Jason Bentley, KCRW Music Director

August is just getting underway, but we’re already halfway through summer, so The Takeaway decided to search for 2018's song of the summer. 

Inspired by the Taiga forests which fill much of the world's Northern Hemisphere, Zola Jesus' new album of the same name is as expansive as the area it covers. While writing Taiga, Nika Roza Danilova moved to a remote island in the Pacific Northwest and immersed herself in solitude to ...

Scottish-born with roots in Italy, Paolo Nutini is still finding his audience in the U.S., but he's already a frequent chart-topper in Europe. The soul singer's third full-length record, Caustic Love, is the fastest-selling album in the U.K. this year, and with good reason. Nutini recently performed some of ...

Join NPR Music live on Oct. 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET for an NPR Music Presents showcase during the annual CMJ Music Marathon.

Our live video webcast will feature:

• Elle Varner

The Grammy- and BET Award-nominated R&B artist, who as the daughter of two songwriters grew up in the ...

Shortly after making Los Angeles his home, Ty Segall has just released perhaps his best album yet. His seventh solo record, Manipulator, came out of the gates fast and furious, much like so many of the album's songs. With shred-intensive tracks like "Feel" and the title song, Manipulator takes ...

When Montreal's Barr Brothers started out, members Brad and Andrew Barr took inspiration from the sounds of Delta blues, then paired that raw energy with the gentle touch of Sarah Page's harp. On their new album, Sleeping Operator, they keep that core sound and add an array of styles from ...

Recording a second album is never easy, especially once expectations have been set — and doubly especially if your first release came out on the Sub Pop label while you were still in high school. But the Long Beach band Avi Buffalo has moved forth boldly: At Best Cuckold demonstrates ...

Little Dragon isn't Gothenburg, Sweden's best-kept secret anymore: The band has been breaking through on the strength of its fourth studio album, Nabuma Rubberband, and its fresh and fun take on classic R&B. Led by singer Yukimi Nagano, the band recently took the stage at Sonos Studio in Los Angeles ...

Watch the brooding New York post-punk band perform the standout single from El Pintor, "All The Rage Back Home," live at Mack Sennett Studio in Los Angeles.

The United States Senate voted down a constitutional amendment Thursday designed to limit money in political campaigns — exactly the opposite of what most Americans say they want.

The result was a foregone conclusion: Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democrats voted in favor; Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and ...

In between sold-out shows in Los Angeles, John Legend joined KCRW for an intimate performance at Apogee Studios in Santa Monica, where he played old favorites, new songs, and even a few covers. The nine-time Grammy-winning singer has been on the road nonstop behind his 2013 album Love In The ...

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah self-released its debut album back in 2005 — when the Philly indie-rock group became one of the first big bands to break through on the strength of acclaim from music blogs — and still ventures into new sonic territory on its fourth studio album, ...

One of the most consistent rock acts of the modern era, Spoon just released another tremendous album, titled They Want My Soul. Spoon joined KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic on the date of the album's release to perform some of its songs, including the radio premiere of "Inside Out."

Set ...

Originally from South Carolina, with stints in Los Angeles and New York, Nikki Lane has finally found a home in Nashville, where her sharp edge and big personality help set her apart. During her recent visit to KCRW, Lane showcased songs from her excellent new album All ...

The rapid ascent of Porter Robinson, one of the promising young practitioners of electronic dance music, runs parallel with the genre's explosion in popularity in the U.S. Robinson is already headlining major EDM festivals, and with his debut album Worlds, he pivots away from trends to explore a virtual fantasy ...

After many years of making music, Shelby Lynne won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for her work on the album, I Am Shelby Lynne. This year, she plans on re-releasing that 2000 album along with some B-sides that didn't make the original disc. On a recent visit to ...

Rodrigo Amarante is well known in his home country of Brazil as part of Los Hermanos and, here in the states, he made a name for himself as a member of LA group Little Joy. While he's played with many different artists, from Devendra Banhart to Bebel ...

Will Holland, better known by his DJ and producer name Quantic, has mastered the art of global citizenship. The U.K. native, one-time Colombian and current New Yorker blends traditional cumbia rhythms with contemporary electronic beats, introducing new sounds to new audiences.

At an intimate gathering at Sonos Studio in Hollywood, ...

Sharon Van Etten wrote her latest album Are We There over the course of two years, while touring in support of 2012's Tramp. In the process, she crafted a set of beautiful, slow-burning ballads that emphasize her emotive storytelling and unique voice. For her recent live session on KCRW's Morning ...

For the past 15 years, Fink has been a solo project for Berlin-based songwriter Fin Greenall. But with his fifth album, Hard Believer, he enlisted the help of longtime friends Guy Whittaker and Tim Thornton to help him develop his new material. In part because each participant has a different ...