Nickel Creek celebrated the release of its new album, A Dotted Line, earlier this month with a number of TV and radio performances, including WNYC's Soundcheck, on which the band performed three tracks from the album—"Destination," "21st of May," and "Rest of My Life." You can hear the full show and watch the three song performances here. "Remarkably, while each member's distinctive musical voice comes through, the chemistry between Thile and Sara and Sean Watkins when they play together has never felt stronger," says the show. "While A Dotted Line documents a more mature Nickel Creek than it once was, yet that joyfully rebellious spirit that so many of us fell for still shines through." 

Nickel Creek performed "Destination," off the new album A Dotted Line, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC last night and gathered for a web-exclusive video to discuss how they wrote their earlier tune "Helena." Watch both videos here. The band performs live on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET. The Los Angeles Times says: "Fresh energy—and fresh ideas—course through A Dotted Line ... They’ve never blended their voices more thrillingly."

Conor Oberst visited the BBC studios yesterday to discuss his forthcoming album, Upside Down Mountain, on BBC Radio 6Music's Lauren Laverne program in the morning, also performing "You Are Your Mother's Child" and "Hundreds of Ways" off the new album, and the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 2 at night, offering another take on "Hundreds of Ways" and the beloved Bright Eyes song " First Day of My Life," one of Whiley's favorite tunes. 

Kronos Quartet's new album, A Thousand Thoughts, is due out next Tuesday, April 8. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the new album is streaming in full all this week as Q2 Music Album of the Week. "The album would be worth checking out just for the spectacular roster of guest stars the quartet has brought into the studio over the years," says Q2. "But just as impressive as these stellar cameos is the chameleonic playing of the quartet themselves, who manage to blend themselves into musics from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Austin, Texas, even while the core of their sound remains as warm and steady as ever."

Nonesuch Records releases Caetano Veloso’s album Abraçaço in North America next Tuesday, March 25. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full via WNYC's Soundcheck. "Abraçaço, (which means “big hug”) is not some subdued, late-career exercise in nostalgia or retrospection," asserts Soundcheck host John Schaefer. KCRW, also streaming the album, calls it Veloso "at his best." You can download two album tracks, "A Bossa Nova É Foda" and "Um Abraçaço," when you pre-order the album in the Nonesuch Store.

Timo Andres is the subject of the latest episode of Q2 Music's Q2 Spaces, which looks inside the homes and studios of composers and performers in the new-music world. Andres welcomes viewers into his Brooklyn home for a conversation about Beethoven, Ingram Marhsall, Edward Gorey, and much more. Watch it here. He gives the world premiere of a new piece, Work Songs, in New York City this Wednesday as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival. Andres wrote the piece especially for fellow composers and multi-instrumentalists Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci, who will perform it in the concert. The concert will be hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer and webcast live on Q2 Music.

Rokia Traoré, as part of her US tour last fall to mark the release of her new album, Beautiful Africa, stopped by the studios of KCRW in Santa Monica to perform on Morning Becomes Eclectic and talk with the show's guest host, Chris Douridas, about the new album and tour. KCRW has posted video of the complete interview and performance, featuring songs from the new album, which you can watch here. NPR calls her "one of Mali's most revered voices."

Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, due February 25 on Nonesuch Records, and Kin (←→), the debut album from the Pat Metheny Unity Group, due February 4, are featured on the latest episode of BBC Radio 2's Jamie Cullum show. The episode looks ahead to the music of 2014 and showcases "some of the most exciting tracks coming out in the next few months in the world of jazz," including "Hungry Ghost" from the Mehliana album and "Kqu" from Kin (←→).

CBC Music has published its list of the Top Albums of the Year, and featured among them are four albums released on Nonesuch Records in 2013: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's Old Yellow Moon (Best Singer-Songwriter Album), Jeremy Denk's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations (Best Classical Album), and Rokia Traoré's Beautiful Africa and Bombino's Nomad (Top 5 World Music Albums).

Joel and Ethan Coen, the directors and writers of Inside Llewyn Davis, were on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, discussing the 1960s folk scene depicted in the film, the cult following of their earlier film The Big Lebowski, the travails of working with cats, and more. Inside Llewyn Davis, already a favorite on many a year-end-best list, has now been named the Best Picture of 2013 by the Village Voice and the Toronto Film Critics Association, both of which have named Oscar Isaac (Llewyn Davis) the year's Best Actor. 

NPR Music has published the list of its 100 Favorite Songs of 2013, and featured among them are songs from three Nonesuch Records releases: Rokia Traoré's "Mélancolie," from her new album, Beautiful Africa; Sam Amidon's "My Old Friend," from Bright Sunny South; and Timo Andres's Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, from Home Stretch. "What do you have to do, as a song, to win our hearts," asks NPR. "You have to sink in. You have to stop someone dead in her tracks. You need to cause that man to act a fool." These are songs that "are stamped with memories or reliably turn the temperature up or put a smile on our face every single time."

Jeremy Denk was featured on NPR's All Things Considered this weekend. He spoke with host Arun Rath about J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and his new recording of it. "The piece is kind of about invention and imagination," says Denk. "In another way, it's like the biggest jazz riff ever written. It's endlessly funny in some ways and endlessly moving in other ways."