The last great rock and roll magazine, Blender, joined Trouser Press in the great newsstand in the sky back in 2009 and man are they missed. Nobody out there, not a one of them, has any sense of humor , let alone the cool slick humor of Blender. It was everybody else rolled into one, plus an irreverence the bizarrely self-important current bearers of all things pop can't even imagine.
Joe Levy was the editor when Blender folded and so it is with great pleasure that I read in media Ink that he may be taking over as editor-in-chief at Billboard. Billboard is so institutionalized that I am not sure what Levy will bring to it, but one thing is for sure. Billboard is only of interest for chart watchers at this point of the game.
Honestly, I swear it, there is only a handful of great rock journalists left. Rob Harvilla at the Voice (who should write much, much more) is one, Neil Strauss another, but after that…
Billboard wouldn't want somebody with too much personality any way, they are as dry as dry can be. Dryness is the new lightness, Pitchfork are dry because they are important, Billboard is dry because it's important, Spin is dry because nobody knows how to write…I can't tell you what AP is like because they've built an impenetrable wall round their website just in case somebody wants to read em.
So, yeah, I am just happy the editor of a magazine I love so much gets such a plumb job. My only suggestion Joe is if you smoke weed, bring along a clean urine sampler, Billboard are known to check.