World Cafe on KRVS

The Shins are a dream-pop outfit from Portland, Ore. Arising as a side project while singer/songwriter James Mercer lived in New Mexico, the band took on a life of its own after a number of singles such as "New Slang" were featured in films, pulling the young indie rock group into the national spotlight.

In recent years, indie-folk singer-songwriter M. Ward has dabbled in the retro pop sounds of She and Him with Zooey Deschanel and joined forces with Conor Oberst and Jim James in Monsters of Folk.

For World Cafe's 13th episode of Latin Roots, Latin-music expert Ernesto Lechner talks tango. Lechner was born and raised in Buenos Aires, which is widely regarded as the genre's birthplace.

Though John Lydon remains best known as Johnny Rotten, former lead singer of The Sex Pistols, his music career didn't end with the pioneering punk act's split in 1978. Lydon formed Public Image Ltd shortly thereafter and dropped his adopted stage name. Widely considered the first post-punk band, PiL experiments with a wide palette of sounds, including dub, rock and disco.

Together nearly 30 years, the reggae band Third World is one Jamaica's most popular and decorated musical acts, with listeners around the world and 10 Grammy nominations to its name. Partly responsible for mainstreaming reggae music, the group formed in 1973 and built a solid following playing the Kingston reggae scene, making its debut at Jamaica's Independence Day celebration.