Perfect Sound Forever (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Perfect Sound Forever is one of the longest-running online-only music magazine
s . Along with Michael Goldberg
's Addicted to Noise
(est. 1994), it is one of the very first publications to post recurring, feature-length music journalism online.
PSF's origins trace back to New York freelance writer Jason Gross, who began a now-defunct website called Furious Green Thoughts (from the noted Noam Chomsky quote
). The site was first hosted by the pre-Earthlink
ISP Pipeline
, and included articles covering politics, music and fiction. In 1995, Furious Green Thoughts was splintered into three sections, with the main title covering political (usually far-left) stories, "Assorted Realities" covering fiction and "Perfect Sound Forever" covering music. Laboring as a staff of one, Gross eventually folded Furious Green Thoughts and Assorted Realities, simplifying the zine's name to Perfect Sound Forever by the mid-1990s. PSF also moved from monthly to bi-monthly publication, with approximately 14 articles in each issue.
Apart from occasional review columns, the 'zine concentrates on in-depth op-ed
pieces, think pieces and interviews, usually of obscure, often reclusive artists. Its design is a dark background with white lettering, which some readers have complained is difficult to wade through. However, a 2004 redesign prompted many calls for reversion to the original code.
PSF's longest running column is Marc Phillips' "The Vinyl Anachronist" (which began in 1998). The site's most popular article remains "The Bad Songs of the '70s," which was written in 1995 and still generates hate-mail. Another popular article concerns Jimmy Page
and the disputed authorship of several Led Zeppelin
songs- in an article about a copyright lawsuit against Page, The Guardian
cited PSF's Jake Holmes
interview which was done as a follow-up to the Page article. A 1997 interview with Tuli Kupferberg
was also cited in his obituary in the New York Times.
Former Pitchfork
editor Chris Ott briefly worked as co-editor, and put together a redesign of Perfect Sound Forever that ran in late 2004 and early 2005. Current editors include founder Jason Gross, Robin Cook (who is also a production editor at Kensington Books
), Al Spicer (former editor at Time Out London) and Kurt Wildermuth (an editor at W. W. Norton & Company). Ken Cox, who also worked as a reverend and professor, was also an editor- he died in March 2010. Gross also contributes an annual report on the state of music criticism to RockCritics.com and PopMatters
..
PSF has also published work by several noted writers including Robert Christgau
(who also edited the June 2008 issue), Jim DeRogatis
, Vivien Goldman
, Barney Hoskyns
, Dave Marsh
, Richard Meltzer
, Simon Reynolds
, David Toop
and Richie Unterberger
. There have also been articles, stories and literature from several musicians including Colin Newman
(Wire), Peter Stampfel (The Holy Modal Rounders), Lydia Lunch
, Chris Cutler
, Alan Bishop
(Sun City Girls), Holger Czukay
(Can), DJ Spooky
, Richard Hell
, Moondog
and Tuli Kupferberg
(The Fugs).
The name Perfect Sound Forever originated in an early 1980s Sony
ad campaign about the first generation of CDs, promising the highest fidelity possible, and that the discs would outlive their owners. The same term was used as the title of a Pavement
EP
released in 1991.
Music magazine
A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music.-Notable music magazines:...
s . Along with Michael Goldberg
Michael Goldberg
Michael Goldberg was an American abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his gestural action paintings, abstractions and still-life paintings. His work was recently seen in September 2007 in a solo exhibition at Knoedler & Company in New York City, as well as several exhibitions at...
's Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise
Addicted to Noise was an online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded by ex-Rolling Stone editor and writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it published its first issue in January 1995 and was the first online magazine to include audio samples along...
(est. 1994), it is one of the very first publications to post recurring, feature-length music journalism online.
PSF's origins trace back to New York freelance writer Jason Gross, who began a now-defunct website called Furious Green Thoughts (from the noted Noam Chomsky quote
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 Syntactic Structures as an example of a sentence that is grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical. The term was originally used in his 1955 thesis "Logical Structures of Linguistic Theory"...
). The site was first hosted by the pre-Earthlink
EarthLink
EarthLink , is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.- Business :EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available...
ISP Pipeline
The Pipeline
The Pipeline was one of the earliest American Internet service providers. It was founded in December 1993 in New York City by the science and technology writer James Gleick and computer programmer Uday Ivatury, who had met at the Manhattan Bridge Club and shared an interest in online bridge...
, and included articles covering politics, music and fiction. In 1995, Furious Green Thoughts was splintered into three sections, with the main title covering political (usually far-left) stories, "Assorted Realities" covering fiction and "Perfect Sound Forever" covering music. Laboring as a staff of one, Gross eventually folded Furious Green Thoughts and Assorted Realities, simplifying the zine's name to Perfect Sound Forever by the mid-1990s. PSF also moved from monthly to bi-monthly publication, with approximately 14 articles in each issue.
Apart from occasional review columns, the 'zine concentrates on in-depth op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
pieces, think pieces and interviews, usually of obscure, often reclusive artists. Its design is a dark background with white lettering, which some readers have complained is difficult to wade through. However, a 2004 redesign prompted many calls for reversion to the original code.
