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I Can’t Stop Talking about Anxious on Citizen’s Halcyon Blues Tour

BeatRouteScenesI Can’t Stop Talking about Anxious on Citizen’s Halcyon Blues Tour In late August, Midwest rockers Citizen brought their Halcyon Blues tour to Boston. The show delivered a melodic hardcore sound to Big Night Live, a venue better known for its EDM programming and club atmosphere. While t

I Can’t Stop Talking About Chuck on Tour

BeatRouteScenesI Can’t Stop Talking About Chuck on Tour Role Model/Chuck Timely/Saint Laurent Cowboy/Sabrina Carpenter brought Chuck on Tour to “Vancooter” or “Vancoochie”—his words not mine—for the only Canadian stop on this tour this past weekend. And as someone who has bee

Magical Sounds: The Practical Magic 2 Soundtrack

BeatRouteScenesMagical Sounds: The Practical Magic 2 Soundtrack The magic is back, and so is the music! Practical Magic 2 hit theatres last Friday, September 11, and they didn’t miss with the soundtrack. The film’s musical lineup spans generations and genres, from Miriam Makeba’s ico

I Can’t Stop Talking About Jungle’s 2026 World Tour

BeatRouteScenesI Can’t Stop Talking About Jungle’s 2026 World Tour I Can’t Stop Talking About Jungle’s 2026 World Tour Oh, Jungle took us through all the feels on Saturday night. We were physically in Scotiabank Arena, but really in the palm of their hands. From the opening notes to the

This Week In Music: Harry Styles’ 2027 Tour and Snoop Dogg To Host 2026 MTV VMAs

BeatRouteScenesThis Week In Music: Harry Styles’ 2027 Tour and Snoop Dogg To Host 2026 MTV VMAs If you’re anything like us, we see an interesting headline during our daily scroll—pause to read it—but then keep scrolling without reading the actual story. So at the end of each week, we’re rounding up all the buzziest

It’s Yemi Alade and She’s Doing It Her Way

BeatRouteScenesIt’s Yemi Alade and She’s Doing It Her Way Yemi Alade’s new album, It’s Yemi Alade, is an exciting blend of highlife, disco, house, talk rap, and more. In this project, she’s mixing sounds and influences that might not traditionally share the same room. She’s ret

Kunmie Wants You To Listen Closely

BeatRouteScenesKunmie Wants You To Listen Closely For Kunmie, the past year has been a whirlwind. After his hit song “Arike” propelled him from a songwriter behind the scenes to one of Nigeria’s most talked-about new artists, his world changed completely. The song becam

This Week In Music: Beyoncé’s B’Day 20th Anniversary and Miley’s Bass Persuades

BeatRouteScenesThis Week In Music: Beyoncé’s B’Day 20th Anniversary and Miley’s Bass Persuades If you’re anything like us, we see an interesting headline during our daily scroll—pause to read it—but then keep scrolling without reading the actual story. So at the end of each week, we’re rounding up all the buzziest

Tyla Rodrigues Is Going Places: Touring and Introducing Her Sound to the World

BeatRouteScenesTyla Rodrigues Is Going Places: Touring and Introducing Her Sound to the World Tyla Rodrigues is already getting a pretty good taste of what it’s like to live life on the road. The Australian country singer and songwriter has spent the past year crossing borders, performing on some of country music

Dwayne Gretzky Is Bringing Their Live Energy To Vinyl

BeatRouteScenesDwayne Gretzky Is Bringing Their Live Energy To Vinyl For 16 years, Dwayne Gretzky has been doing what they do best: taking the songs we know and love and turning them into something that feels entirely their own. What started as a group of friends getting together in an ap

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About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.