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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Jimi Hendrix

    The Backwards Life of Lefties

    For left-handers, it’s an unforgiving world filled with awkwardly-shaped scissors, computer mouses, notebooks and even Metro Card swipers. Today we find out how left-handed musicians work -- and thrive -- in a right-handed world. Also: Californian indie rock band Airborne Toxic Event joins us to discuss their recently-released album and to perform live.

Musical Southpaws

Six of the last 12 American presidents were left-handed. With the country about to inaugurate another southpaw next week, we look at left-handedness musicians who excel in a right-handed world. We talk with Atlanta Journal-Constitution classical music critic Pierre Ruhe and University of Toledo psychologist Stephen Christman.

Soundcheck blog: Is John Schaefer a lefty? A righty? Find out.

Tell us: Are you a left-handed musician? Do you think you’re at an advantage or a disadvantage? How has being left-handed shaped how you play and how much you pay for an instrument? Leave a comment.

Pierre Ruhe's article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Airborne Toxic Event

Airborne Toxic Event

Indie rockers Airborne Toxic Event hail from Los Angeles and take their name from the Don DeLillo novel White Noise, echoing the literary backgrounds of frontman Mikel Jollett and guitarist Steven Chen. They’ve recently gained national recognition with “Sometime Around Midnight,” a song that they recorded themselves, distributed via MP3 and that was recently named the Top Alternative Song of 2008 by iTunes. Today they join us in the studio to discuss and perform music from their recently-released eponymous album.

Airborne Toxic Event performs on the Late Show with David Letterman on Friday.

Soundcheck blog: View images from the band's visit to WNYC

Airborne Toxic Event's web site

The Swell Season in The Greene Space

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Joshua Bell in The Greene Space

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