Leital Molad

Even after they became world superstars, the band R.E.M. never quite followed the pop mainstream.  And a lot of that has to do with the band’s frontman, Michael Stipe. Stipe has a dis...

Wretches & Jabberers follows two men with autism as they go on a global tour to raise awareness about the disorder.  It's a vivid portrait of their struggles which manages to be bot...

The blues has an awkward PR problem: it is one of the pillars of African-American culture, but for the last few decades, the people playing it and listening to it have been largely wh...

Today the SXSW Music Festival kicks off in Austin, Texas.  I’ll be heading out there tomorrow to check out 1/100th of the nearly 2000 bands that will be there: including blues guita...

Thirty years after defining “college rock,” R.E.M. releases their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now. Everyone’s buzzing about the band’s signature acoustic-driven sound. But l...

It's easy to be cynical about the Grammy awards -- but if there's one reason to watch the show this weekend it's Janelle Monáe.

The frontman for Antony and the Johnsons says everything changed for him when he discovered the Japanese modern dance, butoh. Hegarty talks about the butoh master, Kazuo Ohno, and des...

Girl in a Coma's creation story reads like a fairy tale: teen girls plaster bedroom walls with posters of dreamy pop star; start a band named after pop star's song; play hard in that band for 10 years.  Until one day... the phone rings.  It's the man from the posters.  Morrissey.  He invites them to open for him on tour.

When we made a documentary about The Lincoln Memorial for our American Icons series, one person captured two seminal moments in the Memorial's history for us: Dorothy Height.  She was at the Memorial in 1939 when Marian Anderson sang triumphantly after being banned from performing at Constitution Hall.  ...

The hip-hop world has seen a handful of superstar female MCs - but where's this decade's Missy Elliott? At the SXSW music festival in Austin last month, Studio 360's Leital Molad met some artists ready to break through the boys' club. "We're waking ...

Hip-hop gets a bad rap for being male-dominated and misogynist.  But female MCs have been on the cutting edge of hip-hop since the beginning. The 80's saw outspoken artists like MC Lyte, J.J. Fad, Salt-n-Pepa, Queen Latifah; in the 90's we had Missy Elliott, Eve, and Lauryn Hill. If you ...

 

 

The prize for best booty-shakin' performance of SXSW in Austin last week goes to Chicago rapper Kid Sister.  Her first single, 'Pro Nails' (featuring Kanye West), is just the tip of iceberg. Ultraviolet takes the best of high-energy 80s dance hip-hop and shoots it ...

The "godmother of punk" started out in 1970s New York. But in "Dream of Life," a new POV documentary airing on PBS, Patti Smith shows sides of herself that the public rarely gets to see. Smith tells Kurt that it's also an account of ...

On this week’s show, there’s a lovely story about the song that made Brazilian samba queen Carmen Miranda an international star in 1939 – “O Que è Que a Bahiana Tem.”  The name roughly translates to “What is it that the Bahian woman has?”

In our contest-obsessed culture, it’s easy to tune out awards hoopla. But England’s Mercury Prize has done what a meaningful award should do: shine a light on an artist who deserves it.  Twenty-six year-old Speech Debelle was virtually unknown before she won the prize last month.  Her debut record, Speech Therapy, is filled with hopeful, street-sassy rapping over organic beats.  Brushes, upright bass, piano and clarinet back up Debelle’s rhymes about growing up in London. She’s had some tough times, but doesn’t let it get her down.  The best track, “Spinning,” opens with her staccato flow: “This is for the tat on my wrist/ this is for the black of my fist/ this is for the S in my lisp…” and leads into an irresistible schoolyard chorus: “The world keeps spinning… nobody knows where it will take us, but I hope it gets better.”  With this delightfully catchy song, you feel like it is.

Studio 360 listener Monica Murphy was a 19-year-old college student when her father suddenly died. One day she heard REM's Automatic for the People, and understood a message about life she hadn't heard before.

Has a work of art changed your life? Tell us in ...

Kehinde Wiley creates big, bold paintings of young black men that are a throwback to 18th century classical portraiture. His sitters strike regal poses against vibrant, ornate patterns, wearing colorful T-shirts, caps and baggy jeans. It's like Baroque gone day-glo. Opening today at the Deitch Projects gallery in New York is a new exhibit of Wiley's portraits called 'Black Light.'

A junior high bonding moment over tortured Morrissey music led to the formation of the San Antonio band Girl in a Coma. Now the band - Jenn Alva and sisters Phanie and Nina Diaz - is getting attention from rock gods like Joan Jett. Their new album

Last night, I joined hundreds of nostalgic 30-somethings at a 30th anniversary screening of The Muppet Movie in Brooklyn. Seeing it on the big screen was pure delight, and proved the lasting genius of Jim Henson and co. Everything holds up: the snappy dialogue (Man in Swamp: 'You, you with the banjo, can you help me? I seem to have lost my sense of direction!' Kermit: 'Have you tried Hare Krishna?'); the irresistible soundtrack (the Electric Mayhem jams are the best); the hilarious cameos (Mel Brooks as Dr. Mengele-like mad scientist); and, of course, the unforgettable Muppets themselves (witness Miss Piggy transform from precious damsel-in-distress to gangster-ass-kicker, with her unmistakable battle cry: 'HEEEE-YAH!').

This is amazing. Especially a few minutes in when they bring out the banner with a giant Christ-like image of Michael. (See also my earlier post with their original "Thriller" performance from '07.) Thanks to Jocelyn Gonzales for this link.