Jim Thomson is an enthusiastic promoter of music, with a hand in booking, producing and distributing the wide variety of sounds he digs. A percussionist with several notable ensembles (discussed within), his Electric Cowbell label puts out (mostly) 7" records with seemingly no stylistic boundaries. Since 2009 the label has released "a marching band that thinks it's a rock band" (Mucca Pazza), a funk band with people from USA Is A Monster (CSC), an Ethiopian groove band (Debo), a progressive salsa band (Bio Ritmo), a collaborative 7" with ESP-Disk (Talibam!), a record by Greg Ginn...and that is just a tip...

Chuck Nessa is the man who birthed the Nessa Records label. Operating out of Chicago starting in the mid 60's, Nessa supported the up-and-coming musicians from the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and issued artifacts from the avant-garde of jazz/modern creative music including such seminal albums by Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, the unsung Hal Russell, Von Freeman, Air and others. An underground rare groove classic by the Art Ensemble of Chicago ("Theme de Yoyo") finds its home on an early Nessa release. Today, the label is still producing exciting new music and we check in with Mr...

We're kicking off our new interview series with a fantastic funky gentleman from New Jersey named Larry Grogan. If you've ever read his popular blogs Funky 16 Corners and Iron Leg you'll know Larry as a passionate music fan of 60s & 70s funk, soul, garage and pop. An avid collector, groovy DJ, familyman and all-around excellent dude, Larry is a walking encyclopedia of old-school 45s. We highly recommend that you bookmark his blogs. Here we present our brother in soul, Larry Grogan:  (photo credit: Eilon Paz) Could you give us some background on your early life and how you found this music you passionately write about? I grew up in...