January 29, 2019

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A Bond Is Born

A gondola sails in a Venice canal in September.

Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

Venice was a financial powerhouse in the twelfth century, but when the Byzantine Empire started imprisoning Venetian merchants, Venice had to strike back. To do that, it needed to raise money. Venetian politicians started a new kind of loan, the “prestiti,” so they could borrow money for war. Today on The Indicator, how the the first bond came to be and how it transformed the way governments borrow money.

Music “Morning Start”, “Offertorium: Ecce apertum est Templum tabernaculi”

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Athletes Kick Off Ultramarathon In Minnesota Despite Extreme Cold

Endurance runners, skiers and cyclists in Minnesota haven’t let extreme cold get in the way of competing in the Arrowhead 135 ultramarathon. The race kicked off Monday in International Falls, Minn.



AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Officials in the Midwest are warning many residents to limit their time outside due to the extreme cold. But a group of racers in remote northern Minnesota are seriously bucking that advice.

(CHEERING)

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Dozens of skiers, runners and cyclists set out yesterday morning to run a 135-mile race.

KEN KRUEGER: It’s 22 below with a wind chill of 46 below.

CORNISH: That’s Ken Krueger. He directs the Arrowhead 135 race.

SHAPIRO: Participants head from International Falls on the Canadian border to the small town of Tower, Minn.

KRUEGER: The whole course is wooded. You don’t see a house until you get to the finish line.

CORNISH: Now, if that doesn’t already sound hard enough, the runners also pull sleds behind them with emergency supplies – a stove, sleeping bag, matches.

KRUEGER: And they weigh approximately 35 pounds.

SHAPIRO: Some years, only 20 percent of the racers finish, but that’s all part of the draw.

KRUEGER: Maybe some people want a warm race, but most of them want a tough race. They want the challenge. They want the bragging rights. And if they get a, quote, “easier year,” it’s almost like they were cheated out of a race.

CORNISH: Already, a number of this year’s racers have dropped out.

RUSSELL LOUCKS: A variety of reasons. We did have one drop because of frostbite.

SHAPIRO: That’s Russell Loucks. He’s a race official. Racers have also quit because their drinking water froze or because of mechanical issues.

LOUCKS: Tires go flat or something breaks or something and it’s 22 below, and you really can’t take your gloves off for more than 30 seconds.

CORNISH: Loucks himself hasn’t participated in the race.

LOUCKS: Oh, hell no. (Laughter) These people are crazy.

SHAPIRO: But cyclist Leah Gruhn just finished the race for the seventh time.

LEAH GRUHN: Once you finish something like this, you kind of look, you know, into the rest of your life and ask yourself, oh, what other things are out there that I don’t think that I am able to accomplish but maybe with some planning and work I actually could? So I think it’s really empowering.

CORNISH: The bikers and skiers have mostly finished by now, but most of the runners won’t wrap up until later tonight and tomorrow.

SHAPIRO: Expected lows tonight at the finish line – 30 below zero.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE PIANO GUYS’ “LET IT GO”)

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New Mix: Better Oblivion Community Center, Bellows, Duster & More

Clockwise from upper left: Better Oblivion Community Center, Heather Woods Broderick, Mdou Moctar, Bellows

Courtesy of the artists


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Courtesy of the artists

On this edition of All Songs Considered I’m joined by Marissa Lorusso, our Tiny Desk Contest leader and also a critical contributor to NPR Music’s Turning the Tables project.

Marissa plays music from the ’90s San Jose trio, Duster. They’re getting back together, but not before a boxed set of their storied past comes out. Marissa is also a fan of Bellows, the music of Oliver Kalb, who we also know from the band Gabby’s World (formerly Eskimeaux and O). And we hear music from Heather Woods Broderick, a songwriter and singer we’ve featured not only for her own music but for being a stage and studio partner with Sharon Van Etten. I play music from Tiny Desk Contest entrant Jackie Mendoza who performs a stripped-down, more focused remake of the song she submitted to our contest called “De Lejos” about loving from afar. We also hear great trance guitar from a Tuareg musician from the Saharan region. It’s a recording he made in Detroit after a chance meeting with a producer who shared his love of ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres record.

But first, I open the show with my current favorite album of 2019, one that came out as huge surprise just last week, by Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. They call their project Better Oblivion Community Center. — Bob Boilen

Artists And Songs Featured On This Episode

Cover for Bett

Better Oblivion Community Center

  • Song: Dylan Thomas

Better Oblivion Community Center is last week’s surprise collaboration from the songwriting team of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. It’s a harmonious fusion of alt-country and modern folk. Among the album’s standouts is “Dylan Thomas,” an homage to the Welsh poet and writer known for his idiosyncratic introspection and boisterous drinking — the latter ultimately leading to his untimely death in 1953.

Better Oblivion Community Center is available now from Dead Oceans.

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Cover for The Rose Gardener

Bellows

  • Song: The Rose Gardener

“The Rose Gardener,” the new single from Bellows — the recording project of Brooklyn based songwriter and producer Oliver Kaib — examines the challenges of making art in the current climate of political divisiveness, comparing the creative process to the tending of a rose bud in the dead of winter. The record features support from a bevy of friends and fellow bedroom artists, including members of Gabby’s World and Florist.

The Rose Gardener is out Feb. 22 via Topshelf Records.

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Cover for What You're Doing to Me

Duster

  • Song: What You’re Doing To Me

In the late ’90s, San Jose trio Duster quietly perfected a blend of slowcore-meets-space rock style of music. Stratosphere, the band’s 1998 debut, is regarded as an emblem of the decade’s lo-fi, indie movement. After nearly 20 years of inactivity, Duster is back with Capsule Losing Contact, a box set containing two full-length LPs, their 1975 EP, demos, and previously unreleased singles, including “What You’re Doing to Me.”

Capsule Losing Contact is available March 22 via Numero Group.

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Cover for Invitation

Heather Woods Broderick

  • Song: Where I Lay

Although known for her contributions to influential projects, including Horse Feathers, Sharon Van Etten, and Laura Gibson, the songwriter Heather Woods Broderick has found her own voice in the world of folk, releasing two delicate and gorgeous records in the past decade: 2009’s From the Ground and 2015’s Glider. This April, Broderick returns with Invitation, a memento of the singer’s time spent recording in the mist of the Oregon coast last year. In a press release, Broderick shared that “Where I Lay,” the album’s lead single, is “a poem about the impermanence of all things.”

Invitation is out April 19 via Western Vinyl.

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Cover for De Lejos

Jackie Mendoza

  • Song: De Lejos

With a playful combination of electro-pop and Latin-driven beats, Jackie Mendoza first caught our attention at last year’s SXSW music festival. Fans of the Tiny Desk series might remember “De Lejos” as Mendoza’s submission to last year’s Tiny Desk Contest, the NPR Music series that provides a platform for emerging artists from around the world. Recently signed to Luminelle Recordings, Mendoza is slated to announce her debut album’s release date in the coming weeks.

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Cover for Illana (The Creator)

Kamane Tarhanin


Audio for this story is unavailable.

Mdou Moctar

  • Song: Kamane Tarhanin

Growing up in a small village outside of Niger, secular music was strictly off limits for the Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar. Flash forward to 2018 where, while recording his first studio album, the artist bonded with Detroit producer Chris Koltay over their mutual love of ZZ Top. It’s easy to imagine the breadth of Mocatar’s musical influences. “Kamane Tarhanin,” the debut single from Ilana (The Creator), is a droning, hypnotic, and psychedelic meditation.

Ilana (The Creator) is available March 29 via Sahel Sounds.

Ilana: The Creator by Mdou Moctar


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