RadioPeng

Bad Brains and the Discipline of Lightning

Bad Brains are a force-field in American music—speed, precision, and spiritual intent fused into a singular continuum that rerouted punk, widened metal, and folded reggae into the hardcore engine. Formed in Washington, D.C., in 1976 as the jazz-fusion outfit Mind Power, the core quartet—Dr. Know (Gary Miller, guitar), Darryl Jenifer (bass), H.R. (Paul Hudson, vocals), and Earl Hudson (drums)—began by studying the intricacies of Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. […]

October 7, 2025 1

Uncategorized

The reclusive psychedelia of Kendra Smith

Kendra Smith’ s musical life reads like a dreamer’s continuum—alchemy and psychedelia braided through underground scenes, whispered departures, and quietly luminous returns. A founding force in the Paisley Underground, Smith co-created The Dream Syndicate in 1981 after a KDVS-era garage apprenticeship, shaping the group’s feedback-kissed minimalism and contributing bass and vocals to The Days of Wine and Roses (1982). Even at that origin point, her voice felt like a compass […]

October 6, 2025 6

Funk

Betty Davis: Funk’s Untamed Catalyst

Betty Davis (born Betty Mabry, 1944–2022) exploded onto the 1970s with a raw, erotic funk that made both record executives and censors sweat. A songwriter first, model second, and performer by her own admission “pushed” onto the stage, she wrote and arranged fierce grooves that put desire, power, and female autonomy at the center of the mix. Her voice was a rasp, her image all skin, sequins, and defiant stare—and […]

October 5, 2025 15

Folk

Rosa Balistreri ‘ I am not a singer, I am an activist with guitar’

Rosa Balistreri (1927–1990) was the indomitable voice of Sicily—hoarse, urgent, and incandescent with the stories of the island’s working poor. Born in Licata to a carpenter father and a housewife mother, she grew up without schooling, sent to menial work as a child. At sixteen she entered an arranged marriage with Gioacchino Torregrossa; when he gambled away their daughter Angela’s dowry, Rosa attempted to kill him. He did not die; […]

October 4, 2025 19

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Avant-Garde

Masks, Mirrors, and a Night at The Cube

So here’s the deal: last night The Cube in Blacksburg wasn’t The Cube at all. It was a wormhole disguised as a black box, a dream-tunnel made of sound and reflections. You walk in, and the air’s already vibrating like it knows something you don’t. Front and center? My friend, Kyle Hutchins. Not just a sax player, an experimentalist sorcerer. A guy who knows the saxophone so well it might […]

October 3, 2025 80 6 3

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Avant-Garde Jazz

Pete Cosey or the revolution of electric guitar

Pete Cosey (Chicago, October 9, 1943 – May 30, 2012) was a singular guitarist whose language fused South Side blues, psychedelic studio craft, experimental tunings, and pedal-driven orchestration. Revered among musicians and deep listeners, he stayed mostly off the mainstream grid, yet his impact marks him as a quiet architect of out‑there music. He began in an ebullient laboratory like Chicago in the late fifties, and he followed the transformations […]

September 27, 2025 221 1

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Jazz

Jaco Pastorius: The Bright Comet That Burned Too Fast

Some bend the strings; Jaco Pastorius bent the entire instrument. He brought the electric bass out of hiding, stripped the frets off of it, and coaxed it to sing like a Coltrane horn or Mingus' heartbeat. With Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, or just soloing on stage with battered Jazz Bass in tow, he wasn't playing notes—he was painting with thunder. But like so many brilliant comets, Jaco's was turbulent. He […]

September 25, 2025 14 3

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Jazz

Cosmic Frequencies: Happy Birthday, John Coltrane

Some birthdays are more than just a way of marking time. They are resonant birthdays, vibrating through the center of the universe. And so it is today, for today is saxophonist John Coltrane’s birthday, the man who turned sound into a language for the spirit to speak. His music has always seemed to be some sort of communication from elsewhere. ‘Giant Steps’ dashing across impossible harmonic ground, ‘A Love Supreme’ […]

September 23, 2025 14 2 2

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Jazz

Goodbye, O Bruxo: Hermeto Pascoal, The Mad Sorcerer of Sound

Farewell to Hermeto (1936–2025) Hermeto Pascoal, Brazil’s beloved mago maluco (“mad wizard”), finally traded in his flute, pots, pans, pig squeals, and teapots for the Great Gig in the Sky on September 13, 2025, at the age of 89. Somewhere, the birds, frogs, and bus brakes of Rio are throwing a jam session in his honor — and you can bet RadioPeng would’ve been there with a mic to capture […]

September 15, 2025 13 2 2

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Avant-Garde

Grateful for Biggie at 5 Points Roanoke — A Surprising Mashup That Works

Last night at 5 Points Music Sanctuary in Roanoke, I saw Grateful for Biggie, and here’s the thing: I’ve never been a fan of The Notorious B.I.G. or The Grateful Dead. No old CDs, no t-shirts, not even a playlist. I went mostly out of curiosity, expecting to leave with a shrug and a “well, that was different.” Instead, I walked out smiling. The whole idea seems like something a […]

August 10, 2025 32 4 2