Search results for

The New York band The Sharp Things employs a long list of instruments. Strings, wind, and brass contribute as much to their music as guitar, bass, and drums. Their debut album is Here Comes The Sharp Things. Chris Nickson reviews.

John Brady reviews In the Reins, a seven-song collaboration between soft-voiced Florida folk singer Sam Beam, who records under the name Iron and Wine, and the band Calexico — border rockers from Tucson, Ariz., known for their eclectic tastes.

Franz Ferdinand is the name not only of the assassinated Archduke of Austria, considered the trigger for World War I; Franz Ferdinand is now a Scottish band that has made it big in Britain. Reviewer Mikel Jollett thinks the reason they've succeeded is that the group bridges the distance between headphones and dance floor.

David Greenberger reviews the new CD from The Glands, a band from Athens, Georgia. You could classify them as indie-rock, but they like to avoid adhering to any stylistic direction, and are all over the map musically. Some songs sound like LA pop songs from the mid-60s, others are atmospheric psychedelia, and others still have a modern rock sound. (4:00) The Glands' new self-titled CD is on the Capricorn Records label.

Lead singer and songwriter, Ray Davies started The Kinks in 1964 with his brother, Dave. His latest album is the solo effort, Other People's Lives. Said to be the pioneers of the rowdy garage band genre of rock music, The Kinks had many hits including "You Really Got Me," "Lola," "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You." This interview originally aired on Apr. 3, 2006.

Australian singer Nick Cave and and his band, the Bad Seeds, are best known for angry, twisted, ballad-like lyrics. Their 2008 album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, was inspired, in part, by the Biblical story of Lazarus. It is Cave's 14th studio album.

Musicians Stew and Heidi Rodewald speak with Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli. They're the founders of a band they call The Negro Problem. Their new Broadway musical, Passing Strange, is an autobiographical look at Stew's journey through music.

Bassist Charlie Haden is known as a great jazz musician, but his lineage is all country: Growing up, he performed alongside his brothers and sister in the Haden Family Band, a country group led by parents, Carl and Virginia.

Singer, guitarist, and author Alex Kapranos is the frontman for the Glasgow-based indie rock quartet Franz Ferdinand. The band, best known for its single "Take Me Out," has produced two hit CDs. Kapranos has a new book about eating on tour, called Sound Bites.

There's a lot of New York City in the new Vampire Weekend Album. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Ezra Koenig, lead singer/songwriter of the band, about their latest, "Only God Was Above Us."