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The Black Crowes have a new album coming out. Are you excited? To be fair to the Crowes (but not Sheryl, Counting, or Jim), I really enjoyed their first batch of albums. The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion was a great record. Can I hear it for “Remedy”? But is the well of baked rock dried up?

You see, Maxim Magazine has published a review of Warpaint, their new work. Only one problem… Maxim never heard the record. They guessed. Rude move of the year or genius?

The Crowes’ statement (via blackcrowes.com):

MAXIM MAGAZINE REVIEWS ALBUM WITHOUT HEARING IT

How is it that a magazine can review an entire album–and assign a star rating to it–without actually hearing the album?
Case in point: the “review” of Warpaint–the new album by THE BLACK CROWES–in the March issue of Maxim magazine. The writer–who has not heard the album since advance CDs were not made available–wrote what appears to be a disparaging assessment anyway, citing “it hasn’t left Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth.”

Incredulously, the magazine gave the album a two and a half star rating–although neither the writer nor the editor could have heard more than one song (the single “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution”).

When approached for an explanation, the magazine described the review as “an educated guess preview.” Huh?

Black Crowes manager Pete Angelus says, “Maxim’s actions seem to completely lack journalistic integrity and intentionally mislead their readership. When confronted with the fact that they never heard the album they are claiming to ‘review’ in their music section–with a star rating, no less–they attempt to explain that it was an ‘educated guess.’ In an email correspondence, Maxim went on to state: ‘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.’”

Angelus continued, “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. 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?”

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For what it’s worth, you could probably review the films of Kate Hudson (ex-wife of lead singer Chris Robinson) as well without having to sit through them … (insert Napoleon Dynamite voice) Lucky….

See Maxim review at gawker.com

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