Over the last 20+ years, Shawn Reynaldo has been a DJ, record label owner, radio station manager, journalist and the editor-in-chief of XLR8R magazine. He's a one-time staple of the San Francisco indie rock scene, a former promoter of tropical bass and UK funky parties, and also one of the pre-eminent critics writing about house and techno for Pitchfork, Spin, NPR and beyond. Velocity Press just released Shawn's first book, First Floor Volume 1, which collects the spiciest thinkpieces and hot takes on electronic music and culture that he's penned over the last couple years in his popular First Floor weekly newsletter. To celebrate the kick-off of his North American book tour, we talk about how DJ culture has changed over the last two decades, his view on music writing, his spicy takes on the best and worst sonic trends, the current club scene in Barcelona (where he's based), sober raving, and the time he saw Claire Danes eat shit at Berghain.

McKenzie Wark is an Australian born writer, critical theory professor, and 61-year-old trans-femme techno raver currently living in NYC. Her latest book, Raving, thinks deeply about dancing, dissociation, drugs, bodies, and identity as McKenzie, recently transitioned, navigates the queer techno spaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. On the line from Berlin, we talk about experimenting with language and writing, bodies and the beat, smart vs. stupid drugs, cultural theory, rave utopias, and McKenzie's extraordinary journey from growing up in an Australian mining town to dancing on the bleeding edge of the NYC underground.

Seana Gavin is a London-based visual artist who spent 10 years immersed in the free party culture in the UK and beyond, traveling to week-long parties in the Czech countryside, the mountains above Marseille, or Berlin squats with soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Desert Storm, and Hekate. Her photos and diary entries of the adventures of these roving cyberpunks are collected in books like Spiral Baby and Spiralling, and we sat down to talk about border crossing, squat raves, politics, drugs, freedom, and just how dirty things can get.

Roman raves, the death of disco, the future of techno, and a heavy dose of Italian attitude with veteran Italian house/techno/disco producer Marco Passarani of Tiger & Woods.

In this episode of Rave to the Grave podcast, American scene queen Lina Abascal (aka @linalovesit) revisits the bloghouse era and DJ gossip of the early 2000s, the subject of her new book Never Be Alone Again. For fans of Justice, Diplo, and A-Trak!

Frankfurt techno, killer kickdrums, exploring the chillout, and conquering the Omen with German techno stalwart Chris Liebing.

Noncompliant (fka DJ Shiva) is an uncompromising queer techno DJ/producer from the conservative state of Indiana. We talk Midwest raves, speaker freaking, phone taps, mixtapes, sci-fi and more.

Kurt Eckes put Milwaukee on the map in the ’90s with his Drop Bass Network parties and Even Furthur festival. In Part Two of this interview, he talks to Rave to the Grave podcast about Satanism and rituals, how to throw a rave, the craziest stories from Furthur, the RAVE Act, the Drop Bass label and Midwest hard acid, plague raves and starting a Kult.

Kurt Eckes of Milwaukee’s Drop Bass Network on American hardcore, acid tests, Midwest raves and being a rave outlaw.

Detroit house and techno in the 1980s, underground queer nightlife, raving as resistance, the San Francisco scene: journalist and club veteran Marke B tells all.