Music & Culture

Visual art has long been one of Taussig's many side pursuits. This piece, "The Fool," is part of a series of collage-based reinterpretations of tarot cards.

Music & Culture

At South By Southwest, A 71-Year-Old Guitarist Makes A Belated Debut

12:42pm March 15, 2013

by Alex Cohen

On an album released nearly 50 years ago Harry Taussig demonstrated an accomplished, self-taught style of improvisational guitar. This week in Austin, Texas Taussig will perform in public for the first time.

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R&B singers Nicole Wray and Terri Walker have teamed up as the duo Lady.

Music & Culture

Lady: Two Soul Stalwarts Find A New Groove Together

8:59am March 15, 2013

by Oliver Wang

R&B singers Nicole Wray and Terri Walker both had promising starts to their careers more than a decade ago, but neither became a household name. Now they've teamed up and traded in slick, hip-hop influenced styles for a decidedly throwback feel.

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Toro y Moi's latest album is titled Anything in Return.

Music & Culture

Toro Y Moi: A Pioneer Of 'Chillwave' On California's Complications

9:48pm March 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

For electro-pop artist Toro y Moi, change is hard — but not necessarily uncomfortable.

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Before ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons (second from right) was in the more psychedelic Moving Sidewalks.

Music & Culture

The Moving Sidewalks: Where The British Invasion Met Texas Blues

2:22pm March 13, 2013

by Ed Ward

Before he became the guitarist for ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons was in a band called the Moving Sidewalks that just missed its shot at stardom. The album the Moving Sidewalks never released in the late 1960s was released in late 2012 and is very much a period piece, albeit a very well-made one.

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Composer and producer Adrian Younge has produced two new albums: one with William Hart of The Delfonics and another with rapper Ghostface Killah.

Music & Culture

Adrian Younge: Looking Back To Move Hip-Hop Forward

5:13pm March 12, 2013

Spaghetti Westerns, Philadelphia soul, opera and the Wu-Tang Clan all come together in the music of Adrian Younge. He has produced and composed two new albums — one with William Hart, the lead singer of The Delfonics, and another with rapper Ghostface Killah.

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Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin have been writing songs since they were 15 and independently released their first full-length album in 1999. Since then, they've produced seven studio albums.

Music & Culture

Tegan And Sara Reach Out To New Audiences With 'Heartthrob'

6:06pm March 11, 2013

by Ken Tucker

The twin sisters from Canada depart from their indie singer-songwriter roots with their latest album. The music on Heartthrob is often loaded with a carefully articulated sense of doubt that Tegan and Sara suggest needs to be shaken off through a triumph of the pop-music will.

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Adam Kantor and Betsy Woolfe star in the current off-Broadway revival of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years.

'The Last Five Years' Returns To New York

5:01pm March 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

A cult-favorite musical, The Last Five Years is a semi-autobiographical look at one couple's failed marriage. A revival hits off-Broadway this week, and the show's creator Jason Robert Brown joins host Jacki Lyden to talk about the last 11 years of the little show that could.

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Tadd Dameron (smiling at center) was an important figure in American jazz and bebop. He is shown here with Fats Navarro on trumpet, and Charlie Rouse and Ernie Henry on saxophone.

Tadd Dameron, A Jazz Master With A 'Lyrical Grace'

6:30am March 10, 2013

by Tom Vitale

Dameron was a composer and pianist who fused the sophisticated arrangements of the Big Band era with bebop's complex harmonies. A new biography shines a light on the too-brief life of the man known as "The Architect of Bop."

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Michael Stipe broods on the cover of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" single. Earlier this year, a remarkably cheery-sounding major-key version of the song appeared online.

Music & Culture

Can You Make Sad Songs Sound Happy (And Vice Versa)?

7:15pm March 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Recently, a few musical alchemists have been tweaking popular songs, converting minor keys to major ones and raising questions about how the human brain processes music.

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Dave Grohl reunited with his old friend Butch Vig (at console), the producer of Nirvana's Nevermind, for the making of Sound City: Real to Reel.

Music & Culture

Dave Grohl Finds Music's Human Element — In A Machine

6:09pm March 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

The Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder says he wouldn't be the musician he is today if not for one piece of equipment in a now-shuttered L.A. studio. Rediscovering it, and connecting with other musicians who shared the honor, is the subject of his new documentary, Sound City: Reel to Real.

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