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Nada Surf On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 16:32:29 +0000

Last month, Nada Surf released a new full-length album, You Know Who You Are, after a four-year break. The New York band consists of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Doug Gillard (guitar), Ira Elliot (drums) and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals), who’ve been playing together for two decades.

Nada Surf has always had a knack for propulsive, guitar-driven rock, which you’ll hear in this session as the band performs three songs from You Know Who You Are.

Remembering A Country Legend: Merle Haggard On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 20:32:21 +0000

The world of country music has lost a man who has influenced practically every country artist making music today. The legendary Merle Haggard, born in 1937, died Wednesday morning on his 79th birthday.

In this 2003 session, Haggard and his guitar (gifted to him by Randy Travis) join David Dye in the World Cafe studio. Haggard reminisces about his childhood and about playing gigs all over Bakersfield, Calif., where he was born: he says he performed “bar room music” by day and rock ‘n’ roll in the clubs at night. The music coming out of his hometown at the time challenged a musician so much more, he says, than did the music of Nashville. In another interview highlight, Haggard talks about his belief that politicians need to stop dancing around real problems and just come out with the truth — a feeling that still resonates for so many Americans.

Join us in remembering the great Merle Haggard. Listen back to the complete 30-minute interview in the player above.

Sunflower Bean On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 16:33:53 +0000

The psychedelic Brooklyn band Sunflower Bean is the trio of Jacob Faber on drums, Julia Cumming on vocals and bass, and Nick Kivlen on vocals and guitar. By the summer of 2013, high-school classmates Faber and Kivlen had been playing together as Sunflower Bean for a while. But things really jelled with the addition of Cumming, who’d been looking for the right band all her teenage life. The band then set out to play every New York City gig it could, and that dedication to playing live lies at the foundation of its sound on its first full-length album, Human Ceremony.

Hear the session at the audio link above, and watch the trio play “Easier Said” live in the World Cafe studio below.

World Cafe Presents: Peter Bjorn And John

David Dye — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 16:03:43 +0000

The highlight of World Cafe‘s recent Sense Of Place visit to Stockholm, Sweden, was a session recorded at X-Level Studios. Guests included The Amazing and Jose Gonzalez — and Peter Bjorn And John, who treated the show to some brand-new, unreleased songs from an album currently in progress. PB&J has always made super-catchy, intelligent pop songs, and “Do Si Do” is another one. It’s as fine a Swedish souvenir as you could ask for.

SET LIST

“Do Si Do”

Hear Peter Bjorn And John’s full World Cafe: Sense Of Place session here.

Brian Wilson On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 14:27:23 +0000

You’d think it would be difficult for Brian Wilson to pick his favorite Beach Boys song, but he’s decisive: It’s “God Only Knows.” In this conversation on World Cafe, he also says that while he loves the new Wilson biopic Love & Mercy (out Friday), there are parts that were hard for him to watch.

The full conversation is at the audio link above. You’ll also hear music from Wilson’s new solo album, No Pier Pressure, plus extraordinary exclusive live performances of Beach Boys classics.

Nude Beach On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:09:00 +0000

Nude Beach, a punk trio from Brooklyn, is today’s guest on World Cafe. The band recently released a double album called 77, and it’s full of catchy power-pop tunes.

Formed in 2008 while its members were still in high school, the band includes guitarist and singer Chuck Betz, drummer and singer Ryan Naideau, and bassist Jim Shelton. Nude Beach made three albums together before releasing 77 in October. In this session, we’ll learn what the title 77 signifies and hear some of its songs performed live.

Haerts On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 13:27:00 +0000

Haerts, which stylizes its name with the a and e reversed, joins World Cafe in the studio today. Eccentric spelling is just one element that makes the electro-pop band stand out.

Led by friends Nini Fabi and Ben Gebert, the band formed in Brooklyn in 2010, but the two friends actually met in Munich, Germany, where they grew up together. Haerts’ self-titled debut came out this year after a well-received EP, Hemiplegia, in 2013. The duo explains what that means, literally and metaphorically, and performs some of its songs on this episode.

Parquet Courts On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:33:00 +0000

It has been a prolific year for our guests today, the punk band Parquet Courts. They have released two albums this year: Sunbathing Animal under their own name and Content Nausea as Parkay Quarts. We will talk with two founders of the band, Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, and hear performances from the stage of World Cafe Live. We also find out that the new songs are inspired by influences as diverse as Russian history and Louisiana prison songs.

Hailu Mergia On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:37:25 +0000

Hear an unusual session today with Hailu Mergia, a keyboard player and Ethiopian music star who now lives in the U.S. He came to World Cafe‘s attention through Awesome Tapes From Africa, the website where Brian Shimkovitz posts cassette tapes of African music he discovers. That’s what led Shimkovitz to Mergia.

He first became enchanted with a solo cassette Mergia recorded, then went out to find him. Now, Shimkovitz has put out the better-known 1977 album Tche Belew, which Mergia recorded with the top Ethiopian band The Walias. Mergia was at the forefront of musicians in Ethiopia who were melding blues, rock, jazz, funk and Afrobeat into a unique sound in the ’70s; their sound has had a deep effect on all African music. Hailu relocated to the U.S. in the 1980s.

Since this reissue, and that of the initial cassette of Mergia’s solo keyboard recordings, he’s been in demand. Which, in turn, may impact his day job as a cab driver in Washington, D.C. In this World Cafe session, he’s backed by the New York City band Low Mentality.

Peter Matthew Bauer On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:21:00 +0000

Peter Matthew Bauer, formerly the bassist and keyboardist for The Walkmen, released his first album as a solo artist — titled Liberation! — earlier this year. On his own, Bauer takes the lighter tones of The Walkmen’s later albums, Lisbon and Heaven, and sets them loose in the air. Songs like “Philadelphia Raga,” heard at the top of today’s episode of World Cafe, move with a been-around-the-block swing that anchors glittering guitar work.

Hear the full episode at the audio link, as well as individual songs below.