Heron Oblivion is one part peaceful folk rock crooning and one part heavy psych guitar. Pitchfork says their songs "slip easily between dynamics --harmony to dissonance, quiet to loud." Their self-titled EP is in stores now. Check out their playlist full of great guitar licks and drums firing on all cylinders.
The actor delivers quite possibly the most charming icebreaker we've ever had before talking to Rico about his new film "Kill Your Friends."
Duncan Sheik has been penning pop music since the '90s, when his tune "Barely Breathing" was a top 20 hit. But these days he may be best known as a Broadway composer, and his latest stage project may also be his most unlikely: He's written the music and lyrics for a musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' satirical horror novel, "American Psycho." He tells Rico why there's a little Patrick Bateman in all of us.
Learn how a Chicago priest named Casimir Zeglen used silk to invent the modern armor... and how the crafty inventor Jan Szczepanik took all the credit.
For the most part, Americans only know eel from Japanese cuisine like Unagi and Anago sushi. But that might be changing. Sierra Tishgart is the senior editor at New York Magazine's Grub Street food blog and she recently wrote an article about the emergence of eel on New York restaurant menus. Brendan is not a big fan of eel, but to learn more, he met up with her at High Street on Hudson, one of these eel-happy establishments.
We caught up with the four members of the band Quilt a few weeks back at Marfa Myths -- an arts and culture festival co-sponsored by their record label, Mexican Summer. Quilt have a new album out called “Plaza.” Here they are with a playlist to chill by.
Sabri Ben-Achour, co-host of "Actuality," tells us about the ancestor of the modern peanut, and its discovery in the Andes mountains.
We hear back from our listeners on an oversight from our NOTscars special, why cyclists really shave their legs, and a different take on shoe etiquette.
Graphic novelist Daniel Clowes offers up an icebreaker he dreamed up, before chatting with Rico about his new book, "Patience."
Daniel Clowes may be the most respected graphic novelist in America. His blend of humor, horror, realism and surrealism has won him over a dozen Eisner and Harvey Awards, and he earned an Oscar nomination for adapting his comic "Ghost World" for the big screen. He talks to Rico about his newest work... and the impossibility of surprise in a world of spoilers.