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Daily stories about music and vinyl: albums, artists, labels. Read on the web or in the CrateCore app.
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August 2, 2026
STORY · Alternative
Butch Vig and the Sound City Sessions That Shaped a CD Decade
A reel of two-inch tape threads through the Studer machine at Sound City in Van Nuys, California. Butch Vig leans over the console, coaxing a second vocal take …
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Classical
Liana Isakadze: The Soviet Prodigy Who Chose the Baton
She was a violinist who had won the world’s most discerning competitions before she turned twenty-five. Yet Liana Isakadze walked away from a guaranteed soloist…
4 min read
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4 min read
August 4, 2026
STORY · Alternative
Roy Wood: The Man Who Quit His Own Revolution
Roy Wood co-founded the Electric Light Orchestra and then walked away from it. He chose chaotic glam rock over the stadium success his former bandmate Jeff Lynne would achieve.
6 min read
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6 min read
July 31, 2026
STORY · Alternative
Arca's XXXXX: XL Recordings as Object, Stream, and Ritual
Arca announces her first solo album in five years with a live broadcast across seven Barcelona locations. The 16-track XXXXX arrives July 31, 2026, on XL Recordings.
5 min read
Verónica Estrada, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
August 1, 2026
STORY · Rock
The Day Madison Square Garden Became a Charity Box Set
On August 1, 1971, George Harrison turned Madison Square Garden into a sold-out double concert for Bangladesh. He invented the modern charity event in a single frantic afternoon.
4 min read
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4 min read
August 2, 2026
STORY · World
How Fela Kuti Made Afrobeat After Trinity College
Olufela Ransome-Kuti abandoned medicine in 1958 to enrol at Trinity College of Music. That choice rerouted West African music and created Afrobeat.
5 min read
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5 min read
August 4, 2026
STORY · Alternative
How a £4,000 Punk Shop Taught the Majors to Listen
Geoff Travis spent £4,000 to open a record shop in 1976. By 1983 it had become the label that launched The Smiths and rewired the relationship between art and commerce.
6 min read
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6 min read
August 1, 2026
STORY · Alternative
The Forgotten Festival Before Woodstock
The August sun hammered down on the Atlantic City Race Track as the first chords rang out across the grandstand. It was August 1, 1969, and the Atlantic City Po…
5 min read
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5 min read
August 4, 2026
STORY · Metal
The Face of Roots: Max Cavalera's Global Metal Manifesto
Max Cavalera turned the cover of Sepultura's 1996 album 'Roots' into a global symbol. Its story starts with a child collecting folk instruments across Brazil.
4 min read
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4 min read
STORY · Alternative
The Guitarist Who Stole a Synth-Pop Band
A Fender Stratocaster drenched in chorus and delay, echoing through a Roland JC-120 — that shimmering, crystalline sound defined a global smash, yet its creator…
5 min read
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5 min read
August 3, 2026
STORY · Hip-Hop
Spinderella, Herbie and the Honda That Changed Hip-Hop
Deidra Roper walked into a 1987 audition with a Herbie Hancock record and became Spinderella, the DJ who anchored Salt-N-Pepa for more than thirty years.
4 min read
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4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Mac DeMarco's Tascam 244 and the Cassette Aesthetic
A Tascam 244 cassette recorder sits in a Vancouver bedroom, its tape heads capturing guitar jangle and off-key vocals that would soon define a generation of lo-…
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Pop
Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions: A Synth-Soul Inner Cinema
Released on August 3, 1973, Stevie Wonder's Innervisions used the TONTO synthesizer as a lens to examine addiction, inequality, and spiritual longing.
4 min read
Cover of “Innervisions” by Stevie Wonder. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
The Making of Def Leppard's Hysteria: A $4.5 Million Rock Machine
Released on August 3, 1987, Def Leppard's Hysteria was a $4.5 million construction project driven by producer Mutt Lange's obsessive pursuit of a flawless pop-metal machine.
