AP - Groups pushing for robust Hispanic participation in the 2010 census announced a new campaign Thursday that aims to reach the hard-to-count demographic through its smart-phone-toting youngsters.
The Soft Pack On World Cafe
Tired of the new-wave explosion in their hometown of San Diego, The Soft Pack's Matt Lamkin and Matty McLoughlin got their start after deciding to revive old-school grunge. Later joined by Dave Lantzman and Brian Hill, the group found a knack for writing simple and catchy tunes that hint at the New York underground and subtle '60s California surf-rock.
British rookie Taio Cruz rules U.S. singles chart (Reuters)
Reuters - British newcomer Taio Cruz has broken a seven-year-old record by soaring to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in the United States.
Underwood flying high as "Play On Tour" starts (AP)
AP - After selling more than a million tickets to her last concert tour, Carrie Underwood is aiming higher this time.
Lady Antebellum returns to No. 1 on U.S. pop chart (Reuters)
Reuters - Country trio Lady Antebellum returned to the top of the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday, ending Sade's three-week reign.
Dostoyevsky set for Lincoln Center Festival 2010 (AP)
AP - A 12-hour adaptation of a Dostoyevsky novel will be among the highlights of Lincoln Center Festival 2010, running for 45 performances this summer.
OK Go Fights For Its Viral Video
Damian Kulash, singer-songwriter-guitarist with OK Go, talks about the group's split with its label as the result of a label policy that kept a popular video the band made from being embedded on YouTube. "This Too Shall Pass" is a viral video that took a month to make; it displays an elaborate two-story Rube Goldberg device timed to the song.
Midlake: In Tune With Nature
"If all that grows starts to fade, starts to falter / Oh, let me inside, let me inside not to wake," Midlake's Tim Smith sings in "Acts of Man," which surrounds his meditation on man and nature with dense harmonies and the rich sounds of a folk-pop orchestra.
Voice From The Darkness: Johnny Cash's Final Record
Seven years after the death of Johnny Cash, producer Rick Rubin has selected 10 more songs among the many he produced for Cash late in the singer's life. Rock critic Ken Tucker examines the end result, the album American VI: Ain't No Grave.
Los Amigos Invisibles: A 'Commercial' Breakthrough
The Venezuelan band has found huge success in its native country. But the group has also built a following in the U.S. with its unique blend of disco, jazz, funk and Latin rhythms. Here, host Michel Martin talks with the Latin Grammy-winning band, which recently stopped by NPR for a performance and conversation.
`Anna Nicole' opera to premiere next February (AP)
AP - The world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's "Anna Nicole" will be presented by the Royal Opera next Feb. 17, starring Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as the late model and Playboy playmate.
The Thistle And Shamrock: Welsh Roots
Check out some of the emerging roots music from Wales with established and emerging artists, including master of the Welsh triple harp Robin Huw Bowen and singer songwriter Meic Stevens.
Peter Sagal And Ira Glass In A 1999 OK Go Video, Seriously
A very public radio Easter Egg in OK Go's first video.
Ana Egge On Mountain Stage
The singer-songwriter grew up in North Dakota as the daughter of "motorcycle-riding hippie farmers." Now based in Brooklyn, Egge has crafted several albums of fresh, homespun folk music. Here, she performs with her homemade resonator slide guitar.
Percy Sledge among new names in Alabama music hall (AP)
AP - Entertainers lined up for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony March 25 in Montgomery include Percy Sledge and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Osmonds return to stage after death of Marie's son (AP)
AP - Marie Osmond told a Las Vegas Strip audience as she returned to the stage less than two weeks after her son's apparent suicide that she has relied on her spirituality to cope with his death
Jennifer Hudson to perform 'One Shining Moment' (AP)
AP - Jennifer Hudson will have her "One Shining Moment."
On `Idol,' Bowersox shines; 3 sink in judges' eyes (AP)
AP - If the "American Idol" judges hold sway over viewers, contestants Katie Stevens, Paige Miles and Katelyn Epperly should be nervous about making it into the top 12.
Live Now: Nicholas Payton At The Village Vanguard
He found his footing in jazz through its hard-swinging main stem. But after he'd proved his hard-bop mettle, he took a fork in the road toward electric experimentalism. Now, trumpeter Nicholas Payton seems comfortable pursuing a middle ground. Listen live Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
Patty Larkin: 25 Songs, 25 Friends, 25 Years
For 25, Patty Larkin recorded voice and guitar for 25 songs, then let friends such as Rosanne Cash, Erin McKeown and Martin Sexton do the rest. Twenty-five not only represents the number of songs and collaborators, but also how many years it's been since Larkin made her first recordings.
Simon & Garfunkel begin Canada trek next month (Reuters)
Reuters - Canada, get ready: a few "Old Friends" are heading your way.
DMX back in jail for alleged probation violation (AP)
AP - Authorities in Arizona say rapper DMX has been arrested for allegedly violating his probation by using drugs.
Rapper DMX arrested for violating probation (Reuters)
Reuters - Troubled rapper DMX was arrested in Arizona on Tuesday for violating his probation by regularly using illegal drugs during the last nine months, authorities said.
