Paste Music Magazine

I recently read an interview with the editor of this magazine, Josh Jackson, and it impressed me enough to look for Paste at my local bookstore. Having picked up a copy and listened to the sampler CD it comes with, I can tell you it is well worth the price (I’ve already signed up for a subscription!). Paste deals with intelligent, well-crafted music – both faith-based and otherwise. By their own admission, the editors of paste find that “one of the most annoying things in music today is the complete segregation of genres within the industry”, so they focus on all kinds of “good music”, whatever genre it falls into. The sampler CD is excellent, and of course, covers a variety of genres and artists. The one I received had better known artists like Five for Fighting, Indigo Girls, Norah Jones and Edie Brickell, but it also introduces lesser known artists(and now favorites of mine), like The Lost Trailers, Starflyer 59, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, and Ben Kweller. The articles inside encouraged me to check out bands like Addison Road and Robert Randolph & the Family Band. All in all, it has been great for introducing me to some of the best ‘unknown’ music out there!
Also, in the interview, the editor, Josh Jackson says they try to make Paste a “magazine that doesn’t objectify women, that doesn’t glorify drug addiction, that tries to respect the artists it covers, and that writes about all of the grand themes of searching, of loneliness, of love, of darkness, of hope that popular music is often courageous enough to tackle.”
One warning, as a previous reviewer has mentioned, reading Paste will cause you to spend some money, as you find hidden gems of artists and albums you hadn’t heard before, and now really want to own! Amidst a sea of commercialism and crassness in music and entertainment magazines today, Paste is a weclome sign of how beauty, truth and artistry can still be celebrated and enjoyed in popular music. (David A. Vosseller “davhoops” – Chicago, IL USA)

Despite the gluey name, Paste Magazine is a satisfactory music mag that focuses on the chords, not the bods. They have a pleasantly even, serene outlook, covering good band/singers from Loretta Lynn to Guided by Voices to Grandaddy, although it’s somewhat hampered by bland writing.
Paste covers a wide range of music, including jazz, country, folk, rock, and a few dashes of alternate pop (like Eisley and the Polyphonic Spree). A lot of their smaller articles are rather bland and shallow. But the longer interviews are more in-depth, asking intelligent questions to people like Damien Rice and Jack White.
Paste also includes concert reviews, cinema studies and movie reviews; these also tend to be deeper than the small music articles. DVDs and books are reviewed as well as music, even including a translation of Dante’s “Inferno” in one issue. Perhaps the most impressive is a CD tucked into every copy of Paste, with an array of selected songs by various bonds they’ve reported on.
Don’t expect MTV-ized coverage and nalf-nude pop stars — the best word to describe Paste is “wholesome.” It’s best appreciated when sitting at a coffee shop, studying the assorted artists that you’ve probably never heard of. It doesn’t have much edge, although it verges on it at times with its reviews (such as Chun Sue’s too-hot-for-China-to-handle “Beijing Doll”).
The writing doesn’t tend to be too great. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t make you sit up and take notice. The articlettes feel a little too strained; the reviews, by comparison, are quite relaxed. While they have articles on well-known artists like Norah Jones, Dave Matthews and Wilco, they also have bands which are not so well known like Earlimart. And though it has a rather American-music slant, it keeps tabs on bands like Starsailor and Elbow.
Paste has some writing wrinkles to be ironed out before it can be a really, really good magazine. But this earnest music mag has quite a bit to offer to a serious music fan. (E. A Solinas “ea_solinas” – MD USA)

I bumped into paste magazine when browsing through Borders looking for something other than the usual pop-peddling tat found on the UK newsstands today. The cover (for issue 5) grabbed my attention – Joe Henry, Emmylou Harris, Guided By Voices – people already populating my music collection. Great, I thought, at last a magazine that fits my tastes. This should be a good read.
So I bought it, sat down with a large cup of joe & started reading. I couldn’t put it down! As well, as the artists above, there were articles on people I’d never heard of; articles on people I’d always wanted to hear something by, but never gotten around to; and articles on artists that made me want to go out & buy their music there & then. The copy I picked up didn’t have a sampler CD (someone had nabbed it from the inside before I got there!), but it made me want to read more by these guys.
I’ve since subscribed and find paste to provide wide-ranging content, not particularly genre-based (but if you were really into pigeonholing I’d probably say they covered Americana singer-songwriter artists most of all), and not always favourable. This is not a sycophantic bow to all things underground & trendy (as someone else mentioned, they know when to put a megastar on the cover), neither is it afraid to shout about music it loves from the proverbial rooftops. They’ve even gone so far as to set up their own label.
The sampler CD is a revelation as they cram it full of artists covered in that particular issue and as another reviewer wrote you will spend a lot of money trying to track down the individual CDs discussed within the magazine.
In short, this is great writing about great music, with no preconceived ideas about what great music is. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in music & culture today. (Paul Wade – Gravesend, Kent, UK)

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