5 min read
Cover of “Hysteria” by Def Leppard. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Metal
The 8-String Wall: Stephen Carpenter's Deftones Legacy
Stephen Carpenter built Deftones' signature sound on seven- and eight-string guitars. His low F# riffs became the textural foundation of alternative metal.
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Rock
McCartney Names Wings, His Post-Beatles Rebirth
On August 3, 1971, Paul McCartney announced Wings with his wife Linda and Denny Laine. The band closed the Beatles chapter and launched a decade-long reinvention.
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Alternative
The First Black Hippie’s Last Stand: Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee died in 2006 at 61, leaving behind 'Forever Changes' — a 1967 album that failed commercially but became one of rock’s most venerated artifacts.
6 min read
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6 min read
August 2, 2026
STORY · Alternative
76 Points and a Bedroom: Clairo’s Immunity at 7
Clairo’s debut album Immunity arrived on August 2, 2019, co-produced by Rostam Batmanglij. Seven years later, it still feels suspended between bedroom pop intimacy and a sharper, stranger light.
4 min read
Cover of “Immunity” by Clairo. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Neal Morse: The Light That Split a Progressive Empire
The tape machine in a Nashville home studio hums quietly. A man sits at the console, surrounded by keyboards, guitars, and a stack of lyric sheets dense with bi…
5 min read
Michael Hanselmann - http://www.michaelhanselmann.de, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Metal
Jan Axel Blomberg: From Duran Duran Fan to Black Metal's Pulse
He grew up on a diet of football, wrestling, and synth-pop. Depeche Mode and Duran Duran were on heavy rotation, not the infernal noise of the Norwegian undergr…
5 min read
Wojciech Pędzich, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Alternative
The Suburbs: Arcade Fire's Letter from the Edge of Town
Sixteen years ago this week, Arcade Fire released The Suburbs. The sprawling third album turned the quiet desperation of a cul-de-sac into a chart-topping, Grammy-winning phenomenon.
5 min read
Cover of “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Electronic
John Cage: The Submarine and the Silence
John Cage inherited his father's instinct for making things disappear. He spent his career erasing intention, ego, and narrative from music.
4 min read
Rob Bogaerts / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
The Leather Jacket That Built a Catalog
In August 1960, five Liverpudlians drove into Hamburg for a residency at a strip club — and emerged as the band that would become The Beatles.
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Rock
Andy Fairweather Low: Before the Stadium Stages
Before he became Eric Clapton's rhythm guitarist, before he anchored Roger Waters' touring band, Andy Fairweather Low's first real shot at the instrument came f…
5 min read
deep ghosh from München, Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
August 1, 2026
STORY · Rock
When a Rocket Launch Killed the Radio Star
On 1 August 1981, MTV launched with The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star.' The novelty track became a prophecy that reshaped music, fashion, and television.
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Pop
Tiffany Young: The California Girl Who Built a K-Pop Empire
Tiffany Young went from a California singing competition to a four-year SM Entertainment traineeship. Her career made Girls’ Generation one of the world’s most popular female groups.
5 min read
Spes Sublimitas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Rock
Jerry Garcia and the Infinite Live Archive
In a darkened concert hall, a forest of microphone stands rises from a designated taper's section, each one capturing a unique slice of a Grateful Dead performa…
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Soundtracks
Coolio: How a Stevie Wonder Sample Made a Star
Coolio bridged street-honed grit and mainstream accessibility. His Stevie Wonder-approved sample became a multi-platinum CD that defined mid-1990s hip-hop.
5 min read
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5 min read
STORY · Alternative
Boz Burrell’s Bass Began as a Crash Course in Crimson
A Fender Precision Bass, a request from Robert Fripp, and a man who had never played the instrument before. That was the starting point for Boz Burrell’s unlike…
5 min read
Jim Summaria, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5 min read
STORY · Alternative
How a Backstage Walkout Made Siouxsie and the Banshees Go Synth
Two musicians vanish without warning. A band is left staring at a stage they’re supposed to command in hours, with no guitarist and no drummer. That kind of sho…
5 min read
Cover of “Kaleidoscope” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read