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According to John Christopher Martin, the band The Peekers "started out as four friends just wanting to escape" and make music together. Now six members strong, the Shreveport, Louisiana-based group makes delightfully nostalgic and utterly charming pop music that combines their varying musical backgrounds and talents.

The music of Portland, Oregon-based, five-piece group Autopilot is for Lovers is anything but conventional. But vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Adrienne Hatkin admits that when she was a kid, she shied away from "anything that wasn't totally mainstream" and wouldn't touch her father's records. Now, Hatkin embraces eccentricities and looks to capture a sense of magical realism in her music.

Last year, Blind Pilot renounced traditional tour transportation and embarked on a trip that took it from Vancouver to San Francisco by bicycle. While on tour, it recorded its debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound, which exhibits a minimalist folk-pop style driven by simple acoustic guitar, sparse drumming and captivating vocals.

The Charmels' single "As Long as I've Got You" didn't garner much attention when it was first released in 1967. A small snippet of the song, however, now stands as one of The Wu-Tang Clan's most recognizable hooks. Follow the 40-year life cycle of the pop song, from historical footnote to fan favorite.

It's the tradition of jazz to interact with contemporary popular music, which is exactly what The Bad Plus does. Having just added rock singer Wendy Lewis to its lineup, the energetic jazz trio performs new standards from Nirvana and The Bee Gees in a session from Jazz24.

At 70, Hugh Masekela says he has personally healed. But the trumpeter and vocalist, long known as both a celebrated artist and an anti-apartheid activist, has recorded "songs of concern" on his new album, Phola.

Musician and performer Dan Deacon makes music with a table-full of gadgets, and if he gets his way, that music will make you dance. He's on tour supporting his new album, Bromst, in a van fueled with vegetable oil.

Two decades after the release of their Grammy-winning debut album, the Indigo Girls' compressed and solid harmonies are still recognizable. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray join Linda Wertheimer at WHYY in Philadelphia to play some old favorites, along with new songs from Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.

Soulful folk-pop singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins is often compared to the likes of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, mostly for the way he crafts brooding, thoughtful melodies with a sophisticated pop sensibility.

Malian husband-and-wife duo Amadou and Mariam began recording together in the 1980s, and soon flourished by adding Syrian violins, Cuban trumpets and Indian tablas to their infectious African blues-rock, Western pop and funk. On their new album, Welcome to Mali, the pair sings in English and French instead of their native Bambara.