NPR Music - Andrew Bird on ‘The Pitt,’ Gia Margaret and more of the best new songs

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

If you watch HBO’s The Pitt, you might have heard the gorgeous new song called “Need Someone” that Andrew Bird wrote for a recent episode. We’ve got that on this week’s show along with reflections on fitting in by letting go, from Gia Margaret and Ratboys; shoegaze from Draag, the twitchy glitchy sounds of Mandy, Indiana and more.NPR Music’s Dora Levite joins host Robin Hilton to share the best new songs they’re obsessing over this week.Featured songs and artists:(00:00) Intro(02:18) Draag: “Finding Fear,” from ‘Miracle Drug’(09:35) Mandy, Indiana: “Try Saying,” from ‘Urgh’(14:59) Andrew Bird: “Need Someone” (single as featured in ‘The Pitt’)(20:38) Ratboys: “Open Up,” from ‘Singin’ To An Empty Chair’(28:49) Gia Margaret: “Everyone Around Me Dancing,” from ‘Singing’(35:30) By Storm: “Can I Have You For Myself,” from ‘My Ghost Go Ghost’Support the show with a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And tell a friend!Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I have a friend who coined the word. As far as I know, he coined the word. Antisappointment. One of my all-time favorite words. Antisappointment. That should be a word. That's a good word. Yeah.

You're listening to All Songs Considered from NPR Music. We got a lot going on for you this week. Just had a couple of great tiny desks that went up. A really beautiful one from the R&B singer, Jill Scott. That one just went up. And just before Jill Scott went up, we had one from Sarah McLaughlin. A really, really special Sarah McLaughlin, Tiny Desk. I have loved her music for decades.

Never in a million years would have thought I'd get to be in the room with her when she was performing some of the songs she did. It was just really, really special. Sarah McLaughlin, that tiny desk also up for you. NPR music is also where you will find Alt Latino. That show, that podcast goes out into this feed every Wednesday. And then, of course, at the end of the week, New Music Friday, the best new albums dropping on February 20th. And also NPR Music, your home to one. one of my favorite people in the whole world.

Dora Levitt. Hi, Robin. Glad to know I'm your favorite. And it's on the record. If it were up to me, you'd be on every single episode we do, but it's actually been a minute. You were out for a while and you've also been busy with a tiny desk contest that just closed. The entries. We're not getting entries.

The entry window closed. Yeah, the entry window closed. We got 6,000 entries. 6,000. Every single one. Well, on this episode, we're going to be talking. Best new songs of the week, the new tracks that we've got on repeat and can't stop listening to. And I want to start with something that I already know that you love.

And you want to know how I know that you love it? How? Doris Corner. Doris Corner. If you have a better name suggestion, let me know. It's a great name. Dora's Corner. Yes.

So I also work on New Music Friday. And I get to listen to so many great new albums. And we only get to talk about a few on the podcast. So I get to pick my own and pick the ones that are my favorite. I pick probably three each week. And you can find them at the bottom of the New Music Friday page. So I always just go to that page. The first thing I do is scroll down to the bottom to Dora's Corner because you always turn me on to something that I love.

And this is one of the things that you turn me onto. And you didn't even realize that you'd done it, but it's the band Drag. It's spelled D-R-A-A-G. It looks like it'd be pronounced Drog. Drog. Drog. But it's pronounced drag. This is a band from L.A.

I'm tempted to call them a shoegaze band because so much of their stuff leans in that direction. But not everything and not always. But they have a new EP out called Miracle Drug that you mentioned in one of your Dora's Corners Posts. That is kind of a mouthful, isn't it? Dora's corner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. To me it sounds like a little bit. And I really like the name, but it sounds a little bit like the calming corner in a first grade class. Oh, well, that's a great way to think of it, though. Yeah. Well, although this isn't, I don't know how calming some of your picks are. Definitely not. Well, this new EP, again, is called Miracle Drug from Drag, and the song that I want to play from it is pretty shoegazy. It's called Finding Fear. Not just Shoegays, but they have got that sound down, at least on this track, Finding Fear from the EP Miracle Drug. I just love, this is something I love about

