Signal to Noise

[Vince Kargatis]

http://www.signaltonoisemagazine.org/

Placeholder for discussion about new music/jazz/improv zine Signal to Noise.

Hm, nothing to say atm, a bit behind on my StN reading...haven't popped open Spring 2003 yet.

[Gary Sisco]

The best music magazine coming out of the US, hands down. Just sent my check out yesterday for another two years' sub.

way to go, Gary.
Let's keep STN alive!
Pete needs every damn nickel to keep doing
what he's doing.

[Bill Barton]

Here's the text of a recent e-mail I received from Pete at STN. Time to snap up those cool back issues?


Greetings friends!

Due to the increasing size and weight of our popular BACK ISSUE sets, we've reluctantly decided to raise their price to $50 postpaid (x2 for non-US addresses), beginning June 1st, 2003. But for the next month, you'll still have a chance to pick up a set for the current LOW price of $40 postpaid.
You'll get issues 1 - 28, missing only the SOLD OUT issues #7 and 9 ... that's 26 magazines for about a buck fifty each!

We're also introducing our DOZEN BACK ISSUE PACKAGE ... pick any twelve available back issues (feel free to mix and match) for $30 ppd (again,x2 for non-US orders). It's perfect for those interested in only a handful of specific back issues, or for more recent subscribers who'd like to fill in holes in their collections.

To place your order, click the following link and peruse your options:

http://www.signaltonoisemagazine.org/subscribe.html

SIGNAL to NOISE is the quarterly journal of improvised & experimental music, dedicated to the confluence of avant-garde jazz, electro-acoustics, modern rock and contemporary composition.

We thank you for your support!!

* * *

"[The] more we are bombarded by the same lower-common-denominator music, and the same canned "news," the less we listen ... As a people, as a world, we have forgotten how to listen. And if we don't start listening again, one day some fool we never bothered to listen to is going to be in the White House
and giving the order to nuke the commies. And then there will be nothing to listen to at all or anyone to listen." -- the late, great music writer Robert Palmer, from early '90s liner notes

[Gary Sisco]

Good one, Bill! Total agreement here. We have a small waterfall on our land where I like to take the dogs, nearly every day at least once. While they go about their dog bidness, I go about listening to the water, the wind, the birds, etc. Just listening.

I really can't take the media bombardment when I'm out in public these days. Turn that shit off! No one's paying attention to it!

Ten years from owning a television set, it really feels like an intrusion now, to me. Everywhere I go there's either some schlock "music" playing (often too loud) that I never wanted to hear in the first place, or a television going that no one's really paying any attention to, or some shit. There's a pub here in town where the tv is on all the time and so is the music, but the music's so loud no one could hear the tv if they wanted to, so leave the captions for the hard of hearing going so you can read what's on tv (if the feature isn't issuing nongrammatical gibberish, which it often is) if you want to.

I must be getting old, but that's not my idea of a pub atmosphere. Music, okay, certainly. Especially if its at a volume that allows conversation at something below a yelling level, but the direction seems to be going toward sitting and drinking and being unable to converse with any ease. It just makes me nervous, most times, and also wanting to leave. It makes me feel like I want to be alone and to be left alone. Exactly the opposite of what a pub is supposed to be (the word does come from "public house," after all, that is, it's supposed to be a public experience, not a private one, when you go out).

Anyway, I'm totally with that Palmer quote. For many years, I had music playing all the time. If I was awake, and often if I was asleep, there was music playing. The past year or so, I've kicked that habit and now listen to music. I mean *listen* to music, when I can. I'm tired of just hearing it. If I can't listen to it, I'd rather not have it playing, unless there's a party going on or something like that.

Which reminds me of the cliche from my parents' generation, "... so loud I couldn't hear myself think." What I think, is that this experience has now become *purposeful,* rather than a complaint. People don't want to hear themselves think, either because they're afraid of what they might think, if they actually did for any length of time, or because they just don't have any thoughts to begin with that are more interesting than the meaningless babble around them all the time.

[Vince Kargatis]

Just got the new StN in the mail today. Haven't really cracked it open, but what's the deal with the second recent hard-to-miss similarity to The Wire? First that Henry Grimes piece, now another Yo La Tengo cover? At least for appearances sake, the editors should share plans enough to avoid duplication like this. Does YLT (or any band) have to have the covers of two magazines with such similar coverage? I don't know who's plans were first (hard to tell with StN's lower frequency), so I'm not casting blame, just saying it's a drag - this corner of the music world's not that small!

[Gary Sisco]

I doubt there's any communication at all between the two.

[Vince Kargatis]

I doubt it too - and it shows! Everyone would be better off if there were some backchannel communication, I think, if only to avoid duplicate cover features.

[Uli]

This stuff happens all the time with the much criticized "glossies". Usually when some hot cats have some new record out or something like that.

I am listening to YLT right now (from their Montreux performance this year. Thks for the link Pete). I am a bit amazed that the 2 "leading music mags" would have them on their cover anytime. bwtfdik.

[Gershon]

Hey people!

Wow, thanks for making an STN bulletin board! Glad y'all are enjoying the magazine. It's been a rough summer with some unexpected problems with the new firm that handles our printing, but we seem to be getting back on track.

