The Believer is a hearty magazine that is chock full of interesting words…so many, I could never keep up. I actually gave up after the first issue, but often have a peek at the newsstand or online…here is an exclusive interview between Tom Scharpling (The Best Show on WFMU) and Ted Leo (minus his pharmacists). The good news is that Believer releases an above average annual music issue. It is a personal favourite, probably because there isn’t much competition out there. The Vanity Fair Music Issue somehow manges to get worse and worse each year.

Stories in the June/July Music Issue of Believer (featuring Lightning Bolt illustrated on the cover) span Nine Inch Nails and 19th century British Romanticism, the Birotron, annoying Bob Dylan fans, the age old Stones v. Beatles debate through the lens of radical political history, the history of the vocoder, reclusive Cleveland power-pop genius Bill Fox, an excerpt from Dan Nelson’s monolithic All Known Metal Bands, and interviews with David Gates, The Blow (by Miranda July), Terence Trent D’Arby and Kevin Barnes (of Of Montreal).

There is also a CD included that has selections from Aesop Rock, The Blow, Clogs, Zach Condon, Deerhunter, The Drones, Explosions In The Sky, I’m From Barcelona, Bill Fox, Grizzly Bear, Lightning Bolt, Magik Markers, No Age, Of Montreal, Oxford Collapse, Page France, Reykjavik!, Sufjan Stevens, The Twilight Sad and YACHT. A complete track listing is available here.

Oh, and if you think the music industry has a monopoly of cut throat business tactics…check out this sad missive from the magazine’s publisher, McSweeneys:

As you may know, it’s been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney’s included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000—actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn’t hit right away, but it’s hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there’s really no way to absorb a loss that big.

We are committed to getting through and past this difficult time, and we’re hoping you, the readers, who have from the start made McSweeney’s possible, will help us.

Over the next week or so, we’ll be holding an inventory sell-off and rare-item auction, which we hope will make a dent in the losses we sustained. A few years ago, the indispensable comics publisher Fantagraphics, in similarly dire straits, held a similar sale, and it helped them greatly. We’re hoping to do the same.