Terry Gross

British blue-eyed soul singer Nick Lowe played London's pub scene in the '70s in the band Brinsley Schwarz. He produced five albums for Elvis Costello, and played with Ry Cooder and John Hiatt in Little Village. Lowe returned in 2007 with At My Age, his ninth solo album. This interview and in-studio performance was first broadcast on July 24, 2007.

A concert and conversation with Los Straitjackets, the Nashville-based indie-rock band that's made a name performing surf-rock classics from behind Mexican wrestling masks. The group's latest album, Rock en Espanol, Vol. 1, features Spanish language versions of rock 'n' roll hits from the 1960s. Tracks include "De Dia y de Noche" ("All Day and All Night"), popularized by the Kinks, "La Hiedra Venenosa" ("Poison Ivy"), made famous by the Coasters, and many more.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, aka the folk-parody band Flight of the Conchords, hail from New Zealand. They were named best alternative-comedy act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Now they're the stars of an acclaimed HBO series called, yes, Flight of the Conchords — which is, yes, about two transplanted New Zealanders living in New York City's Lower East Side. The first season is out now on DVD. Clement and McKenzie join Fresh Air for a conversation and a few songs. This interview first aired on June 14, 2007

Obligatory Villagers, the new jazz- and cabaret-inflected album from singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, features sassy tracks that touch on topics as diverse as feminism and zombies. McKay, a sometime actress and stand-up comedian, made a splash in 2004 with a debut CD called Get Away From Me — a play on the title of Norah Jones' album Come Away With Me. Last year, she co-starred in a revival of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera alongside Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. McKay joins Terry Gross for a Fresh Air concert and conversation.

Our weeklong retrospective of the year's most entertaining interviews continues with Nancy Cartwright. You've probably heard Cartwright's work, but you may not have known it was her: She's the voice of Bart Simpson in The Simpsons, both on TV and on the big screen. The Simpsons Movie was recently released on DVD.

Our weeklong retrospective of the year's most entertaining interviews continues with writer-producer Al Jean — a guy who knows Marge, Homer, Bart and the rest of the Simpsons gang better than almost anyone. He's executive producer and writer for The Simpsons, and he's been with the show since it began. This year's Simpsons movie, he's been heard to say, is about "what happens when a man doesn't listen to his wife." The film is now available on DVD. Before The Simpsons, Jean worked on TV's A.L.F. and It's Garry Shandling's Show.

As part of our weeklong retrospective of the most entertaining Fresh Air interviews from 2007, we revisit an October chat with actor Mark Ruffalo, then on the big screen in the film Reservation Road. Ruffalo's other films including In the Cut, Zodiac, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count on Me and 13 Going on 30. This interview first aired on Oct. 11, 2007.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, a regular guest on Fresh Air, returns to discuss developments in Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto died after an attack at a political rally that also killed at least 20 others. Bhutto recently had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile to challenge President Pervez Musharraf for the country's leadership. Ahmed Rashid covers Pakistani politics and culture for various Western publications; he has written extensively about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country.

Executive producer and actor Jeff Garlin and actress Susie Essman discuss the hit HBO comedy series. Garlin plays Larry David's affable best friend and agent. Essman plays Garlin's wife — with a no-nonsense attitude and a foul mouth. This interview originally aired on Sept. 6, 2007.

By the end of The 40 Year Old Virgin, the title character had lost his virginity — and actor Steve Carell had become a star. The actor, who was a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show for several years, has gone on to films including Little Miss Sunshine and Evan Almighty, and next summer he'll star as hapless secret agent Maxwell Smart in a Hollywood adaptation of the vintage TV series Get Smart. And of course he's got a central role on NBC's The Office.