Soundcheck

Like another celebrated American songstress, Sonya Kitchell was born in 1989. Like Taylor Swift, Kitchell got her start young — very young — gaining exposure in her tweens and releasing her first record at 16. But unlike Swift, Kitchell's music has often traveled the moodier wavelengths of a Joni Mitchell or a Suzanne Vega, and has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Susan Tedeschi, Kaki King and others (winning a few Grammys in the process). Nor is Kitchell one to chase the latest pop trend: her new record, We Come Apart, was eight years in the making. It traverses wide musical terrain: the loping desert blues of "Hurricane," the Celtic-tinged "Follow Me In," the buzzy electro-pop of "Mexico." Click the player above to hear Sonya Kitchell perform some of the new material live in the Soundcheck studio.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, Eva Garza’s voice could be heard singing Mexican rancheras throughout Latin America. Though her story and music is largely forgotten today, her genes live on: Garza's great-niece is the Texas singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez. Rodriguez is about to release a new, bi-lingual record that combines her own Americana sound with the echoes of her family’s musical heritage, courtesy of a crack band led by Luke Jacobs that includes guest guitar polymaths Bill Frisell and David Pulkingham, bassist Viktor Krauss, and others. Click the player above to hear Carrie Rodriguez play music from and talk about her forthcoming album Lola.

Say you discover a music box, maybe in your grandmother's attic. No inscription. No "Made In..." stamp. You turn the crank — what do you hear? Folk? Lullaby? Bolero? Bachata? Reggae? Gypsy Jazz? As it happens, all of these and more appear on Monsieur Periné's new album Caja de Música ("Music Box"). It's a veritable musical mixing pot — which is probably appropriate for a Colombian band with a French name. 

Robyn Hitchcock’s career has included several notable bands: his late 70s group The Soft Boys, then in the 80s The Egyptians, followed by The Soft Boys reunion, and more recently the Venus 3 with Peter Buck of REM and other notables. He’s been the subject of at least two full-length documentaries, and cut a brief but creepy figure in the movie The Manchurian Candidate (the Jonathan Demme remake, not the original – jeez, how old do you think he is?). But through it all, he has maintained a troubadour’s existence, traveling solo and playing in everything from a corner pub in London to some of the biggest stages and art centers. And when it comes to appearances on Soundcheck, Robyn is a serial offender. On this occasion, he plays a couple new tunes and talks about his many musical and geographic inspirations. 

When Walter Martin last joined us, he was playing songs from his acclaimed "children's album for grownups" We're All Young Together. The story at the time was that his "other" band, Brooklyn indie rockers The Walkmen, had gone on extended hiatus, Walter had a kid, and he was looking for a warm and funny way to express the stress of the previous year. 

Fast forward to 2016, and Martin is releasing his first solo grownup album for grownups— though it's a far cry from the "raunchy biker rock record" he threatened to make. Instead what we have is Arts & Leisure, a batch of wryly observed tunes about obscure painters, architects, and the art world. And if that sounds like more of a nightmare college course than a rock record, keep your ears open long enough to hear the Cure-like slink of "Down by the Singing Sea" or the witty Loudon Wainwright shuffle of "Charles Rennie Mackintosh." 

The Montreal-based band The Besnard Lakes just dropped its fifth album of confounding space rock. Like the previous four, the record's title — A Coliseum Complex Museum — is as circuitous and curious as the group's music. Twin opening salvos "The Bray Road Beast" and lead single "The Golden Lion" recall in equal measure the massive sounds of 90's Britpop and Pink Floyd psychedelia. A bit difficult to imagine, then, that the record was actually conceived at a quiet, bucolic lake escape in Saskatchewan. The band brings its space gear to the Soundcheck studio to talk about and play songs from the new album.