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Best Music Of 2008
'World Cafe' Picks 2008's Top 10 CDs
November 24, 2008 WXPNIt wasn't the best year for music, but 2008 sure churned out a lot of it: In a marketplace flooded with more music than ever, there's rarely been less of a consensus. Your neighbor's iPod was most likely playing a different tune than yours was. Still, David Dye was able to pinpoint the 10 albums that best kept him interested through multiple listens.
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The Airborne Toxic Event: Rock Gets Literary
August 4, 2008 The Airborne Toxic Event's self-titled full-length debut has earned the band comparisons to Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire and Interpol, among others. Complementing Mikel Jollett's dry vocals with surf-friendly rock, the group has made more than a few "Bands to Watch" lists, both before and since the release of its debut.
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Counting Crows: Making Hits, Looking Ahead
June 27, 2008 WXPNIn the 15 years since releasing its breakthrough debut, the roots-pop band has become one of the most popular rock groups in America. The band plays from and talks about its new album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.
World Cafe
Carbon/Silicon: Clash Guitarist Returns
June 26, 2008 WXPNThe punk rock legends in Carbon/Silicon — Mick Jones from The Clash and Tony James from Generation X — have been offering their garage-rock inspired music for free online long before Radiohead's pay-what-you-wish release. Hear an acoustic session with the band.
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Trent Reznor Releases 'Ghosts' for All
May 19, 2008 WXPNIn an interview with David Dye, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor talks about his decision to leave his major label to self-release the instrumental Ghosts I-IV. Reznor has not only been successful, but he's also found a way to engage his fans in the music via remixes.
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The Black Crowes: Smearing the 'Warpaint'
May 5, 2008 WXPNOn Warpaint, the band reunites after a string of solo efforts and concert tours on the jam-band circuit. The sound remains the same (swaggering rock with Southern-fried soul), but now the band sounds like professionals who've honed an otherwise ramshackle style of music.
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Melody Gardot and Her 'Worrisome Heart'
April 28, 2008 WXPNGardot didn't start her musical career out of a grand artistic vision. While riding her bicycle, she was hit by the driver of a Jeep making an illegal turn. Hospitalized for months, Gardot used music for recovery therapy, at doctors' suggestion.
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Cat Power Remakes the 'Jukebox'
April 21, 2008 WXPNSouthern-born singer-songwriter Chan Marshall is no stranger to covers. Under the Cat Power moniker, Marshall has released eight albums, two of them collections in which she reworks the classics. The latest is Jukebox. Hear an interview and performance from WXPN.
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Rustic Overtones Sees 'Light at the End'
April 16, 2008 WXPNWhen Rustic Overtones reunited last summer after four years apart, 6,000 fans gathered in one place to see the beloved band. In this session, the horn-driven rock group talks about coming back to such a grand welcome.
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Sara Bareilles: Finding Songs in Heartbreak
April 14, 2008 WXPNSinger, songwriter and pianist Sara Bareilles had a modest childhood growing up a small California town. Self-taught, she soon found herself on a major label with a debut album that's won comparisons to Fiona Apple. Hear an interview and performance from WXPN.
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Lizz Wright: Sultry Soul and Jazz
April 11, 2008 WXPNSouthern singer Lizz Wright crafts a distinct mixture of jazz, folk, gospel, and R&B, but she's been most widely celebrated as a rising star in the jazz world. Hear Wright give a performance and interview from WXPN.
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No Killing What Made Milwaukee Famous
April 10, 2008 WXPNOn the band's second album, What Doesn't Kill Us, What Made Milwaukee Famous deftly mixes the pomp of Spoon and the hooks of Big Star with witty lyrics. In this segment of World Cafe, the group fills out its sound with the help of new guitarist Jason Davis.
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Psychic TV: Still on the Fringes
April 9, 2008 WXPNFormed in 1981 by Genesis P-Orridge after the dissolution of the industrial-noise band Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV has long been an artistic force in the margins of pop culture. In its first performance since the death of band member Lady Jaye, Psychic TV performs material from its new CD.
World Cafe
Lightspeed Champion: Punk Troubadour
April 8, 2008 WXPNUnder the moniker Lightspeed Champion, Devonte Hynes assumes the role of troubadour. It's a fitting change from the thrashy dance-punk of his past, effectively marrying lush Britpop with countrified rock. Lightspeed Champion's promising debut full-length, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, just came out.
