Crib Notes

This weekend Chunklet Magazine proprietor Henry Owings made no bones about his feelings regarding the floundering, Decatur-based Paste magazine.

On Friday Owings challenged Paste to a high school-style public debate regarding the merits of Paste and Chunklet, thus revisiting the “Bucket of Shit” topic from the latest Chunklet.

So there’s a benefit show tonight for the worst magazine falling on hard financial times in 2009, Paste Magazine. I know, I know. In 2009, we should be celebrating anybody that’s willing to put out a piece of printed material. I mean, look who you’re talking to, fer chrissakes!

But no, I can’t lock step with people that endorse shit. I’ve fought in the punk rock trenches too long to let this sleeping dog (or rather dying and/or decaying dog) lie. Fuck. That.

Two years ago, back when their coffers were flush with money from Fat Possum and Luaka Bop ads, we shot across their bow. And sure, we live mere miles from their headquarters. I don’t care. And sure, their boat is sinking, but I’m firing across their bow again. Fuck it. This bitch has got to sink.

And let me say right now that if you’ve ever been a follower of Paste Magazine (other than for research purposes or morbidly curious reasons) and also read Chunklet, I don’t want you as a supporter of our endeavors. If you’ve never read Paste, you’re a lucky person and/or somebody that’s never been stuck at the Memphis Airport. Either way, you win.

Furthermore, I’m not hiding behind a computer when I write this. I am making an open challenge to anybody from Paste Magazine to a debate about their merit versus the merit of Chunklet. It’d be the ultimate spectacle. Editorial morons versus a Moron editor. The fight of the century. We’ll charge at the door and kick the money towards the winner. I’ve already picked out the curtains I’d like to buy with the winnings! Ooooh! Am I picking a fight? Well, sure, I guess I am.

No response from Paste yet, but we will keep you posted. Click below to see Chunklet’s revised list of the differences between a bucket of shit and Paste.

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Paste magazine, the Decatur-based music mag that’s reaching out for help during a crushing advertising downturn, says it’s reached the halfway point in its campaign.

From the magazine:

When we launched the campaign, we had no idea what to expect. We knew some readers had offered to help, but we braced for the worst. The response has been phenomenal. Readers, press and even advertisers showed remarkable support. We’ve been amazed, humbled and inspired.

So far we have raised $148,000! That was the minimum that we needed to keep us going into the summer; we never expected to hit this goal so quickly. Thank you! We have the most amazing readers in the world, and we now know—in a very real way—that we hold this thing called Paste in trust for you and will work diligently to honor that.

We still have a ways to go. Most of our debt will be paid out of revenues when the economy starts to rebound and advertisers return, but we need $300,000 to take care of bills that spiraled up during the ad slump. We’re halfway to that goal and more confident than ever that Paste will make it.

If you’re one of the thousands that have donated, you have our deepest gratitude. This crazy campaign is working. If you haven’t donated solely because you thought the effort was futile, it is not. And just check out those amazing songs that are yours for whatever you want to donate.

More musicians — including Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices, Neko Case, Cee Lo Green — have been added to the Paste Station Download Vault, a 120-song repository available to contributors. There are also contest prizes, such as tickets to the Austin City Limits Festival and “an entire Of Montreal Skeletal Lamping Collection.” For more information about the magazine or to contribute to the effort, visit Paste magazine.

The full release from Paste follows after the jump.

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This is pretty damn sweet. Apparently it’s a remnant from this year’s SXSW festival, where San Diego singer-songwriter Anya Marina covered T.I.’s “Whatever You Like.”

Check her out performing the song at Paste Magazine’s studios.

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It’s easy to forget the good folks at Paste magazine are based in Atlanta since they’re so good (too good, perhaps) at avoiding hometown favoritism.

But in Paste’s September ’08 cover issue, Best of What’s Next: 26 Emerging Artists You Must Know, two local yokels actually made the cut: Janelle Monae and Andy Hull.

Both are artists we’ve talked up (and sometimes down) in the pages of CL. Hull is best known as the lead for Atlanta indie rock act Manchester Orchestra. But his solo set, Right Away, Great Captain is a stripped-down concept album about a sailor from the 1600s, with each song representing journal entries to his captain and family.

Monae, whose Metropolis: The Chase suite was re-released last week, was the topic of CL’s music feature last week, along with her Wondaland Arts Society label. Metropolis is another conceptual release that tells the story of an android from the future who must be destroyed when she falls in love with a human.

But Atlanta has no monopoly on fresh talent. Check the full list for such artists as Wale (Washington D.C.), the Everybodyfields (Tennessee), Black Kids (Jacksonville, Fla.), Mugison (Iceland) and more.

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In its July issue, Decatur-based Paste magazine celebrates its list of the 17 coolest record stores that have outlasted the digital era, and Atlanta’s own Criminal Records made the cut with its enormous inventory of CDs, vinyl, magazines, comic books and DVDs.

“The resources on the Internet are supplements to actual record stores, not replacements,” said Josh Jackson, Paste editor in chief. “The digital era has its benefits, but I hope we can keep opening up new ways of discovering music without losing the best of the old.”

Look out for the soon-to-be released July issue of Paste for its complete listing of the 17 Coolest Record Stores in America, or click here to read it online.

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