Music & Culture

Clockwise from upper left: Lydia Ainsworth, Big Thief, Son Lux, Public Service Broadcasting

Music & Culture

New Mix: Son Lux, Public Service Broadcasting, Big Thief, More

3:26pm April 04, 2017

Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton share their favorite songs of the week, including premieres from Elf Power and Big Thief, plus new music from The Walkmen's Walter Martin, Son Lux and more.

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The 2017 NEA Jazz Masters on April 3, 2017 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (left to right): Representing Ira Gitler, Fitz Gitler; Dick Hyman; Dave Holland; Dr. Lonnie Smith; and Dee Dee Bridgewater

The NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert Transcends Its Fraught Political Moment

3:05pm April 04, 2017

by Nate Chinen

Monday night's presentation of the 2017 NEA Jazz Masters fellowships, coming under the shadow of a proposed presidential budget that would eliminate the NEA outright, mixed politics with grace.

Nashville's Daddy Issues make stormy, grungey pop.

Music & Culture

Daddy Issues Confronts Deep Trauma With Sharp, Languid Rock On 'I'm Not'

1:26pm April 04, 2017

by Marissa Lorusso

On "I'm Not," Daddy Issues deals with a deep personal trauma through a languid take on pop, rock and punk.

Music & Culture

Vancouver Power-Pop Trio Needles//Pins Comes 'Back To The Bright'

1:22pm April 04, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

Hear the first single from the punk-fueled power-pop band's third album, Good Night, Tomorrow. It's got a bit of that heartland boogie.

Can's The Singles will be released June 16.

Music & Culture

Can's Singles To Be Reissued: Hear The Goofy Novelty 'Turtles Have Short Legs'

12:57pm April 04, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

For all the band's sprawling and experimental rock albums, Can also had a healthy appetite for singles, which Mute Records will release in a compilation due June 16.

Jaime Wyatt's new album is called Felony Blues.

Music & Culture

Jaime Wyatt On World Cafe

12:36pm April 04, 2017

by Talia Schlanger

Wyatt discusses the firsthand experience with incarceration that informed her album Felony Blues. "People get stuck in the system," she says. "I feel like that's a great injustice to our society."

Mayte Garcia looks back on her relationship with Prince in a new book titled The Most Beautiful.

Mayte Garcia Knew She Would Marry Prince, But Could Never Have Predicted How

11:37am April 04, 2017

In her new book, The Most Beautiful, Garcia explains how an unlikely meeting at one of the pop icon's concerts sparked a relationship full of love, surprises and, ultimately, heartbreak.

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Oxbow's new album, Thin Black Duke, comes out May 5.

Music & Culture

Oxbow Marks Its Return With The Sweet, Snarling And Ambitious 'Other People'

11:00am April 04, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

Strings and horns are integral to Oxbow's dark, perverse, Baroque rock experimentalism.

Music & Culture

Lawrence English, Philosopher Of Sound, Kindly Requests You Lie Down

10:54am April 04, 2017

by Sasha Frere-Jones

Lawrence English considers it his job to document sound, to question the mechanics underpinning our ways of listening. It's not always simple.

Den-Mate's new EP, Entropii, comes out April 14.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Den-Mate, 'Fall'

10:03am April 04, 2017

by Marissa Lorusso

D.C. producer and songwriter Jules Hale zeroes in on the darker, denser side of her sound with a dream-pop salve for women, who she says "deserve to swim in euphoria for a bit."