Bob Boilen

Do You Have A Favorite Record Label?

Bob Boilen — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:51:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5A3Ikosj4

Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale: Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:03:00 +0000

There's something endearing, old-timey and almost vaudevillian about Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale — even the way they bill themselves as "Buddy and Jim." Both veteran musicians are in love with country music in all its many forms and influences; their music incorporates the blues and bluegrass, rock 'n' roll and a good deal of craft.

Buddy Miller is the guitar player to hire if you're playing heartfelt, not-so-shiny country-rock songs.

First Watch: Gary Clark Jr., 'Numb'

Bob Boilen — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:03:00 +0000

In the seven months since Gary Clark, Jr. released his major label debut, Blak and Blu, he's played for the President at the White House with Mick Jagger and blues legend B.B.

Ólafur Arnalds, Live In Concert

Bob Boilen — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:41:00 +0000

How can music be happy and sad at the same time? Listen to Olafur Arnalds and you'll hear it. Depending on your mood, the tone changes, and a song that may have been uplifting one day sounds like an elegy the next. It's spacious, undeniably beautiful work. Much of the music performed in this concert, recorded on April 18 at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City, is drawn from the Icelandic musician's recent album For Now I Am Winter.

Song Premiere: Sharon Jones' Explosive 'Retreat'

Bob Boilen — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:24:00 +0000
If this song had just the tubular bells at the top and then that Motown guitar riff, I'd have been hooked and happy. But then, along comes Sharon Jones, the brilliant, powerful soul singer, and the song explodes. "Retreat!" is the perfect marriage of singer, song and band. A lot has happened to Sharon Jones and Bushwick's brilliant professors of soul, the Dap-Kings, in the three years since they last recorded. They played the Apollo, the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House and SXSW.

First Watch: Alpine's Mind-And-Body-Bending 'Gasoline'

Bob Boilen — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:59:00 +0000
A is for Alpine and it's also the name of Alpine's debut album. Alpine is a six-piece ensemble from Australia with an airy sound led by singers Phoebe Baker and Lou James. The group's album, A is for Alpine, has been out in their home since 2012, but it arrives in the U.S.

First Watch: The Handsome Family, 'Woodpecker'

Bob Boilen — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:03:00 +0000
The Handsome Family, the wife and husband duo of Rennie Sparks (vocals, bass and banjo) and Brett Sparks (vocals, guitar and keyboards), love telling stories, and they've been doing it in song for 20 years. A new album, Wilderness, is out May 14, and "Woodpecker," a song from the album, tells a fascinating tale about Mary Sweeney, who, in the 1890's, was known as the Wisconsin Window Smasher.

First Watch: Femi Kuti, 'The World Is Changing'

Bob Boilen — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:11:00 +0000
"'The World Is Changing' is groove with a message." That quote, a pretty good summary of the music of Femi Kuti in just nine words, comes from Juan Gélas, the creative director of a new video for Kuti's new song. Femi Kuti is a saxophonist, trumpeter, keyboard player and singer and songwriter. The son of legendary afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, he carries on the tradition of mixing Nigerian beats along with jazz and a healthy dose of politics.

Meet Until The Ribbon Breaks: Stark Music Paired With Enigmatic Images

Bob Boilen — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:40:00 +0000
Pete Lawrie Winfield makes music as Until The Ribbon Breaks, stark music with a good deep vibe; Massive Attack or James Blake would be good touchstones. Until The Ribbon Breaks doesn't have much music out yet, but "Pressure," a new song, has urgency. "'Pressure' was written at a time of upheaval and transition for me," Winfield writes. "I was sleeping at my studio and had no idea what I was going to do next.

