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Stephen Thompson Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He appears frequently on All Songs Considered and NPR newsmagazines.
Washington, DC - May 03, 2016: Stephen Thompson CREDIT: Matt Roth
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Stephen Thompson

Wednesday

Monday

Passion Pit: Tiny Desk Concert

Passion Pit performs on Tiny Desk on Oct. 15. Ryan Smith/Ryan Smith/NPR hide caption

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Ryan Smith/Ryan Smith/NPR

Tiny Desk

Passion Pit: Tiny Desk Concert

A keyboardist and singer who started out working solo on his laptop, Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos makes Technicolor electro-pop with monster hooks. But his songs are sturdy, versatile things, as this performance indicates.

Passion Pit: Tiny Desk Concert

Listen · 10:58
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Friday

Song Premiere: Neighbors, 'New Century'

Neighbors. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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All Songs Considered

Song Premiere: Neighbors, 'New Century'

There's something strangely hypnotic and charming about "New Century," an immensely infectious bummer from Neighbors, a band consisting of a guy named Noah Stitelman and anyone else who happens to be around to help.

Song Premiere: Neighbors, 'New Century'

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Wednesday

Song Premiere: Laura Gibson, 'The Carob Trees'
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All Songs Considered

Song Premiere: Laura Gibson, 'The Carob Trees'

A look at relationships across generations dating all the way back to Adam and Eve, "The Carob Trees" has more in common with early Gibson records than it does with this year's more assertive La Grande.

Song Premiere: Laura Gibson, 'The Carob Trees'

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Monday

Robert Cray Band: Tiny Desk Concert

Robert Cray performs a Tiny Desk Concert Lauren Rock/NPR hide caption

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Lauren Rock/NPR

Tiny Desk

Robert Cray Band: Tiny Desk Concert

Like any great blues singer, Cray makes heartache and dysfunction sound engaging and relatable.

Robert Cray Band: Tiny Desk Concert

Listen · 19:25
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Sunday

First Listen: Cody ChesnuTT, 'Landing On A Hundred'

Cody ChesnuTT's new album, Landing on a Hundred, comes out Oct. 23. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: Cody ChesnuTT, 'Landing On A Hundred'

Landing on a Hundred is a dynamite collection of timeless, celebratory, searching soul music that yearns for meaning, views life as a circuitous journey, and finds cause to seek hope and give thanks along the way.

Cody ChesnuTT, 'Landing On A Hundred'

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Monday

Dirty Three: Tiny Desk Concert

Dirty Three plays a Tiny Desk Concert on Sept. 24. Lauren Rock/NPR hide caption

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Lauren Rock/NPR

Tiny Desk

Dirty Three: Tiny Desk Concert

One of the loudest performances ever captured in the NPR Music offices, Dirty Three's set alternately seethes and rages in a flurry of high kicks, prolific hairiness and dramatic yelling.

Dirty Three: Tiny Desk Concert

Listen · 18:27
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Sunday

Friday

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Of Musclemen And Drinking Songs
NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Of Musclemen And Drinking Songs

A reconstituted gang gathers, on the occasion of Arnold Schwarzenegger's memoir, to discuss action heroes and the movies that glorify them. Then it's on the the humble cocktail — in drinking songs, movies and elsewhere — before a round of what's making everyone happy.

Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour

Listen · 36:21
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Sunday

First Listen: 'REWORK_Philip Glass Remixed'

REWORK_Philip Glass Remixed comes out Oct. 23. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: 'REWORK_Philip Glass Remixed'

Celebrate the composer's 75th birthday with 12 inventive remixes of his malleable work. Beck, Dan Deacon, Tyondai Braxton, Johann Johannsson, Pantha Du Prince and others reinterpret Glass' music, teasing out beauty and rhythm along the way.

'Rework_Philip Glass Remixed'

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First Listen: Martha Wainwright, 'Come Home To Mama'

Martha Wainwright's new album, Come Home to Mama, comes out Oct. 16. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: Martha Wainwright, 'Come Home To Mama'

Since the release of her last studio album in 2008, Wainwright gave birth to a daughter and lost her mother, the singer Kate McGarrigle. So it's no surprise that loss and rebirth flow through the veins of Come Home to Mama.

Martha Wainwright, 'Come Home To Mama'

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Sunday

First Listen: Tame Impala, 'Lonerism'

Tame Impala's new album, Lonerism, comes out Oct. 9. Maciek Pozoga/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Maciek Pozoga/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen

First Listen: Tame Impala, 'Lonerism'

Not a collection of psychedelic freakouts so much as a collection of controlled psychedelic slow-burns, Lonerism makes alienation and introversion sound both alluring and, ironically, inviting.

Hear 'Lonerism' In Its Entirety

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First Listen: Lord Huron, 'Lonesome Dreams'

Lord Huron's new album, Lonesome Dreams, comes out Oct. 9. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: Lord Huron, 'Lonesome Dreams'

Lonesome Dreams comes along at just the right time of year, meeting as it does between the beachy lightness of summer and the bittersweet plaintiveness of autumn. It straddles the seasons with disarming deftness — sunny enough to distract, sweet enough to comfort.

Lord Huron, 'Lonesome Dreams'

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First Listen: Freelance Whales, 'Diluvia'

Freelance Whales' new album, Diluvia, comes out Oct. 9. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: Freelance Whales, 'Diluvia'

Diluvia's songs practically glow with multi-part vocal harmonies, banjos, strings, horns and other mad manmade clatter. Even the synthesizers sound warm, loose and light.

Freelance Whales, 'Diluvia'

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Thursday