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Fang Island's "Daisy" unfolds as a sunny summer jam in which emotion gives way to perpetual motion. Along the way, it lives up to the band's stated wish to sound like "everyone high-fiving everyone."

At just 19 years old, Australian guitarist Joe Robinson has accomplished what most musicians can only dream of. He recorded his first CD at age 14, and won first place on Australia's Got Talent at 17. The following year he took the top title at the World Championships of Performing Arts.

Pianist Joan Stiles is known for her brilliant playing, painted by a deep understanding of the roots of jazz. As a full-time educator, Stiles has been presenting the music of Mary Lou Williams for the past decade. She also knows how to swing on a Monk tune or two.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. One reason: school district secession.

The organ lays down a slow and sanctified groove, as if a hymn is about to begin, but then a driving drummer speeds up the pace. The organ sings out and a percussive, bluesy piano elbows in. Dr. John is messing with our minds, sliding from church to boudoir as his charmingly grizzled voice describes how his lover has had a "Change of Heart."

"Peaches for the Baby" opens with a stabbing organ line that serves as the template for a track that's constantly shifting. Grey introduces rhythms for just long enough to set a foot tapping, before shifting to another infectious feel running parallel to the previous idea.

At first, James' "Tell Me You Love Me" sounds like it could have been recorded in the '70s, but it's actually a cut from her latest album, released earlier this year. James' heart is in a bygone era of American music: She even looks like she belongs in another decade. Sometimes it isn't easy being an old soul in a hip-hop world.

KEXP's Morning Show host, John Richards, was on one coast. Electro-pop performer Alan Palomo was on the other, but you'd never know it by listening to this studio session. Hear Palomo and his band tear through a three-song set.

On Sept. 12, 1910, Gustav Mahler introduced his Symphony No. 8 -- a massive, hulking work featuring an enormous double chorus and the largest orchestra ever put on stage at the time. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas says he thought it was the most "grotesque assemblage of noises" he had ever heard. But many years later, he has recorded a Grammy-winning version of the symphony.

Barzelay may be the most underrated songwriter in the business today, with a sneakily firm grasp on poignancy and humor, and his live performances convey a kind of awkwardly fidgety fearlessness. Here, he mixes old and new in a charming four-song set at the NPR Music offices.