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New Mix: Girlpool, Superorganism, The Messthetics, More

Clockwise from top: Superorganism, Aaron Childs, Girlpool, Die Wilde Jagd
Courtesy of the artists
Clockwise from top: Superorganism, Aaron Childs, Girlpool, Die Wilde Jagd

After I played a 7-minute sonic adventure from the German artist Die Wilde Jagd, NPR Music Lars Gotrich astutely realized that, with his pick of The Messthetics, the theme of this show was probably going to be "a little bit weird and loud." The Messthetics are a power trio made up of Washington D.C.'s most adventurous, often rock-leaning, musicians. Brendan Canty (drums) and Joe Lally (bass) are best known as part of D.C.'s venerable Fugazi, while guitarist Anthony Pirog makes experimental-but-accessible guitar music in many incarnations. Maintaining the theme, and adding a bit of humor, I picked a song by Superorganism, a band with members scattered throughout the world that makes its sound by sampling and chopping up their own recordings and memorable choruses with found sounds. The pastiche has firmly planted itself, on repeat, in my head.

We wind the show down in a mellower, somewhat dreamy mode with a pick from our intern Joshua Bote — the R&B of Aaron Childs, which inspired me to play the new different sound heard on a new single from Girlpool, produced by Dev Hynes of Blood Orange. So we go from Uhrwald Orange to Blood Orange in a little over 30 minutes. Enjoy. — Bob Boilen

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.