Whats hardcore? and the Dandy...

Having fallen out of the [music]"scene" a few years ago I miss out on a lot of the cutting edge stuff. Thanks to NPR and the New York Times I can play catch up with the rest of the world.

The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Addicted to Peter Lorre (That Voice, Those Eyes)

As leader of the World/Inferno Friendship Society, a Brooklyn band that mixes Weimar-style cabaret and roisterous ska-punk, he is the driving force behind “Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s 20th Century,” a self-described punk songspiel

K'Naan

Somali Rapper K'Naan Schools American MCs

News from Somalia usually involves violent warlords, or pirates hijacking ships off the coast. Other than that, average Somalis don't have much of a voice. But a rapper from Somalia named K'Naan is trying to change that, and in the world of hip-hop, he's become an artist to watch.

K'Naan grew up in Mogadishu, on what he calls "the meanest streets in the universe." In one song on his new album, he calls his hometown the "risky zone," full of pistols and Russian revolvers.