Music Interviews

Hip Hop deejays Stretch Armstrong (right) aka Adrian Bartos and Bobbito (left) aka Robert Garcia became legends on The Stretch Armstrong Show during the 1990s. Back then, they were hip hop tastemakers on college station WKCR in New York City. Now they're

Stretch & Bobbito On Race, Hip-Hop, And Belonging

11:18am July 26, 2017

by Aleli May Vuelta

The pioneering hip-hop radio duo drop by the Code Switch podcast to talk about making their way in a traditionally black genre and their new NPR interview show, What's Good? with Stretch & Bobbito.

Feist's latest album is called Pleasure.

Music & Culture

Feist On World Cafe

4:46pm July 25, 2017

by Talia Schlanger

The Canadian indie-pop singer-songwriter and guitarist set out to make her latest record alone, but says she ended up experiencing a whole lot of togetherness.

Music & Culture

'Turning The Tables': Behind The List

11:57am July 25, 2017

by Talia Schlanger

In a conversation with World Cafe, Ann Powers discusses the artists included in NPR Music's list of the 150 greatest albums made by women and reveals surprises and controversial picks.

Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso.

Music & Culture

The Songs Of Sylvan Esso, Like You've Never Heard Them Before

9:24pm July 24, 2017

by Bob Boilen

For one day only, members of Wye Oak, The Mountain Goats, Hiss Golden Messenger, Mountain Man and Megafaun joined Sylvan Esso to reimagine and record the electronic duo's music as a full band.

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Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit's new album is The Nashville Sound.

Music & Culture

Jason Isbell On World Cafe

6:00am July 24, 2017

by Talia Schlanger

Isbell discusses the ways his daughter Mercy's childhood differs from his own and how being a dad has influenced his new music. Hear the conversation, including a surprise cameo from Mercy herself.

Jessica Hernandez describes her music as "Latin-punk-Motown-soul — it's a little bit of everything."

Music & Culture

Jessica Hernandez On Her New Motor City Sound

5:41pm July 23, 2017

For her latest project, the Detroit native wrote a double album in both English and Spanish. It's a nod to the sounds of her city and to the cultures of her Cuban dad and Mexican-American mom.

Art historian James Merle Thomas (left) and Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen make up the duo Quindar.

Music & Culture

One Giant Leap For Music: NASA's Sonic History Inspires This Duo

7:17am July 23, 2017

As the electronic duo Quindar, Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen and art historian James Merle Thomas make music out of the sounds of space missions from the Apollo and Skylab eras.

Becca Mancari's Good Woman comes out Oct. 6.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Becca Mancari, 'Arizona Fire'

11:00am July 20, 2017

by Jewly Hight

Suspended in an undulating soundscape of guitar effects, the emerging Nashville songwriter sings as though she's accessing once-overwhelming sensations from a great distance.

Music & Culture

Jon Batiste Fashions A Soulful New 'Battle Hymn' For The Atlantic

4:33pm July 19, 2017

by Nate Chinen

The Late Show bandleader explains how he made a quintessential American anthem forged in national divisions new and how it speaks to the strength and diversity of our own society.

Billy Bragg says he initially pursued songwriting as a way to escape working in the local car factory.

Billy Bragg On Skiffle, The Movement That Brought Guitar To British Radio

3:29pm July 19, 2017

by Terry Gross

The singer describes skiffle as "a bunch of British school boys in the mid '50s playing Lead Belly's repertoire ... on acoustic guitars." Bragg's new book is Roots, Radicals And Rockers.

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