I don't think Q is worse than Hotpress. Hotpress is the worst magazine (apart from really crappie free ones written by first year art students) I've ever really seen regarding music. I like Rolling Stone, but the non-music articles are usually the best. The Weekly Dig from Boston is good, as is the Onion print edition. Interview is good too. But, I think anyone who goes to magazines for information or prose on music before they reference the better stuff on the internet is in trouble.

Yeah I read alot of music magazines and there are so many that are poor in content, style, writing and extras. I read NME and Hotpress the odd time but the good one's I try to get are 'Word', 'Rockpile' and 'Filter'. The best music magazine I've come across lately has been 'Paste' from America - it has a great layout, good style to it, interesting and diverse acts covered in it aswell as a kickin compliation cd & dvd. I'm getting the last issue and the most recent one sent over by a friend so looking forward to that. Defintely a need for another solid magazine, especially an Irish one.

This thread from a while back may be of interest: http://www.cluas.com/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2232&SearchTerms=magazine In the meantime, all I can say is bring back MUZIK magazine!

NME : tabloid w**k, still not as bad as it was in the 90's Hotpress : dreadful, not worth the paper its printed on, biggist crime is its continued ignorance and lack of support for homegrown talent (obviously not including the dreadful U2), and not to forget Niall Stokes self indulgent editorials ! Q : used to be good about 5 years ago, but I gather they have changed their target audience hece having more of a mianstream content, as Una says... still better than hotpress. Uncut : Really like it, movies and music are both covered, great integrity in the writing, wish they'd have more live reviews but otherwise I always buy it every month ! class !!!!!! Spin/Rolling Stone : Wouldnt give em the time of day, even worse that hotpress imho, quality of writing is dire ! Word - Now Word I like ! sometimes I think they could do with a little bit more of a sence of humour in the writing but otherwise its intelligent and to the point, and I mostly like what they like !!! Mojo - Also love this, as like Q, it was loads better 5 years ago but still you get the impression that the writers have a passion for what they are writing about and therfore its alright by me, like Uncut I but it every month.

The Slate was probably one of the best musicish mags in recent time, although Totally Dublin is good for reviews.

The Ticket, the Sunday Times supplements, rollingstone.com and the free Event Guide beat any of the magazines mentioned above in my mind. I used to subscribe to "No Depression" but let my subscription go when I discovered www.americana-uk.com. Websites, this one included, cater for my "musical needs" (how pretentious does that sound??) better than any print publication that costs money!!

I thought it was a shame that the event guide stopped doing reviews. Dunno why either? I find that I can't keep up with sites on the web and generally don't bother buying mags anymore because I never read them through.

the event guide's main problem is that the design has not changed in years and it now looks so shoddy compared to Totally Dublin and - even - In Dublin (which is absolute s**te but well-designed s**te nonetheless). the event guide looks like its put together in an hour by a bored child. they have the money - they certainly have enough advertising - so why not hire someone decent to do it? the writing is not as good as it was either - i think the main problem is that they just seem to have over-worked writer (and i think that's una who posts here) which is not fair on her. a music magazine (even a local listings mag like the EG) needs more writers. they used to have some amazing writers - people like mick heaney, jim carrol, leagues and more started there - so they just need to get their acts together again, that said, i'm sure it's easier said than done!

I used to think The Ticket was alright, but I can't really stomach it anymore. Like the rest of the Irish Times, it has become completely contrived, unfortunately. fiddlechick makes a good point about newspaper wirting, in that the majority of it is better than specialised magazines. I think this is because national press arts writing tends not to have any motive or objective other than the pursuit of good writing. For me, The Observer Music Monthly and the Sunday Observer's music reviews by Kitty Empire (best name ever) are the BEST. They're just so well written and honest. No bulls**t and no cliches. The Ticket is too obsessed with the Dublin music scene and too self referential. The Sunday Times Culture supplement is alright, but only for album reviews, in my opinion. The interviews are always pretty much behind the times (no pun intended) The Guardian is generally good, but it can be a bit too cool for school sometimes. I think The Event Guide stopped doing reviews because there's not enough room, but I'm not too sure.

The only magazine that I buy regularly is Q, and I'm not realy sure why, probably because it's got a very comprehensive reviews section (who I don't typicaly agree with) so I know what's out in any given month.

yeah, why wasn't there a OMM yesterday? All I got was a free book.

The Fly isn't a bad read, haven't got it for a while though. Maybe it's not on the go anymore.

hotpress is a very poor magazine. i seem to remember giving my opinion on this quite recently, actually... hmmn. anyway, bang is very good. and zoo and nuts -> great magazine for immature men. not so sure about their reviews. i will continue the research.

Maybe we could get John Ryan to stop doing that dog magazine in new york and put out a print version of cluas? Never bothered getting foggy notions as it looked a bit pretentious but is it still going? Bought uncut every month from day one until they had the clash on it for about the fifth time. I know they always profile bands with reasonable longevity but primal scream, blur, manics, sonic youth, pavement and others would have made good cover bands imo.

I think 'The Ticket' varies, sometimes its really good while at other times it is terrible. The mix of music and movies is great (plus it boasts one of the best film critics around in Michael Dwyer) but alot of the time the music content is a week or two behind on everything. Some of the interviews, profiles and reviews are like press releases edited and pasted in. It is miles ahead of 'Day And Night' though. The Sunday supplements are usually good with the 'I Magazine' having good reviews (mostly from Edel Coffey or Neil Dunphy) and 'Culture' proving that they can make reviews complicated, informative and interesting with so few words. Foggy Notions would be welcomed back I think. Wasn't the last issue with PJ Harvey on the cover?

I have to say I like The Ticket myself, there can be some bad issues but thats to be expected. The writing is usually very good, especially the interviews, the film reviews are usually spot on. It used to be worth buying for the single of the week reviews alone, (very very funny) but those have gone down hill recently