Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver will receive its West Coast premiere tonight at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. The composer included excerpts from the piece in his score for the Oscar-winning film There Will Be Blood, which you can listen to here. Tonight's concert also marks the San Francisco debut of New York's Wordless Music Series (helmed by Nonesuch's own Ronen Givony), which is presenting the concert and which gave the piece's US premiere in New York earlier this year.

Stephin Merritt and Laurie Anderson will each participate in the Talking Music series of conversations and performances from San Francisco's City Arts & Lectures, held at the Herbst Theatre. Stephin will open the season on September 11 in conversation and song hosted by Lemony Snicket author and fellow Gothic Archie Daniel Handler; Laurie will talk with music journalist Michael Azerrad for the season closer in April. In between are talks and performances by artists like Barbara Cook, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neko Case, and Okkervil River's Will Sheff.

John Adams's long-awaited memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, is set for release in early October, and this week, The New Yorker has published an excerpt from the book in the article "Sonic Youth: A Composer Finds His Voice." In the magazine's podcast, John discusses the topic, from his early years as a composer in San Francisco through his 1981 breakout piece, Harmonium. In conjunction with the book's launch, Nonesuch will release a two-disc retrospective of the same name featuring some of his best-known works. Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, is available for pre-order now.

Steve Reich's work will be the highlight of this weekend's events at the Edinburgh International Festival, with the UK premiere of Steve Reich Evening, a collection of pieces Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has set to Reich's music over the past 25 years. Scotland on Sunday compares the "long and fruitful history" between the two artists to that of Stravinsky and Balanchine, Cage and Cunningham, calling the new work "a comprehensive and thrilling focus on the relationship between two modern masters." Also this weekend, Reich and Beryl Korot chair the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild's annual Gala honoring, among others, Garry Kvistad, a member of Steve Reich and Musicians.

Randy Newman was recently asked by Blender magazine to comment on the two Presidential candidates' lists of their top 10 favorite songs. Specifically, he was asked which candidate would get his vote "based solely on this list," to which Randy responded, in a statement that was edited down for the article, that, while he likes Senator McCain's musical choices, "you can't tell anything about a person from the music they like."

Congratulations to Randy Newman, whose new release, Harps and Angels, debuted at #30 on Billboard's Top 200, a career high. Randy is SPIN magazine's Artist of the Day for the "brilliantly written pop standards" on Harps and Angels, a "musically, as well as lyrically, intricate and intriguing" album from "one of the most respected songwriters this century." The Cleveland Free Times concludes that "Harps and Angels is both a great Randy Newman album—which is an impressive feat on its own—and a brilliant and important album in the wider context of popular music."

Works by Laurie Anderson and Steve Reich will share space at New York's Museum of Modern Art with the perhaps not surprising company of John Cage, Andy Warhol, and Sonic Youth and some slightly less likely pairings with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Devo, and The Cars. It's all a part of MoMA's multimedia exhibition Looking at Music, which begins today and runs through January 5, 2009, and explores the connections between art and music during the 1960s and '70s.

The fifth and final season of HBO's The Wire is out on DVD today. The New York City's Museum of the Moving Image recently held a panel with the show's creator, David Simon, and several cast members, which you can now hear online. MOMI's Chief Curator David Schwartz, begins the proceedings by saying, "It's hard to figure out how to introduce this program with the proper amount of hyperbole, because the argument among critics seems to be whether this is one of the greatest shows in television history or the greatest show." The New York Post calls it "unmissable TV"; The Scotsman says it's "magnificent" and "seriously addictive."

After performing at the Virgin Mobile Fest in Baltimore this weekend, Wilco gears up for its performance at Tanglewood in Western Massachusetts tomorrow night. The Daily Gazette out of Schnectady, New York, more than an hour away, says "Wilco is worth the trip." Next to a sold-out show at Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool. With all the travel, Wilco is also making an effort to reduce its environmental impact with a new ride-sharing initiative. Also, label mate David Byrne has his own ideas for reducing congestion, promoting bike use.

Congratulations to John Adams, who has been named a winner of the 2008 Opera News Award. The New York Philharmonic's music director designate, Alan Gilbert, will present the composer with the award in a ceremony on November 16 in New York City; Gilbert will lead the Metropolitan Opera's production of Adams's Doctor Atomic in October. This year's other award recipients are sopranos Natalie Dessay and Renée Fleming, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, and baritone Sherrill Milnes.

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, who as been nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the ABC-TV version of A Raisin in the Sun. Audra received a Tony Award (her fourth) for the 2004 Broadway stage revival of the seminal 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry.

Congratulations to Punch Brothers: the band's take on "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" has been selected as one of three finalists in ESPN's Battle of the Bands, part of Baseball's Tonight's celebration of the 100th anniversary of that classic baseball tune. Chris Thile be stopping by the show Tuesday afternoon at 12:30 PM ET to answer fans' questions about the tune, the contest, the band, and anything else that might cross fans' minds. You can submit your own question now ...