Vampire Weekend On New York, Souls Of Mischief And The Secrets Of Its New Album

Bob Boilen — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:25:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAsC-VTPw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4xr2665JOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mDxcDjg9P4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_AeEjN8Xvs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enwaAEQcQE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX46e4GtlXM

Father Figures: Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0000
In a small, packed Washington, D.C., living room late one December night, I heard a cacophony of horns, keys, drums and guitars that simply floored me. It was brash, zany, brainy, scary and danceable. At the end of a long year of amazing live music, this would turn out to be one of the most memorable concerts I'd seen.
I walked up to Adam Schatz, the man behind the saxophone and chief instigator in Father Figures, and told him his band needed to play the Tiny Desk. How this music would translate to the brightness of day — to say nothing of a busy office — was hard to anticipate.

Video: Music Meets Random Imagery In Yellowbirds' 'Young Men Of Promise'

Bob Boilen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:03:00 +0000
Music videos are like funny math, where 1+1=3. That is, images have a meaning on their own, music has a meaning when you listen to it alone, but put images and music together and something new is born. 1+1=3. Try it randomly: put on a piece of music and watch a cartoon or an old movie ...

Interview: The Zombies Remember Their Odyssey

Bob Boilen — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:18:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8BkkFJI910
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWr1YovPECw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqnuI9K5ct4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtdWGGpvY1s

First Watch: People Get Ready, 'Middle Name'

Bob Boilen — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:34:00 +0000
It was probably the best performance piece I've seen in more than a decade. Specific Ocean, a piece by the dance troupe/rock band People Get Ready, which I saw at the New York Live Arts theater in the fall, was a model for the ways musicians can break from the standard, sometimes boring, format of playing on a stage. Some of the songs from Specific Ocean ended up on the group's 2012 self-titled album.

First Watch: Thao And The Get Down Stay Down, 'We The Common'

Bob Boilen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:03:00 +0000
I first met Thao Nguyen in 2008, in the earliest days of the Tiny Desk Concert series. I was a big fan of her witty, catchy songs. After she finished playing the Tiny Desk, Thao said something that has endeared me to her forever. Walking toward the elevators on her way out of NPR, she said, "That was intimate and awkward ... a lot like my last boyfriend!"
Here's a new video for "We The Common (For Valerie Bolden)," with footage of Thao and her band, the Get Down Stay Down, on the road with friends and strangers both well-known (including Ira Glass and John Hodgman) and unknown.

Brainstorm: NPR Front Row

Bob Boilen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:03:00 +0000
There was a "fire in the belly" feel when Brainstorm took the stage at TenOak in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest music festival this past March.

Efterklang: Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:49:00 +0000
Bands with big ideas work well at the Tiny Desk. Efterklang is a Danish group whose recent album Piramida took its members to an abandoned mining town between the North Pole and Norway. There, they recorded sounds of empty oil tanks, old pianos and pretty much anything they could strike or record.
It's precisely that creative energy that led to Efterklang ransacking our kitchen utensils and desks in search of sound-making material.

Special Delivery: The Postal Service Story

Bob Boilen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:03:00 +0000
The Postal Service was a band for a generation — the soundtrack to romance, tears and friendship. More than a million people bought its first album, 2003's Give Up, then waited anxiously for a follow-up that never arrived.
Now, a decade later, comes a new tour. Theaters, amphitheaters, sports arenas, auditoriums and pavilions all over the U.S. and U.K.

Ivan & Alyosha: NPR Front Row

Bob Boilen — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:09:00 +0000
Playing a free concert comes with risks. Sure, more people will show up, but they may care less about who's on stage than they do about catching up with friends; ironically, it often means the band has to work harder to win over the crowd.

First Watch: Lord Huron, 'Lonesome Dreams'

Bob Boilen — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:22:00 +0000
Think of Lord Huron as an imaginary world as much as a rock band. Bandleader Ben Schneider has created characters and stories that fit together within an entire narrative filled with mystique. It's a bit dreamlike. To get an idea of how many layers there are in Schneider's invention, look at this website for author George Ranger Johnson. According to the site, George Ranger Johnson lives in Tuscon, Ariz. and writes adventure novels whose titles are identical to the song titles of the band Lord Huron.