Memphis Listening Lab

09/11/2026

Listen Up! New Mary Hatley music. Don’t miss this listening event. Sept 30th. 6pm

09/10/2026

The Long Play #004: The Cure — Disintegration.

“I’ve never done it before, but on this album I was trying to imagine people listening to it.”

That was Robert Smith talking about Disintegration in 1989. He described it as a “bigger-sounding record” and said he wanted to take listeners aback with its intensity.

More than 35 years later, it still does.

Dark, romantic, atmospheric and enormous, Disintegration is built around mood and texture as much as individual songs. It’s also a record that comes alive on a great system — layers of guitars and synthesizers stretch across the room, the bass reaches surprisingly deep, and the sheer scale of the recording becomes part of the experience.

For The Long Play #004, we’ll hear Disintegration the way this series was made for: the complete album, on vinyl, uninterrupted, in the Sound Room.

Saturday, October 3 • 3 PM
The Sound Room at Memphis Listening Lab

Free admission. Limited seating. First come, first seated.

One record. Start to finish

09/05/2026

MLL on the road. 📍 St. Louis

Chad spent the weekend at Give Up the Goods, the hip-hop swap meet created by our friend DJ Trackstar — spreading the MLL love, slinging some merch, digging through records and meeting a whole lot of good people along the way.

Big thanks to Trackstar for having MLL and to St. Louis for the hospitality. Always good to take a little bit of Memphis on the road.

Memphis 🤝 STL

HipHop VinylCommunity
GIVE UP THE GOODS
Trackstar the DJ

09/04/2026

MERCH ALERT! 🎧

By now you’ve probably heard about—or been to—one of our LISTEN UP! events: a chance for Memphis artists to bring a new project into the Sound Room and let us all hear it together.

Thanks to:

Memphis Record Pressing
Mempho Presents
Tennessee Arts Commission

LISTEN UP! is free for the artists and free for the fans.

We hosted more than 75 LISTEN UP! events last year, and we’re on track to do it again this year.

So yes, we made a shirt. Come get one.

But more importantly: if you’re an artist with a project coming out or recently released, send us a message. We want to hear it.

LISTEN UP! 🎧
Memphis Record Pressing
Mempho Presents
Tennessee Arts Commission

09/03/2026

Quick heads up! 🎶

Memphis Listening Lab will be closed tomorrow for a private event. Sorry for any inconvenience!

We’ll be back open Saturday from 11 AM–5 PM, and we’ve got a special Daft Punk listening session starting at 3 PM! 🤖💿

Come hang with us, dig through some records, and listen loud. See you Saturday

09/02/2026

Memphis producer extraordinaire Empee Morris Perry stopped by the Memphis Listening Lab to dig into the collection, grab some tunes, find a few samples and maybe cook up a new beat. 👀🎧💿

With production credits for Gangsta Blac and plenty of Memphis music history under his belt, Empee knows a thing or two about finding the right sound.

This is what we love seeing at MLL: the collection isn’t just here to preserve music. It’s here to inspire whatever comes next.

And yes…membership has its perks. 😎

Come dig. Come listen. Get inspired.

MemphisListeningLab VinylCommunity RecordDigging MusicProduction MembershipHasItsPerks

09/01/2026

Thanks Bob!

Jimmy Hart will be on hand for a special event at the Memphis Listening Lab to celebrate the release of The Gentrys' “It’s Been So Long." See link below ⬇️

📸 Provided by Primary Wave

08/28/2026

FAKE at MLL.

Memphis quartet FAKE — Keith Cooper, Dustin Crops, Andrew Geraci & Tm. Prudhomme — in the Lab for a listen to their new album, Undershirt.

🎧 Undershirt
📅 September 10 · 6 PM
📍 Memphis Listening Lab

08/22/2026

In 1977 Alex Chilton convinced The Cramps to come to Memphis and record at Ardent.

Those sessions gave us their first two singles, but there was a lot more on the tapes. Now, almost 50 years later, Gravest Gravy finally brings those recordings out.

Henry Rollins was directly involved in going through the surviving mixes and choosing the versions that made the record, and on October 10 he’s coming to MLL to play it for us and talk about how it all happened.

Henry is also bringing a test pressing with alternate mixes from Songs the Lord Taught Us. He suggested a little homework before the event: give the regular version of the record a listen. It’s about 35 minutes and you’ll be able to hear what’s different when he plays the alternate mixes. Not required, obviously, but we like the idea.

The Cramps. Ardent. Alex Chilton. A record almost 50 years in the making, coming back to Memphis.

We’re pretty excited about this.

This event is part of our Listen Up series and is free, but seating is extremely limited and an RSVP is required. Grab yours through the Eventbrite link in our bio.
Henry Rollins

WYXR 91.7 FM — Raised By Sound Goner Records