December 28, 2007
A few years ago Studio 360 spent the day at Coney Island with the Brooklyn-based indie rockers: They Might Be Giants. After a morning on the sand, they set up their instruments at the Coney Island Museum and they played this song for us.
When the British withdrew from India in the late 1940s, they left behind railroads, cricket, and... tubas. Rob Weisberg explains how the brass instruments cast off by the British army have become an integral part of India's musical culture.
Writing love letters takes courage, but it’s a little gutsier to write and perform songs about the object of your affection. Steve Nelson and Jocelyn Gonzales have their own takes on rock and roll's long love affair with that one special girl.
A singer, songwriter, bass virtuoso, and bandleader, Me'Shell Ndegeocello is unique in contemporary pop. Her 2005 album Dance of the Infidel features jazz heavyweights like Don Byron and Cassandra Wilson. Ngedeocello doesn’t care for interviews, but after years of trying, Ave Carrillo got her into our studio.
Rockabilly revivalist Brian Setzer was rummaging in the Sun Records vaults, looking for unknown gems he could cover. He struck gold with Gene Simmons' "Peroxide Blonde in a Hopped-Up Model Ford," but half the tune was missing, and Gene couldn't remember the other half. What's a rockabilly junkie to do? Produced by Trey Kay.
You've probably never heard the tiny Hawaiian guitar like this before. Herb Ohta and Lyle Ritz talk about working together on their album, Ukulele Jazz: Live at McCabe's. Produced by Steve Nelson.
Dub music is a remix style developed in Jamaica that takes just the rhythm track of a song, then lays on heavy reverb and avant-garde production effects. A few years ago Robert Cummings, a Canadian drummer living in Berlin, began to apply dub ideas to folk music from the Bavarian Alps. He called the project "Alpendub." Produced by Monika Mueller.
Country music legend Willie Nelson says that when he was a child, he heard a heavenly tune that's been under his skin ever since. Produced by Michael May.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
