We previously posted some news on our Facebook, and D’espairsRay updated their pages with it as well.  We’re offering a free copy of the tour booklet we made to those holding tickets to cancelled shows.  Just pay shipping and handling.  You can e-mail me (laura@askewmagazine.com) in order to find out more information and get yourself set up.

As of right now I am pretty much through my backlog, so if you didn’t hear from me within the last six hours or so try and e-mail me again.  You never know, with the number of orders I am hand processing at the same time its very possible to lose someone in the shuffle.  Feel free to bug me!

Rubab is back east right now teaming up with Cari.  I miss her.  =(

PS.  We’re postponing Askew Live until we can fix an issue we’re having with talkshoe.   Sorry!  Shouldn’t be too far out though.

Have you seen her blog full of fashion, adventure, and uh – cats?  La Carmina just updated with lots of Jrock news.  She included information about our tour booklet collaboration with D’espairsRay.

“I’ve seen a preview, and it’s ultra-professional and made with love,” says La Carmina of our tour booklet. Head on over to her website for lots of Jrock and Japanase culture fun.

http://www.lacarmina.com/blog/

Thanks Carmina!

Our friends MOLICE have just released their latest PV for Romancer off their second album, CATALYSTROCK.

This thoroughly entertaining and satisfying PV fulfills several elements of their sound, some of which I caught on to in my review of CATALYSTROCK, while others the band members addressed themselves in Askew’s interview about the release.

Let’s recap:

1. In our interview with MOLICE, both vocalist Rinko and guitarist Yuzuru credit movies and sci-fi imagery with playing a influential role on the development of CATALYSTROCK.
2. In my review I caught on to the cinematic feel of the work as a whole, stating that the album was suitable to be the listener’s soundtrack.
3. “CATALYSTROCK looks to keep listeners hooked by demonstrating a more cinematic yet relatable sound.”
4. I addressed the spy movie feel of a few other tracks on the album, but I attributed “Romancer” with being the ultimate culmination of all of the sensations on the album. “‘Romancer’ proves to be the stand out track of CATALYSTROCK, culminating most of the various sensations present throughout while being catchy as all hell.”

Combine cinematic sound fit for an espionage thriller with the brilliant cinematics of, well… a spy movie, and what do you get?

Complete satisfaction.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your continued support of Askew Magazine.

What–? No, we’re not shutting down and changing our name! Far from it

As you can see we have a newly revamped website! We also have a lot of other changes around here. For one, our new staff blog as you have already found.

Another change is that we will no longer be featuring content online. All of our material will henceforth be in print. You can stay tuned for a compilation of material that used to be online, so you can view it in episodes of nostalgia, but we won’t be featuring interviews or reports on our website anymore.

One thing I’m hearing nowadays is “Print is Dead.”

Print is not dead! Print is just reinventing itself.

While I do think that online media is very powerful, I also feel that there is nothing quite like a printed magazine.

Here at Askew, we strongly believe in creating material that will last the ages, a hard copy of media that you can treasure for years to come. Perhaps those that do not believe in the power of print have forgotten the exhilirating feeling of flipping pages between your fingers, wether they be fresh or ancient. I think that feeling can never truly be replaced by a bluish-lit screen. And that is why our staff have worked so hard to keep us in print. I cannot soley take credit for this fact; this was a decision we made together as a team and we will stand by it.

It may be a choice that keeps us from being rich (haha, who actually is rich in this industry??) but I think the sacrifice is worth it.

Maybe we have a diamond in the rough; who knows?

If you like that stale screen feeling then you can just look at our online version of the magazine for free and see what we’re about. But I promise you it’s not as cool as having a hard copy! D:

I remember the days when I would go to Kinokuniya and scour all the Japanese magazines for my favorite bands… I still know people who can’t read Japanese but collect issues of Shoxx almost every month, simply because of the wonderful photoshoots. I hope Askew can become an item like that. I feel that an online-only outlet will never recreate that experience.

It’s important to support press outlets, and let them know what you think. Who you want to see covered. What bands you think deserve more attention, and who should be on our next cover.

After all, we cannot have an audience without you! So, as I said in the beginning of this entry, thank you for your support.

If you’re a D’espairsRay fan, Love might also be Dead. What do you think? I don’t think Love is really Dead but I do love the song…

Speaking of D’espairsRay, we put our heads together and came up with a pretty sweet collector’s item for the tour merch: a special edition D’espairsRay magazine, featuring exclusive D’espa content (a lot of which won’t be printed in the regular issue of the mag). These will only be available in a limited quality so make sure you pick one up at the tour!

If you can’t attend the tour… I’m sorry. D’espa is pretty bangin’ live. Maybe you can ask a friend to pick a mag up for you?

In other news, I’m available on Twitter if any of you want to see what I’m up to:
http://twitter.com/askew_rubab
Feel free to add me!
You might just see me at the D’espa tour stop near you I’m pretty stoked to see them live again!

Thanks for reading this super long entry,

~Rubab

If you watch our page on Facebook, or actually even the D’espairsRay official page, you might have seen an update early this morning about a special project we worked on.  D’espairsRay approached us while we were setting up their interview for the back cover of issue #5, and asked about distributing Askew on the tour.

We sell our main magazine just at cost because marking it up any higher makes it too expensive, so placing it on the tour didn’t make a lot of sense.  So instead I decided to create a special tour booklet.  The content differs from the magazine, and is in fact cover to cover with content for the band.  These booklets are glossy and full color.  Because they are limited to sale on the tour, they are also a great collector item.

Justin Lim, headed down with photographer Brendan Daniel, to the filming of “Death Point.”  You’ll really love the first hand account of what it was like behind the scenes, but check out the video.

If you watch it really closely you can see them all in the background of the vid!

Oh here’s the cover for the booklet by the way:

Be sure to check out their show!  You can find lots of information about venues, contests, and more over here: http://www.despairsray.jp/tour/

Welcome to the first installment of Askew Live!

This podcast is a syndicated product of Askew’s regularly scheduled talk show hosted on TalkShoe.com (http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/85100) every Monday at 3 PM PST (6 PM EST). Hosted by Laura Brickman and Rubab Rizvi, featuring Askew staff.

Tom comments on his brief flings with show business, the World Cup, the Karate Kid, how indie shows are like classrooms, and traveling with Molice to Vietnam.

Learn more about The Big Jugs Experience on Myspace.

Listen in as Tom reveals who is fun to build beer can pyramids with, shares the amusing stories of why two featured bands recently changed their names and even spices things up with a song from a hip-hop collaboration.

Featured artists:
Astro Attack, the circlets, bone machine, Panda, No Panda, SAWAS PHOOL and Potato Tips

Learn more about The Big Jugs Experience on Myspace

In this episode of Radio TBJE Nippon, Tom introduces more TBJE artists and stories of a few unlikely encounters with smalltime artists who left a lasting impact. As an added treat, he also shares a track fresh off of Molice’s new album, Catalystrock.

Featured artists:
pLumsonic!, Back in Tokio, MOLICE, PIG THE RYO, Lillies and Remains, and TNG.