Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.

← XLR MAG Archive

Rolling Stone MusicScenes

Therapy Helped Jim James So Much, He Wrote a Book About His Breakthroughs

10.28

The My Morning Jacket frontman will release his debut memoir One Wonders in April with reflections on his musical career and mental health journey

Read at Rolling Stone Music ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Therapy Helped Jim James So Much, He Wrote a Book About His Breakthroughs

More from Rolling Stone Music on XLR MAG

ScenesGarth Brooks Doesn’t Let Oklahoma Forget Where He Came From in Rowdy Homecoming Rolling Stone Music

ScenesGuided by Voices Welcome 2027 by Announcing ‘Speculation and Gossip’ Rolling Stone Music

ScenesOzzy Osbourne’s Last Black Sabbath Concert Will Be Available On Vinyl Rolling Stone Music

ScenesBob Dylan Played ‘Not Dark Yet’ for First Time in Seven Years, and Totally Reimagined It Rolling Stone Music

ScenesFoo Fighters Go Back to the Start on ‘Kimmel’ With ‘This Is a Call’ Rolling Stone Music

ScenesVince Staples: ‘Hip-Hop Doesn’t Really Have Any Rules’ Rolling Stone Music