self-titled - no. 1 - (Page 6)

From the Editor No Age | Brooklyn’s Silent Barn 6.7.07 The horn-rimmed hooks of Weezer’s self-titled “Blue Album.” Suicide’s synth-slinging reinvention of LES rock; the brutalized blues of Black Fucking Sabbath. It’s interesting how many artists will forever be remembered for their self-titled debuts, efforts so emotionally draining that no one could find the time to title the damn things. Of course, many people equate self-titled records with laziness.“You spent a year perfecting these songs! Can’t you just throw a couple words together to put a punctuation mark on it all?” Um, not really—not when it’s always evolving, when it’s saying more, much more, than any cover line could ever hope to convey. I know this because of all the agonizing nights that simply went into finding a name for this very magazine, an idea that started on a subway train and ended near Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Not some swim-with-the-fishes scenario, mind you. Our art director, Garrett Morin, simply spent weeks working near the Canal in silence and seclusion, fine-tuning self-titled, the first independent, digital music magazine. Sure, everyone from Spin to Fader has whipped up digital editions in recent months, but those examples are straight-up conversions of the static, ink-stained product you can find at your local newsstand. self-titled is written, edited and designed with the Web in mind, to capture the lighting-in-a-bottle vibe of the Blog Age. It’s a still-developing era that’s put the phrase “everyone’s a critic” in a whole new light, one that many journalists find insulting and downright threatening. Us? We’re thrilled by the idea of openly exchanging story ideas and favorite records with you, the readers that see nothing wrong with hitting refresh on www.self-titledmag.com more than once a day. We’re not simply posting tour dates and tracklists; we’re on a daily mission to erase the imaginary line between listeners and artists in the same way that blogs have redefined the concept of criticism. We realize you can find a review of the fantastic No Age record Nouns on a million Web sites, so we asked the group to complete a hilarious (and revealing) Madlibs in the digital pages of self-titled. Elsewhere in our book, Les Savy Fav breaks down beard care, Ellen Allien offers a photo tour of Berlin and Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce confronts his stoner-icon legend. In our feature well, Andy Beta links together the definitive history of Black Dice, Adam Moerder follows the Black Lips as they bang on police-car windows through the streets of Williamsburg, and Grayson Currin captures the anticipation leading up to Black Mountain’s second album, In the Future. Simply put, we’re here to let your favorite artists tell their stories. And we’re open to suggestions on all the key plot points, so be sure to visit/ www.self-titledmag.com the next time inspiration strikes. Until the fall, Andrew Parks, Editor / Publisher http://www.self-titledmag.com http://www.self-titledmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of self-titled - no. 1

self-titled - no. 1 Contents Spiritualized No Age Les Savy Fav The Teenagers Booka Shade Michael Gira Ellen Allien Magik Markers Jens Lekman Yeasayer Daptone Records Tipping Point Boris Fiery Furnaces Black Dice Black Mountain The Black Lips

self-titled - no. 1

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