New issue of UNCUT - encore

Thanks to Mike Ollier:

“Your article about the new UNCUT just beat me to it.

“Reasons why I've cancelled my subscription: the lazy Smiths article, the look at a 20 year old Metallica song, the Q&A from readers to Kevin Rowland, the Best of the Byrds article, just in case there is someone out there who hasn't investigated them or read the thousands of other articles about them elsewhere etc, and so on... a thinner than usual edition, at that. Lazy journalism.

“I personally love movies ~ one of the reasons I started to get UNCUT. But their reviews are distinctly fourth rate. Are they written by a first year media student? Quite often, seriously bad movies get 4/5 stars... and giving anything by Oliver Stone anything over one star is a serious miscalculation in my book.

“Another reason: labelling the De Niro interview as an exclusive. He was also interviewed by The Guardian and The Observer last week; he has a new film to promote in which he stars and directs… . Do they really think they are the only people he will speak to?!

“One of my other reasons for cancelling UNCUT: it used to champion alt.co/Americana artists, but that seems to have stopped.

“And the final nail in the coffin for me is the "...and finally" thing in the back where the writer talks about hobnobbing with stars for "what used to be Melody Maker". Why?”

“You can't like everything in a mag, but even if I don't like an artist (I hate Metallica, for instance), at least I’d like to read something new about them.

“Pah!

“PS: Re your list of tasty new releases: one other new release on 19th Feb ~ Jackie Leven's "Oh What A Blow That Phanthom Dealt Me". And Lucinda's "Car Wheels..." came out last November and was included in my best of the year submission!”