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Last week, a suburbanist joined us to deconstruct Arcade Fire’s album “The Suburbs,” which recently won Album of the Year at the Grammys. But the Canadian indie-rockers aren’t the only ones who have struggled with sprawl. We’ll look at the music born in the burbs from Springsteen to Green Day, with singer-songwriter Ben Folds and William "Upski" Wimsatt, author of Bomb the Suburbs and Please Don't Bomb the Suburbs. Plus, we’ll speak with 20-year-old Cari Quoyeser from the Houston band Suburban Warfare, about what it’s like these days to rock out in the outskirts.

The celebrated English novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) often writes about music and musicians, so it only made sense that he'd want to make some music of his own. He's teamed up with the pop pianist Ben Folds for a new album called Lonely Avenue. Today on Soundcheck: Ben Folds performs tracks off the new album, and the pair discusses their creative collaboration.

For years, college a cappella groups lived in the shadows, hiding their extracurricular indiscretions behind a veil of shame. But sweet harmonies are nerdy no more. University-based a cappella groups are touring the world, and some of the best appear on a new compilation CD curated by alternative rock icon ...