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In part three of our series on physicians and managed care, NPR's Patricia Neighmond examines how patients react to a system that tries to maintain low costs by keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital. The focus is on the Bristol Park Medical Group in Orange County, California, a new type of group practice where physicians have banded together to regain control over medical decision-making.

Meet everybody's favorite unknown Seattle band. Pearl Jam chose the Fastbacks as the opening act for its current world tour. The Fastbacks have been laboring for nearly twenty years on the Seattle club scene. They've watched as their friends became famous (during the major label feeding frenzy that descended on Seattle during the grunge boom) and they didn't. But they've persevered. Marcie Sillman, of member station K-U-O-W, reports.

J.J. Johnson, a pioneer of the modern jazz trombone died Sunday at his home in Indianapolis. He was 77. It was an apparent suicide. Johnson was considered the definitive trombonist of the bebop generation. He played with the Count Basie Orchestra, Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Wood Herman, and Miles Davis, often balancing that with leading his own band. Later in life, Johnson moved to Hollywood to work as a composer and arranger for television.

A French-style '60s band has taken New York by storm. But most of the members of Les Sans Culottes are Americans. Their act is a musical takeoff on the French pop music of an era far more famous in America for the British invasion led by The Beatles.

Since their 2001 debut, the French band Phoenix has gained a devoted following on the international pop scene. Their latest album, Live! Thirty Days Ago, features performances by the quartet on the road.

In his new book So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star, Jacob Slichter, the drummer for the band Semisonic, peels away the glamour that gives the world of rock its sheen of cool. He speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with John McCrea, lead singer and songwriter of the band CAKE, whose newest album is Pressure Chief. Mr. McCrea explains that his songwriting is often inspired by the frustrations and sadness of romances gone wrong; fortunately, these stories are vivid and occasionally humorous.

The Joy of Cooking, a band led by two women out of Berkeley, Calif., in the late 1960s, is enjoying something of a revival. The group's brand of folk-rock included elements of jazz, blues and Latin music.

Rabbit Fur Coat is the debut solo album by Jenny Lewis, the former child-actress who is also the former lead singer of the cult-indie rock band Rilo Kiley.

The posthumous album from Joe Strummer, a leader of The Clash, reflects many elements of his career, with a mix of rock and reggae influences. Strummer died last December at age 50, and members of his final band, the Mescaleros, helped to finish Streetcore. Chris Nickson has a review.