George Clinton’s bottomless well of funk
Over 10 minutes, Funkadelic's "Baby Like Fonkin' It Up" throws in about 17 different types of melody — horns play jazz, singers trill familiar-sounding "da da das," a rapper demands...
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U2, Dylan producer Daniel Lanois takes own path
During a whooshing phone conversation with Daniel Lanois — in which the veteran producer and composer recalls first meeting Brian Eno, collaborating with U2 and performing his latest instrumental album...
Mary Chapin Carpenter is back to basics and loving it
After spending much of a year in isolation booths, connected to nearly 90 musicians via closed-circuit cameras, and singing precisely when an experienced classical conductor told her to, singer-songwriter Mary...
Nellie McKay is stuck in ’60s, in a good way
In recording an album full of '60s songs, from the Beatles' "If I Fell" to the Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball," singer Nellie McKay discovered two important truths. First: Ha ha,...
James McMurtry just needs 2 lines and a melody
Three sentences is all it takes for James McMurtry to explain how he comes up with his rich material — the wizened folk stories in "Candyland," "We Can't Make It...
Caribou’s magic is in its method
As a musician, Caribou's Dan Snaith is no mathematician. Or so he thought. Not long after earning his Ph.D. in math at Imperial College London, then giving up the subject...
OK Go is that video band that does music sometimes
You've seen Tim Nordwind. He's the guy in the safety goggles who kicks off the Rube Goldberg machine "This Too Shall Pass" video by pushing a red toy truck into...
The art of getting permission to use art in film
A year ago, the "Woman in Gold" filmmakers were anxious and rushed. They were in pre-production for the new movie about the Nazis looting Gustav Klimt's glittering "Portrait of Adele...
Antonoff enjoys view from Bleachers
It turns out a world tour with a smash pop band is the perfect place to be alone. "In a hotel room, writing songs, there's no one to tell me...
Southside Johnny — always a Juke
As the famous story goes, Southside Johnny Lyon rarely won the Monopoly game, because Bruce Springsteen cheated. The rules weren't exactly conventional — they had a "Chief McCarthy" go-to-jail-twice card,...