Yesterday's reports have been confirmed: Harp magazine has ceased publication. The magazine -- one of the true shining lights in the music section on store racks in recent years -- is the second non-mainstream title to fold in the past month, following No Depression's announcement in February. According to a statement on the magazine's web site, money, as always, is to blame. The magazine was founded in 2001 and purchased by JazzTimes parent Guthrie Inc. in 2003.

Guthrie CEO Glenn Sabin said, "Unfortunately, Harp's critical acclaim never translated into sustaining commercial success. Harp's lifecycle was ill timed with the precipitous decline of the music software industry, coupled with the consolidation of the consumer magazine newsstand business and rising paper and postage costs."Not sure what the "music software industry" is or why its decline should affect a consumer mag like Harp, but it was clearly the writing on the wall.

Founder Scott Crawford is right when he states the magazine established "a much-needed niche within the crowded marketplace." At least at one time. As things progressed, titles like Magnet and Paste clearly cut into Harp's niche, and vice versa. Harp was a nice middle ground between the indie-centric former and the dad-rockin' latter, but that happy medium wasn't lucrative enough to guarantee survival.

I was on board Harp's train right away, picking up the first issue because of cover star Alejandro Escovedo, contributing a couple of pieces along the way (this one on Mark Eitzel and another on Jim Roll) and reading each subsequent issue until the last, which I just cracked this weekend.

Labels: magazines

As has been widely reported elsewhere, No Depression magazine has announced that it will cease publication with its 75th issue in May.

I'm ambivalent about the news. When ND launched, I was an active member of the message board on AOL (!) that spawned it, bought every issue and/or subscribed for the first few years and contributed a couple of pieces in the early going. It was several years ago, however, that I missed picking up an issue after my subscription had lapsed and realized, when I saw on the newsstand one day that a subsequent issue was out, that I didn't really miss it all that much. Apart from picking up the rare issue when the cover star promised a long interview with a favorite artist, I have largely ignored it for quite some time.

The reasons are twofold. The first is that I simply grew weary of the genre. I rarely go back and listen to much of what is termed alt-country, and when I do, it is to hear the early work of bands that have long since shaken off its shackles. The second is that at times the magazine simply wasn't very good. Much of the writing was hamfisted, the work of people with more passion than chops. That shouldn't condemn a magazine outright --plenty of fanzines and 'zine-like magazines (Magnet, et al) suffer a similar variation in quality -- but coupled with the fact that the music the magazine had proscribed itself to cover was a bit of a dead end, it signaled the death knell for ND.

The magazine's editors seemed to realize this fairly early on, branching out beyond the world of alt-country with occasional features. Thing is, I could read about these artists -- and the best alt-country acts -- in other, often better magazines. Though ND improved over its run, particularly in terms of production and design -- there was too much competition.

I appreciate the efforts of Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock, and hope their plan to move the operation fully onto an expanded web site will work. There obviously have been enough fans of this music and this magazine to sustain it for 13 years, and a decrease in ad revenue could be countered by cutting the cost of printing and distribution that come with a print product. Still, perhaps it's simply time for this to end. I thought hearing about this would lead me to pull out some old alt-country discs, but it hasn't yet.

Labels: magazines, music

I had no idea that Bill Fox was such an enigma. I first came across Fox when I read a review of his solo debut disc, Shelter From the Smoke, in some magazine. I've no recollection of precisely how it was described, but I knew it's mix of smart pop hooks, garage-fidelity vibe and folk instrumentation would appeal to me. This was 1998, the time before you could just hop on the Internet and order whatever you wanted in a few clicks. The local store didn't stock the disc, so I kept a lookout for it. Instead, I came across Transit Byzantium, his second solo disc, also issued in 1998. I bought it and liked it a great deal. I later tracked down Shelter From the Smoke, and liked it as well. I kept my eyes open for a follow-up, but it never came.

A few years later, I learned that Scat Records (home to my beloved Guided by Voices first widely distributed disc, Vampire on Titus) was going to reissue the recorded output of Fox's 1980s band, the Mice. I pulled my reviewer strings and got a promo copy of the disc, For Almost Ever Scooter (which collects the For Almost Ever EP and Scooter LP), which I've played a lot since it's release in 2004. At that time, Scat's press materials reported that "Bill stopped writing and performing music a few years ago, but has plans to start back up again relatively soon."

Then I picked up the recent music issue of The Believer, which features an interesting article about Fox. The author fell in love with his music, but couldn't find anything out about the musician. He contacted former bandmates (including Fox's brother, Tommy, who drummed for the Mice) and other acquaintances, but the closest he got to Fox was to learn that he was working in Cleveland as a telemarketer and had completely given up music. There are other fairly fascinating details about Fox's life in the piece, but because Fox made it clear through intermediaries that he didn't want his life on display on the Internet for all to see, I'll let you track down the magazine if you care to know (The Believer isn't making the story available on its web site for the same reason).

It's a shame that Fox has soured on music, because he's awfully good at it. On his two solo discs, he offers a total of 36 songs, and nearly all of them are keepers. He evolved from the snotty pop-leaning punk of the Mice to offer a sophisticated sound that is clearly influenced by Bob Dylan (the inside of the CD insert of Transit Byzantium is dominated by a photo of a ticket stub to a 1998 Dylan show) but which features stronger, more immediate pop hooks than can be found in Dylan's work. Most if not all of this was recorded on a four track, and nearly every sound is played by Fox. Much like Guided by Voices (whose Robert Pollard is reported in the Believer article to be a fan), Fox figured out how to use the four track as almost another instrument, creating dense-sounding songs that stay on the right side of the line between cozy and claustrophobic.

Not all of the tunes are obvious pop songs, though my favorites on the disc are. "I'll Give It Away" and "Lay You Down" are among the best, each with a great rhythm and solid hooks. He leans a bit more toward the folk end of his sound on some of the songs on this disc as compared with Shelter From the Smoke, but this never devolves into corny campfire singalongs. This is folk in spirit more than sound, the songs so well crafted as to feel like public domain wonders rather than 10-year-old pop tunes recorded in the basement on weekends by a 9-to-5er.

Perhaps Fox really is planning to start playing and performing again, as Scat reported three years ago. If so, that's great news. If not, at least we have these 36 songs (and the 16 on the Mice reissue) to enjoy.

MP3: I'll Give It Away
MP3: Lay You Down

Labels: magazines, music, OOTS

Crawdaddy!, the first rock magazine in the U.S., will relaunch yet again on May 16 with an online version funded by Wolfgang's Vault. The magazine was started by then-college student Paul Williams, who put out the first issue in February 1966, predating both Rolling Stone and Creem.

Williams left in 1968, the mag didn't publish for a period during 1969 and 1970, and saw the return of Williams in 1993. It closed up shop in 2003, and has been silent until now.

The online mag's site has cover shots from Williams' initial 16 issues, a review of the Bruce Springsteen tribute concert from last month and other bits of information, historical and otherwise, about Crawdaddy!

"Crawdaddy! promises, in earnest, to maintain the values set forth by Paul in the original publication. We also want to acknowledge that the times have changed. We'll encourage writing and reporting that delves inward and back in time as a mirror for rock as it exists in the present and how it affects our socio-culture." It's a noble idea, and one that has fueled many come-and-gone efforts over the past several years.

At least Williams is involved, as "advisory editor," and he'll contribute to the first issue as well. Having read a couple of his books about Bob Dylan, compendiums, for the most part, of his writing in the magazine about the singer, I can attest to the fact that he is a talented chronicler of rock music, a possible breath of fresh air in a world where most reviewers spend more time talking about themselves than the music.

Labels: magazines, music