Music

Watching the English band Alt-J perform in KCRW's studios, it was clear we were witnessing an artist on the rise. It was the group's U.S. radio debut, the morning after a sold-out show, and Alt-J's members were clearly confident. As the catchy potential pop hit "Breezeblocks" demonstrates, the band draws from a wide and unpredictable range of influences. An Awesome Wave is out now.

Watch Alt-J's full session on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

This summer, All Things Considered has asked listeners and guests to share a personal memory: the memory of one song discovered through their parents' record collection.

Grammy-winning Latin-music producer Aaron Levinson joins WXPN's David Dye for this, the 17th segment of World Cafe's Latin Roots series. Levinson, a Philadelphia native, started his music career at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. With a background as a musician and composer, he's a former governor of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Levinson has gone on to start his own record label, Range Recording Studios, and has produced and released more than a dozen albums along the way.

Van Hunt is something like a cross between Thelonious Monk and Prince: throaty and suave yet artistic, bold and a little weird. His inventive style speaks to his strong will, a trait that propelled the college dropout to move from his home in Ohio to the music hub of Atlanta.

Brothers Jens and Uwe Kruger make their first appearance on Mountain Stage, alongside their longtime bassist, Joel Landsberg. Now living in North Carolina, Jens and Uwe were raised in Europe, where they grew up listening to the American bluegrass records that their father would bring back to their native Switzerland. ("We also come from the mountains," Jens Kruger joked with the audience.)

Colombian superstar Juanes has been dominating music charts in the Spanish-speaking world for years. Now, the award-winning musician has decided to crossover to English-language music. Guest host Viviana Hurtado sits down with Juanes about his music and his social activism.