The host of KPFK's world music show discusses some of his favorite tracks with Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz. Among them are songs by Jorge Drexler, Omar Sosa and Lila Downs.
`Butterfly' back, and so is New York City Opera (AP)
AP - Having disappeared from Lincoln Center for a season, New York City Opera is taking tiny steps toward recovery.
Sharon Van Etten Sits On A Couch And Sings
I met up with Van Etten Friday morning and asked her to give us a quick exclusive performance. She sat on a couch at the Driskill Hotel, illuminated by a nearby lamp, and sang one of my favorite songs of 2009: "Much More Than That."
Grandaddy + Earlimart = Admiral Radley
Day three at SXSW 2010 began with a video shoot at the historic Driskill hotel with Admiral Radley, the newly formed band featuring Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy, and Ariana Murray and Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart.
Late Night Dispatches From SXSW: Friday
In this third Late Night Dispatch from SXSW, the quartet is now down to a trio, but still are able to recap their favorite music of Friday night and rediscover the meaning of life in the process.
In A Texas Jail, An Exclusive SXSW Concert
At the South by Southwest Music Festival this week in Austin, Texas, one of the most exclusive events was an unofficial, invitation-only concert — at the Travis County Correctional Complex. Wayne Kramer of MC5, Billy Bragg, and others were there to launch a music therapy initiative called Jail Guitar Doors.
Prokofiev's 'Peter And The Wolf' (And Scott Simon)
Prokofiev's symphonic story Peter and the Wolf is a classic for kids. An enterprising little boy named Peter, together with a duck, a cat and a bird, outsmarts a wolf. It has been narrated by some of the world's great vocal actors, including Sir Peter Ustinov and Sir John Gielgud. And now — NPR's Scott Simon.
Universal betting on lower prices to boost CD sales (Reuters)
Reuters - Universal Music Group (UMG) is embarking on one of the most ambitious efforts yet to boost U.S. CD sales, with the test of a new pricing structure designed to sell most new releases by current artists at $10 or less at retail.
Bands explore promo potential of Chatroulette (Reuters)
Reuters - In the promotional run-up to the April 13 release of its new album, Ohio experimental rock group Foxy Shazam tapped a curious outlet to promote the release: Chatroulette.
Music biz insiders say Sony-Jackson deal makes sense (Reuters)
Reuters - The magnitude of Sony Music Entertainment's landmark recording contract with the estate of Michael Jackson raises an inevitable question: Is it a smart deal for the label?
Lady Gaga fires back in NY court at music producer (AP)
AP - Lady Gaga is firing back at a music producer who claims he launched her career and is suing her for $30.5 million.
Independence pays off for salsa singer Manuelle (Reuters)
Reuters - On February 19, salsa star Victor Manuelle co-hosted Univision's Premios lo Nuestro Awards, looking dapper before a live audience of millions. The figure he struck had little in common with the painfully shy singer with braces who first gained national attention in the '90s as a new face of tropical music.
Songwriter Harrell expands his hitmaking business (Reuters)
Reuters - Just three months ago, Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell was standing onstage at Los Angeles' Staples Center accepting the song of the year Grammy Award for Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" with co-writers Chris "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "the-Dream" Nash.
Barenaked Ladies bounce back after split with singer (Reuters)
Reuters - There were double takes aplenty from sports fans attending the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Was that really Canada's favorite quirky pop-rockers, the Barenaked Ladies, busking on Robson Street? There's been plenty of upheaval for the band in the past couple of years, but surely things weren't that bad.
"College" kid outdoes rap stars in digital sales (Reuters)
Reuters - The name "Sam Adams" mainly has been associated with several American historical figures and a popular Boston beer -- until now.
British singer Laura Marling learns to "Speak" up (Reuters)
Reuters - When Laura Marling first emerged from the U.K. alt-folk scene, she was a painfully shy, if precociously talented, 17-year-old. But her second album finds her growing in confidence, as a person and a songwriter.
My Very Own Gagavolution
Lady Gaga, you make me feel like a teenage gay boy again. Maybe you could sprinkle some meaning in your lyrics? Or not. Just whatever you do, keep making people squirm.
Videos From SXSW 2010: Tanlines, The Very Best, Timber Timbre and more
The Minneapolis band Peter Wolf Crier's has a gritty old sound, helped by an old mono tube amp. Bob Boilen recaps their live set at SXSW with videos along with a handful of other bands he discovered Thursday night at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.
South By Southwest: 1,981 Bands In Five Days
Friday is the third day of the music portion of SXSW, the annual festival and conference in Austin, Texas. It feels like the 43rd. The festival's official band count is at 1,981 bands, over 500 of which hail from outside the U.S. (some from as far away as Singapore), playing in more than 85 venues.
Aretha Franklin does "own thing" with new album (Reuters)
Reuters - As Aretha Franklin celebrates her 68th birthday this month, she shows no sign of slowing down.
Childhood memories inspire new songs for Frampton (Reuters)
Reuters - Since he started his career in the '60s, Peter Frampton has maintained his reputation as an electrifying guitarist and solo artist, most famously on 1976's multiplatinum live set "Frampton Comes Alive!" Five days after his 60th birthday, the British legend will release one of the most personal albums of his career, "Thank You Mr. Churchill."
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Go See Wye Oak Again
The best feeling SXSW is capable of generating — and, if I may hyperbolize, one of the best feelings life is capable of generating — is the sensation that comes with falling in love with a band at first sight.
