Yesterday came the first in a five-part series of videos unveiling Realism, The Magnetic Fields' forthcoming album. Today, in the second episode, L.A.: A Folk Heaven, Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson explain why recording the new, folk-inspired album in Los Angeles made perfect sense. Drowned in Sound rates the album an 8 of 10, lauding the band's "Eternally Great Pop Songs"; The Quietus interviews Merritt about those songs.

Introducing a two-disc song cycle about Imelda Marcos, performed by a who's who of singers, is no simple task, but David Byrne has done it in a new video presentation, available at nonesuch.com/media, about Here Lies Love, his collaboration with Fatboy Slim and such vocalists as Tori Amos, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Merchant, Kate Pierson, Santigold, and St. Vincent. The album, due out April 6, is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

Realism, the new album from The Magnetic Fields, is just days from its January 26 Nonesuch CD release. Each weekday till launch, Nonesuch.com will post a new video, in which Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson discuss aspects of the album, beginning with today's Introductions. Watch it now at nonesuch.com/media and check back in the days to follow for new videos to come.

As The Low Anthem digs in at work on its next album, NPR has posted the band's Tiny Desk Concert performance, including "To the Ghosts Who Write History Books" off its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. Another song from the album is part of Paste's "Songs for Haiti" project, offering free downloads for those who donate to support relief efforts in Haiti.

"I didn't know quite what to expect when I started this whole thing, especially making a record with it," says Pat Metheny of his latest project, Orchestrion, and the forthcoming Nonesuch release of the same name. "The result is absolutely nothing like I ever would have imagined." That's from a new video launching today at nonesuch.com/media, in which Pat takes viewers behind the scenes of Orchestrion. Says The Guardian: "The Orchestrion reconciles his love of old-fashioned, unamplified live performance with his restless urge to innovate."

Pat Metheny's adventurous new "solo” recording, Orchestrion, is set for its Nonesuch CD release on January 26. The project pairs the composer-guitarist with a phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments played via solenoid switches and pneumatics. Now, for the first time, you can catch a glimpse of it all in action in a video at nonesuch.com/media. You can hear Pat discuss the project on the BBC's The Strand.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, is due out this coming February, and the trio is set to hit the road just after the New Year. Now, the band offers up a video preview of the new album, with live performances, interviews with the band, and a few words from the album's producer, Joe Henry. You'll find the video at nonesuch.com/media.

World Circuit and Nonesuch Records are set to release Ali and Toumani, the second and last album pairing the late guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré and kora master Toumani Diabaté, in February 2010. Recorded in London in 2005, Ali and Toumani is the successor to the duo's Grammy-winning In the Heart of the Moon and is the last album recorded by Touré. You can catch a sneak peek of the album at nonesuch.com/media.

The Low Anthem is back on the road with several dates in Europe in the coming coming week. Closer to home, the band has been nominated for three Boston Music Awards: Act of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year, making it one of only two bands with all three. Spinner has named "Charlie Darwin" its Video of the Day; Magnet says: "The song’s lush harmonies and sparse instrumental sound combined with the video’s strange desultory main character convey a certain sorrow that will haunt you for days on end."

The Low Anthem is set to close out its tour with Blind Pilot at the Paradise in Boston tonight. Earlier this week, during a stop in Charlottesville, Virginia, the band taped a performance of "To Ohio" for WNRN now on YouTube. The Boston Herald tracks the band's rise to larger venues while retaining the "crackling Americana ethos" fans and critics have come to appreciate. The band has contributed a track to Hard Rock's benefit album to fight hunger and poverty.

Sesame Street celebrated its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, and Kronos Quartet has offered its own best wishes by revisiting its appearance on the show. In 1987, the group stopped by Sesame Street to talk with Big Bird about the string quartet, becoming in the process one of the few groups who could possibly perform "Purple Haze," the Jimi Hendrix classic, so fittingly on the show.

Punch Brothers recently announced via Twitter that they've "just put the finishing touches on the 18th of 18 songs that we've earmarked for our new record." Even with that to look forward to, the band also has two New York performances of A Prairie Home Companion coming in early December. Until then, Paste has published a video interview with the Punch Brothers from the CMJ music conference in which the guys give some insight into their instruments.