Memo From Corporate

All the news on the news

Hello, World

Here at Kill Yr Idols Global Industries™ we like to keep the public informed of our process, plans, and outlook. Our executive suite thought the eve of the harvest moon was an ideal time for the latest status report, sort of a reaping what we’ve sown situation (our yes men in the marketing department all eagerly nodded in agreement when we put that idea out there).

We wanted to let you know what you can expect as head toward the end of this calendar year (we have no budget, so accounting quarters are pretty much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ around here), and also what it is that you’ll be getting if you become a full, paying subscriber.

Big Plans

Since we started blowing gasoline into the air intake back in August, we’ve been sending out 1-2 newsletters a week, and this will continue. There’s a lot of material in the warehouse, weekly output is a matter of how much we can fit into our shipping capacity, i.e., at least one new article per week, and often two, the limit except in extraordinary circumstances—we don’t want to bore anyone out there!

• We’ve got some series in the works! We started this month with the first installment of Lost Labels, and looking at labels on the margins of the marketplace/memory will continue on an at least monthly basis. There’s also new series exploring individual bands that have a unique quality, the first one probably coming next week (this is different than the occasional guides we write for Bandcamp, as those rely on the editors to accept our pitches, another ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Here’s the latest one on Acid Mothers Temple.)

• There’s also the monthly curation of links, and monthly coverage of the ongoing context surrounding and influencing everything we manufacture.

Move On Up

That last is available to full subscribers. And there’ll be more coming for everyone who subscribes at a monthly level or above. We are currently writing a book on Minimalist Music

For Bloomsbury’s Genre series.

• We will be issuing sample draft chapters and other materials for the book here prior to the deadline (which is March 2025), those will go to every full subscriber at a monthly level or above.

• We’re also planning a Kill Yr Idols print zine! We are working out formats and methods, but this will be a hard copy issue collecting recent writing that has struck a chord, and some original material that will only be in print. This will go out on a quarterly basis to all full subscribers at a yearly level or above.

Iron, Hot

This month is the ideal time to subscribe. As previously announced, there is a prize drawing for all new yearly subscribers who purchase a subscription through 11:59 p.m. PST, October 31. Three names will be drawn via a service like RANDOM.ORG or similar.

• One subscriber will get a brand new copy of LIFETIME REBEL, the new 4CD/1DVD release from RogueArt of Joëlle Léandre’s full Lifetime Achievement concert from the 2023 Vision Festival (our longer review is here). It’s excellent, a best-of-year entry, superb free and creative jazz from the opening Tiger Trio with Nicole Mitchell and Myra Milford to Léandre’s duet with the great poet Fred Moten.

• Two other subscribers will each get a brand new copy of the latest Can archival concert release, Live in Aston 1977. This is in the Bandcamp guide to Can and it’s the best so far of their new series of live albums:

Every new paid yearly subscriber (including current monthly subscribers switching to yearly) will have their name entered into the drawing per subscription—get/gift two subscriptions, you’re entered twice, etc. The drawing will run on November 1.

One final reason that now is the time to subscribe is because we’re going to have to raise rates December 1; a monthly subscription will be $8 and yearly will be $60. This is a necessity, unfortunately; we’re 100% freelance here and that’s precarious enough to start with (this is also in line with general rates on Substack). Add to that we are a niche within a niche, and that with recent editorial changes at other publications we have less work now than six months ago (Bandcamp sadly axed our “Constellations” column, which will only have two more installments), every subscriber counts.

One last thing: most of this will still be available to all readers, and for those for whom a full subscription is not the right choice, we ask that you share this newsletter far and wide. That in itself is a big help.

To come on Friday, a look at a major composer’s major anniversary year.

Good listening to all.