Where's the good writing?

Reading a recent John Harris Guardian blog posting bemoaning the fact that alternative bands sometimes become popular (perish the thought), my attention was caught by the following comments:
"jasonaparkes: What is it with all the conservative music writing these days - Q, Uncut, parts of Mojo & the Word, NME etc? I blame THE MAN."
"Commander Keen: Nah, it's an internet thing. All the cool people hang out on music blogs rather than write for magazines."
There is a kernel of truth in both remarks. Certainly most of the well-established newsstand music publications are running on fumes, recycling the same tired ideas or shining a spotlight on the same names from the past (props at least to Record Collector for the upcoming history of New Hormones - a challenging and occasionally brilliant record label that hasn't been hyped to death).
Equally, bloggers such as k-punk leave the likes of John Harris (-Tweed) in the dust when it comes to cogent and cutting edge music criticism. But, as some of the best fanzine writers of the punk era graduated to the mainstream music media, so scribes so such as k-punk are graduating to a new (paying, I hope) publishing nexus: the record shops. I want to read about the latest releases, where do I go? To the web pages of Manchester's Piccadilly Records, Cardiff's Spillers Records, or London's Rough Trade or Phonica. Independent and knowledgable resources that describe the music then allow you to hear it and make up your own mind. Phonica is also linked (through Vinyl Factory) to the excellent paper-based magazine, Fact, (k-punk is one of the contributors). Like Fact, The Stool Pigeon (a music paper distributed through independent record stores) attempts to push design boundaries as well as provide a home for intelligent and original writing about music. As yet it doesn't always live up to its promise, but it's a damn sight more interesting than the NME or Mojo.

The Phantom