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With musical influences stemming from Africa, France, Spain and other countries, Brazzaville is the brainchild of David Brown, best known as the saxophonist for Beck. His band plays music from its new CD, 21st Century Girl, in a session from WXPN.

Nothing is more conspicuous, yet more invisible, than a big truck. Luke Doucet spends so much time on the road as a touring musician that he began to imagine what it would be like to live the life of a trucker. "Long Haul Driver" gets it just right on his seventh album, Blood's Too Rich.

Cold War Kids' second album, Loyalty to Loyalty, is based on the work of a little-known philosopher named Josiah Royce, who challenged Nietzsche's positions in the early 1900s. The art-pop band straddles the line between both philosophies in atypical rock fashion.

Sometimes the best moment of an in-studio performance is the soundcheck. To warm up, Calexico riffed on a Pavement cover for 15 spooky minutes before offering up two very different versions of songs from the Tucson band's new album, Carried to Dust.

Years in the making, Human Highway is an anxiously awaited collaboration between Nick Thorburn (the frontman of The Unicorns and Islands) and Jim Guthrie of Royal City. It's a tad poppier and spacier than either musician's main projects, and seems perfect for the conclusion of the day.

Hear an exclusive sneak preview of the entire two-disc album Tell Tale Signs, the latest volume in Bob Dylan's "bootleg" series. Widely regarded as America's greatest living songwriter, Dylan has written and recorded some of the most influential and acclaimed music of the past century.

The Atlanta rapper has picked up a pad of paper for the first time since 2001 (a change from writing and keeping his lyrics in his head), and the result is a blur of intricately constructed rhymes. Paper Trail is an intensely personal album with a couple of commercial smashes muddying the waters; on the posse cut "Swagga Like Us," T.I. raps circles around three of the most popular rappers in the world.

As a member of the multiplatinum rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea wouldn't seem to need higher education to further his career. But the bassist has just enrolled as a freshman at USC's music program. For Flea, it's an opportunity to learn the academic side of music.

Four Last Songs, by German composer Richard Strauss, is a song cycle marked by the awareness and acceptance of death. A new recording captures world-famous soprano Renee Fleming as she sings his last pieces for a second time — this time with a new direction.

The singer-songwriter talks about leaving her comfort zone on her new record, as well as the effect that keeping her household together has had on her songwriting process. Williams also describes the stories behind her new songs, and tells anecdotes about Joan Baez and her college friend, Stephen Trask.