Got my new issue today (Mastodon cover story) and the damn thing's only 50 pgs.
I remember back in 2000-2001 it was regularly 120+ pages and could keep me occupied for a month. This, however, I could get through in one visit to the throne.

Sad. It's the magazine that played the dominant role in my music taste/development. Frampton especially; after meeting him I realize how much of his voice and humor were strewn throughout CMJ's pages and how much, by extension, that soaked into my being.

Other than Eric Davidson, I have no connection there anymore and that's still baffling.

What's ol' Frambo up to these days??? If he's still in the journo biz, I'd love to get a look-see at whatever pub he's ruling.

he writes for esquire and O sometimes and is managing bands

It's been a while since we talked or emailed, but last I checked in he was doing some artist management and had just started a day job doing some online content management/development for Sirius Satellite Radio.
Simply one of the best people I've ever met and I say that independent of him giving me my first crack at freelancing for CMJ. Not enough people like him out there.

And FT, I think the preferred nickname (at least from Nicole and company) was "Frampa".

dang, I wish stevec, frampa, whiney, tom and nicole would post here more. They were sort of like the mark of approval when they endorsed a band, unlike the rest of you yahoos who like everything.

SteveC - busy during the day as a teacher
Frampa - see above, plus he's a dad
WhineyPTW - emerging music blog magnate and touring musician
Tom - married, dunno much else
Nico - Legitimate and acclaimed entertainment writer

Frankly, that these folks are so busy as to not hang around these parts is a testament to them; they're too busy being awesome.
Good for them.

O as in Oprah?!?!? But why, Scott, WHY?!?!?!?!?

swiateck et al - how are the cds lately?

Beat me to it. But, yeah, maybe he was hired to do an ex post facto hatchet piece on James Frey... In that case, we could approve.

so-so, just like before. Only there aren't as many pleasant surprises. The decent stuff comes from artists you've heard of before; the no-names generally = teh suck.

50 pages or not, you should have some sort of celebration that it was even delivered.

I miss the CMJ people being around more, too.

Seems like each issue, one specific major label will buy their way into 4 or 5 spots on the CD--last issue there were a lot of Columbia and Columbia-related labels like Red Ink.

Did they bind your CD into the mag sideways, crushing the disc like mine?

Umm, are you TRYING to sound naive? Labels have ALWAYS paid to get their tracks placed on the CD. The mag might solicit some artists to begin with, but all have to pay to get on there. Notice how for the longest time you never saw a Matador artist on a CMJ disc? It's because they just wouldn't pay for the placement. At one point it was more than $1,000 per track, but it has to have dropped as circulation has dwindled.

No, I know that--I'm saying that lately, each month, one major label buys up a quarter or more of the spots on the CD, so you get a track from every remotely indie-sounding act Columbia's releasing that month. It's just more obvious that they're throwing everything at the wall, hoping something will stick, which is why the no-name cuts are sucking harder.

Agreed. Sorry for being an ass there.

While forward-thinking and pretty cool 10 years ago, the idea of CDs in a magazine is almost quaint during the P2P, RHapsody, YSI/Sendspace age when most any song you want or have heard about is a couple clicks away.

CMJ has no core mission that it performs very well at anymore; the trade mag/college radio tracking service is only around still because no one has stepped into the market to challenge its position, the monthly still exists solely because of the CD revenue, and the Music Marathon shows more chinks in the armor each year.

Like I said, sad.

Now there's where I'm naive! I almost never do any net searching for artists I'm curious about, I just hope that damn monthly CD hands me something interesting. Oh well--the decline of CMJ is slowly disabusing me of that habit.

I am a Luddite more out of inertia than principle.

I'm also rambling and must sleep.

I still have yet to listen to the last 2 issues cds.

having said that (which i agree with), you'd think they've have an awesome A+ super duper website. When i first checked out cmj.com back in 1999/2000, it was a daily visit-type site, then it gradually turned into crap, then the bb turned into crap. Now the website (6 years later) looks and navigates the best it ever has, though i think the bb is kaput. here's hoping they put some more resources into the website. it could be cool.

bort

I lurk like a motherfucker. Always have. I just haven't much to add.

Tom and I gab all day at the Paper Thin Walls message board, but right now it's just mainly to other writers. And Bort!

Uh, $2 a word.

It really is like the most expensive blog in the world. When I was over there, I tried fruitlessly to make everything go digital for the longest time...

No one left at the company has every posted on Obner either. Except Kory, who got sonned by OPA for not ranking his Listmania and has been staunchly anti-Obner ever since.

And not to sound like a spambot, but Steve C, Tom and Nicole (and prolly Scott soon enough) all write for my website!

I have a 10,000 word high school report on Lewis and Clark, that I wonder if she'd print.

Only if your punctuation continues as above.

Will you make sure that I have plenty of sentence fragments?