The King Is Dead, Long Live the King

Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wis., Les Paul had just turned 94 in June. He died on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009.

Les Paul’s solid-body electric guitar started as the basement tinkering of a gifted musician. Where it led was rock and roll as we know it—and the foundation of innumerable permutations we haven’t gotten to yet. Even if you just look at the instrument and the ways its architect figured out how to play it—put aside, for a moment, the game-changing recording processes he pioneered like multitracking, overdub or delay—without Les Paul’s innovations in design and technique, the Book of Rock would have scant few pages and not much of an alphabet. The Edison of amplified music is gone. But because of Les Paul, rock and roll will never die.

• les paul
• albuquerque
• ska
• rocksteady
• reggae
• giant steps

Nicole Tammaro

Being flipped off never felt so good

When Boston's The Grownup Noise plays a show in Beantown, there's usually a solid turnout.

The fan base took about four years to fully cultivate. It began with family and friends, then strangers started taking notice. "When we first started, we would ask ourselves, Do they really like it, or are they just being nice?" singer and guitarist Paul Hansen recalls. "It's gotten to the point where a lot of them tend to be people we don't know. So, unless everyone's just being really nice, they actually like us."

• red sox
• cello

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Odd Birds

Outsider insiders Occasional Detroit, The Scrams, The Hollow Lines, Dread and DJ Caterwaul raise a pluralist ruckus at 1kind Studios (1016 Coal SW, all-ages) on Friday, Aug. 21. 8:30 p.m. $6. (Laura Marrich)

• albuquerque
• local
• noise