NPR’s Song of the Day

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The Dynamites: A Celebration Of Resurrection
June 15, 2012 | NPR · Soul music is rooted in gritty perseverance, so pairing up stalwarts Bettye LaVette and Charles Walker works on so many levels, it’s a miracle it hasn’t happened until now. “Yours and Mine” is an exhilarating affirmation of the power to prevail.
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Trailer Trash Tracys: A Shoegazer’s Dream
June 14, 2012 | NPR · “Candy Girl” sounds like a shoegazer’s modern take on Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” — the song that soundtracked the makeout scene in Top Gun. Cool but still beautiful, it’s touching, revealing and almost painfully intimate.
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Elephant Micah: Message In The Mystery
June 13, 2012 | NPR · Ambiguous words, delivered with earnest passion, lend special power to “Airline Living.” It’s the sort of song that’s sure to force different meanings onto different people, depending upon their place in life and state of mind.
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The dB’s: After A 25-Year Absence, A Vital Return
June 12, 2012 | NPR · In “That Time Is Gone,” guitarist, part-time lead vocalist and pop-music legend Peter Holsapple lays bare the anxiety of re-assembling an act that was never much more than a cult phenomenon.
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Ryan Russell
Waxahatchee: A Love Song, Without The Love
June 11, 2012 | NPR · In few words, “Be Good” profiles two people who love and trust each other deeply, who share their dreams and secret shames, but who would rather shotgun beers together than make out.
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Squarepusher: Pushing Every Envelope
June 8, 2012 | NPR · “Dark Steering” flirts subtly with the sounds of modern dubstep, mixing them with atmospheric squeals and detailed drum programming. The result is an unbelievably fitting soundtrack for a life-or-death motorcycle race through neon-lit city streets.
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Tim Fite Finds The Essence Of Innocence In ‘Teenagers’
June 7, 2012 | NPR · In his strangely affecting, minimalist rock paean “We Are All Teenagers,” Fite sketches out a spare electric riff with a reverb-y ’50s rock air as he nails the adolescent unease that lingers into adulthood.
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Jonathan Magowan
Death Grips: ‘Footage’ Of The Hip-Hop Apocalypse
June 6, 2012 | NPR · From The Money Store, “I’ve Seen Footage” seems to run the beats from Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” and Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It” through a rusty meat grinder. Meanwhile, MC Ride catalogs the paranoia and police brutality that drove him to the insanity the song exemplifies.
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Zammuto: Beyond The Books, A Restless Imagination
June 5, 2012 | NPR · Singer-songwriter Nick Zammuto spent most of the ’00s as one half of the experimental folk duo The Books. In “Idiom Wind,” working at the head of a new project, he tells the story of a man who needs to get his hands dirty.
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The Honeydogs: A Retail Solution For Heartbreak
June 4, 2012 | NPR · The hook in “Broke It, Buy It” is insidiously catchy enough to ricochet through your head for days. Levy concludes with the implication that our inability to accept our failings causes more unhappiness than the failures themselves as we chase retail solutions — “we broke it, so we buy it.”
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News

Prominent Pakistani Politician Shot, Killed On Re-Election Eve
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The PTI party chairman, Imran Khan, blamed Zahra Shahid Hussain’s death on a rival party. Police told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that she was killed during an armed robbery.
 

mrenzovic/youtube.com
Spaniard’s Song Brings YouTube Fame … And Maybe A Job
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Enzo Vizcaíno looks like a busker, strumming away on his ukulele as he roams a Barcelona metro car. But he sings of his bachelor’s degree and postgrad diploma. “I’m the King of Microsoft,” he croons. He’s not looking for a handout. He just wants a job. And his creative approach may be paying off.
 

AFP/Getty Images
Bashar Assad: A Political Solution In Syria Is ‘Unreal’
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The Syrian president also left no room for his departure. “The captain of a ship doesn’t flee when faced with a storm,” he said during an interview with an Argentine newspaper.
 

Arts & Life

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New ‘Trek’ Goes ‘Into Darkness,’ But Not Much Deeper
May 18, 2013 | NPR · NPR’s Bob Mondello says J.J. Abrams’ latest Star Trek film knows how to make the sparks and feelings fly, but doesn’t bother making the sparks and feeling matter very much.
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Three-Minute Fiction Reading: ‘Plum Baby’
May 18, 2013 | NPR · NPR’s Susan Stamberg reads an excerpt of one of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. She reads Plum Baby by Carmiel Banasky of Portland, Ore.
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AP
‘Waiting To Be Heard’ No More, Amanda Knox Speaks Out
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Less than two months into her study abroad program in Italy, Amanda Knox was accused and eventually convicted of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher. After her conviction was overturned, Knox returned home to Seattle — and now faces a potential retrial. Knox tells her story in a new memoir.
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Music

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Draco Rosa: A Pop Survivor Returns From The Brink, With Friends
May 18, 2013 | NPR · In the 1980s, he was Robi Rosa, the lead singer of Menudo at the boy band’s peak of popularity. Rosa went on to write hits for bandmate Ricky Martin and develop a solo career. When Rosa was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, some of the biggest names in Latin music assembled to support him.
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After Health Issues, Influential Conductor Back At Met Opera
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Host Scott Simon speaks with New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini about conductor James Levine’s return to the Metropolitan Opera after a series of health problems kept him away for two years.
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Ana Popovic Shreds The Belgrade Blues
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The Serbian guitarist fell in love with American blues music as a kid — well before she could understand the words.
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