Arthur Magazine has a blog up and running at http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/arthur/

It’s not so much a blog as a place to post essays that don’t fit in the magazine for whatever reason…. Here’s some of the latest stuff we’ve posted…

An Invitation To The Electric Seance
Tired of the saccharine inanities of the holiday season? Perhaps you would like to explore some stranger attractions, with JOHN COULTHART as your guide…

Behold! The Year’s Finest Rock Album
It’s not just because Julian Cope has taken the care to split his latest album, YOUGOTTAPROBLEMWITHME, into two discrete sides that it’s the best album OLIVER HALL has heard this year…

City Poet, Country Poet
Recorded roughly during the same years (’67-’70) and locations (Los Angeles and Nashville), Cohen’s and Van Zandt’s first three records–each reissued this year–are each masterpieces of songwriting, says MARK FROHMAN…

Is This Not Bonkers?: Wild New Pirate Music From New Orleans
GABE SORIA has just heard compelling code words: “sea shanties” and “beer” and “Saturn Bar” and decided that attendance is mandatory. Turns out, it’s the type of show that you realize you’re going to be telling people about until the end of your days…

Things That Go Swing in the Night: The Rhythmic Gambits of Joanna Newsom & Jason Spaceman
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” Ella Fitzgerald once sang, but in the half-century since then popular music has accorded meaning to a wide variety of rhythmic developments, swinging and otherwise. Two recent concerts however–one by Joanna Newsom at the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and one by Spiritualized at L.A.’s ornate Vista movie theater–brought Irving Mills’ original lyric to mind. One swung, one didn’t. And what a difference it made, says PETER RELIC…

Scenes From NO AGE’s Guerilla Gig Down By The L.A. River
Video and photos from a community gathering action in celebration of public space and nature amongst the urban sprawl, powered by a single generator…

There’s More To The Song Than Meets The Ear
JAY BABCOCK claims the so-called digital revolution is not just killing the music industry–it’s killing Music herself, by reducing and degrading our experiences with her, by removing almost all of the social, physical and analog aspects of music that have been so historically beneficial to human well-being…

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