Mark Linkous, A Flawed Hero
All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton reflects on the loss of Mark Linkous, the imaginative mind and voice behind the music of Sparklehorse. Linkous killed himself this past weekend, two months after the loss of another artist to suicide, Vic Chesnutt.
Cowboy Junkies On Mountain Stage
The moody folk-pop band has visited Mountain Stage eight times since 1992. But for this go-'round, Cowboy Junkies went back even further, reinterpreting material from the group's classic 1988 album The Trinity Session.
Sequel to 'Phantom of the Opera' opens in London (AP)
AP - Will the magic of the Phantom strike twice for Andrew Lloyd Webber?
Jim Keller On World Cafe
Keller, formerly of the '80s pop hitmaker Tommy Tutone, returns for his first solo release in a decade with Sunshine in My Pocket, an album brimming with bright, optimistic folk-pop.
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
Samuel Barber At 100, Reconsidered
He was once dismissed as a composer for "high middlebrow taste." But Barber, who wrote the famous Adagio for Strings, would not be criticized if he were an emerging composer today, 100 years after his birth.
Dessa: Hip-Hop Word Warrior
Her eyes half-closed, Minneapolis MC Dessa flowed through the rhymes from her new album, A Badly Broken Code, at KEXP. Her hands moved with the rhythm, and her voice was pitch-perfect.
Cliff Richard turns to jazz to mark 70th birthday (Reuters)
Reuters - Veteran British singer Cliff Richard will mark his 70th birthday with the release of an album of jazz and swing music, he announced on Tuesday.
Guns N' Roses plan "secret" shows in South America (Reuters)
Reuters - Guns N' Roses will play three private shows in Brazil and Argentina during the band's current tour of South America, the organizer said on Monday.
Slash recruits vocalist A-team for solo project (Reuters)
Reuters - As a former member of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash knows more than most musicians about what he calls "band drama."
Producer Lillywhite seeking Cowell's "Idol" seat (Reuters)
Reuters - Steve Lillywhite wants to "help America find the next Elvis Presley." And that's why the Grammy Award-winning producer -- whose resume includes work with U2, the Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz, Morrissey, the Rolling Stones, Phish and scores of others -- wants to be "American Idol's" next Simon Cowell.
Refugee All Stars "Rise" to challenge of 2nd album (Reuters)
Reuters - In the weeks after the earthquake in Haiti, many musicians and other artists rushed to help, hosting benefits and raising funds.
T-Pain revives Freaknik for cartoon musical (Reuters)
Reuters - As T-Pain wraps up work on a new Nappy Boy All Stars mix tape and his latest album, "RevolveR," fans can anticipate the release of an entirely different kind of project from the Auto-Tuned rapper/producer.
Spring Music Preview 2010
From MGMT to Erykah Badu, a first listen to 2010's hottest albums From Katy Perry and Stone Temple Pilots to MGMT and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, some of 2010's most anticipated albums are hitting stores this season. Big debuts from Court Yard Hounds and Drake are due, along with eagerly awaited releases by Christina Aguilera, Hole, the Hold Steady and Gaslight Anthem. Read up on 38 of the spring's discs, plus get your first listen to new tunes from Jakob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Peter Wolf, and watch exclusive performances and sneak peeks featuring fre...
Post-Paula Depression
The unthinkable has happened - by losing Paula's craziness, and with Simon heading for the door, "American Idol" feels like it has finally reached the end of its run How do you replace Paula Abdul? You don't. That's no knock on Ellen DeGeneres — it's just that absurd Hollywood creatures like Paula are rare and precious flukes of the universe, like the Loch Ness monster in sequined capri pants. Without Paula, American Idol loses its crazy factor, the suspenseful thrill that you're never more than a few minutes away from seeing a grade-A display of batshit antics on live TV. And what is American Idol without a dose of crazy? Sending Ellen in to...
Lil Wayne Goes to Jail
Up all night with hip-hop's unstoppable machine as he prepares to spend the next year behind bars This story was originally published in February 2010. Since then, Lil Wayne's sentencing has been postponed two times. For the latest on his developing case, click here. "I don't like to stop," says Lil Wayne. "I believe you stop when you die." The biggest rapper in the world stands 23 floors above Atlanta and five feet six in black Chuck Taylors, his wifebeater tee baring a torso as ink-covered as the pages of a doodler's notebook. It's 8:30 p.m., two days after Christmas, and he will be up...
The Yoga Cult
How a Korean guru has created a fanatical following on college campuses that is part Moonies, part New Age boot camp and pure profit Read a rebuttal to Rolling Stone's Dahn Yoga story by Joseph Alexander, the Vice President-Communications for Dahn Yoga & Health Centers — plus RS' response. If you looked at it from a certain perspective, the exercises Amy Shipley did in Dahn Yoga were perfectly normal. Take what she was doing right now. It was near midnight. Amy and seven other devotees of Dahn Yoga — nearly all in their 20s, clad in blue tracksuits and barely functioning on three hours of sleep — were...
