All Songs Considered

Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by Stephen Thompson and Ann Powers to talk about discoveries and favorites from this years SXSW Music Festival. Highlights include music from our showcase including Courtney Barnett performance of much of her new album. Also Stromae and Shamir and TV on the Radio. Plus we lull you to bed with a South by Lullaby from the duo who made my #1 album of 2014, Luluc.

Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson and Katie Presley gather round for a look at Day 1 at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Highlights include the UK poet and rapper Kate Tempest and the Austin big The Golden Dawn who mix Sun Ra with Sly Stone. And before we all go to bed we're joined by the beautiful musician Tom Brosseau for our very first South By Lullaby.

If you love music as much as we do (we really love music), there's a good chance that this is one of your favorite weeks of the year. This is when the massive South by Southwest music festival and conference bubbles up and spills over into the streets of Austin, Texas. For five days, live music pours out of every alley, doorway, club, restaurant and street corner. Whether it's sensory overload or total nirvana, March 17-21 is all about discovering some new band or sound that sets your ears on end. NPR Music is heading to SXSW with big hopes and plans to discover and present new music we love. In preparation for our trip, we listened to thousands of songs by the bands who will be in Austin. On this week's All Songs Considered, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and NPR contributor Katie Presley to share some of the early discoveries they're most excited to see and hear, from the comical Canadian punk band Needs and English rapper Little Simz to Icelandic singer-songwriter Kaleo and the sparkling twee-pop group Kero Kero Bonito.

On this week's All Songs Considered, we look at one of life's immutable truths: Nothing's ever easy! Or, at least some things are way harder than they need to be. That's part of the message in the new kiss-off song that opens our show, "Hot Scary Summer," from the upcoming Villagers album Darling Arithmetic. Also on the program: Host Bob Boilen shares startling, hodgepodge sounds from both Edinburgh's Young Fathers and the London-based band The Very Best. Co-host Robin Hilton delivers a bracing, joyful rock cut from Joanna Gruesome. We take a walk through vast mansions of curious sounds from electronic producer Eskmo's new record SOL, and the "Slow Breathing Circuit" from Inventions, a duo featuring Eluvium's Matthew Cooper and Explosions In The Sky guitarist Mark Smith. Plus, NPR Music editor Jacob Ganz stops by to share a classic from one of his all-time favorite bands, Broadcast.

This week on All Songs Considered, we get heavy — heavy lyrics, heavy themes — as hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton explore the meaning of life, even breaking it down to the atomic level, with existential music from English folk singer Bill Fay, Björk and more.

It may be freezing on the east coast, but on All Songs Considered this week, we've got the hottest tracks to keep you out of the cold. At the top, North Dakota songwriter Tom Brosseau tells a heartbreaking story about a boy abandoned by his mother. Patrick Watson returns with a vast and beautiful sound that explores the distinction between humanity and technology. In between that pair of longtime All Songs favorites, Lord Huron rides in with an upbeat new track, Soley goes dark, Portland's Summer Cannibals turns up the heat and we get a harder and louder sound from the Toronto based noise rock trio METZ. But first, a track from Robin's past that will take you to Ram Jam heaven, much to Bob's chagrin.

This week on All Songs Considered we reflect on age and time, how we make sense of the world as we all grow older, and how it all ties in to the artist who opens this week's show: Sufjan Stevens. Stevens has been busy with numerous projects since releasing his insane masterpiece, The Age Of Adz, in 2010. But he's back with his first official studio album since then, the lovely and intimate Carrie & Lowell. We've got the first single from the album, "No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross." Also on the program: JEFF The Brotherhood teams up with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson for some red blooded rock and roll, The Alabama Shakes get amped up and explore new sonic territory and we premiere a new electrified cut from Waxahatchee. Plus: the shape-shifting and utterly infectious sounds of Happyness and British poet/rapper Kate Tempest.

In honor of Valentine's Day, we asked our listeners to name their ideal romantic song. After receiving over a thousand replies, we tallied the results, listened, swooned (and sometimes scratched our heads). On this week's show, Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton count down the top 10 and share a couple of their own favorite love songs.