shoe gaze in general, and maybe pretty obvious to other people who love it, but just, just the way that they take sadness and grief and anxiety and loneliness and all these complicated feelings and run them through this filter, these roaring guitars that are so crunchy and so loud and thunderous, but at the same time, feel like they're just kind of drifting in the ether in a really, really beautiful way. I love how they're able to just bring out this one idea and just stretch it and take it to like the furthest points it can possibly go. And I really like how much I'm hearing stuff like this in new music these days anyways. Like it reminds me of the They're Gutting a Body of Water album that came out. This like really shoegaze inspired but a little bit more electronic too. It's a more modern version of like this shoe gaze that I loved for so long. Yeah.

Almost elements of metal. Yeah. I think nothing, the band Nothing. They've got a new record coming up. They do this really well. I know Yule doesn't really like the Shugays label, but they're definitely elements of Shugays and their music. You mentioned they're gutting a body of water.

Great reference point. Also, I think Just Mustard and Wisp, Wisp for sure. I mean, back when Shugay's first started coming up, it's been over 30 years ago now, but it was very much a little niche, right? I mean, and for people who happen to find the My Bloody Valentine record or whatever, right? It's not like it was blowing up the charts, but we're really having a moment with shoe gaze and I'm I'm there for it.

Completely. And I love, in even other places on this album, there's more screaming and just like catharsis. And I love that. I love how much screaming we're seeing also. It reminds me of like just the screaming and Wednesday. Yeah. And it's just so great. And I love the direction.

It's great. So I mentioned they're from L.A. The band again is drag, D.R. A-A-G drug From their EP Miracle Drug that just came out at the end of January Where do you want to go?

Let's go to Mandy, Indiana. Their new album that came out. The band, Mandy, Indiana. Is Mandy Indiana a real place? Have you looked it up? I think I remember looking it up and it was no. No, Mandy's totally made up. Yeah, I mean, they're French German band

so they could have just been like, this sounds like something in Indiana. All right. Yeah. So Mandy and Ianna, what's the album? The album is called Ugh. And the song that is my favorite is called Try Saying. Honey, is that you?

Is that you? Man, maybe we should have led with that. That was so good. Every time I hear it, I'm like, ugh, I love that song. Is that you? Is that you? Is that you? Is that you? Oh, my God.

I would listen to this album just by the name alone. Ugh. Or, it's spelled U-R-G-H. I read it as U-S. Not eric. Either way, I mean, the sentiment is clear. But wow. It's so good. I hear so much DJ Shadow in there, in the Is That You Sample. This whole album, I feel like this is a one-off from the album. Because it feels a little bit more toned down than the like heavy industrial. We hear a little bit of that. Honestly, sounds like a machine gun sound at the end. It's like a CD skipping. Yeah, that sort of. Yeah, that repetitive.

I feel like that's all over the album. But this song, the reason I love it so much is because it really gets at this feeling of grappling with power and authority that the album as a whole talks a lot about how it feels to be a young person in this time. Yeah. The dystopian time that we're living in. And that voice, that honey is that you really feels to me like a parental. authority figure. And the lyrics, I don't speak French at all, but I looked them up and it's this trying to be this type of person and reflecting on like why you want to be that way, why

you felt like you needed to be that way. And that in opposition to this, honey, is that you really just really spoke to me. I really loved that. There's this other song on the album where they pull from the crafts, light as a feather, stiff as a board. And I, as a sample, and I really liked that usage, too. It kind of goes back into like who you are and how you're able to think about who you are in relationship to the things that we grew up with, because that is such a, like a childhood nursery rhyme type of game where you're thinking about magic as a child. Yeah. And also kind of creepy, too, and unsettling. Yeah.

So Mandy, Indiana is the band and the album, Ur-UG or Ugg. That came out at the top of February. Do you watch The Pit? So I had a feeling you would ask me this. Okay. Because you've told me you watch a tremendous amount of television, so. I do watch a tremendous amount of television. And the Pit is one that I haven't gotten into for a reason that is surprising to me of that it's so graphic.

