Music

Music

"a widely admired Nashville musician,"

The raspy baritone vocalist was recorded confronting fellow rappers Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda after they allege Ja Rule fired first by tossing his seat pillow at them. "This is the pillow Ja Rule threw at me," Tony Yayo says in a clip before Uncle Murda stands over a vacant chair, saying that "this is where he was sitting before we got him out of here."

I absolutely give you permission to learn what twizzles are, but if you're coming into this as a once-every-four-years viewer, I encourage you to appreciate these performances based on how the skating made you feel. For me, watching it reminds me of the first time I was taken to a classical music performance: "What am I supposed to do with my brain during this?" I thought.

(For many Americans, it's also Presidents Day Weekend, a federal holiday on Monday, plural to honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In Florida, the governor in January sidelined Lincoln and officially declared it Washington's Birthday Weekend, part of what Secretary of State Cord Byrd called a movement "to teach the next generation about the principles our Founding Fathers enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution." To quote the great Teddy Riley: "No diggity.")

Wet Leg have gotten The Dare to remix "mange tout," one of the standouts from their excellent 2025 album moisturizer. When the band hit the scene, there were a lot of comparisons to the mid-'00s UK indie scene that gave us Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand, and The Dare is basically milking the whole DFA scene from the same era.

Their leader Brian Wilson was apparently, miraculously, match fit after years of addiction and mental health struggles. BRIAN IS BACK! ran the advertising slogan for 15 Big Ones, the first Beach Boys album to bear his name as sole producer since Pet Sounds, and the first to be made at their newly founded Brother Studios. Buoyed by a media campaign that included an hour-long TV special, it duly became their most successful album of new material in 11 years.

When Geese stopped by the NPR Music office in December, bassist Dominic DiGesu geeked out with a bag of trinkets to display on the Desk: a small, toy goose gifted to them on tour, a stuffed Snoopy, a figurine of Sonic cradling Jesus, Minecraft sticky notes and a Mets hat. Since the release of 2025's Getting Killed, the critical and fan reception has been wild and hard to parse even my colleagues at All Songs Considered dove into the phenomenon.

LA band The Sophs are gearing up to release their debut album, GOLDSTAR, which will be out March 13 via Rough Trade. It was produced by the band's guitarists, Austin Parker Jones and Seth Smades, and you can hear two tracks from it now: the title track, which has Spaghetti Western vibes, and "SWEETIEPIE" which is closer to country by way of Bright Eyes.

Angel Marcloid is never one to let a mood pass her by. From the demented genre-slush of Fire-Toolz to the full-throated jazz fusion pastiche of Nonlocal Forecast, the Chicago-based artist's prolific, slippery oeuvre is the extension of a life lived in service of the id and the endless pursuit of new intuitions. "I have no idea what it's like to not know what music to make," she once explained.

In early January, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, a concert benefit for Palestine and Sudan conjured all the fury of an acoustic night at the local coffee shop. Musicians played stripped-down songs on a stage decorated with rugs, floor lamps, and couches. Members of the audience, mostly 20-somethings and teens, leaned in and filmed intimate performances by their favorite cult artists.

The instrumental and orchestral ballad finds the Red Hot Chili Peppers member performing both trumpet and bass, and he's joined by upright bassist Anna Butterss alongside a string arrangement from Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes). The end result isn't like the original whatsoever, but it certainly captures something moving and oddly charming. Listen to it below. Get Flea Tickets Here "Thinkin Bout You" marks our third preview of Flea's debut solo album, Honora, due out March 27th via Nonesuch Records.

Meanwhile, his daytime trade as a geologist brought him from his home turf near Nashville to the Pacific Northwest, that rugged place whose seismic activity seems to thrum like the gears of a great subconscious. It's safe to say country music is in his blood-and so, one can imagine, are the seams of magma that crisscross the Ring of Fire. His new album Paleo Sol is like a seance with the elements.

See all the dates we know so far below. The tour includes an NYC show at The Rooftop at Pier 17 on June 10. Get tickets on BrooklynVegan Presale starting Thursday, February 12 at 10 AM ET. Use the presale password BKVEGAN. Our presale runs until 10 PM ET, and any remaining tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 13 at 10 AM.

The visual opens with Rosalía singing the piano-driven ballad while lying in a desert. Following the appearance of a Rolls-Royce, she levitates as if carried by an unseen force and envisions the vehicle in flames, echoing the track's lyrics. Following the release of LUX in November, Rosalía made her first US TV performance, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels, best known for his scores for films by director Jordan Peele, will visit campus March 6-7 for two days of public events and concerts. The visit is part of the College of Arts and Sciences' Arts Unplugged series, in partnership with the Department of Music and the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony. Abels won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for the opera "Omar," co-composed with Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens, and he earned Emmy and Grammy nominations for his scores for the Peele films "Get Out," "Us" and "Nope." His many concert works include the choral song cycle "At War With Ourselves" for the Kronos Quartet, and the Grammy-nominated "Isolation Variation" for violinist Hilary Hahn.

Tiny Desk Radio co-hosts Bobby Carter and Anamaria Sayre present performances from the next generation of Americana music: Sierra Ferrell, whose sound is firmly planted in the roots tradition; Wyatt Flores, an Oklahoman "red dirt" country singer; and MJ Lenderman, an indie rocker who doubles as the guitarist for the band Wednesday. Sierra Ferrell: Tiny Desk Concert Wyatt Flores: Tiny Desk Concert MJ Lenderman: Tiny Desk Concert

"When I read the fine print, it was 'an experience with REO Speedwagon's music.' It's none of the original members," Fletcher recalls. "I don't want to promote the show unless it's the real thing. I don't know why you would want to see that. It's just a cover band. To me, that's a little bit strange." He adds, with a sigh, "If there are no original members, who cares?"

Designed by Korean up-and-comer Woojin Yang, Everglow is a handheld mini-keyboard that fits into any bag. The "musical sketchbook" of sorts allows artists to quickly jot down ideas when they're not in front of their instruments or computers. The sleekly-designed device comes with a generative AI-based sound system that allows them to iterate and develop a song on the spot, not just transcribe the initial tune.

Love them or hate them, there's no denying the impact The Queers have had on punk rock. Screeching Weasel, MXPX, and Blink-182 have all cited them as major influences. Three chords, three members and a buttload of songs have pushed the band across five decades from their humble beginnings in New Hampshire in 1981.

DJ-Kicks is a series that shaped how I think about DJing and listening. I played the DJ Koze mix an unhealthy number of times, to the point where it basically lives in my DNA now. Those mixes taught me that the best ones aren't about showing off; they're about taking people on a journey. They move, twist and surprise you. They give you goosebumps when you least expect it.

In three January weekends you all showed up for a one-composer concert presented by A Notion, A Scream; a preview of In Medio's ACDA performance ahead in March; Resonance Ensemble on stage with Sweet Honey in the Rock®; Oregon Chorale's journey to The Planets with the Beaverton Symphony; and Evenstar Ensemble taking us all back to the days of Duchies.

President Donald Trump, for example, criticized the performance in a lengthy Truth Social post, calling it "absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER" and a "'slap in the face' to our Country."