World Cafe

Take a trip to Louisiana’s Cajun Country with a new installment of our monthly series, Acadiana Music Showcase. Musician Christopher Stafford founded the band Feufollet when he was kid – making a big impact in his local scene and beyond, even getting Grammy nods. Stafford passed away last year, and we commemorate him with a Feufollet mini concert, on the next World Cafe.

Noah Lennox, who performs as Panda Bear, channels everything from the Beach Boys and dancehall to bubble gum pop and country on his new album, Sinister Grift. It’s a record that works better than imagined thanks to Lennox’s improved confidence. On the next World Cafe, the Animal Collective band member joins us to talk about working with his longtime friend, Deakin, plus Panda Bear performs live.

The National’s Matt Berninger is about to release his second solo album – and on the next encore edition of the World Cafe, revisit a conversation about his first. When you think of moody indie-rock you might not think of Willie Nelson, but it was Willie Nelson’s album Stardust that partly inspired Berninger. Matt talks Willie, and about Booker T Jones, who produced Stardust, as well as his album, on the next World Cafe.

After starting his career with the Bristol, UK band Massive Attack, Tricky went solo in the mid-nineties. His first two albums are considered classics, but it was his third, Angels with Dirty Faces, in 1998 that World Cafe correspondent John Morrison says made Tricky a legend. John digs into that groundbreaking album on the next World Cafe.

Julien Baker & Torres both grew up in the South, where country music was always around – but it took them teaming up with each other – to start writing their own. On the next World Cafe, they talk about making their new country album Send a Prayer My Way and about how their appreciation of the genre has changed over the years.

Benjamin Booker’s new album, Lower, takes inspiration from post-punk bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain and East Coast hip-hop groundbreakers Mobb Deep. It’s a record that pulls no punches, sonically or lyrically. Find out why he embraced distortion and why there’s no such thing as “bad” equipment. It’s Benjamin Booker on the next World Cafe.

In the 60s, Utah band The Clingers were trailblazers, as one of the first all-girl bands to play their own instruments and get signed to a major label. A new collection of their music has just been released, so we’ll revisit a conversation with Melody Clinger that originally aired as part of the Sense of Place: Provo series. That’s next time on an encore World Cafe.

The Head and the Heart needed to make a change. 15 years as a band and they’d fallen into a routine. Frontman Jon Russell had been taking on most of the songwriting duties, while other members felt less connected to the music than ever before. So, they shook things up. Sharing songwriting ideas for the first time in years, they made their most collaborative album to date, Aperture. The Head and the Heart play songs from Aperture on the next World Cafe.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Sierra Hull wanted to be a musician, but she didn’t wait to grow up. On the next World Cafe, the Grammy winning mandolinist talks about her new album, A Tip Toe High Wire, and about her career that started when she was just 10 years old.

Adrian Younge has been sampled by hip-hop heavyweights, he composed the soundtrack to numerous TV series, and is a steadfast believer in the power of analog recording. The producer and multi-instrumentalist joins us to play songs from his new album, Something About April III, exploring hip-hop and jazz in Brazil. It’s Adrian Younge on the next World Cafe.