This week on All Songs Considered, we start the show with new music Bob's been waiting for two years to hear: the great first single from Courtney Barnett's debut full-length album. Don't miss the video for "Pedestrian at Best" off her album Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Also on the show: Chaz Bundick is back with a Toro Y Moi track that's all '70s-flavored electro-disco dance jam. We also share the last recordings of Pops Staples, which he gave to his daughter Mavis before his death in 2000. NPR Music contributor Katie Presley offers a cut from the loud-and-proud Texas punk party band Purple, Robin takes the show for an acoustic turn with the Brooklyn trio Howard, which leads into Bob's selection of a new song by Other Lives called "Reconfiguration," from the band's upcoming album Rituals.

On this week's All Songs Considered we hear from some favorite veteran artists and incredible newcomers, including Modest Mouse's first new record in eight years, Death Cab for Cutie's first record made with an outside producer, and the shattering young psychedelic rockers Sunflower Bean. Also on the show: Folk singer Laura Marling goes big and electric; we hear the unimaginable voice of Israeli songwriter Asaf Avidan from his first official U.S. release and the 19 year-old twin sisters who write and record as Ibeyi.

This week on All Songs Considered: Our favorite electronic artist, Dan Deacon, is back with another playfully infectious dance party, one he recorded on the road during his most recent tour. Also, NPR Music contributor Katie Presley joins us with a hypnotic groove from the Seattle-based duo THEESatisfaction and a slow-burning jam from New Orleans singer-songwriter Kristin Diable. We've got a funktacular space-jam from the London-based duo Public Service Broadcasting; the unbelievable throat-singing of Canadian, Polaris Prize-winning singer Tanya Tagaq and woozy, blown-out guitar psychedelia from Jackson Scott. But before we get to any of that, Robin shares a special moment with the one artist who makes him feel so very alive and ready to conquer the world: Billy Joel.

The news headlines weren't always easy to read last week, between the mass shootings in Paris and the relentless violence in Nigeria. But over the weekend, in New York City, some of the most remarkable global music groups in the world converged for a moment of musical solidarity. They came from as far away as Senegal and as close as Texas for the annual globalFEST, one unforgettable night of rapturous dancing, musical meditation and kinship. As Leonard Bernstein once famously said, "This will be our reply to violence: To make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." Host Bob Boilen is joined by NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR contributor and Afropop.org senior editor Banning Eyre, and Rob Weisberg of WQXR (who also hosts WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise) join Bob Boilen to revisit some of the highlights and favorite discoveries from this year's globalFEST.

In case you missed it, we took a rocket ride to outer space for the holidays. But this week your hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton re-dock at the mother ship Earth to ring in the new year with a new mix: We've got premieres from The Go! Team and The Amazing, new music from Panda Bear's upcoming album, Jessica Pratt and more. But first, our journey back home led us through an unexpected wormhole that resulted in a time warp: As this week's show opens, we find ourselves back in the year 2000, standing before the very first episode of All Songs Considered, "a music show for your computer!" That's right. This year we celebrate our 15th birthday at All Songs Considered. To mark the occasion, each week we'll look back at the past decade and a half and share some of our favorite memories and highlights. We'll also be asking you to share some of your favorite moments. In the meantime, enjoy this week's mix and, as always, let us know what you think in the comments section.

"I thought I'd kick you in the pants." And so begins our annual conversation with NPR Music's Lars Gotrich about the year in metal and what he sometimes calls "outer sound." It's a nebulous grouping of experimental music that may leave you puzzled and/or delighted. Join us as we look back at the best weird and loud music of 2014.

In 2012 we — Bob and Robin, your two intrepid All Songs Considered hosts — celebrated the season by renting a cabin in a snowy woods for a holiday party that nobody came to. Last year we took a road trip to the nation's heartland to discover the true spirit of the season, but never made it (a blizzard left us snowed-in at a cheap motel). This year, through a series of unexpected events, we find ourselves hurtling through outer space, on an urgent musical mission. Join us as we take a rocket ride to the stars, grow homesick for the holidays, and find comfort from a few special guests and friends, including Angel Olsen, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, our favorite spaceman (Dan Deacon, of course), and more.