Fruitland By Steven Kurutz Feature Privately made records enjoy a cult following among collectors, but few are as legendary as Donnie and Joe Emerson’s 1979 LP Dreamin’ Wild.
Hellhound on the Money Trail By Longreads Feature Standard recording contracts screwed Bluesmen out of royalties in the early 1900s, and the system was no different when Columbia released “Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings in 1990.”
Shelved: The Lady of Rage’s Eargasm By Tom Maxwell Feature Rapper Robin Allen’s hit song bypassed the hip-hop boys club that held her debut solo album back.
You Don’t Own Me By Joe Bonomo Feature Some fans prefer small club shows, others like arena rock shows, but do we care what the bands prefer?
Shelved: Jimmy Scott’s Falling In Love Is Wonderful By Tom Maxwell Feature Greed and contractual disputes kept one beloved jazz singer’s masterpiece off the shelf for 40 years, and sent him into retirement.
Link Wray’s Rustic Masterpieces By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Link Wray is best known for his rock instrumentals, but in the early 1970s, he and his brothers recorded three albums in a chicken shack that sound like nothing else in his massive oeuvre.
Living to Create: Talking Music and Writing With Drummer Emily Rose Epstein By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary Musician Emily Rose Epstein talks about her dual life as a rock drummer and writer.
Beyond “Rumble”: Talking with John O’Connor About the Other Link Wray By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary Journalist John O’Connor talks about writing his epic Oxford American magazine feature on musician Link Wray.
An Oral History of Detroit Punk Rock By Steve Miller Feature In Detroit’s empty buildings and troubled streets, restless kids squatted, ran punk clubs, pressed their own records, and made their own magazine. They mostly stayed out of trouble.
The Making of Nirvana’s Most Vulnerable Album By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An oral history of the night Nirvana recorded “Unplugged,” their most tender, original live performance.
Working to Preserve Traditional Gospel Music By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight With approximately 75 percent of golden age gospel music lost, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project is trying to save what’s left.
Shelved: The Sound of Big Star’s Self-Destruction By Tom Maxwell Feature As the band dissolved, they managed to capture their destruction in some dark, powerful music.
Raised by Hip-Hop By Juan Vidal Feature In hip-hop and skateboarding, one young man finds an outlet for his aggression.
Shelved: Bill Evans’ Loose Blues By Tom Maxwell Feature An album that took five months to record sat in the vault for 20 years before finally getting pressed to vinyl.
Remembering Pioneering Studio Engineer Geoff Emerick By Tom Maxwell Feature Emerick engineered more than The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He helped re-engineer the way music got made.
Still Celebrating the Greatest Day in Hip-Hop By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight On one summer day in 1998, XXL magazine gathered 177 hip-hop artists for one of the greatest musical photographs of all time: A Great Day in Hip-Hop.
Auto-Tune: The Music Fad That Keeps on Giving By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Cultural critic Simon Reynolds looks at 20 years of Auto-Tune.
Shelved: The Velvet Underground’s Fourth Album By Tom Maxwell Feature The story of the Velvet Underground’s fourth album that almost never was.
Possessed by Music By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Unraveling the mystery of the shirtless hippie who danced at countless rock shows in the UK during the last quarter of the 20th century.
