Released on May 2, 1989, Robert Smith and his band The Cure released Disintegration, which included Cure classics like “Pictures of You,” “Lovesong,” and “Fascination Street.” At the time it came out, Rolling Stone Magazine said: “Disintegration doesn’t break new ground for the band, it successfully refines what the Cure does best. Even if his […]

They were black, brittle and thick. They spun faster than 33’s and 45’s. They were typically 10 inches that could not hold more than three minutes of sound. Initially they were only 10 inches in diameter. It’s an audio format that has long been gone – the 78 record, intended to spin at 78.26 […]

Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega wrote the song “Tom’s Diner” in 1981 and first appeared on her 1987 release, Solitude Standing. Suzanne recorded it as an acapella song and in 1990 two British producers and remixers took the original track and added beats from a Soul II Soul song to it. As the DJ duo DNA, […]

At the end of the 60s, while racking up an astounding string of 12 number-one hits, the Supremes began to experience a lull in their record sales, thanks in no small part to the exit of songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland from the Motown label in late 1967. As the listening public’s tastes shifted from pure pop […]

Called “the greatest rock film ever made,” this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When 300,000 members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hell’s Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, direct cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin immortalized on film the bloody slash […]

Alexis Corner’s Blues Incorporated were booked to perform live on a BBC radio broadcast on July 12, 1962, so the regular Thursday slot at the Marquee Club was open, and “Brian Jones and his band” filled in. The band was made up of Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart, Dick Taylor, and Tony […]

Songs in the Key of Life is a landmark album by Stevie Wonder, released on September 28, 1976, and is widely known and confirmed as Wonder’s magnum opus. Making this record, Wonder would often stay in the studio 48 hours straight, not eating or sleeping, while everyone around him struggled to keep up. “If my […]

Steve Albini is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He is founder, owner, and engineer of Electrical Audio, a recording studio in Chicago. Albini estimates that he has engineered the recording of over 1,000 albums and over 1,000 bands. Artists that he has worked with include Urge Overkill, The Pixies, John Spencer […]

In 1959, an unassuming guitarist/vocalist named João Gilberto from the Brazilian state of Bahia started a quiet revolution with his recordings “Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)” and “Desafinado (Off Key)” on the Odeon label. They featured arrangements by a young native of Rio de Janeiro, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Gilberto’s whisper-toned, Afro-Indian-influenced Portuguese vocals complemented […]

Morrissey embarked on his solo career after The Smiths’ breakup in 1987 with the Suedehead single and the “Viva Hate’”LP. Both were instant critical favorites on both sides of the Atlantic despite his oft-times contentious relationship with the British press. Once alone in the spotlight, Morrissey actively cultivated his self-made, anti-hero persona. The […]