Last week came word that The Black Keys would be touring with Kings of Leon for a dozen dates this September. The band has now added several additional dates, following the release of its new album, Brothers, including headlining shows with The Morning Benders, The Whigs, and Nicole Atkins. Patrick Carney talks with Billboard about the upcoming record and recent projects he and Dan Auerbach have taken on.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops kicked off their North American tour with what the New York Times called an "end-to-end display of excellence," during a free concert in Harlem presented by Carnegie Hall on Saturday. "They make short work of their instructive mission and spend their energy on things that require it: flatfoot dancing, jug playing, shouting." The trio next takes that infectious exuberance up north for two shows in Ontario.

Bill Frisell is in New York City this week to begin a two-week residency at the Village Vanguard. This week's line-up features the Bill Frisell Trio, with Eyvind Kang on violin and Rudy Royston on drums. Next week, Frisell leads his 858 Quartet, with Kang returning on violin, Jenny Scheinman on violin as well, and Hank Roberts joining on cello. Tonight, Portrait of a Man, a new documentary film featuring Frisell's music, receives its international premiere at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto.

The recently released album Secret Agent is the latest from Tony Allen, "the man who helped create Afrobeat with Fela Kuti," says NPR. Now, Nonesuch Records has partnered with the producers of FELA!, the hit Broadway musical on the life of Kuti, to offer customers who order the Secret Agent CD in the Nonesuch Store up to almost 40% off tickets to the musical the New York Times called "impossible to resist."

Randy Newman tours Scandinavia and blogs about it ... John Adams hosts SF film screening ... Björk DJs in Brooklyn ... Carolina Chocolate Drops offer free shows in NYC ... Richard Goode solos in NYC ... Kronos plays for SF families ... The Low Anthem winds down tour ... Natalie Merchant plays PEN Festival Cabaret ... Pat Metheny plays Pacific Northwest ... Punch Brothers are in Baton Rouge ... Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau duo ... Allen Toussaint does double sets at Jazz Fest ... Rokia Traoré tours UK ... Dawn Upshaw performs Knoxville in St. Paul ... Wilco awes Australia ... and more ...

It was just two weeks ago we announced the search for collaborators to remix Laurie Anderson's new song “Only an Expert,” off her upcoming Nonesuch release, Homeland, and the response has been great. The competition is set to increase as the May 13 cut-off date nears, and the public and the jury, including Anderson and Lou Reed, begin to review the submissions. Enter today at Indaba Music, and pre-order Homeland, along with a signed copy of the "Only an Expert" vinyl single, in the Nonesuch Store.

Timothy Andres, whose debut recording, Shy and Mighty, is due out on Nonesuch May 18, is featured in a Wall Street Journal article examining how the young composer, raised on the classical canon, was later introduced to a new world of music that included everything from iconic classic rock to contemporary classical icons like Steve Reich and John Adams, and how this has influenced his own work.

John Adams will host a special screening of the Italian film I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, at the San Francisco International Film Festival, followed by a Q&A, at The Castro Theatre this Sunday afternoon. Several of Adams's works surge with new life as the score to film, which was directed and produced with Adams's music in mind. Following the film's recent UK theatrical release, the Times of London gave it five stars, noting its "sublime score."

The Black Keys' schedule looked to be pretty well full up following the May 18 release of their latest Nonesuch album, Brothers, opening for Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden, back-to-back spots on late-night TV for Letterman and Fallon, and US and European tours through the summer. Now comes word that the band will open for Kings of Leon throughout September. Also, it seems Frank the Puppet Dinosaur is back with a crass new music video.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops begin a months-long spring and summer North American tour this weekend with a free shows in New York City as part of Carnegie Hall's Neighborhood Concert Series. The Knoxville News Sentinel says "the trio reclaims string band music with a sense of passion and fun that is infectious ... The members trade banjos, fiddles, guitars, other instruments and vocal duties with ease."

Audra McDonald performed with the San Francisco Symphony Monday night and brought out "one gem-like number after the next," says the San Jose Mercury News, which describes her voice as "Full and mellow, elegant and sexy, lush, plush, brassy, growling, howling across her gigantic range, or expressing starry-eyed enchantment." This summer, she will reprise her role in 110 in the Shade, for a limited run in Utah; make her Tanglewood debut; and perform at Aspen and at the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim celebration.

Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman kick off a two-and-a-half-week tour of duo performances in Burlington, Vermont, tonight. At one recent duo date, "the twosome played with an unerring touch," says the Albany Times Union. All About Jazz insists that anyone with "the opportunity to see these two jazz masters should not pass it up." Mehldau spoke with PBS NewsHour about his new album, Highway Rider, which also features Redman.