Music & Culture

The new song from Kishi Bashi is a synth-heavy, pulsing pop song full of both drive and heartache. It documents a difficult period the violinist and singer went through.

The Obama administration is collaborating with SXSW to host a miniature version of the festival at the White House. It'll be called South by South Lawn and will be held Oct. 3.

In its new incarnation, featuring rapper Vince Staples, the icy soul ballad is moodier, more propulsive and bristling with tension.

Last year's hit collaboration between two South African superstars — a house-music producer and an openly gay crooner — escapes the country's borders.

The original version of "Carolina Drama" is an electrified blues slow-burner. Here, the song sounds more like an old-time murder ballad, with banjo, fiddle and lap slide guitar.

"You're a distant memory in the mind of your creator, don't you see?" sings Nick Cave in a haunting portrait of pain and understanding.

The reggae musician recently played a career-spanning set for KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, including this hopeful, political song from his newest album.

For a "jazz" song, there's not a ton of extended solo improvisation. But sometimes a great melody deserves a whole song to express itself, as in this instrumental cover of the band Wye Oak.

Sea Of Noise lifts this Alabama eight-piece from its spot as the nation's best young party band into headier and more exciting territory, where insights matter more than mere imitation.

On his new solo album, the producer and multi-instrumentalist offers haunting instrumental meditations on the nature of present and future communication.