It's pretty graphic. And I grew up loving Gray's Anatomy, so I was very surprised to find myself watching the first episode. and being like, oh my God, I can't watch any of this. It's not Grey's Anatomy or St. Elsewhere or ER or any of the other TV shows that came before. It is so good. You know, from everything I've read, they'll have doctors and ER doctors and nurses watch it. And they all say it's incredibly accurate. Like, that's exactly what it's like.

Yeah, that's what I've heard. You can watch it through your fingers. That's what my wife does. Yeah. Because she doesn't like the graphic stuff either, but she loves the stories. Well, on the episode that just aired on February 12, They had a great needle drop, and it is a brand new song by Andrew Bird. It's a song that he was asked to write specifically for the episode, and it works so well.

It is so beautiful. It is a very short, sweet, poignant little song called Need Someone. I'm tired and shivering. Stumbling to the day. Can you see his lips are quivering like he's forgotten how to pray? Can you see the way his past? She's absorbing all the blows And who will now take care of us in the hills and valleys the highs and lows?

All I know is your neat song And the by and by Meet someone who is gonna cry for you Yeah, you're me by I need someone who's going to cry for you. Just a short, beautiful little piece. It's just so moving to me. I think, you know, well, obviously, it's just about what we're left with in our final moments, you know,

and we all hope that we're remembered fondly and that there's somebody who will remember you. I always think of my kids, and somebody said, well, I probably saw it on a TV show, where somebody said one time, you know, that basically, Basically, if you have kids, like, you're, at this point, you're just here to be memories for them. And so I'm always thinking, I hope I'm making good memories. And, yeah, he captures it really well, I think. Completely the line in the by and by, you need somebody who's going to cry for you is so beautiful, so heart-wrenching. And with the way that he, like, kind of whistles when he sings is just so touching.

And honestly, like, if I was on my deathbed, I would love, like, this would be the sort of. that I would love the doctors to be fighting for my life for me. You would like to have Andrew Bird standing over you whistling while you're redlining. I'm like, that's the last face I want to see is Andrew Bird. I mean, I guess it'd be easy to say that some of this is sort of really on the nose because he's writing to a very specific scene in the show and moment. But I also kind of like it when artists are tasked with this challenge of writing something very specific. It's a story that's being told by somebody else, right, that they're trying to be true to. And I've done some composing for different TV shows and films. And I actually really love it because it tells me what to do. Like, all right, I'm up to this point in the song, but now I don't know what to do. Oh, this story is telling me what to do. So I just, you know, and it ends up creating these really unexpected twists or turns or posts in the song that I wouldn't have come up with on my own otherwise.

I've never thought about it that way of being tasked to write for a scene instead of just going to an artist and being like, I want to use this. Yeah, here's the song you have that we think fits. Yeah, that makes me really listen to it in a new way as this accompaniment. I really like that. Well, a really beautiful one from a great TV show that you need to find a way to watch, Dora. Yes. From The Pit, Andrew Bird, the song.

Watch the clean version. It's great storytelling. Great characters. Andrew Bird needs someone, a one-off single that he wrote for the February 12th episode of The Pit. Do you feel like you pay a lot of attention to song order in an album? 100%. I mean, the sequencing is important. Completely. Yeah, I have thought that we could do an entire show just on, like, best opening tracks, best closing tracks.

I totally agree. And I feel like if you end up doing that episode about the best opening track to an album, open up by, rap boys from their new album singing to an empty chair should be the first one you talk about. So Open Up is the first track on this new record? God, that song is so good. The build is incredible. It's amazing. And the crispness of her voice with that big booming drums, it's just so great. And finally, when the build breaks and you get that crunchy.

guitar sound with her crisp voice. It's just, it's so smart and it's so satisfying. It's kind of got this honky tonk country sort of thing going on and then like metal guitars. I mean, it's really, really cool juxtaposition. It's really awesome. So she keeps talking about opening up and there's this thing that she wants to do. I'm wondering what opening up means to you in the context of this song. I was reading a little bit about her intentions behind the storytelling here. And she was talking about her framing this as something she learned in therapy, like framing the way that she's talking about opening up, the way that she's talking about being like emotionally present as rehearsing conversations before they

happen. And that that really resonated with me of like having to open up, but having to prepare first and like the what's it going to take to open up it it takes time and it takes effort and I really thought this sets the scene for such a emotionally aware and vulnerable album it really just kind of brings you into the reasoning why I really loved it yeah I asked because there's this really interesting thing that's happening where if you listen to the song whatever opening up means to you it sounds at at least like three quarters of the way through it sounds It sounds like she's gotten there, right? Totally.

