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Volume 27, Issue 15, November 18, 2004

Music

I want my MOJO

Chip Boehm
Music Columnist

As a magazine junkie, I love finding little nuggets of information strewn amongst the oh-so-coy advertisements. But there exists a magazine filled cover to cover with real information and entertainment. Each and every month the one magazine for which I wait with anticipation and bated breath is MOJO.

The British music press is an entirely different beast than their American brethren and serve as an interesting counterpoint to Spin, Rolling Stone, et al. NME, being a weekly, is often filled with fluff and tries way too hard to set the trends while hyping any new band to come along. Q has decent music coverage but retains too much of an emphasis on the current pop culture. Uncut can definitely come to the rescue if you enjoy extensive film and DVD coverage, but MOJO rises above through willpower and bang-for-your-buck.

While the writers worship at the feet of the late Lester Bangs, they retain the very embodiment of being more "rawk" than the music itself. They engage the reader with some of the most descriptive and awestruck verbosity ever conceived. Each article is filled with such enthusiasm and passion for the craft you want to hear the album of focus immediately.

Each issue comes with a free CD and these compilations are better than any you could purchase for the magazine's cost. Past compilations include the "MOJO Music Guide" series. The first four volumes are entitled "Instant Garage, Roots of Hip Hop, Raw Soul and Blues Power." The accompanying issues are filled with the back stories and wild tales of the artists, songs, and recording sessions.

The November issue is just the latest example of the perfect publication. The dark soulful eyes of Johnny Cash gaze out from the cover as you flip it open to the feature consisting of an 18-page, front and back, ad-free overview of the American icon's unbelievable story. Even if you've read the Man in Black's autobiography there are fresh insights to be found including a hilarious rundown of the five funniest Johnny Cash songs.

The magazine enjoys kudos from musicians themselves who make regular appearances in some of the columns. "Last Night a Record Changed My Life" asks artists to dissect an album they've probably worn out a couple times. "All Back To My Place" offers mini-interviews with stars on the topic of aural obsessions.

Issue 106 found The Stooges' Ron Asheton waxing philosophical on "The Teletubbies" worth as a Sunday morning listening experience subverted by crystal meth or cocaine. The sections themselves tend to surprise and sometimes lean toward diametric opposition such as Alice Cooper sensing evil foreshadowed in "West Side Story."

MOJO Collections was a short-lived spin-off publication focusing on record collectors and crate-diggers. The Spring '02 issue is a bastion of genre-hopping and artist-shuffling through 150 pages featuring "A Day in the Life of Lee 'Scratch' Perry," "The Story of the Beach Boys' Holland" and fifteen obscurities, Top 50 Northern Soul, The Byrds transition to country and Gram Parsons discography, "Psychedelic Poster Art from The Fillmore," "Factory Records Memorabilia," and buyers guides to free jazz, Tommy Boy Records, Carole King, American garage, The Fall and Joy Division bootlegs.

Their Web site and accompanying message board (mojo4music.com) offer even deeper inroads of magical discoveries beneath topics such as "Coolest quote from an album sleeve," "Amazing songs nearly ruined by the bad solos," plus a epigrammatic thread entitled "Manson and the Monkees."

Back issues are becoming scarce but are still worth the import price. Internet auction sites yield a $5-$15 price for prior pontifications. For 10 bucks you can bask in new tunes and fresh reviews. Find a copy in any good bookstore, record shop, or even the campus library's periodical section.