THE BELIEVER JULY/AUGUST 2013

After a half decade away The Believer has returned home to McSweeney’s. To celebrate the momentous occasion, we’ve dug through our archives and found an extremely limited number of classic and timeless issues for your purchasing pleasure. Once these are gone, they’re gone forever.

Read The Man with the Million Dollar Voice, Tony Scherman’s essay on C.L. Franklin, in its entirety here. Check out excerpts from this issue here.

Table of Contents:

Out of the Woods by Casey Jarman
The story of “The Singing Logger,” who flirted with fame and sang for Johnny and June before returning to the forests of Oregon.

Schema: Two Decades in the Life of a Super-fan by Jon DeRosa

Real Life Rock Top Ten by Greil Marcus

The Man with the Million-Dollar Voice by Tony Scherman
C.L. Franklin brought the blues to the pulpit and became one of the most influential preachers of his generation.

Just Kidding, Love Sucks by Tavi Gevinson
A seventeen-year-old feminist on the empowerment, passion, genius, and perfection of the music of Taylor Swift.

Forget All That and Just Wail compiled by Ross Simonini
A collection of music that orbits around jazz

Wanted: Macho Men with Mustaches by Nicole Pasulka
How the Village People brought regulars from New York City’s gay bars into the hearts and homes of mainstream America.

Sounds of Our Times by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Emory Cook’s high-fidelity recordings not only captured the sounds of the world but helped shape it.

“Comics” edited by Alvin Buenaventura

Reviews:
Martin Seay on the Mountain Goats, Andrew Simmons on Bill Fay, Ian S. Port on Marnie Stern, and Daniel Levin Becker on Dads

The Process by Ross Simonini
A conversation with the artist Lizzi Bougatsos about her piece Good Hair

Ishmael Butler interviewed by Chris Estey
The man behind Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces talks New York in ’89, Miles Davis, and music that’s meant to be given away.

Stuff I’ve Been Reading by Nick Hornby

Leslie Feist interviewed by Claudia Dey
“It didn’t feel like pop music to me. It felt like this laser-beam lasso, like a weird weapon on a set list.”

“At Eight Pounds You Burst Out” : a new poem by Kirsten Andersen

Antony Hegarty interviewed by Henry Giardina
“Re-anoint Jesus as a girl, put in a female pope.”