Feed
Daily stories about music and vinyl: albums, artists, labels. Read on the web or in the CrateCore app.
Filters & search
September 10, 2026
STORY · Pop
Bananarama: A Swahili Demo and 69 Years of Pop
Three friends record a song in a language none of them speak. It scrapes the bottom of the UK chart at number 92. Within two years, two of them are on a Wembley…
4 min read
Bananarama.jpg : Maciej Zgadzaj derivative work: Tuzapicabit at en.wikipedia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
September 12, 2026
STORY · Metal
How Thin Lizzy Built Their Breakthrough on Fighting
In 1975, Thin Lizzy's Fighting became their first UK chart entry, locking in the twin-guitar sound of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.
3 min read
Cover of “Fighting” by Thin Lizzy. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Folk
Johnny Cash's Last Nashville Morning
The lights inside a Nashville hospital room stayed low on September 12, 2003, as the city outside went about its ordinary business. Johnny Cash, the Arkansas-bo…
4 min read
AI-generated illustration
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Why Did The Mars Volta Rework Amputechture Twice?
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez rebuilt the Mars Volta's third album from discarded tape and old ideas. Amputechture entered the Billboard 200 at number nine.
3 min read
Cover of “Amputechture” by The Mars Volta. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Metal
The Sepultura Compilation the Band Never Wanted
Roadrunner released The Best of Sepultura on September 12, 2006, without the band's consent. The compilation of Max-era singles arrived while Sepultura had already moved to SPV Records.
5 min read
Cover of “The Best of Sepultura” by Sepultura. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Rock
Neil Peart: Why Rush's Drummer Was Called The Professor
Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for Rush, built a career on precision and discipline, from a conditional drum kit at 13 to his death in 2020.
4 min read
Matt Becker, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Wish You Were Here: The Album Recorded While Syd Barrett Watched
A band at the height of its powers records an album about absence, and the absent man walks through the door. That is the paradox at the center of Wish You Were…
4 min read
Cover of “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
How did Mastodon's Blood Mountain rewrite metal rules?
In 2006 Mastodon released Blood Mountain, a major-label concept record about a man lost on a mountain that fused melody with extremity.
5 min read
Cover of “Blood Mountain” by Mastodon. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Pop
Barry White: How a Stolen Tire Led to the Deepest Voice
Barry White, born September 12, 1944, traced his career to a jail-cell radio playing Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never" after a tire theft at sixteen.
5 min read
Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
September 10, 2026
STORY · Rock
Carol Decker: How She Named Her Band T'Pau
Before Carol Decker fronted T'Pau in sold-out arenas, she was cutting hair in Shrewsbury. A US jeans commercial became the detour that forced Britain to listen.
3 min read
Andrew Hurley from Wallasey, England, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
3 min read
STORY · Rock
When a 'Rollin' Stone' Call Gave Rock Its Greatest Outlaws
A 19-year-old manager sculpted the Rolling Stones as the 'dirty, unpredictable, and animal' antithesis of The Beatles. The group outpolled the Fab Four in two UK band surveys within a single year.
5 min read
Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
September 11, 2026
STORY · Other
Why Did Janis Joplin's First Solo Album Divide Her Fans?
Janis Joplin's debut solo album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, released on September 11, 1969, traded psychedelic chaos for soul horns and divided her fans.
5 min read
Cover of “I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” by Janis Joplin. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Rock
David Bowie: Why a Berlin Session on 11 September 1977 Mattered
Bowie's Berlin session on 11 September 1977 at Hansa Studio fed into Blackstar, his final album released just before his death in January 2016.
4 min read
ABC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
STORY · Metal
Why Did Jethro Tull Beat Metallica at the 1989 Grammys?
In 1989, Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, beating Metallica's ...And Justice for All in one of the decade's most talked-about upsets.
4 min read
Cover of “Crest of a Knave” by Jethro Tull. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
P.O.D.'s Satellite Sold 133,000 Copies in Its First Week
P.O.D.'s Satellite debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 on September 11, 2001, selling over 133,000 copies in its first week and becoming the best-selling album of the band's career.