There's a sense of euphoria like, we have arrived. Yes, I've opened up. But at the end of the song, she's still asking the same question. What's it going to take to open up? So she didn't. And really that euphoria is not her achieving and reaching whatever it is that she's trying to reach. It's really more of just that anxious sort of rise that you get in yourself when you're struggling to reach something and can't quite get there.

Yeah. And then there's a release. And you're like, yeah, well, I guess what's it going to take? for me to open it. We're almost at that feeling, but still thinking about it. I like the way that you framed it of like it feels like that anxious, like, rise and your heart starts beating. Faster, yeah. That break is so great.

I can't stop listening to the song. So this is an album that just came out at the top of February called Singing to an Empty Chair from Rap Boys. I've got one that I think is actually a good companion piece to the Rat Boys song that you played. It's from Gia Margaret, a singer from Chicago, also a composer. pianist. Well, actually, aren't Rat Boys from Chicago too? Yeah. Chicago. What a place. Pretty good music scene they've got going on there. That's what I hear.

Gia Margaret. She has a new album coming out in April called Singing, which is also interesting because the Rat Boys is called Singing to an empty chair, and Gia Margaret's album is just called Singing. Again, it's out in April, but the song I want to play from it is called Everyone Around Me Dancing. And it has some of the same. sort of similar themes as the rap boys song. And just listen for what she's doing with her voice on this song. You'll hear it immediately when it first comes in. But I am in the background step.

Closer to the ground, the plan. When I am dirt and bloated, I covered a seed to grow. Eat the seed. Everything. So many Four little bruises next to me Half smile My little equally

So many amazing things happening On this song Of course her voice Which you hear how I love how it was layered It was so beautiful So beautiful That that repetition

Was so poetic And I love how Her vocals faded out And that Was it a saxophone or a trumpet? It's like a whole. horn, some sort of trumpet or horn or flugelhorn or something like that. Yeah.

Something that kind of was pushed to the forefront and it sounded like the focus was there and her vocals were just folded into the percussion that I loved. Yeah, a little itty bitty bits of percol. I mean, it's honestly pretty spare. It's sort of this wash of sounds and then little touches of percussion here and there kind of flitting around. But it just really captures this sort of almost a kind of dissociation that you have when you are on the outside of something that you want to be a part of. Does that make sense? Do you know

what I'm saying? Like it's that sort of brain foggy kind of feeling that I feel is similar to the Rat Boy song in that they're both about being on the outside looking in and wishing you had whatever it is that you need to to either feel brave enough or to allow yourself to be vulnerable enough or whatever it is you need to navigate the world that you wish you could step into. There's so much disconnect in both. And it's about trying to fill that gap, like you said, like being on the outside. And this song, she, Gia Margaret often describes herself as ambient. An ambient artist. An ambient artist. And she couldn't sing for a while, right? She lost her voice, like in 2019 or somewhere around then. And, yeah, wasn't she?

sure that she would get it back and was going to just try to do more instrumental stuff. But then she healed and did get her voice back. It's very similar to the Patrick Watson story. If you remember, he also lost his voice and also like Gia Margaret has a really gorgeous voice. And then he did get his voice back and was able to put out that album, uh-oh, last year, which was one of my favorite last year. You can really see that she's back exploring with what vocals even mean. and how to explore vocals in a way when you've only been making this instrumental ambient music.

And I think that's why the vocals are so interesting and the layering of the vocals are so baked into the overall sound rather than being the focus. Yeah, she does it with instruments too, like that flugel horn, trumpety sound, whatever it is. It sounds like an organic instrument with a sound produced by someone blowing through it. But it also feels a little synthetic and ambient, like it's the swash of sound. created with it. Yeah. So again, the album from Gia Margaret is called Singing, and that's out April 24th, and that song was Everyone Around Me Dancing.

