News & Updates — Jim Thompson

Among the many beautiful things about sound & music is that it can supplement your life's routine in so many different ways. Whether you look at (or hear or make) music as artistic expression, ritual, relaxation, protest, celebration, dance release, mathematical composition, entertainment, fashion, comedy or even as background sound, there is no wrong way to appreciate music. It fills our lives with joy or aggression, songs about love and hate, constructions of rhythm and noise, harmony or disruption. Only a high-minded snob will pooh-pooh somebody's artistic creation. (Although they are certainly out there, usually in the form of talentless...

What records made your ears happy?

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...