The man best known by a one letter name was born Hiroyuki Usui. "L" produced one of the best, most spiritually cleansing albums I've ever heard with his stunning "Holy Letters." He has also worked with other legendary groups such as Fushitsusha and Eikyukonran (better known as Ghost). Thankfully VHF reissued the brilliant "Holy Letters" recently and more attention was focused on this brilliant record. With Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance as his biggest fan, it's about time Usui got his due... feature :: by Brad Rose

I first met Daniel DiMaggio, the whiz behind Home Blitz, my sophomore year of college when he was playing guitar in the Great Excape with my buddy Jason Sigal. Jason's roommate had already gone home for the summer and left the dorm room stripped of everything except for the mattresses provided by the university and a mini-fridge. When I showed up, the three Great Excapers had been hanging out in the empty room, apparently for several hours, drinking, then not drinking, a cloying, syrupy, and bright purple liquor being pushed at the moment by some mainstream rap superstar. Daniel mumbled a greeting but kept to himself on the other end of the room. The show that night was at a safari-themed dive bar and was attended by five or six college students and a 250-pound homeless man wearing a wife-beater and teal sweatpants pulled up to about four inches below the nipple, revealing the contours of a surprisingly long-lasting erection... feature :: by Raf Spielman