The Black Keys kick off the next leg of their Attack & Release tour tonight in Washington, DC, for the first of two sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club. Tomorrow night's set will be broadcast live on NPR's All Songs Considered. Pat and Dan head next to New York City for a performance Wednesday night on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a sold-out show Thursday night at Terminal 5.

Steve Reich spoke with BBC Radio 4's Today show, the network's flagship daily news and current affairs program, this morning about his latest Nonesuch release Daniel Variations and the composition of its title track, inspired by slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. T Bone Burnett is scheduled to appear on the show tomorrow morning to preview his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Tooth of Crime.

After spending a number of weeks traveling across Australia with her Watershed tour, k.d. lang and her band have made their way across the Tasman Sea for a performance in Wellington, New Zealand, tonight at the Michael Fowler Centre, and a stop in Auckland tomorrow night. NPR's World Cafe has broadcast an interview with and performance from k.d. "Offered up with confidence and honesty," says NPR, "k.d. lang's deeply personal narratives invite listeners into an intimate world. Her glorious voice fuses country, jazz, and even Brazilian rhythms, and on her latest CD, Watershed, she finds a certain earthy elegance."

Steve Reich stopped by the WNYC studios yesterday to discuss his new album, Daniel Variations, and the creation of its title piece, on The Leonard Lopate Show. You can download an MP3 of the segment at wnyc.org or listen to it in its entirety here.

Steve Reich will be the featured guest today on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, 93.9 FM. The composer will discuss his new album, Daniel Variations, and its title piece, written in memory of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The show also includes an interview with filmmaker Errol Morris about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Nicholas Payton spoke with WBGO producer Josh Jackson fresh from recording his Nonesuch debut, Into the Blue. With the album out this week, the show is now available at npr.org as part of the Favorite Sessions series, on which public radio hosts present their favorite in-studio sessions. "I'm always looking for unique moments, times and places when musicians are creating at a high level, and try to bring those moments to anyone who will listen," says Jackson. "This was the moment to get them," he says of Payton and the band. "The iron was hot."

The Black Keys' latest album, Attack & Release is featured on the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered. "Their previous four records were very heavy on loud guitars and very blues based," says the show's host, Bob Boilen. "Their new CD is produced by Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse, and though it's still basically a drums and guitar record, there are more quiet moments and more subtle moments going on here."

All this month, and running through May 12, BBC Radio 2 is airing a six-part documentary called Jac Holzman's Elektra Story, as part of the network's Monday night Music Club. In part three of the documentary, the company founder recounts the Nonesuch Records founder's earliest days and his hopes for the new endeavor. Joshua Rifkin was involved from the start and sums up the label's initial appeal this way: "Inexpensive classical record labels had been there before, but they looked like a budget production. And it was Jac's brilliant idea to think that one could do something that really looked distinctive, did not look low-rent, had a definite identity of its own."

Steve Reich's Daniel Variations was the featured album on last night's episode of WNYC's New Sounds. The title piece "justifiably has drawn a fair amount of attention and acclaim," says the show's host, John Schaefer. Daniel Variations, which the Sydney Morning Herald calls "a powerful composition," will receive its Australian premiere this Friday at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.