Ben Folds will perform in a live fundraising event to benefit victims of the floods in Pakistan, which airs online at live4pakistan.tv today starting at 4 PM GMT / 11 AM ET. The event, led by singer/songwriter Imogen Heap and Sir Richard Branson, will feature live music and open discussion. Other performers include Heap, Amanda Palmer, KT Tunstall, and Josh Groban. Contributions are being accepted for UNICEF, OXFAM, and Architecture for Humanity.

A week in the unique life of Laurie Anderson has been documented in the UK's Observer magazine through photos Anderson took earlier this summer for the magazine's Show and Tell feature. Under the Radar reviews Anderson's new album, Homeland. "Laurie Anderson has a gift for creating evocative recordings," says the magazine. Homeland's "rewards come from setting aside the time to settle in for the full flight."

Punch Brothers return to the road Saturday for the first of several September performances, starting with a set at the moe.down festival in Mohawk, New York. The band's fall tour includes a stop at the Lied Center in Lawrence, Kansas. Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge spoke with the folks at the Lied Center about the band's unique sound, in a video interview now on YouTube. Watch it here.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby have taken the collaborative spirit of their forthcoming album, Lonely Avenue, and joined up with another duo, Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose, for the VideoSong "Things You Think," featuring music by Folds and lyrics by Hornby. The song is available now on iTunes, and the video is just out on YouTube. Watch it here.

Laurie Anderson and Brad Mehldau are featured on New York magazine's list of The 20 Most Anticipated Events of the Fall in classical music and dance. Anderson tops the list with the New York premiere of her piece Delusion, which opens BAM's Next Wave festival. Brad Mehldau comes to New York as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall, for the New York premiere of Highway Rider.

Björk is in Stockholm to receive the 2010 Polar Music Prize in a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall tonight. His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will present her with the prize. The awards ceremony at Stockholm Concert Hall includes performances by Sweden's own Robyn and others and will be broadcast live on Swedish TV4 and via TV4 Play at 5:30 PM CEST / 11:30 AM EST.

Carolina Chocolate Drops tour Midwest ... Bill Frisell joins Paul Motian Trio at Village Vanguard ... Richard Goode plays Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw ... Natalie Merchant brings Leave Your Sleep to Atlanta and Nashville ... Philip Selway plays Osaka ... Chris Thile goes solo in NYC ... Allen Toussaint joins Cyndi Lauper in LA ... Sara Watkins, Garrison Keillor, and A Prairie Home Companion bring Summer Love to Oregon ... and more ...

Philip Selway kicked off his tour in Tokyo last night performing the "warm, tender acoustic nuggets" of Familial, reports SPIN, proving to be a "talented frontman." The Irish Independent hears "pleasurable echoes of the comforting delicate folk of Nick Drake" on the new album, The Independent (UK) "the quieter moments of Talk Talk and Radiohead." The Sun gives 4.5 stars to this "mighty fine" album, featuring "one of the most gorgeous songs you'll hear all year."

Emmylou Harris and The Low Anthem are coming together to tour the US East Coast this fall. Starting at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh on November 9 and concluding at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 21, The Low Anthem will open for Harris, with stops along the way in Buffalo and Albany, New York; Northampton, Massachusetts; Wilmington, Delaware; Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia; and Frederick, Maryland.

Natlie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep tour brought her to Florida this week. The Sun Sentinel witnessed "a new Natalie Merchant ... burnished with the amber glow of something special," the songs of the new album proved "magical." The Broward New Times calls them "delicate, dreamy songs with multigenerational appeal." Tampa's Creative Loafing says Merchant "made it seem as if the poems had been waiting for her music all along."

The Tenth Inning, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that picks up where Burns's 1994 series Baseball left off, will air on PBS in September. Burns will appear on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight to discuss the new film. The original Baseball soundtrack recording was released on Nonesuch back in 1994 and is available now digitally in the Nonesuch Store; it will be available again on CD September 21.

Ahead of next week's release of Familial, Philip Selway launches a month-long tour of Japan and Europe. Following performances in Tokyo and Osaka, he heads to Ireland and the UK for several shows, including three with Wilco. NME gives Familial an 8, saying "Selway has delivered an album so honest and thoughtful, you'll see not only drummers but yourself in a new light." MOJO concurs, saying it "shows a sensitivity seldom credited to stickmen."