Serial is a new podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial will follow one story - a true story - over the course of a whole season. We'll follow the plot and characters wherever they take us and we won’t know what happens at the end of the story until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we'll bring you the latest chapter, so it's important to listen in order, starting with Episode 1.

Independent Hip Hop Record Label
Artist Roster:
Abstract Rude
Aesop Rock
Atmosphere
BK-One
Blueprint
Brother Ali
deM atlaS
Dilated Peoples
Dj Abilities
Evidence
Eyedea & Abilities
Face Candy
Felt
Freeway
Grayskul
Grieves
Hail Mary Mallon
I Self Devine
Jake One
Los Nativos
MF DOOM
Micranots
Mr. Dibbs
Musab
Nikki Jean
P.O.S
Prof
Psalm One
Sa-Roc
Semi.Official
Soul Position
Step Brothers (Alchemist x Evidence)
Toki Wright
The Uncluded (Aesop Rock & Kimya Dawson)

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Each week, nearly 4.5 million people listen to the show's intimate conversations broadcast on more than 500 National Public Radio (NPR) stations across the country, as well as in Europe on the World Radio Network.

Though Fresh Air has been categorized as a "talk show," it hardly fits the mold. Its 1994 Peabody Award citation credits Fresh Air with "probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights." And a variety of top publications count Gross among the country's leading interviewers. The show gives interviews as much time as needed, and complements them with comments from well-known critics and commentators.

Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR.

- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5013


From the onset, Liam McCormick, the mastermind behind The Family Crest, knew that Beneath the Brine was an audacious project. But so is The Family Crest itself.

The brainchild of McCormick, The Family Crest was started as a recording project in 2009 with co-founder John Seeterlin (bass). “We were in another band and had become disillusioned,” explains McCormick. “John and I were actually planning on leaving music at that point because we wanted something that in ten years we could be proud of.”

Instead of leaving music, they set out to reinvent how it could be created, starting The Family Crest. “We always liked making music with people — getting a bunch of people together and singing. So we put ads everywhere,” says McCormick. “We posted on Craigslist and emailed old friends from school.” The outcome was greater than the original duo imagined, with 80 people credited on the first recording the band produced. From that a band emerged, at the urging of the guest musicians, who wanted to hear the songs performed live. “We’ve worked with a lot of conservatory students as well as people who just sing in the shower,” McCormick adds. “It became a lot about giving these people a chance to express themselves without being locked into a commitment.”

The result is a seven-piece core band boasting over 400 “Extended Family” members who have contributed to the music.  The Family Crest released its album Beneath the Brine in February 2014 and, just with its previous recordings, the San Francisco band set out to capture a plethora of instruments — including bassoon, vibraphone and French horn — in unique places, such as living rooms, churches and cafes across the West Coast.

Beneath the Brine shows that McCormick’s ambition was well placed. The expansive breadth of arrangements – from dark, classical romanticism (“Beneath the Brine”) to horn-laden sounds akin to the Roaring 20s (“Howl”) — are complemented by the incredible range of McCormick’s voice. Beneath the Brine also showcases The Family Crest’s ability to infuse pop into complex arrangements, with songs like “Love Don’t Go” and LIVE105 favorite “The World.” The album is a sweeping soundscape befitting the oceanic theme of the title and what SPIN notes as “ambition wide enough to swallow you whole.”

Named #13 on Paste‘s “Best New Bands of 2014″ list and proclaimed NPR Music’s “Favorite New Artist of 2014,” The Family Crest is looking ahead to its next set of audacious projects. Paste founder Josh Jackson notes that “Even with just seven people on stage, The Family Crest’s sweeping orchestral pop can hardly be contained…. It feels like bigger venues are just around the bend.”

Snap Judgment is a weekly storytelling radio show and podcast, hosted by Glynn Washington. Snap mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic, kick-ass radio. Snap’s raw, musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling… with a BEAT!!  Snap first aired on NPR stations nationwide in July 2010. Snap Judgment is now aired on over 400 public radio stations.

Each week we choose a theme, and present various stories on that theme. Hosted by Ira Glass. Produced by Chicago Public Media. Distributed by Public Radio International. 

An irresistible combination of sultry vocals, pop-perfect songwriting, and old-school musicianship. 

Crista Ryan is following