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With an exotic fiddle, a viola, a classical guitar and a drum kit, the quartet called QQQ creates something like Appalachian folk music — albeit filtered through Brooklyn experimentalism and rural Norwegian flavor. The band plays a special session in Studio 4A.

Japanese American singer Hikaru Utada grew up dividing her time between Tokyo and New York. Already a pop-sensation in Japan, Utada explains how she found success and tells how she now plans to conquer the American music charts with her latest album, This is the One.

The brooding dub-rock of South Africa's BLK JKS (pronounced Black Jacks) is a formidable addition to the musical landscape of indie-rock, with potential to appeal to the audiences enchanted by the likes of Vampire Weekend and TV on the Radio. PRI's Marco Werman interviews the band about their "post-apartheid" music.

It seems almost like a trend today for artists to hide behind a wall of reverb and distortion they have carefully constructed, but The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has found another way. With a healthy dose of fuzz and an ear for tightly crafted, utterly blissful pop songs, this Brooklyn quartet hits the sweet spot by combining the best of The Manhattan Love Suicides and The Lucksmiths.

The energetic indie-pop band's members were only 20 when their debut, Be He Me, was released in 2006. For their sophomore album, songwriter Adam Baker has discovered new depth, borrowing from ska, psychedelia and country on the colorful and appropriately named Such Fun.

Millions have discovered the now-familiar landmarks of California's Yosemite Valley through the extraordinary black-and-white photographs of Ansel Adams. Now, jazz legend Dave Brubeck aims to bring musical emotion to the experience of viewing Adams' work with a new piece.

Emerging out of the sound of spring peepers, Neko Case stepped onto the 9:30 Club stage set in something out of a nature cartoon. Behind them videos of cyclones and airplanes were projected on a screen. But the attention was clearly on Case, her stunning voice, as well as her solid backing band. Okkervil River's Will Sheff opened.

With its moody progressions and strange, melancholic lyrics, You Can Have What You Want is certainly darker and more otherworldly than its 2007 predecessor. In the very opening lines, Jason Quever, the driving force behind Papercuts, refers to Earth as a "distant dream," which establishes a pervading ethereal mood that is a perfect match for Quever's hazy, melodic vocals and the distantly dreamy instrumentation

From his early days obsessed with Metallica, to playing in a mambo band called Latin Pimps in college, to actually running away with the circus to play the guitar, Robert Gomez has had a colorful musical history.

Dan Auerbach, the singer-guitarist for the Akron, Ohio-based rootsy blues-rock duo The Black Keys, broadens his style on his new solo album to include folk, country and even psychedelic elements. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.