No Lines, Only (River City) Tanlines
On Thursday night at SXSW, the group of friends I was with decided on one thing: no lines. That's a tall order as we get closer to the weekend here in Austin. But, one cool thing about this festival is that you can still stumble upon greatness, and upon great bands, even if they haven't been recommended to you by the usual suspects. In fact, it's an exhilarating mission to be on.
SXSW 2010: Quasi, Live In Concert
Quasi has been making solid records for almost two decades, but have always been a band that flies steadily under the radar. Hear the all-out, no-holes-barred indie-rock band perform live from Austin at KEXP's concert from the Gibson Showroom.
Jimmy Cliff: The Original Bob Marley
Although Bob Marley may be reggae's most widely known artist, singer Jimmy Cliff also played a key role in spreading the genre outside of its native Jamaica. Baz Dreisinger takes a look at his rise to fame with the film The Harder They Come.
Talking With Jimmy Cliff, Shepherd Of Reggae Music
The Jamaican musician was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as only the second reggae artist to be welcomed there. He spoke on his childhood fascination with music, which turned into a long and pioneering career.
Ian McEwan plans opera version of 'Atonement' (AP)
AP - It was a book, then an award-winning film. Now Ian McEwan's "Atonement" is to become an opera.
Geneva's 'Parsifal' ends in embrace (AP)
AP - Geneva's new "Parsifal" production escaped the boos heard after several recent Richard Wagner opera premieres at the Grand Theatre, with a richly colored staging accompanying music that was at times so sensuous the allegory of Christian salvation seemed destined to end in embrace.
No charges for son over conductor's Swiss suicide (AP)
AP - British prosecutors say they will not charge the son of conductor Edward Downes and his wife with assisting their suicides at a Swiss clinic last year.
Jay Sean: From Medical Student To R&B Superstar
A self-professed science geek is the best-selling British male artist in the United States since Elton John. His latest album, and first U.S. release, is called All or Nothing. It features big name collaborations with artists including Lil Wayne, Lil John, Sean Paul and Mary J. Blige.
Polanski lawyers seek inquiry into misconduct (AP)
AP - Roman Polanski's attorneys filed an appeal Thursday asking that a special counsel be appointed to investigate alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in the director's 32-year-old sex case.
Influential Big Star member Alex Chilton dies (AP)
AP - Alex Chilton, the singer and guitarist who had a No. 1 hit as a gravel-voiced teen with "The Letter" and went on to influence a generation of musicians through his work with Big Star, died Wednesday in New Orleans. He was 59.
Top 20 Concert Tours (AP)
AP - The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
World music champion Charlie Gillett dies at 68 (AP)
AP - Charlie Gillett, a DJ and music historian who helped bring music from around the world to wider attention, has died at the age of 68, his employer, the British Broadcasting Corp., said Thursday.
The right trajectory for Spoon (AP)
AP - Britt Daniel can't resist some dry humor when asked what it means to him that his band, Spoon, sold out a gig at New York's prestigious and spacious Radio City Music Hall weeks in advance.
Review: Jimi Hendrix's "War Heroes"
Days after Hendrix' death, Eddie Kramer, head engineer at Electric Ladyland Studios, was quoted as saying that there were two albums worth of studio cuts and a live Albert Hall gig that would be released soon. However, "associates" were quoted as saying that there were lots more Hendrix tapes that nobody would hear — "It wouldn't be fair to his memory to release them" was the way the rap went. Nevertheless, this is the fourth posthumous album to be released by Hendrix' label (not to...
Review: Jimi Hendrix's "Hendrix in the West"
Scrape, Scrape. That sound you hear is Eddie Kramer, the proprietor of the late Jimi Hendrix's New York recording studio, Electric Ladyland, scraping the bottom of the Hendrix barrel for the second and possibly second-to-last posthumous album of the deceased genius' music, Hendrix In The West. But to talk about bottoms of barrels is meant in no way to deprecate this album or Kramer's work. Jimi Hendrix was to rock what Charlie Parker was to jazz—an energiser, a vitalizer, a musician who...
Review: Jimi Hendrix's "Rainbow Bridge"
Ahh, a surprise — more Hendrix in the studio. Of late a lot of inconcert Hendrix has surfaced; the full-side each on the Woodstock sets, the Isle of Wight performance on Columbia's Rock Festivals set, the in-concert movie of Hendrix at Berkeley, as well as an English in-concert film with an accompanying soundtrack LP. But Hendrix on stage and Hendrix in the studio are two animals of pretty divergent cellular structure. His later concerts involved a lot of extended instrumental...
Review: Jimi Hendrix's "The Cry of Love"
Maybe it's just my imagination, but the Jimi Hendrix section of my local record bin seems to have been growing at an astonishing pace lately. In recent weeks, we've been offered a bland semi-jam with Lonnie Youngblood (who?) on Maple Records, a collection of ancient tapes with the Isley Brothers (a product of Buddah, from whom it would have been nice to say that they should've known better), and a large assortment of bootlegs, all seemingly taken from the same series of Los Angeles Forum concert...
The Secrets Behind the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" Reissue
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reevaluate their classic 1972 double album Get the full story on the never-before-heard tracks on the Rolling Stone's upcoming Exile on Main Street reissue in our new issue, on stands now. In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards talk about plundering their vaults for the
