WXPN's live performance and interview program featuring music and conversation from a variety of important musicians
Fleet Foxes perform live songs from Crack Up, their first album in 6 years. According to lead singer Robin Pecknold, it's the kind of record he's always wanted to create. A lot has changed since Fleet Foxes' last album, 2011's Helplessness Blues. Former drummer Josh Tillman left the band to focus on being Father John Misty, while Robin Pecknold moved to New York City and took classes at Columbia. Robin shares insights about his approach to storytelling on Crack Up including the way movements and songs crash into each other and the F Scott Fitzgerald essay that inspired the album's title.
Angelica Garcia wrote her gothic and gorgeous debut album Medicine For Birds in a 200 year old parish house she's pretty sure is haunted, in the tiny town of Accomac, Virginia. She moved there with her family from East LA when she was 17, after her stepfather left his career in the music business to become an Episcopalian priest. Suddenly, rather than the bustle and bump of urban life, she was surrounded by cemeteries, magnolia trees and very few actual humans. Angelica talks about how feeling isolated also made her feel inspired and performs live on the World Cafe.
Sweet Spirit is a punchy, powerful party band from Austin that features up to nine members on stage at any given time. Their infectious live shows caught the eye of fellow Austinite Britt Daniel from the band Spoon, who invited them to open at a bunch of his concerts and championed their full-length debut album Cokomo in 2015. Sweet Spirit's follow-up album St. Mojo came out in April, and they perform rip-roaring renditions of some of the songs on this edition of the World Cafe. Co-founders Sabrina Ellis and Andrew Cashen also share wild and fun road stories befitting a wild and fun band.
From founding P.S. Eliot with her twin sister Katie Crutchfield and performing with Katie in Waxahatchee to co-founding Philadelphia pop punk band Swearin', Allison's career so far has largely been defined by collaborations. Her debut full length album as a solo artist is called Tourist in this Town. It sees Allison confronting relationship and band endings and learning about herself as a person and as a musician. On this episode of World Cafe, Allison talks about the importance of going it alone and how she found calm amid a stormy period - she performs live music from Tourist in this Town.
Landmark is the official first album from the Minneapolis band Hippo Campus that started playing together in music school. They recorded EPs together before and have been on the road for the last couple of years so you can say these 21 year olds have matured. The music has the same energetic leaping melodies with arrangements that serve the songs rather than display music school chops. They write about what they know: social media and break-ups and they'll explain how they fit those lyrics to their intricate melodies as they talk with David Dye.
America, Location 12 is the new sound of the jam band Dispatch who talk about all the reasons their new- found maturity led to them working together again. Hear an acoustic set in front of a packed audience and witness the even stronger bond they share 13 years later.
Daddy Issues blend humor and pathos within a fuzzed-out matrix of guitar riffs, punchy beats and vocals that seem to articulate thoughts exactly as they're forming. The trio is part of a wave of young women challenging the clichés of both rock music and feminism. They join Ann Powers with their debut Deep Dream.
Live music from Phoenix and an interview with band members Thomas Mars and Christian Mazzalai. They tell stories about recording their joyful new album Ti Amo in Paris as the city was hit by a string of terror attacks. And they'll discuss Phoenix's soundtrack work. Mars is married to filmmaker Sofia Coppola whose new film The Beguiled was scored by Phoenix. The band has also contributed music to Coppola's films Lost in Translation, Somewhere and Marie Antoinette. Plus, Thomas and Christian make a charming and convincing case for the eternal freshness of love.
In 2014 pastor, author and activist Rev. Sekou was arrested multiple times while teaching non-violent civil disobedience in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown. That experience shaped some of the music on his new album called In Times Like These. From songs of peaceful protest to explosive soul to a Bob Marley cover, Rev. Sekou performs with such passion and heart that it's hard to picture him doing anything else. But he has studied philosophy at the New School, religion at Harvard University, and lectured throughout the country and abroad. He talks about where his passion for social justice comes from and shares a touching story about his grandmother's dignified reaction the first time he experienced racism as a child in his small Southern town.
World Cafe Nashville correspondents Ann Powers and Jewly Hight choose a handful of their favorite discoveries from the CMA Fest – some of which you might be surprised by. From an older artist who has reinvented his sound with the help of a looping pedal to a new band that brings together rock and country, you won't want to miss this chance to hear the highlights of the annual fan-centered extravaganza.
