NPR Music

Our week of Guest DJs concludes with Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, co-stars of the IFC comedyseries Portlandia. Earlier this year the show was renewed for an eighth and final season, which is scheduled to air in 2018. Back in 2012, Carrie and Fred sat down with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen to talk about their love of music and the humor they find in fellow nerds who obsess about their favorite bands.

Our week of Guest DJs continues with Courtney Barnett. Later this year the Australian guitarist and singer will release a new album she recorded with Kurt Vile. In October, the two will also embark on limited tour together. Back in 2015, Barnett had just released her debut full-length, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, when she joined Bob Boilen to talk about some of the artists who've influenced her own work and life over the years, from Wilco and Talking Heads to the Sydney band You Am I and fellow Australian signer Paul Kelly.

Our week of Guest DJs continues with Björk. The Icelandic singer recently announced she'll be releasing a new album, possibly before the end of the year. In this 2009 conversation with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen, Björk talked about Voltaïc, her box set of live recordings, her love of Syrian musician Omar Souleyman, fellow Icelandic singer Ólöf Arnalds and more.

This week we're featuring select episodes from our Guest DJ archives. Today we've got a conversation with Randy Newman. The singer, composer and pianist recently released his 11th solo album. It's called Dark Matter. Bob Boilen originally spoke with Newman back in 2008 when Newman released his previous record, Harps And Angels. The two talked about Newman's musical family, how Ray Charles has been the biggest influence in his music career and what it was like hearing The Beatles for the first time.

This week we're featuring select episodes from our Guest DJ archives. Roger Waters is currently on the North American leg of his Us + Them tour, performing songs from the Pink Floyd albums The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. In June Waters also released his first solo rock album in 25 years, called Is This The Life We Really Want?

Five journalists join forces to unpack NPR Music's 'Turning The Tables' list.

The legendary New York DJ duo of Stretch and Bobbito have reunited. After 19 years off the airwaves, Adrian "Stretch" Bartos and Robert "Bobbito" Garcia are back with a conversational, sometimes musical NPR podcast called What's Good With Stretch And Bobbito. On this edition of All Songs Considered we talk about their hugely influential music show in the '90s on WKCR at Columbia University, in New York City that helped launch the careers of artists like The Notorious B.I.G, Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem and more.

The Newport Folk Festival can feel like a cross between summer camp and a family reunion. Fans return year after year in no small part because the camaraderie between musicians is unlike most other festivals. You can always count on unusual and memorable collaborations, whether it's Margo Price singing "Me and Bobby McGee" with Kris Kristofferson or Roger Waters singing John Prine songs. There are so many surprises for both musicians and fans, which is one of the reasons the festival sells out every year before anyone even knows who's playing. To tell us a bit of what's in store for Newport 2017 we called Jay Sweet, the executive producer of the festival. Jay explains how he picked this year's lineup, the importance of giving artists a platform for change and why the festival continues to resonate with people more than 50 years after it started.

For this one brief project, the Echo Mountain Sessions, the duo of Sylvan Esso turns into a full blown band. You'll here the music and a conversation with Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath. Back in April, right about the time Sylvan Esso were releasing their 2nd album What Now, Amelia and Nick got a bunch of their North Carolina buddies to join them in a studio in Asheville to record a handful of the very same songs from What Now, this time as a big live band. Members of Wye Oak, The Mountain Goats, Hiss Golden Messenger, Mountain Man and Megafaun got together for a day at Echo Mountain studios and these sessions were captured to create a visual EP which comes out July 28.

You'll want to listen to this week's show on a good pair of headphones, preferably in the dark and, if you take drummer Ian Chang's advice, while getting a massage. We open the program with a spine-tingling cut called "ASMR," from Chang's debut solo EP, an arresting instrumental piece inspired by the inexplicable chills that sometimes run down your back. It's just the first in a series of sonic delights on the show. 1. Ian Chang: "ASMR," 2. Common Holly: "If After All," 3. The Weather Station: "Thirty," 4. Josh Ritter: "Showboat," 5. Flotation Toy Warning: "A Season Underground," 6. Moses Sumney: "Doomed," 7. From The Mouth Of The Sun: "Light Blooms In Hollow Space."