Perhaps you noticed the campy picture on the cover of a guy sitting back with a set of headphones on. I found this picture on an old headphones box in the basement of my current house and I just liked it. It made me laugh, but I also found it appropriate for this issue of Thumb.
The focus of this issue has returned again to music, but hopefully not just in a “consumers guide to recorded music” sort of way. As a major focus of my life it only seemed natural to keep the musical focus of Thumb, even thought there are plenty of other music zines out there. Playing and writing about music is my hobby, buying and selling music for the record store is my job, and making and listening to music is my love. It only makes sense that I write Thumb about something that I know and understand a little bit as well as something which interests me. Music isn’t not my entire life, but it is an integral part of what I do. It keeps me busy.
I had a little sound experience not to long ago that relates to what I’m getting at. On my way to work on a Sunday afternoon I parked it downtown and shut off the car’s engine. As the power to the tape deck cut out, making way for the expected silence that usually follows, I heard a series of tuneless beeps souding from an unknown corner of the car. I was surprised to hear them and quite delighted by their simplistic unmelodic, yet deliberate tones. I traced the sound to the glove compartment where I found an electronic “Fighting Irish” keychain that I didn’t even know existed (probably left there a couple of years earlier by either my brother or sister when it had been their car). The keychain had somehow been set off, with it’s half dead batteries giving it a drunken aimless version of it’s original programmed tune. I took it with me as I walked the remaining blocks to work and it continued to play for a majority of the way.
I can’t perfectly describe how that relates to what I’m getting at, but I hope you get part of the idea. Music plays different roles to us individually. Even in the last year my tastes have changed and the role of music in my life has also changed quite a bit, but I still enjoy the sense of discovery that comes with listening to music.
I can’t say that this issue fits exactly one particular musical genre (even though I’ll sometimes get called the “indie buyer” working at Ozone) and I can’t say that I’m particularly down with anyone’s particular scene. What I do like is music that’s true to itself, music with a sense of exploration, or something unexpected or fresh, whether it’s because they’re picking up their guitars for the first time or they’ve played for twenty five years mastering one sound. Sometimes finding a half broken keychain can be just as exciting as finding a brilliant record that you never knew existed, so at that instant that’s what it’s all about. That guy on the cover may be enjoying a cigarette in his space age bachelor pad, relaxing with some trendy record that he read about in Spin or even Thumb (heaven forbid anyone actually reads the reviews), but it doesn’t matter as long as he’s potentially listening to the music, because he’s decided for himself that that’s what he wants to hear. Aural gratification:, just entertainment... an experience in sound... or whatever...