R.I.P Relix

While I thought someone would pick up this story today, I guess we'll break it now at 5:55 p.m. (It's kind of like no one showing up for your funeral.) Just as The Dead are set to reform and head on the road, the one-time Grateful Dead fanzine has officially gone the way of its somewhat peers No Depression and Harp, and probably a slew of other magazines no one really cared about anyway. We hear Vibe may not have enough to put out their next issue either. I'm sure there are countless hippie jokes to make here, but we always thought they were fairly harmless and well-loved by their loyal readers. Goodnight, sweet prince.

UPDATE:

As things seem to be progressing rather quickly with this story, Relix editor Josh Baron earlier commented to Idolator that Relix will indeed keep publishing. From our sources, we are still hearing news to the contrary in the form that Relix will only print one more issue.

Blurt Online - Filling in the Gaps

BLURT-ONLINE
After the music magazine Harp folded shortly following this year's South by Southwest festival, a gap formed between the indie-dominated blogosphere, highly selective music publications such as Fader and Pitchfork and, well, the rest of the music world. An exaggeration no doubt, as there are still pubs out there such as Paste and Filter. Yet, with marketing budgets shrinking who knows what print publication will crash next.

While I'm sure many a music fan took little notice of Harp's absence, one can not help but wonder how many small Americana or triple-A leaning albums slipped by under the radar. Well, here to pick up the slack is Blurt-online started by Scott Crawford and other members of the Harp staff. They offer a wide range of comprehensive reviews and music news. It's been a pleasant surprise reading through their relatively large cache of recent reviews and picking up on records that would have gone by the wayside. At the very least, it gives you a nice comparison point the next time you're ready to head out and pick up a new record dubbed, "Best New Music" by Pitchfork. We put it on our blog roll, and you should too.