Seminal Transistor Rhythm 808 drum machine inventor and founder of Roland electronics Ikutaro Kakehashi passed away April 1 at age 87. The luminary engineer’s Roland TR-808 was a gateway for music production invention, as he helped create the MIDI interface standard for electronic music as well as creating an…
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Sara Jayne Crow
Sara Jayne Crow has written for XLR8R, Resident Advisor, Flavorwire, American Songwriter, and URB. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
Dengue Dengue Dengue Invite You Into Their Alternative Universe
Behind the Technicolor masks worn by Peruvian tropical bass duo Dengue Dengue Dengue are Felipe Salmon and Rafael Periera. The tropical sonic warriors bridge continental divides by uniting the Danelectro fueled surf rock of sun-bleached 1970s California with psychedelic rock, Caribbean dancehall, German techno and Amazonian cumbia on the new…
Red Hot Chili Peppers: From 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik' to 'The Getaway'
It was the era of tapes, canary yellow Walkmans, and the underground rock movement was radiating eastward from Los Angeles. In 1992, the coastal port’s influx of musicians congregated around a post-punk and thrasher underground, where Henry Rollins Band, Black Flag, UFO!, The Vandals, Circle Jerks, Bad Religion, Descendents,…
Garbage’s Shirley Manson On the Record
Strange Little Birds, the new album from Garbage, retraces the terrain of earlier albums such as Version 2.0* but is a departure in its focus on atmospheric loops and feels emotive, naked, free. It’s not over-produced, and it’s wholly befitting of Garbage’s 21-year career as a…
Budapest: A Delight for Music Lovers, Spa Seekers and Foodies
What is now the Hungarian city of Budapest was once two separate cities — Buda and Pest — divided by a desolate brackish green river, the Danube, which snaked northward and in 1873, under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, unification of the two very separate cities took place. The hilly Buda is home to…
Prophets of Rage Ignite Hollywood, Rally Audience to Rage
A throng gathers at the Hollywood Palladium parking lot at 8 a.m. on June 2 to wait in line for Prophets of Rage tickets. A flaxen-haired waif rolls a cigarette laced with weed and lights it, nearly catching her hair on fire as she juggles the lit spliff and…