Rock-and-Roll Celebrities, Whipped to a Froth in Blender

But Blender doesn't just report these news items, it also gives them perspective, pointing out where they fit into the long and glorious history of rock knuckleheadedness.

Any mag can report that some rocker got stoned and crashed his car. Blender gave us three pages of "Rock's Worst Drivers," a group that includes Billy Joel, Keith Richards ("the walking -- and, too often, driving -- chemistry set") and, of course, Elvis, who shot his 1971 Ford Pantera with a .22 revolver when it failed to start.

Any mag can report that X rocker is dating Y actress, but Blender gave us eight profusely illustrated pages on "The 25 Hottest Rock & Roll Galpals," a list that includes Christie Brinkley, Carmen Electra, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz, whom Blender identifies as "The Farrah Fawcett for the Teeth-Whitener Generation."

And who can forget "The A-Z of Rock & Roll Sex Scandals," which appeared in the May issue? A timeless classic, it featured seven pages of "the seamiest moments in music history," in alphabetical order from Anderson, Pamela to Plaster Caster, Cynthia to Zeppelin, Led.

It's this long-view historical perspective that lifts Blender above other rock mags, and it may explain why Blender edged past Spin in circulation earlier this year -- up to about 600,000 -- and now is second only to the venerable Rolling Stone, which sells 1.2 million copies an issue.

Blender's sense of history is also apparent in its CD reviews, which are voluminous, pungent and readable. In the April issue, Blender reviewed the Mars Volta's CD "Frances the Mute" and found it hard-rocking but pretentious: "There is an entire minute of bird chirping at the beginning of the suite called 'Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore,' followed by nearly three minutes of mystery noise and Cedric-wail . . . "

That sounds pretty pretentious, doesn't it? But it's not pretentious enough to earn a spot in the sidebar piece -- "The 4 Most Pretentious Albums of All Time," which includes Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" and Sting's "The Soul Cages," which Blender describes as a "gelatinous concept album about the son of a dying riveter who sails to the Island of Souls so he can save his father by drinking Death under the table."

Whether it's shooting spitballs at rock pretentiousness or wallowing in rock raunch, Blender is the rock-and-roll mag with the rock-and-roll spirit.