“Get off my fuckin’ telephone. Fuck off! Both words. Do you understand those?! Implicitly. Do you understand ‘em?!”
David Lee Roth, when reached for comment (on his cell phone) by Harp about the implosion of the Van Halen reunion tour.

Dear, dear David, I can’t tell you how much joy this quote has given me. Again and again.

So, when I heard that my favorite music zine closed up shop this month I was genuinely, seriously bummed.

The rumor was true: Harp Magazine, the unequivocal rock ‘n roll go-to music companion called it quits after a stellar seven-year stint.

The brainchild of Scott Crawford, Harp’s anti-elitist ability to make both legendary music-heavies and break-out newbies wonderfully accessible to fans went unmatched. At Harp, music was paramount — an ideal that the grossly fashion-laden pages of Rolling Stone lost long ago to TV, gossip, and pop-culture. Magically, Crawford and crew maintained an exceedingly smart but nonexclusive music-lovers haven, delightfully free of all that boring, overly burdensome insiders’ tech-lingo, rampant among industry, gear-head, and other stuck-up periodicals. And unlike Mojo, Pitchfork, etc., Harp was hip without out-hipping its readership. Cool but not too cool… the kind of magazine where women and men alike were welcome, never falling into that seemingly rampant assumption that Tweedy, Iggy, et al are “guy things.” Whatever!

Besides music, Harp’s additional reviews of what I’d call essential lifestyle accessories made me feel like they knew who I was… more than just a music fan… I mean, what impatient, grocery-shopping audiophile doesn’t need these? Genius.

Which brings me to the best part: Harp was FUN to read. We all know that oft- off-color, off-kilter, off-the-wall nature of all-things-music is a given. What I’ll miss most is Harp’s unabashed willingness to embrace and celebrate exactly this. Cue Dave Grohl, America’s next president.

Alas, as the music industry continues to implode (a good thing) and the digital world swallows up print (not so much a good thing), it’s not hard to understand why Harp was forced to throw in the towel. It is hard, for me at least, to understand why a world-class magazine like Harp wasn’t more in demand. But in a world where Groban is king… what can you say? “Power to the sheeple?”

© Outlandos Music^TM 2008