Fast Food Nation, Under a Groove

McDonald’s and Taco Bell are serving up more than just combo meals this summer. Today on Soundcheck, find out why fast-food restaurants are recruiting pop stars like Sean Kingston for concerts in their parking lots and scouring local music scenes for up-and-coming bands. Plus, singer-pianist Diamanda Galás has been compared to a vampire, a Valkyrie and a lizard queen. She joins us to talk about two programs: one transforming jazz standards about love into haunting elegies to Eros and another combining surrealist French poets with improvised lamentations from Asia. And, a look at the role CD stores play in the lives of Baghdad residents.