4 min read
Cover of “Satellite” by P.O.D.. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
The Great Escape: When Blur Turned Britpop Into a Circus
Blur's Country House topped the UK singles chart on 11 September 1995. It ignited the Battle of Britpop and turned The Great Escape into the closing chapter of the band's Britpop trilogy.
5 min read
Cover of “The Great Escape” by Blur. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Metal
Slayer Lowered the Tuning and Met the Morning of 9/11
Slayer's ninth album, God Hates Us All, was released on American Recordings on September 11, 2001. The title collided with the morning's news in a coincidence the band never planned.
3 min read
Cover of “God Hates Us All” by Slayer. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Alternative
Richard Ashcroft: Britpop's believer in magic
Richard Ashcroft, the Verve frontman born in Wigan in 1971, turns 55 on September 11, 2026. His career rewired British rock's emotional vocabulary.
3 min read
Danny Lechanteur, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
3 min read
STORY · Rock
Peter Gabriel: Why Sledgehammer Swept the 1987 MTV Awards
Peter Gabriel carried off nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987 for 'Sledgehammer'. The clip's stop-motion spectacle set a new standard for music videos.
5 min read
Skoll World Forum, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Pop
Mariah Carey's Dreamlover: How a Song Became a Lifeline
Mariah Carey's 'Dreamlover' began an eight-week run atop the US chart on September 11, 1993. That same day, her album Music Box hit number one in Britain.
5 min read
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Pop
Harry Connick Jr.: How a Child Prodigy Became a Vinyl Icon
From performing Beethoven with the New Orleans Symphony at age nine to multi-platinum records and Grammys, Harry Connick Jr. became one of jazz's most recognizable figures.
6 min read
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
6 min read
STORY · Alternative
Moby: How a Baby Named After a Whale Built Play
Richard Melville Hall, born in 1965 and nicknamed Moby, travelled from food stamps and punk to the 1999 album Play. The record pushed his sales toward twenty million.
5 min read
Justin Higuchi from Los Angeles, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
September 10, 2026
STORY · Metal
Catfish Rising Brought Three Keyboardists Into Jethro Tull
The session sheet for Catfish Rising reads like a game of musical chairs, with three keyboardists rotating across a single album.
4 min read
Cover of “Catfish Rising” by Jethro Tull. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
How Kiss Turned a Failing Studio Career Into Alive!
Twelve thousand people packed a Detroit arena on a raw March night in 1975, and the band on stage knew something the record executives didn't. Kiss had been ble…
4 min read
Cover of “Alive!” by Kiss. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
18 Years Since Metallica Played Guitar Solos Again
After the polarizing St. Anger, Metallica brought back guitar solos, standard tuning, and Rick Rubin for Death Magnetic — their ninth studio album, released on September 12, 2008.
4 min read
Cover of “Death Magnetic” by Metallica. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Aqualung Live Was Never Meant To Sound Like This
Jethro Tull spent decades denying Aqualung was a concept album. Then they released a full live version on Fuel 2000 in 2005 that made the argument audible all over again.
4 min read
Cover of “Aqualung Live” by Jethro Tull. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Pop
José Feliciano: Blind Virtuoso of the Cracker Tin
A tin cracker can, a blind five-year-old, and the Spanish Harlem air of 1950 — that’s where José Feliciano’s sound begins. Born José Montserrat Feliciano García…
4 min read
Rob Mieremet / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Bob Dylan: The Nursery Rhyme That Divided a Fanbase
In 1990, Bob Dylan assembled one of the most star-studded casts of his career — Slash, Elton John, George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan — and then handed them so…
4 min read
Cover of “Under the Red Sky” by Bob Dylan. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
How a Jazz Drum Lesson Quietly Ended the Rush We Knew
A stone man stands frozen on the cover, pointing somewhere into the tundra. The music inside is all motion — distorted bass growls, snare rolls that crack like …
5 min read
Cover of “Test for Echo” by Rush. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Metal
Roxy & Elsewhere: The Stitched-Together Live Album
A live album recorded in a Hollywood club, then surgically altered in the studio — except for the tracks that weren't. Frank Zappa's Roxy & Elsewhere landed on …
5 min read
Cover of “Roxy & Elsewhere” by Frank Zappa. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read