test (Asian Man) is a concept album that only occasionally comes across as such, with the 38-year-old Josh taking on the role of an angsty teenager to convincing effect. Josh and Matt will be guest-editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with Josh.

Josh: We grew up listening to our dad’s record collection: the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, all the stuff that people now call “classic rock.” But when we got old enough to start discovering our own music, one of the first bands we seriously got into was AC/DC. We bought their entire catalog and listened to it endlessly. All their albums with Bon Scott are pretty great, but I think their best, the one that stands up the most all these years later, is Powerage. It’s when they were truly at the top of their game, right when they really started to refine their sound. There’s a maturity to the songwriting that wasn’t there before, but they hadn’t yet hooked up with Mutt Lange, so there’s still a kind of raw, gritty quality to the recording. And the guitar solo on “Sin City” is so perfect it almost makes me cry when I hear it. This album tends to be overshadowed by the success of Highway To Hell, which came out the following year. But in my opinion, Powerage is a true masterpiece and deserves to be considered alongside the great albums in rock history.

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FREE MP3s GUEST EDITOR INTERVIEWS

Q&A With Smoking Popes

Aside from having the coolest name of any punk-leaning Chicago-area band since Big Black, Smoking Popes have been blessed with core fan base that refused to quit on the outfit. When leader Josh Caterer pulled the plug on the Popes in 1998, it came little more than a year after releasing what might have been the group’s best album, Destination Failure, perplexing many but apparently offending few. Seven years later, a sold-out reunion show in the Popes’ Windy City hometown was all it took to get Caterer back in a creative mood. From there, Josh and brothers Matt (bass) and Eli (guitar) pretty much picked up where they left off, releasing Stay Down in 2008 and compilation It’s Been A Long Day last year. The new This Is Only A Test (Asian Man) is a concept album that only occasionally comes across as such, with the 38-year-old Josh taking on the role of an angsty teenager to convincing effect. Josh and Matt will be guest-editing magnetmagazine.com all week. We recently caught up with Josh.

“How Dangerous” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/HowDangerous.mp3

Continue reading “Q&A With Smoking Popes”
Categories
VIDEOS

Film At 11: Bruce Cockburn

Thanks to the legendary Bruce Cockburn for guest editing our website all week. Be sure to check out his new record, Small Source Of Comfort. Here’s a video for 2003’s “Open.”

Categories
GUEST EDITOR

Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: A Dream In Two Parts

Small Source Of Comfort (True North) is the latest LP from legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn. It’s also his 31st studio album in a career that dates back all the way to the mid-’60s. Over the years, Cockburn has become one of his country’s most successful and honored musicians, winning more than his share of awards and accolades, not only for his music but also for his longtime humanitarian work. This week, Cockburn adds MAGNET guest editor to his already impressive resume. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Cockburn: I’ve been on tour, and it’s now over. I drive north through the U.S., stopping here and there to take in the sights. I turn in to a forested area with some farms and continue driving on a gravel road up the back of a steep hill. There are a couple of small buildings that seem abandoned. Above me is another hill, which is grassy and steep and vaguely breast-shaped. I climb this. At the top is a small knoll like a nipple, also grassy. I climb up this, too, as I want to sit on it to take in the view. It’s precarious, because the other side of the hill is almost a straight drop. The wind is fresh, and I feel very happy.

I look back down at where I parked. There is an African-American family with grandparents and a couple of kids. One of the boys sees me and is clearly envious of my position. He wants to come up here too.

* * *

I carry on northward to a border town where some of my gear has been left for me in a sheriff’s department. SUV parked beside the police station. I spend the night at a motel next door, planning to leave early the following day with my belongings. In the morning, though, the vehicle is gone.

I anxiously go into the police station and talk to the two deputies who are inside. They say something to the effect that the SUV has been sold and they don’t know where it is. I remain respectful, but become agitated. Finally the officer who seems to be in charge leads me to an inner office in which all my gear sits piled on a couch. He says, “Do you have anything to say to me?” I reply, ”I feel like a total fool, having assumed you’d left all this stuff in the truck. I’m sorry and thank you!”

The sheriff himself, an older guy, now comes in along with another gray-haired man. He is jovial and gives me a little package. “This is for you,” he says. ”Go on. Open it!” It contains a crocheted scarf, which I can actually use, though it’s not quite my taste, and a tiny dog collar with little shiny chains hanging from it. It’s not at all clear what I’m supposed to do with this …

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FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Anti-Social Music

NYC collective Anti-Social Music is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the April 19 release of Is The Future Of Everything. The non-profit group was founded by Franz Nicolay (formerly of the Hold Steady) in 2000 to play a one-off concert dubbed “An Afternoon Of Anti-Social Chamber Music.” The performance went so well that ASM now plays regularly scheduled concerts in venues as diverse as Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe and Merkin Concert Hall. The 20-track Is The Future Of Everything follows 2005’s Sings The Great American Songbook, and you can download album track “Bitter Suite (Fear)” below.

“Bitter Suite (Fear)” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/BitterSuiteFear.mp3