21 April 2006
A nine-day trip to San Francisco, during which I was ill with a nasty cold/flu for the last several days (my thanks to LAURA WATT, BRAD POST, and SUSAN LEFF for taking me in and looking after me!) and my continued illness for three more days upon traveling back here to New York left me unable to post on my blog for the past month. But now that I am on the mend and able to write once more, I am happy to let you know that the promised spring Issue 58 has indeed been completed with our esteemed art director ADAM SYMONS and is well into the printing process—it should be appearing in mailboxes and stores quite soon. Hurrah! Were I not underneath the weather (man was it rainy in the Bay Area!), I’d be well into the shot of Jack or glass of bubbly that has marked completion of all our prior issues, 57 times over. [Is that to say that you were an underage drinker when BT 1 came out in 1980?! -ed.] I intend to take my sips and gulps as soon as health permits!!! (Who wants to join me, in person if you’re a friend, or in spirit?)
There are five things pertaining to the issue that I should mention right away while we wait for it to arrive:
- If you’re a subscriber and you have moved, please tell us ASAP (you can click Contact on our homepage to reach me), so that we can correct your address before the new issue gets mailed. This is very important, since the postal people have an inconsistent record of forwarding our issues even when a forwarding address has been provided. Nor have they been good about returning such issues to us even when no forwarding address exists. So we won’t even know you haven’t received your issue! And that keeps me up at night. (Little else does.)
- As advertised, our special 25th anniversary back issues/CDs/T-shirts sale is slated to end with the arrival of Issue 58. So if you’re still interested in taking advantage of this one-time offer (or want to do so again!), you still have this short window in which to do so, but it is running out. For those who missed the original notice, it’s basically “buy any three back issues and get one completely free” (other than 32 or 34 which are sold out) , or “buy any four back issues and get one of our t-shirts (three colors, white, black, or red, in six sizes, including two women’s!), or one of the four CDs we sell completely for free” (DOUG GILLARD, two by LAST BURNING EMBERS, or EVEN WORSE). Note, you can get as many free back issues or CDs or t-shirts as you like via the above offer, as this sale has no limit per customer. And you can go get more even if you’ve hit us up for this once already. For full details and/or to order, just click on Back Issues T-shirts & CDs which will take you to our secure online store, and you’ll see the info there. Just order what you want and then indicate what issue(s)/CD(s)/T-shirt(s) you prefer for the deal in the “Comments” section of the order form. This offer is also available by mail; make checks out to The Big Takeover, 249 Eldridge St. #14, New York, NY 10002—just use the secure online store for pricing info. Hey look, somebody’s gotta do something to keep Michelle busy in the office—why not you?
- If you’ve been meaning to subscribe (and I will tell you a little about the new issue below), and want to get the new Issue 58 to start your subscription without delay, now is the time to do it, as again, I will soon have to turn in our current mailing/subscription list to the printer so that they can mail the copies straight from there. You can do this by clicking Subscribe Now on our home page. Just let us know in the “comments” section what issue you want to start with. (For instance, if you wanted to start with 56 or 57 instead of 58, to catch up on what you missed, we can do that as well.) Again, this is available by mail for $20 for domestic readers (all foreign subs must be made online) to the above address. C’mon now! Big Takeover right to your door—some call it paradise!
- Likewise, if you’ve been meaning to renew your recent or lapsed subscription, again, now is the best time for the reasons given above. Again, you can do this by clicking Subscribe Now on the home page. Again, feel free to tell us what issue you want to restart with, unless your last issue was 57 (in which case, we’ll just know to restart you with 58). And again, domestic readers can do this by mail for $20 to the above address. You do miss us… don’t you? To paraphrase the words of THE JACKSON FIVE, “we want you back!”
- If you’re a store that wants to order directly from us, email me ASAP (click Contact on our homepage to reach me), and we’ll be glad to start you with the new issue straight from the printer. Why pay more? And why wait longer? Operators are standing by. Well, at least I am.
Anyway, now that those more pressing items have been dispatched, I will, as promised, tell you all a little more about the contents in upcoming Issue 58. I will save the full lowdown and quotes and all that good stuff for when the issue is actually out and hitting the stores, but here’s the “sneak peak” list of who is interviewed in its pages:
FRANZ FERDINAND (the Scottish band, not the assassinated Austrian archduke) is our cover story (in this part, we speak to singer/guitarists ALEX KAPRANOS and NICK MCCARTHY), and there will also be chats both great and small with THE DECEMBERISTS (Part 2), FLAMING LIPS, NEW YORK DOLLS, X-RAY SPEX’s POLY STYRENE, EDITORS, SUFJAN STEVENS, JON AUER, BOB GELDOF, IVY, SMALL FACES’ IAN MCLAGAN, BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, ROBERT POLLARD, BUZZCOCKS, GRANDDADDY, HIS NAME IS ALIVE, CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN, TOM VERLAINE, THE CLIENTELE, MARK MOTHERSBAUGH of DEVO, ARAB STRAP, ELBOW, (NEWTOWN) NEUROTICS, THERMALS, JOHN KASTNER, SATAN’S PILGRIMS, BOB GRUEN, BOSS MARTIANS, and MADLIFE.
There will also be editorials by MICHAEL B. ACKERMAN, TIM SOMMER, KELLY CALLAN, and myself, as well as tons of reviews, live reviews, letters, the latest installment of the great KARL HEITMUELLER’s “You Don’t Like Anything” comic, some humor, and a final political word. Maybe having so much to read will keep you up at night!
Well that’s it for now. I’m still not 100% recovered; I should take my nighttime knockout cold stuff and hit the hay. But I, along with our many contributors and staff, can’t wait for you to see our latest efforts.
Ah-choo! More to come! Now where’s that Nyquil… (sniff)
