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Music Features

Sunday April 26, 2015

'It Crackles With Life': Beauty Pill Returns

"It feels alive and it feels electric and it feels like it has color," Chad Clark says of Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are. Jon Pack/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Jon Pack/Courtesy of the artist

'It Crackles With Life': Beauty Pill Returns

April 26, 2015 • A virus caused Chad Clark's heart to tear with every beat, giving him a 22 percent chance to live. Eleven years after Beauty Pill's debut LP, he and his band come back resilient.

'It Crackles With Life': Beauty Pill Returns

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Friday April 24, 2015

Waka Flocka Flame reading resumes at Webster Hall in New York City April 20. Polina Yamshchikov for NPR hide caption

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Polina Yamshchikov for NPR

Waka Flocka Flame Is Hiring

April 24, 2015 • The rapper isn't using a headhunter. He's interviewing applicants for the position of fulltime blunt roller himself.

Friday April 17, 2015

Solving The Vinyl Comeback's Big Problem, One Antique Machine At A Time

One of the record presses on the floor at the Quality Record Pressings plant in Salina, Kan. Courtesy of Acoustic Sounds hide caption

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Courtesy of Acoustic Sounds

Solving The Vinyl Comeback's Big Problem, One Antique Machine At A Time

April 17, 2015 • What's getting in the way of the much touted resurgence of vinyl albums? There are very few functioning record presses, and nobody's making new ones.

Solving The Vinyl Comeback's Big Problem, One Antique Machine At A Time

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Wednesday April 15, 2015

Mac McCaughan And Waxahatchee In Conversation

Superchunk frontman and Merge Records co-founder Mac McCaughan (left) will put out his first album under his own name next month. Katie Crutchfield just put out her third album as Waxahatchee on Merge. Lissa Gotwals/Jesse Riggins/Courtesy of Merge Records hide caption

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Lissa Gotwals/Jesse Riggins/Courtesy of Merge Records

The Record

Mac McCaughan And Waxahatchee In Conversation

April 15, 2015 • Songwriter Katie Crutchfield and her boss, Merge Records' Mac McCaughan (who has a new solo album) talk about motivation, listening to their own music and the differences between DIY in 1994 and 2015.

Tuesday April 14, 2015

José González On Finding Light In A Comforting Darkness

"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel" José González says of the songs on his album, Vestiges & Claws, released earlier this year. Malin Johansson/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Malin Johansson/Courtesy of the artist

The Record

José González On Finding Light In A Comforting Darkness

April 14, 2015 • In an interview, the soft-spoken musician says the songs on his latest album, Vestiges & Claws, look outward, with optimism, toward something universal.

Brooklyn's Spirit Family Reunion released its new album, Hands Together, on Tuesday. James Weinheimer/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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James Weinheimer/Courtesy of the artist

The Record

Spirit Family Reunion's Unbroken Circle

April 14, 2015 • These Brooklyn-based musicians have called what they do "open-door gospel." Watch a video for their latest single, which could be a manifesto for any spiritually healthy person.

Tuesday April 7, 2015

A (Nearly) Comprehensive Guide To The Music Of 'Mad Men'

Megan Draper (Jessica Pare) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in an episode of Mad Men's sixth season. Michael Yarish/AMC hide caption

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Michael Yarish/AMC

The Record

A (Nearly) Comprehensive Guide To The Music Of 'Mad Men'

April 7, 2015 • From "The Twist" to "Is That All There Is?," the songs that Mad Men uses to depict the 1960s are perfect — but often unpredictable — representations of the decade's slow evolution.

Wednesday April 1, 2015

How To Be Alone: Musicians Confront Solitude

Sufjan Stevens' album Carrie & Lowell is out this week. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

The Record

How To Be Alone: Musicians Confront Solitude

April 1, 2015 • On new albums, Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar and Laura Marling all hold the world at a distance in order to embrace creation.

Tuesday March 31, 2015

Jay Z's Music Service, Tidal, Arrives With A Splash, And Questions Follow

Madonna, Deadmau5, Kanye West and Jay Z onstage at the Tidal launch event. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images hide caption

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Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

The Record

Jay Z's Music Service, Tidal, Arrives With A Splash, And Questions Follow

March 31, 2015 • The premium streaming service, which will be owned in part by musicians, was unveiled in a star-packed ceremony. The first question it needs to answer: Can it attract listeners?

Jay Z's Music Service, Tidal, Arrives With A Splash, And Questions Follow

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Thursday March 19, 2015

A Rational Conversation: Colleen Green And Going Hi(gher)-Fi In 2015

Colleen Green. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

The Record

A Rational Conversation: Colleen Green And Going Hi(gher)-Fi In 2015

March 19, 2015 • What type of signal does it send when a musician moves from the bedroom to the studio?

Tuesday March 17, 2015

Winning In Country Music, With No Help From Nashville

Aaron Watson on stage during the National Finals Rodeo Cowboy Fanfest in Las Vegas in 2014. Mindy Small/Getty Images hide caption

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Mindy Small/Getty Images

The Record

Winning In Country Music, With No Help From Nashville

March 17, 2015 • Traditional country musicians, the kind who never get airplay on mainstream country radio stations, are thriving in regional scenes supported by devoted live audiences.

Winning In Country Music, With No Help From Nashville

Listen · 3:50 3:50

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Thursday March 12, 2015

Assassin poses New York in 2006. Kristy Leibowitz/Getty Images hide caption

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Kristy Leibowitz/Getty Images

The Record

Assassin: Rap's Best Kept Secret Weapon

March 12, 2015 • Call it weaponized wordplay. When rappers want to make a statement, they call this Jamaican dancehall star — but they don't call his name.

Wednesday March 11, 2015

David Goldman/Courtesy of the artist

The Record

Benjamin Booker Faces The Past

March 11, 2015 • In a double-length video for two songs from his debut album, the punk-influenced blues singer struggles with civil rights issues that we can't seem to settle.

Thursday March 5, 2015

Planet Of Sound: The Long, Unmistakable Orbit Of Aphex Twin

Courtesy of Warp Records

The Record

Planet Of Sound: The Long, Unmistakable Orbit Of Aphex Twin

March 5, 2015 • A flood of music — official and semi-secret, after years of silence — puts the career of the electronic musician Richard D. James, best known as Aphex Twin, into new and revealing perspective.

Saturday February 28, 2015

Josh Tillman's latest album as Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear, is a sincere and shocking catalog of the main character's adventures in sex and love. Emma Tillman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Emma Tillman/Courtesy of the artist

The Record

Sympathy For The Devils

February 28, 2015 • From Lana Del Rey to Father John Misty, musicians in the current pop moment who expose themselves, warts and all, do so in isolation, without support or challenge from a like-minded community.