The Black Crowes Expose Maxim Magazine’s Lies

February 22nd, 2008

Rock band The Black Crowes have exposed a flaw in the writing procedures of Maxim magazine, after the publication reviewed the band’s new release and gave it a low rating – without actually hearing the album.

In the March issue of Maxim magazine, the new The Black Crowes album entitled ‘Warpaint’ was given a two and a half star rating, with the reviewer concluding that "it hasn’t left [band member] Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth".

The band has hit back at the magazine in a statement, saying that the writer’s comments were interesting considering they couldn’t have heard the album yet, as "advance CD’s were not made available" to press, and "neither the writer nor the editor could have heard more than one song".

Pete Angelus, The Black Crowes manager, slammed Maxim, saying they "seem to completely lack journalistic integrity and intentionally mislead their readership".

"It speaks directly to the lack of the publication’s credibility. In my opinion, it’s a disgrace to the arts, journalism, critics, the publication itself and the public," he said.

"What’s next – Maxim’s concert reviews of shows they never attended, book reviews of books never read and film reviews of films never seen?”

Maxim has defended their review in an email saying, "Of course, we always prefer to (sic) hearing music, but sometimes there are big albums that we don’t want to ignore that aren’t available to hear, which is what happened with the Crowes. It’s either an educated guess preview or no coverage at all, so in this case we chose the former.”