Jeremy Denk is on 30 Bach: The Goldberg Variations Podcast. Denk, who recorded the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch in 2013, takes part in a discussion of the episode's focus, Variation 25, led by host Lowry Yankwich, who says: “Amidst the exuberance, love, and joy of the final variations, Variation 25 is what makes the Goldbergs honest. It’s the dark center of the piece, the 'black pearl.'" The episode closes with Denk performing the variation. You can hear it here. Denk recently performed Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, in a Cal Performances livestream; it's available to watch again through July 14.

Sound of Metal was the focus on the April 10 episode of the podcast Soundtracking with Edith Bowman. The guests on the episode are the film's star, Riz Ahmed; Darius Marder, the film's director; and Abraham Marder, who co-wrote the film with his Darius. Abraham Marder also scored the film with Nicolas Becker, who won an Academy Award for Best Sound. "It's an incredible film," says Bowman. You can hear the episode here.

Lake Street Dive, whose new album, Obviously, recently topped the Non-Commercial / Public Radio chart, could be heard in sessions for three such stations this past week. For The Current, 89.3FM out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the band performed three songs from the new album, and Rachael Price and Akie Bermiss spoke with host Bill DeVille about the album and some tour bus memories. For WYCE in Grand Rapids the band performed two songs, and Mike Calabrese and Mike "McDuck" Olson spoke with WYCE music director Shane German. And for WNRN in Virginia, the band played two songs, and McDuck spoke with host Patrick Coman. You can watch the sessions here.

The Jazz Journalists Association has announced the 2021 JJA Jazz Awards nominations, including three for Rob Mazurek for the new Exploding Star Orchestra album, Dimensional Stardust; all four members of the RoundAgain quartet, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade; performers on Pat Metheny's album From This Place, including Metheny, Linda May Han Oh, and Grégoire Maret; Jeff Parker for Suite for Max Brown; and Cécile McLorin Salvant, whose Nonesuch debut album is forthcoming.

Sam Amidon was the subject of a profile on PBS NewsHour Weekend. "Amidon has developed a shining reputation for taking something very old and making it sound brand new," says host Hari Sreenivasan. Amidon talks with special correspondent Tom Casciato about his career in music, from his earliest days immersed in the music of his performer parents to his 2020 self-titled album. You can watch their conversation and a new performance of the album track "Maggie" here.

The Black Keys have released a video for "Crawling Kingsnake," the opening track and first single from their just-announced upcoming album, Delta Kream. The video was directed by Tim Hardiman and filmed at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America. You can watch it here. "We were honored to play alongside Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, who are a direct link to R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough," says Dan Auerbach. "This is the Mississippi hill country sound that Pat and I first bonded over.”

Sam Gendel’s album DRM, released by Nonesuch digitally last October, is now available on vinyl. The follow-up to his March 2020 Nonesuch debut, Satin Doll, DRM features Gendel’s solo musical experiments with vintage instruments such as a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, and a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar—accompanied by his voice. Gendel says: “I’m imagining people listening to [it] and thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’, like they’d just encountered some sailing ship in the sky.”

Rhiannon Giddens is the guest on the latest episode of Object of Sound with Hanif Abdurraqib. The two examine what it means when one refers to home, a topic Giddens contemplates on her new album with Francesco Turrisi, They're Calling Me Home. You can listen to their conversation here.

The Black Keys' tenth studio album, Delta Kream, is due May 14 via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Laurie Anderson was the subject of a feature profile on NPR's All Things Considered by contributor Allyson McCabe, marking last week's red vinyl release of Anderson's 1982 debut album, Big Science. The profile examines the breadth of her career, from her earliest performance pieces to her Grammy Award–winning 2018 collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall, to new projects she has in the works. You can listen to the piece, featuring conversations with Anderson, Kronos Quartet's David Harrington, and others, here.

k.d. lang is on The Rex Chapman Show with Josh Hopkins for an extensive conversation about her love of basketball, and the Portland Trail Blazers in particular, as well as her career in music. "Singing is an extension of your soul," lang says. "It was about opening up my true self. I don't think I would be a really good singer if I was trying to conform into a social idea of who I should be. I wouldn't sing the same." You can watch their conversation here.

Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme is due June 11, 2021, on Nonesuch. The recording features the pianist/composer and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which commissioned this orchestral version of the work—a theme and eleven variations plus a cadenza and postlude. The album also includes an encore, “Variations ‘X’ and ‘Y.'" "I imagine it as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues," Mehldau says of the piece, which combines the classical form with jazz harmonies. "While the theme evokes melancholy, I let it be used as a springboard for other happy, wild, violent, and reckless emotions as the variations progress." You can watch a video with excerpts from the piece here.