Robin Hilton

Do You Really Listen To Full Albums?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:08:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyUl3DrOLE

First Watch: Sam Amidon, 'As I Roved'

Robin Hilton — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:34:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCHcH2xCBlE

First Watch: Exitmusic, 'White Noise'

Robin Hilton — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:09:00 +0000

Exitmusic's Passages was one of 2012's darkest and most arresting ambient rock albums. Now, the band returns with an equally transfixing new video for one of the album's standout tracks, "White Noise."

The Gothic, gorgeously shot video shows Exitmusic's Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church as they slowly drift and turn in a dark pool of water. "'White Noise' is such a visual song," Palladino and Church write via email.

First Watch: Telekinesis, 'Empathetic People'

Robin Hilton — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:29:00 +0000

In the latest video from Seattle-based pop masters Telekinesis, for the song "Empathetic People," frontman Michael Benjamin Lerner ambles into an abandoned record-pressing factory and gets it running again.

Question Of The Week: Do You Hear Music When You Dream?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:44:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxb4LayC7A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQXCELBPI6Q

How Are Your Music Tastes Changing As You Get Older?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:53:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExLKJU0_bqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhmvbywbAo4

First Watch: Yellow Red Sparks, 'A Play To End All Plays'

Robin Hilton — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:30:00 +0000

The songs of Yellow Red Sparks, a folk-pop trio based in California, are twisted tales told through cinematic, often epic orchestrations. In the group's spectacular and creepy new video, for the song "A Play To End All Plays," a couple's failed relationship is acted out like an old circus sideshow before a finger-wagging audience.

What Are Your Top Five Album Covers?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:52:00 +0000

This past week we lost one of the greatest album cover art designers of all time. Britain's Storm Thorgerson, who died last Thursday, was just 69 years old. He'd spent more than 40 years designing and orchestrating some of the most iconic album covers of all time. Even if you don't know the name Storm Thorgerson, you know his work. That prism on the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon?

NPR Is Relocating: What's The Best Song About Moving On?

Robin Hilton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:52:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ddD9efO1Hc

First Watch: STRFKR, 'Beach Monster'

Robin Hilton — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:21:00 +0000

The new video for STRFKR's song "Beach Monster" is an absolute horror show disguised as a breezy day at the sea. The band members, decked out in matching Buddy Holly suits and glasses, play against an blank blue background while staring blankly into the camera.

Song Premiere: Emily Wells, 'Los Angeles'

Robin Hilton — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:48:00 +0000

Singer and violinist Emily Wells was one of our favorite discoveries at last year's South by Southwest music festival. Her 2012 album Mama was a surprising and beautiful mix of hip-hop beats and strings, with folk-flavored pop arrangements. Now Wells is back with a re-imagined, all-acoustic version of Mama, with the songs stripped bare and her voice more fragile than ever.

First Watch: Junip, "Your Life, Your Call"

Robin Hilton — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:51:00 +0000

I love the crazy surprises you get when two or more artists get together and turn their creative ideas over to one another. When the band Junip wrote the song "Your Life, Your Call," frontman José González says, it was meant to be an unambiguous meditation on growing up, moving on and taking responsibility for your life.

Your Picks For The Best Headphones

Robin Hilton — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:39:00 +0000

We got a lot of great suggestions when we asked readers to tell us their picks for the perfect pair of headphones last week. We also learned a lot. For example, you all know way more about this than I do.

Another thing I learned is that the kind of perfect headphones I'm looking for probably don't exist.

First Watch: Keaton Henson, 'You'

Robin Hilton — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:17:00 +0000

The Keaton Henson who appears on the new album Birthdays is an avowed hermit with a profoundly broken heart. He also has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard. The 24 year-old singer from London, who says he rarely leaves his bedroom, bares his wrecked emotional remains in an arresting new video for the song "You."

Henson squats alone in the desert with his guitar, as the wind howls. It's a landscape as desolate as the shattered world he was left with after a former love betrayed him and crushed his heart.

Question Of The Week: What Is The Perfect Pair Of Headphones?

Robin Hilton — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:07:00 +0000

I've been buying headphones for 30 years now, have owned more they I can possibly remember and still haven't found the perfect pair. I must chew through one or two sets a year in a never-ending, desperate (and futile) search to find the right acoustics, feel and functionality. I've tried in-ear buds, over-the-ear hooks, full-sized cans and wireless. Some sound great but fit horribly. Or the fit is perfect but the sound too tinny, or the controls don't quite work. The truth is, I hate headphones, especially because I hate being tethered to my stereo. It's like wearing a leash.

First Watch: Julianna Barwick, 'Offing'

Robin Hilton — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:24:00 +0000

In a way, singer Julianna Barwick's ethereal voice and seemingly shapeless songs are a form of abstract art: colorful and curious, with lines that drift and flow in unexpected but beautiful directions. For her latest video, and a new song called "Offing," Barwick finds commonality in architect Philip Johnson's Glass House and a strange sculpture from artist Ken Price.

