How The Moog Synthesizers Helped Revolutionize the Sound of Hip Hop
by William Vance When Robert Moog sold his first vacuum-tube theremin kit back in the early 1950s, one would scarcely imagine he envisioned the world-changing i...
Category: Music History
Roky Erickson
Like you I am sitting here thinking about Roky Erickson. I heard the news that he passed away two days ago. Sad news. Since I was on my computer when I he...
Japanese Kayōkyoku Women, 1960s-70s
Western influences in Japanese pop music can be found starting 100 years ago. Jazz journeyed back over the Pacific on steamers by citizens traveling abroad, fir...
A Music Video Introduction to the Wide, Weird World of Sparks
There will always be a region of the music world for which any concession to visual flair is considered anathema, where Vans and sensible jeans are the rule. Y&...
Punks Not Dead, but Maximum Rocknroll Is: A Farewell Letter to the MRR Zine
At the beginning of this year, Maximum Rocknroll announced that their print publication would be ending its 37 year run. The May issue would be its last. When t...
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes- A Review
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (2018) is a documentary directed by Swedish filmmaker Sophie Huber telling the story of the legendary Blue Note jazz label f...
“He’s Up There With MAD Magazine”: How Ghoulardi, AKA Paul Thomas Anderson’s dad, Helped Create Punk Rock in Cleveland
It’s never been quite enough to correct the mainstream record, but lots of ink has been spilled over the years on how punk rock’s truest, bluest bug...
Spy Jazz
Following the end of World War Two, the US moved into an era of prosperity. Dad went to work each day. Mom stayed home and raised the kids. The kids went to sch...
The Descending Tetrachord Of Doom. It’s Everywhere…
The story of humanity’s international melody of lamentation, which can still be heard in popular music everywhere, starts, as many things do, in ancient Greece....
Janet Reno – Miami Bass and African American Advocate
Janet Reno & Luther Campbell aka Luke Skyywalker - CNN