Bowerbirds Feature + Reviews

THE feature on the Bowerbirds that I finished nine months ago (and started nearly a year ago) has finally been published in Supplemental #9 of Copper Press. As luck or sad coincidence would have it, that's just in time for the release of the band's new album, Upper Air, on July 7.

In addition to Jennifer Kelly's interview with Larkin Grimm and two artist interviews by Royce Deans, this issue includes my reviews of the Radar Bros. full-length Auditorium and Robert Pollard's album and book Robert Pollard Is off to Business and Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, respectively. These, too, have seen a similarly long run-up to publication. All of them were submitted in the autumn of last year, which has left several publicists none too pleased.

The protracted delay between submission and publication and the magazine's decision to switch to a freely distributed PDF digital format are, I suppose, effects of the same cause that is driving the radical changes across all print media. Print advertising dollars have dried up, circulation is difficult to maintain when so many online outlets offer similar content for free, and digital distribution is more cost-effective and better suited to regular updates and breaking news.

I don't know if this means that Copper Press will end the Supplemental series and run under its own name in the future, or if the Supplemental moniker marks the magazine's official break with the past, but I doubt we'll see another print issue again. Part of the beauty of CP was the way it felt in your hands, but, if I'm honest, I think the benefits of the Web are more in line with its mission, if it ever had one to begin with.

Download the Supplemental for free here.