On Newsletters
New year, new newsletter.
I’ve been publishing this newsletter for a few months, and the response has been incredible. I really enjoy shining a spotlight on interesting artists and albums each week, while also having a soapbox of sorts for my errant thoughts and observations. So, thank you all for coming along for the ride thus far. I thought I’d take today’s post as an opportunity to give you all a quick update of the future of The Pitch of Discontent.
As of next week, I’ll be moving my supplementary posts into the paid subscriptions tier. This means that while the Monday Weekly Roundup will remain free, you’ll need to be a subscriber to get access to the rest.
Subscriptions will be set at $5 per month or $50 annually, which roughly works out to be less than $1.25 per week or around $0.14 per day—so we’re hardly breaking the bank here. I have a whole bunch of cool ideas in the pipeline, including album deep dives for forgotten gems, interviews with artists and scene-adjacent figures who inspire me creatively, as well as plenty of lists on music, film, books, and more.
Now, this is the part where I’m obliged to do that annoying freelance writer ‘call to action’ thing, where I grovel and beg for you to all subscribe and like and share my stuff to support my writing habits. But—in the interest of complete transparency—that’s just not me at all.
If you like what I do and want to read more of it while helping me out in the process, please subscribe if you can, and we’ll leave it at that, yeah?
I also wanted to highlight some of my favourite subscriptions that regularly fill my inbox in the interests of paying it forward. I’m doing this mainly because I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking people to pay for what I do if I wasn’t prepared to do the same. (It’s a ‘put up or shut up’ situation—you dig?)
Music Journalism Insider
This is—surprisingly—a newsletter about music journalism. Todd L. Burns is an industry insider with a great eye for scoops and interesting tidbits, and as a former contributor for publications like Pitchfork, he’s able to highlight some of the best stuff to hear, read, and watch every week. Burns also publishes news about the industry, alongside interviews with writers, editors, and more.
A Lonely Impulse of Delight
Connor Wroe Southard has a gift for words. His newsletter is a boon for anyone interested in understanding how stories work at a narrative level. Southard’s essays cover everything from novels to film and most cultural products in between. Also, fun fact: I once asked Southard about his thoughts on Cormac McCarthy in a comment, and he not only replied but featured my question in one of his Q&A posts. A rare surprise for my little parasocial heart.
Bad News
2020 saw many journalists jumping ship from traditional publications in favour of outlets like Substack and others. While Ryan Grim remains the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for The Intercept and the host of the excellent Deconstructed podcast, Bad News is a more focused selection of the issues close to Grim’s heart. If you’re fascinated by US political machinations or you can’t look away from the unending disaster of the Trump presidency, then Bad News is a great place for cogent, unbiased analysis.
REPLY ALT
Dan Ozzi served as a staff writer and editor at VICE’s music site, Noisey, and has contributed to Billboard, The Fader, The AV Club, and others. Along with Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, he is the co-author of TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (2016), which was listed as #42 on Billboard’s list of The 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time. In Ozzi’s words:
“REPLY ALT is the only email newsletter devoted to rock, punk, and music industry shit-talk guaranteed to make anyone who reads it more sexually desirable.”
Transfer Orbit
I’ve been reading Andrew Liptak’s work for years now in various places like io9, Kirkus Reviews, Lightspeed Magazine, Tor.com, The Verge, and more. Liptak is the author of the forthcoming book Cosplay: A History (2021). His newsletter is a regular look at the latest news within the science fiction community, with analysis, commentary and updates about fiction, writing, and the future of reading.
Foreign Exchanges
I found out about this one from the crew over at Chapo Trap House. I find Derek Davidson’s daily newsletter on foreign policy and geopolitics to be far more informative than pretty much every other traditional news outlet. Davidson spent several years studying US foreign policy and Islamic history, and Foreign Exchanges allows him to bring those informed perspectives to current (and past) world events.
(Interesting aside: I signed my father up for a paid subscription to Foreign Exchanges, which he peruses at great leisure on his iPad. I also have it on good authority that the newsletter is also forwarded to my grandfather’s email inbox and then printed out by his secretary, almost like a real, physical, honest-to-God print newsletter. This makes me feel warm and oh-so fuzzy on the inside.)
Books on GIF
This is a simple one. It’s a fortnightly newsletter where a new (or old) book is reviewed solely with gifs. It’s such a great premise that I’m personally enraged for not thinking of it first. Oh, and it’s also completely free. See? Simple. The definition of a no-brainer newsletter.
TK News
For years, Matt Taibbi has been a fearless crusader for independent journalism. Much like Grim above, Taibbi sees the reward and freedom that Substack represents, and since joining, his newsletter has become one of the largest and most successful on the platform. Taibbi is an avid contributor to Rolling Stone, and co-host of the brilliant Useful Idiots podcast with fellow journalist Katie Halper, along with being an award-winning reporter and successful non-fiction author of works such as Hate Inc.: How, And Why, The Press Makes Us Hate One Another (2019) and Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus (2017).