Pianist Vijay Iyer, who played the Walker in March, topped five categories in this year’s DownBeat International Critics Poll, an unprecedented feat. His honors include: jazz artist of the year, top jazz album, top pianist, top jazz group, and “Rising Star Composer.”

Yoko Ono and longtime friends Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth are teaming up on a new album of “noise music.” Mulberry, due later this year, aims to “bring out maximum energy to wake up the world.” It also apparently has another name: YOKOKIMTHURSTON.

Since its launch in 1998, Rock the Garden has transformed from an intermittent street jam to its current incarnation on the Walker hillside, where it draws more than 10,000 fans. The 2012 edition—featuring Howler, Tune-Yards, Doomtree, Trampled by Turtles, and The Hold Steady—is the Walker’s tenth, prompting a look back at the varied, vibrant history of the Cities’ first concert of the summer.

David Byrne, who headlined Rock the Garden 2004, and St. Vincent, who graced our stage last fall, have teamed up on a new LP, Love This Giant, and are starting a tour in support of it. A departure for both, the album will hinge on “idiosyncratic horn arrangements.”

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who opened Rock the Garden 2008, has founded a record label dedicated to promoting new or older bands making “good music that may not be box office-smashing.” It’s name, borrowed from a Northern Exposure character: Chigliak Records.

College study in Kenya, a gig performing quirky scores for Buster Keaton films, parents who met in New York while playing square dances, a political sensibility: A bit of what goes into the music of Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs, who plays Rock the Garden Saturday.

NASA’s only artist in residence Laurie Anderson tells SVA’s 2012 grads there should be artist residencies everywhere, including Congress and the Supreme Court. “Artists have a unique point of view. Why isn’t that part of the bigger picture in our country?”

Wednesday’s Google Doodle honoring synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog (1934-2005) is Ryan Germick’s homage to “a patron saint of the nerdy arts.” Fittingly, the playable doodle has 19 knobs, one wheel, a switch, and four tracks that let you record 30 seconds of audio.