But Dora, I know you got one more that you want to play. I do, and I know that this one, you weren't convinced by. Well, yeah. I'm not a big fan, but I'm not like just rejecting it, which is why we were talking the other day about it, and I was like, tell me what it is that you love about it, because maybe that'll help me find an entry point into it. it. And it didn't. Well, I like this cut that you're going to play. And we're going to go out on it so we can maybe just get our conversation out of the way real quick going into it. But why don't you start?

Yeah. So my first ever favorite band that I found myself and I was like, this is my favorite band, was Injury Reserve. Right. Yeah. That was the band that made me learn to love music for myself. Yeah. And so I definitely have a lot of nostalgic ties to Injury Reserve. They were a hip hop trio. And tragically, one of their members, Stepajigroggs, died. And the two members, Richie and Corey Parker, decided to transform their music project and step away from injury reserve. That was the three of them. And move towards a new project called By Storm. And this is their first album came out at the end of January called My Ghost Go Ghost.

And the opening track, Can I Have You for myself, is just so gorgeous. and really sets the scene for this album that talks about loss and talks about growing your family and how that plays into the loss that we've experienced. And it's just so improvisational and beautiful. So I totally agree with all of that. And it is really beautiful. I do like another great opening cut. I've listened to the album.

This is definitely my favorite one on it. I think the issue that I have with this, and we'll hear it a little bit on this song, not as much as on some of the others. but a little bit, is that there's this trend I've noticed toward intentionally blown up recordings. I'm stopping short of saying intentionally bad because I don't think the music is bad, but like they make the actual recording of it sound intentionally broken. Like you're listening to it through broken speakers or like when they record, we call it overmodulated, like where it's cranked all the way up so the recording is in the red the entire time.

so it just sounds all blown out, right? A little bit of it on this song. I've heard it on a lot of other bands work lately, too. Nourished by Time sometimes does that. Another thing that they'll do is, like, intentionally have vocals that are completely lost in the mix or intentionally bend out of tune and sing out of tune for stretches.

And I know there's something going on there, and I just haven't figured out what it is and found my entry point to it yet. I was reading a review for the Mandy Indiana. record actually, and I don't remember what review it was, but it was talking about a similar thing of like why people will make their music sound overblown or sound incapable of being like self-contained and purposely sound bad. And I really liked that idea of creating something that that can't be captured and reproduced in that way. And I think that's why I love that overblown or just

over-processed and kind of disjointed sound and being able to kind of parse through the moments that are clear and like find the melodies and beautiful moments within. And knowing that like this is a sound and this is an idea that is hard to be captured. It's bigger than the than the container. Well, we're going to hear a little bit of it on this one and we're going to go out on it. Again, the song from Bystorm is called Can I Have You for Myself, the opening cut to my Ghosts Go Ghost that came out at the end of January. All right, people always ask,

how can I support the show? The best way to do it honestly is with a glowing review. If you enjoy the show, leave us a review on Apple Music or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Dora Levitt. Robin Hilton. Thanks so much.

Thanks for having me. So much fun. All right, it's all songs considered from NPR Music. been sweet been us two it's been to be three when I'm holding you it's been to be weak

Can I have you on for You're on the same page Going at the same speed See I'm ready to grow Just feeling real greedy You're giving all of you I want you all for me

Can I fall Get a twist of baby I'm thankful I guess it hit me all the little things are gonna change too. Just for a minute can we soak it in and just tangle. Right in between us, no, they're growing one won't have the same room. All of our flicks gonna have to change a frame into frames too. And when I chase are young and no I can't rock all these same shoes.

See how I make all that shit about me. You giving you and never once brought a what about me? How can I? I don't know how I'm going to share you. You said you're going and I said where to me? See, I go anywhere for you. But I'm going to miss it just us too. Just for a millisecond, just one blink,

and we just sit all in and let it simmer just for me. No, it's going to be a minute. It all feels so soon. to save me some of you just a little...