All Things Considered

When weekends on All Things Considered calls upon Betto Arcos to share the music he's been playing on his KPFK program Global Village, the conversation usually takes place in separate studios on opposite sides of the country. This week, however, the show is coming to you from Los Angeles and the whole gang is together.

It's only natural, then, for this week's picks to have an L.A. theme. Arcos chats with guest host David Greene about some about some of his favorite new releases from Angelino musicians.

The quintessential coming-of-age film Stand By Me celebrates it's 25th anniversary this year. The movie was released in the summer of 1986 and tells the story of four twelve-year-old boys in a small town in Oregon and the Labor Day weekend that changed their lives forever.

On its debut album, the L.A. band Fool's Gold presented an unusual marriage of influences, pairing African melodies with Hebrew lyrics. The record won over legions of fans and caught the attention of critics, who described it with words like "beguiling" and "joyous."

Fool's Gold's newest album is called Leave No Trace, and there's little trace left of Hebrew on it — the lyrics are mostly in English. In a conversation with NPR's David Greene, vocalist Luke Top and guitarist Lewis Pesacov, the band's two founding members, explain the new direction.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, host: This is live special coverage from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block on an evening when Standard and Poor's has moved to downgrade the US credit rating. The ratings agency lowered the U.S. long-term rating from AAA to AA-plus. By way of explanation, S&P said, among other things, that it is pessimistic about the ability of Congress and the administration to stabilize the U.S. debt. It said the recent political brinksmanship over the debt shows America's policy-making to be less stable and predictable than thought.

The debt ceiling agreement passed in Washington earlier this week cuts more than two trillion dollars in spending by the end of the year.  There’s talk that a member of Colorado’s delegation may sit on a committee deciding those cuts.  It’s one of the topics our media partners at Colorado Inside Out and Colorado Public Television are discussing. Here’s host Patricia Calhoun.