Our SXSW Plans: Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Youth Lagoon, More

Robin Hilton — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Get some earplugs and a case of your favorite caffeinated beverage ready: The annual sensory-overload-joy-fest known as South by Southwest is almost here. Bob Boilen, Ann Powers, Stephen Thompson and I, along with a small army of other NPR Music peeps, will be there next week for the whole thing.

First Watch: The Zolas, 'Escape Artist'

Robin Hilton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:39:00 +0000

In "Escape Artist," the new video from Canadian pop duo The Zolas, the band plays around with audience expectations about race, culture and sexuality. As frontman Zach Gray sings about his mysterious alter ego, a group of kids kick around their neighborhood, playing basketball, chatting up girls and passing the hours. One of them clearly feels like an outsider.

While the lyrics to "Escape Artist" are a bit cryptic, Gray says he was trying to explore the inner struggle everyone has with alternate identities.

It's Your Favorite Song: Did You Get It From A Movie?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:37:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOno8kZXSo4

First Watch: Field Report, 'I Am Not Waiting Anymore'

Robin Hilton — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:32:00 +0000

Guitarist and singer Chris Porterfield has done a lot of soul searching since his previous band, DeYarmond Edison, broke up in 2006. Other guys in the group went on to start their own projects — Justin Vernon formed Bon Iver, while some of the other members formed Megafaun.

Watch Kishi Bashi Cover Beirut

Robin Hilton — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:13:00 +0000

Kishi Bashi (who's real name is K Ishibashi) is known for his thrilling live performances, looping and layering his violin and voice to create a symphony of sound. But when he decided to cover "A Sunday Smile," one of his favorite songs by the band Beirut, K went for "real" musicians, captured in this live-in-studio video.

"This is an early Beirut song that really put [frontman Zach Condon] on the map for me," K tells us in an Email.

First Watch: Depeche Mode, 'Heaven'

Robin Hilton — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:03:00 +0000

The English rock group Depeche Mode owned a chunk of the '80s and '90s with glossy electro-rock hits like "People Are People" and "Personal Jesus." These days the band doesn't have much to prove, and its members, who appear in this new video for the song "Heaven," seem to find themselves at peace, bathed in the radiant glow of light and love.

There's an almost-tender vulnerability revealed in this live performance, directed by Timothy Saccenti, perhaps because Depeche Mode's members are a little older now, captured in an intimate

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Added To NPR Music's SXSW Showcase, Live Broadcast Announced

Robin Hilton — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:12:00 +0000

We're thrilled to announce that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been added to the bill for our official South by Southwest showcase on March 13. The band joins Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for the concert, which will be broadcast on NPR stations across the country and streamed live as a video webcast here from Stubb's in Austin, Texas.

First Watch: Maps & Atlases, 'Fever'

Robin Hilton — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:03:00 +0000

The deeply disturbed character who appears in the latest Maps & Atlases video, for the song "Fever," may not live to see tomorrow. As the Chicago-based band sings about holding on in our darkest hours, "The Man" slowly wastes away, addicted to a mysterious drug.

Maps & Atlases guitarist Erin Elders, who directed the video, tells us in an email that "The Man" is an imagined character the band first introduced in a promo video for the group's latest album Beware And Be Grateful.

Hear Lisa Hannigan Cover Nick Drake For A New Tribute Album

Robin Hilton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:54:00 +0000

Veteran producer Joe Boyd says he'd long resisted putting together some sort of tribute album for his late friend, the legendary folksinger Nick Drake. But he finally decided to make one when Boyd realized that the recordings could be captured in a live concert.

In New Spinto Band Video, Even Breakfast Is Cause For Dancing

Robin Hilton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Joy can blindside you in the smallest, most unexpected moments. That's what happened when I watched this new video from Delaware's Spinto Band, for the song "What I Love." As a miniature paper cut-out of a gymnast dances and tumbles across a colorful breakfast table, I found myself filled with pure bliss.

A spiky, upright piano and bouncing rhythms from The Spinto Band propel the tiny dancer through her routine.

Question Of The Week: Which Songs Get You Through The Winter?

Robin Hilton — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:32:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We1I4iulqC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hFO9sA7LsA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW3xDZrlBQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI-YR4LBzL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCtgFScZNSA

Trent Reznor: New Band, New Song, New Video, Still Terrifying

Robin Hilton — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:43:00 +0000

The members of How To Destroy Angels, a collective featuring Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, his wife and singer Mariqueen Maandig, art director Rob Sheridan and the brilliant composer Atticus Ross, have an unambiguously grim view of where civilization is headed.

From My Bloody Valentine's Many Layers, An Orchestral Pop Song Emerges

Robin Hilton — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:12:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlaFVZZZkY

First Watch: Hem, 'Tourniquet'

Robin Hilton — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Nearly a decade after releasing its deeply moving and profoundly beautiful album Rabbit Songs, the Brooklyn-based band Hem was on the verge of falling apart. "I actually believed that Hem might never make music together again as a band," songwriter and pianist Dan Messe tells us in an email.