PSF's longest running column is Marc Phillips' "The Vinyl Anachronist" (which began in 1998). The site's most popular article remains "The Bad Songs of the '70s," which was written in 1995 and still generates hate-mail. Another popular article concerns Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
and the disputed authorship of several Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
songs- in an article about a copyright lawsuit against Page, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
cited PSF's Jake Holmes
Jake Holmes
Jake Holmes is an American singer-songwriter and jingle writer who began a recording career in the 1960s...
interview which was done as a follow-up to the Page article. A 1997 interview with Tuli Kupferberg
Tuli Kupferberg
Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:...
was also cited in his obituary in the New York Times.
Former Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
editor Chris Ott briefly worked as co-editor, and put together a redesign of Perfect Sound Forever that ran in late 2004 and early 2005. Current editors include founder Jason Gross, Robin Cook (who is also a production editor at Kensington Books
Kensington Books
Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American book publisher.- Overview :Kensington was founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius, formerly of Lancer Books. Steven Zacharius became president and CEO in 2005. Vice president Michael Rosamilia has been the CFO since 1989. Laurie Parkin is the vice president...
), Al Spicer (former editor at Time Out London) and Kurt Wildermuth (an editor at W. W. Norton & Company). Ken Cox, who also worked as a reverend and professor, was also an editor- he died in March 2010. Gross also contributes an annual report on the state of music criticism to RockCritics.com and PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
..
PSF has also published work by several noted writers including Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
(who also edited the June 2008 issue), Jim DeRogatis
Jim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...
, Vivien Goldman
Vivien Goldman
Vivien Goldman is a British journalist, writer and musician. She was born in London, the child of two German-Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. She studied English and American literature at the University of Warwick...
, Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editor of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.Hoskyns graduated from Oxford with a First Class degree in English. He began writing about music for Melody Maker and New Musical Express, quitting his job as staff writer at NME to research...
, Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
, Richard Meltzer
Richard Meltzer
Richard Meltzer was one of the earliest rock music critics. His first book, The Aesthetics of Rock, evolved out of his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduate studies at Yale University...
, Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
, David Toop
David Toop
David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...
and Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...
. There have also been articles, stories and literature from several musicians including Colin Newman
Colin Newman
Colin Newman is an English musician, record producer and record label owner.-Biography:Newman is a member of the rock band Wire. When the band temporarily split in 1980, Newman pursued a solo career. His first solo LP, A-Z, was released in 1980 on the Beggar's Banquet label...
(Wire), Peter Stampfel (The Holy Modal Rounders), Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
, Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
, Alan Bishop
Alan Bishop
Alan Bishop is an American musician, most famous for being the bassist and vocalist of experimental rock band Sun City Girls. He has also released solo material under the aliases Alvarius B. and Uncle Jim...
(Sun City Girls), Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music, for exploring...
(Can), DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
, Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
, Moondog
Moondog
Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin , was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. Moving to New York as a young man, Moondog made a deliberate decision to make his home on the streets there, where he spent approximately twenty of the thirty years he...
and Tuli Kupferberg
Tuli Kupferberg
Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:...
(The Fugs).
The name Perfect Sound Forever originated in an early 1980s Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
ad campaign about the first generation of CDs, promising the highest fidelity possible, and that the discs would outlive their owners. The same term was used as the title of a Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
EP
Perfect Sound Forever (EP)
Perfect Sound Forever is Pavement's third release, a 10" EP on Chicago's Drag City recording label. The songs on this record would later be made available on the Drag City compilation Westing ....
released in 1991.
Reissues
Several of PSF's articles have led to reissues of the artists involved, including:- Delta 5Singles & Sessions 1979-1981Singles & Sessions 1979–1981 is a compilation of previously hard-to-find or unreleased material from Leeds post-punk band Delta 5. It contains, in addition to a number of other songs, singles "Mind Your Own Business" and "You", Peel sessions , and a scattering of live cuts.-Track listing:#"Mind...
- Essential LogicEssential LogicEssential Logic was a UK post-punk band formed by saxophonist Lora Logic after leaving X-Ray Spex.The band initially consisted of Lora Logic on saxophone and vocals, Phil Legg on guitar and vocals, William Bennett on guitar, Mark Turner on bass guitar, Rich Tea on drums, and Dave Wright on saxophone...
- DNADNA (band)DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
- KleenexKleenex/LiLiPUTKleenex/LiLiPUT is a compilation album by LiLiPUT, formerly known as "Kleenex".Kleenex was Zürich, Switzerland's contribution to the world of female punk. The group started out in 1978 and evolved through numerous personnel changes throughout the next five years, touring with bands such as...
- Oh-OKOh-OKOh-OK was an American musical group from Athens, Georgia formed in 1981 with singer/lyricist Linda Hopper, bassist/vocalist/lyricist Lynda Stipe, and drummer David Pierce. Other members later included drummer David McNair and guitarist Matthew Sweet. The trio began practicing together at parties in...