Bob Boilen

From Nelsonville, Ohio to the London poetry of Kate Tempest (in Washington, D.C.), it was a week of deep conversations, larks and formative fun.

This week's essential new music mix includes the remarkable story of Kendrick Lamar's rise, supremely fuzzy garage rock from Weed, the dream pop duo Gems and more.

There's a terrific tension in the sound, an underpinning of mystery set against a baroque, but modern, pop foreground.

One through line connects Todd Rundgren's nearly 50-year career: exploration. All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen spoke to the music veteran about his new album, White Knight, and our dark age.

Care and tenderness are integral to this minimal and memorable album, one of Bob Boilen's favorites of 2017.

It seemed like a simple video editing trick, run the tape backwards and it will look like this guy is driving backward. Well, it's no trick.

On this week's podcast: Epic country rock, blistering punk and a nearly seven-foot-tall clown mashes up Johnny Cash and The Who. Seriously.

The big wailing band of fun known as Rubblebucket are captured by a gender ambiguous fashion witch in this video for their song "If U C My Enemies"

A large clown sings "Pinball Wizard" to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues." Funny or scary?

You can hear a great New York jazz band in the rhythms of Sinkane, but you can also hear the influence of Bob Marley and the hypnotic repetition of Sudanese desert sounds.

Check out the All Songs Considered host's photos from the shows he saw this week, including shots of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Peter Silberman and Lambchop.

It's astonishing to watch Sultana's fluidity on her instrument, like a natural extension of her body. She also plays bass, saxophone, trumpet, flute and more, but kept it "simple" for the Tiny Desk.

A song and video by the band Alex Napping explores singer Alex Cohen's struggle with an eating disorder, in vivid blue and white.

Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton share their favorite songs of the week, including premieres from Elf Power and Big Thief, plus new music from The Walkmen's Walter Martin, Son Lux and more.

Public Service Broadcasting upcoming new album tells the tale of an dying industrial town in South Wales and how it's a metaphor for our political unease.

There's new music coming from Black Keys guitarist and songwriter Dan Auerbach — despite the fact that the video for his new song clearly shows he's been abducted by aliens.

If you appreciate songs of the heart, here's 11 that will save you.

The band Dream Wife began as an art school project designed to explore feminine tropes in pop music — before it became a real band dedicated to doing the very same.

This week's essential mix includes a profoundly moving elegy to a lost sister from Hippo Campus, an electro-pop dance track from Sufjan Stevens' latest project, new music from Gorillaz and more.

The Family Crest urges its extended network of fan-collaborators to express their political thoughts with a new video for "Mirror Love."