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Sad news about CWAS - Matt Dornan is ending the mag with the next issue (#20). He's just circulated an email, the key elements of which are:

"Due for mid-January '06 publication, Comes with a Smile's landmark
twentieth issue looks likely to be our last...

Comes with a Smile continues to be a bedroom operation in every
conceivable sense...From this same West London room have sprung the last fourteen issues of Comes with a Smile, shaped via e-mail by a group of contributors motivated by enthusiasm for the music that encompasses (and effectively defines) what the magazine is "about". Reluctant to be confined by genre and frankly oblivious to (and frequently appalled by) what constitutes "newsworthy" elsewhere in the media, Comes with a Smile's raison d'être has always been to engage with our readership via conversations with and critiques of musicians and music that we deem "important" (without the elitism that suggests), and the overriding impression from your response is that we have succeeded. "So why stop now?" you ask.

It's become increasingly apparent in recent months that a profitable
future for CWAS remains a distant dream, a fact exacerbated by the
positive steps we've taken distributing the magazine overseas in
ever-increasing numbers. Such steps have enhanced Comes with a Smile's reputation globally whilst hindering us financially to the point where a cry of "enough is enough" emanated simultaneously from both the magazine's current benefactor and your editor. In short, we've become victims of our own success. Furthermore I'll admit it's been tough to sustain my various roles at the magazine without a salary and the idea
of entering a ninth year further in the red than at any time since our
inception in 1997, seems a foolhardy "career move" at best. To stop
now feels less like turning my back on something and more like turning
around to face the wolves who have sat patiently on my doorstep for
too long."

It's sad because it was (still 'is') a very good magazine with an excellent ethos and a real enthusiasm for music. You didn't have to like every band (and I didn't), or to agree with the gaps in their coverage, to appreciate the effort and quality that went into the mag. The accompanying CD was always a good source of new music. It'll be a big loss - Matt's planning to continue on a website but that isn't quite the same.

_________________
Back off Warchild, seriously.

http://elvers.bandcamp.com/

For me it was of those zines that I was glad existed rather than not but could rarely justify the outlay for.