Bob Boilen appears in the following:
Song Premiere: The Civil Wars' 'Dust To Dust' Is An Ode To The End
Monday, July 22, 2013
Joy Williams and John Paul White are The Civil Wars, a duo of passionate performers. The first time I saw them perform there were such positive sparks flying between them, but these days they can barely speak to one another. The Civil Wars are about to release a ...
First Watch: Kingsley Flood, 'Sigh A While'
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
It's one thing for an artist to talk about his failures — that's easy fodder for a good song — but art at its best incites positive change. "Sigh A While," this song from Boston's Kingsley Flood, is written to inspire. Kingsley Flood's Naseem Khuri says this tune is about ...
Alice Russell: Tiny Desk Concert
Monday, July 15, 2013
There's nothing restrained about an Alice Russell performance: It's emotionally fiery from the start and just gets hotter and grittier — especially when she's singing "To Dust," the title track from her first new solo album in almost five years.
Russell is a classic soul-infused singer — close your ...
Maps And Music: Explore Okkervil River's New Album
Monday, July 15, 2013
The next album from the Austin, Texas, band Okkervil River will tell the childhood tale of its lead singer and songwriter Will Sheff, a self-described awkward, nearsighted, asthmatic kid growing up the small town of Meriden, N.H. The music on The Silver Gymnasium, out on Sept. 3, is some of ...
First Watch: John Vanderslice, 'How The West Was Won'
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
"This is just an awesome, inspiring place to make music." Those are the words of Jake Wachtel, who directed this music video for John Vanderslice. And the place he's talking about, well, it's John's heart and soul really: It's a recording studio called Tiny Telephone located in San ...
The Best Concert-Finding Mobile Apps
Monday, July 08, 2013
A few months ago, I reviewed a handful of new apps that show you which bands or artists are playing in your area. Some of those apps were hit-or-miss, and some have made some improvements since my initial review. This week All Songs Considered co-host Robin Hilton and I ...
Skinny Lister: Tiny Desk Concert
Monday, July 08, 2013
I wish I could say I first found Skinny Lister in a pub some late evening while folks were dancing on the tables. I trust that that happens, but my unforgettable experience with this kick-ass English folk-punk band was at a hotel lobby in midday, in the midst of a ...
Watch The Music Video For Franz Ferdinand's 'Right Action'
Monday, July 08, 2013
The Scottish band Franz Ferdinand has teamed up again with director Jonas Odell for a music video for the song "Right Action." This new song, their best in years, is a jangly, odd-ball single that perfectly sums up all the reasons the quartet made it into our hearts in the ...
First Watch: Whispertown Shows Stunning 'Parallel' Worlds
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Merriam-Webster defines parallel as, "extending in the same direction, everywhere equidistant, and not meeting." The luscious and expansive song, "Parallel," from Morgan Nagler's indie project Whispertown and the accompanying music video both explore the term in magnificent ways. The video, made from creative commons videos on YouTube edited together by ...
Question Of The Week: Who Is The Most Intense Performer You've Ever Seen?
Monday, July 01, 2013
Last night I witnessed an intense and commanding performance. The band was Deafheaven and lead singer George Clarke kept me riveted. Here's what it looked like captured by my phone:
Now this is not a vocal style I gravitate toward, but something happened last night that I don't ...
First Listen: Anna Von Hausswolff, 'Ceremony'
Sunday, June 30, 2013
When you put on Anna Von Hausswolf's second album, Ceremony, everything around you changes — that's its first surprise. That ability to be instantly distinct is the mark of any great record; it's a vibe, and here that vibe is dramatic and stark and, as Ceremony progresses, surprising.
Last summer ...
Maya Beiser: Tiny Desk Concert
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Maya Beiser's Twitter handle — @CelloGoddess — says it all. She's a brilliant cellist with a stunning command of her instrument, and she's tightly tied to technology. Beiser takes the sound of her cello and runs it through loop pedals, effects and other electronics to make her instrument shimmer, ...
Hear The Pixies' First Original Song In Nine Years
Friday, June 28, 2013
A rousing comeback single is hard to pull off, especially when it's been nine years since you've released an original song. But from the first few seconds of Pixies singer Black Francis' half-spoken, half-shouted line in "Bagboy" — "I had a bad reaction to your public hobby writings / I ...
Watch The David Lynch-Directed Nine Inch Nails Video
Friday, June 28, 2013
Sixteen years after collaborating on the Lost Highway soundtrack, David Lynch and Trent Reznor are back together. The always eerie Lynch oversaw the video for Nine Inch Nails' first single in five years, "Came Back Haunted," which was posted early Friday morning.
The new Nine Inch Nails album, Hesitation Marks, ...
First Watch: Lowland Hum, 'War Is Over'
Friday, June 21, 2013
The power of music paired with imagery never ceases to amaze me. For this video by Lowland Hum, three unrelated sets of found footage connect in powerful ways to the song "War Is Over."
Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans are the husband and wife who make up Lowland ...
Billy Bragg: Tiny Desk Concert
Monday, June 17, 2013
OK Go helped us move the Tiny Desk from our old building to NPR's new headquarters, and The National performed the first full new-building Tiny Desk Concert we posted to the site, but Billy Bragg gave us the first full Tiny Desk Concert we actually ...
First Watch: Sonny And The Sunsets, 'Green Blood'
Thursday, June 13, 2013
I adore this song, and the video makes me love it all the more. "Green Blood" is from Sonny and the Sunsets' new album, Antenna to the Afterworld. It's a record filled with cinematic tales, told simply with guitars, bass and drums. And none of those tales are told ...
Rhye, Live In Concert
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
This is some of the sexiest music I've heard in years, with seductive sounds that are subtle and fragrant. Rhye is the music of Danish songwriter-producer Robin Hannibal and Toronto-born Mike Milosh, a man with an androgynous and mysterious voice. In fact, when the band's music first surfaced — ...
What's Your Favorite Concert Of The Year (So Far)?
Monday, June 03, 2013
Live music is better than ever. I've see a lot of it, so I can attest. So far this year I've seen 263 bands (at this point last year I'd seen 228, a 15-percent increase!), and I've got a ton of favorites. But none of the shows I've seen in ...
OK Go: A Tiny Desk Concert In 223 Takes
Monday, June 03, 2013
The Tiny Desk has moved, and OK Go has helped make it so.
Earlier this year, we needed to figure out the best possible way to move my Tiny Desk from NPR's old headquarters to our new facility just north of the U.S. Capitol. We wanted to go out ...