The new Radiohead album, "The King of Limbs," is available this morning to anyone who pre-ordered any sort of version earlier this week. We were told this would be a Saturday download, but now it's a today thing. (Their press release says that the website was ready so the band just decided to push it live. Hmm!) There's also a video for lead "single," "Lotus Flower." At any rate: don't be waiting for an individualized link in your inbox, people! (That may still come Saturday?) If you go here, you'll be asked to put in your site-registration info that you used to pre-order, and then: BAM! You can [...]

Last week, while on a walk to visit some Seattle fishmongers, I spent a few minutes watching an elderly Indian man playing sitar at the corner of an intersection. Any pair of lay ears could perceive the old musician was talented, and so he had an appreciative crowd, despite this being a fairly cold sort of January morning. I remarked to a friend that no one was likely confused or intimidated by the genre definition of the music he was playing. Even though it was happening on the street, it was clearly a formal music: not meant for dancing or soundtracking a TV show or casually accompanying any other [...]