Just a quick replay to the question about duplication with The Wire -- as you can imagine, I try to avoid it whenever possible, even having cancelled some articles in the pipeline when the Wire has just come out with something similar.

In the case of the Yo La Tengo piece, we started working on it last fall and it was originally slated for our spring (March) cover. However the interview / photo process was a bit slow and ultimately it made sense to hold it over for the summer issue. If the mag had come out when it was supposed to, the summer STN would have hit the stands a smidge before the Wire's YLT issue. Unfortunately, there was a nail-biting six week delay at the printing plant, by which point the Wire had already come out with another issue.

It's a nearly impossible job for one person, getting STN out there on a regular basis, and we're bound to double up with the Wire, Magnet, the jazz glossies, etc. from time to time -- there's really no way around it. But even when that happens, all our material is original, so you're at least going to get a fresh piece of writing!

Anyway, thanks again for all your collective support!
pete gershon / SIGNAL to NOISE
www.signaltonoisemagazine.org

[Gary Sisco]

Thanks for the word, Pete. And for your great work.

[shrugs]

more peices on Reynols and I'll stay subscribed!!!!

[john williams]

Originally posted by Gary Sisco
I must be getting old, but that's not my idea of a pub atmosphere. Music, okay, certainly. Especially if its at a volume that allows conversation at something below a yelling level, but the direction seems to be going toward sitting and drinking and being unable to converse with any ease. It just makes me nervous, most times, and also wanting to leave. It makes me feel like I want to be alone and to be left alone. Exactly the opposite of what a pub is supposed to be (the word does come from "public house," after all, that is, it's supposed to be a public experience, not a private one, when you go out).

I am completely with you on this Gary. I get pretty jumpy in these situations and have to get out.

[Bill Barton]

Bye-Yah, y'all...

Originally posted by Bill Barton
Bye-Yah, y'all...

what's the message here, bill?

[Bill Barton]

Originally posted by achilles
what's the message here, bill?

Hey, you know what, beats me too! I think that the rest of this message somehow disappeared due to inadequate typing skills on my part or the fact that our computer crashed around this time and it took a couple of days to get it back up. And for the life of me I can't remember what else was in there... A one-beer-too-many moment?

[Vince Kargatis]

up for rollhead

[Gerardo A]

I've only read one issue of the mag and I liked it, but the suscription cost for non-US addresses is heavy. For US and Canada it's $15 for a year (4 issues), but for the rest of the world is $50?

[Jon Abbey]

yeah, clearly that should be fixed for Mexico, if nothing else. I'm sure most of that is shipping costs, obviously.

[Gerardo A]

Yeah, I'd suscribe without hesitation if it costed $30, for example. It's a good mag. Anyway if I end up moving to the US next year (as planned) I will suscribe to it and order more cd's and hopefully have more mobility to attend certain electro-acoustic improvisation festivals, I hope!

[rollhead]

How does StN compare to "Wire"?

I spent the $15 for StN, not sure I want to pay the $100 for Wire.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by rollhead

How does StN compare to "Wire"?

I spent the $15 for StN, not sure I want to pay the $100 for Wire.

well, one is 12 issues and one is 4, but it depends what kind of stuff you're interested in. there's not too much jazz coverage in the Wire these days.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

there's not too much jazz coverage in the Wire these days.

Odd for a magazine named after a Steve Lacy tune.

I pick up STN and Wire only occasionally on the newsstand, based purely upon the contents of any given issue.

Bye-ya

[Jon Abbey]

yeah, when the Wire began, they almost exclusively covered improv/jazz, with some 20th century classical thrown in also. but that hasn't been the case for quite some time, particularly the jazz part.

I read both the Wire and Signal To Noise, but as far as current music, I get almost all of my info online. the Wire is much better with historical coverage (although their current AMM primer is kind of a wasted opportunity, not worthless but not nearly as good as it could have been) than they are with current music.

[antboy]

hi all,
apparently there was a mini feature (or a reveiw and photo) on Ernie Althoff in a recent STN, does anyone know which issue this was? l need to hunt it down, thanks.

[Jesse]

Will,

STN Spring 2006/Issue 41 has a 3/4 page spread reviewing Althoff's splendid Dark By 6, as well as Spear and Les Respiration des Saintes. I got 'em all.

[antboy]

thanks jesse! gota get my hands on that for ernie...

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by rollhead

How does StN compare to "Wire"?

I spent the $15 for StN, not sure I want to pay the $100 for Wire.

I think STN is probably enough. You might want to pick up a single Wire issue from Tower (or other places that carry them) just to compare the contents yourself. I find the quality of the reviews to be even, though with StN you'll get reviews by Bivins and Rosenstein. The Wire's Primer section is usually very useful and I also enjoy the invisible jukebox. The interviews on both are pretty decent.

While there is a lot of overlap, STN tends to have a bit more avant jazz coverage than the Wire.

I think they're both good mags with their own positives and negatives. Given the price, however, I think StN should be supported simply because Gershon does a tremendous job keeping it afloat. The Wire is more of a luxury item, at least on this side of the pond.

[lazarus]

I have never seen STN for sale anywhere here in Sweden (The Wire is easy to find) and subcribtion is very expensive but I have bought some single issues from Dusty Groove (Chicago) or Sound 232 (London) together with my cd orders a couple of times.
Very good magazine.