The Black Keys are in New York tonight to play McCarren Park Pool, the unique, former and soon-to-be-again public pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tomorrow, they'll be at the New American Music Union festival in Pittsburgh, sharing a bill with the likes of Bob Dylan, The Raconteurs, and Gnarls Barkley. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette previews that set with a profile of the band that has, with Attack and Release, released its "best record to date" and "garnered the kind of critical praise that rarely comes this positive."

Orchestra Boabab is on the road in Europe, playing a number of the Continent's biggest summer festivals. Pitchfork's Joe Tangari spoke with Barthélemy Attisso, one of the Baobab's founding members, whose distinctive guitar work helped create its unique sound during its heyday as, writes Tangari, "one of the world's greatest bands." Now with new recordings from the group, including this year's Made in Dakar and 2002's Specialist in All Styles, Tangari says, the world has caught on.

The Black Keys played the opening day of Lollapalooza in Chicago on Friday in a set that Time Out Chicago reports featured the band's signature "folky-blues, [which] breaks into blown-out acid riffage." Metromix Chicago says that hometown band Wilco's Saturday set showed that the city "has a lot to thank Wilco for." Over the next two weeks, each band will make its way to Brooklyn's popular McCarren Park Pool, which, as the New York Times reports, will transition back to its original use after this summer's shows.

Orchestra Baobab headlined the Womad Festival in England this past weekend, performing songs from their latest release, Made in Dakar, for an audience of 30,000. The Times (UK)'s Stephen Dalton writes: "Sunday peaked with the West African veterans Orchestra Baobab ... whose undulating rhythms and mellifluous harmonies cross easily across national and generational borders. Perfect Womad headliners."

Emmylou Harris's US tour is now heading down the West Coast, bringing songs from her latest album, All I Intended to Be, and throughout her varied career, from Seattle to San Diego. After her recent performance in Seattle, the Seattle Times wrote: "Emmylou Harris proves on her latest release that she still has one of the best voices in the business ... The grace of her vocals and the restraint of her songwriting and song choices is what we've come to expect from Harris. The fact that she continues to deliver makes it even more impressive ..."

During the last leg of their US tour, The Magnetic Fields played several nights at The Town Hall in New York. While there, Stephin Merritt invited the folks at Other Music backstage to discuss the new record and tape a few solo performances—just him and his bouzouki—of “The Nun’s Litany,” from the new album, and “This Little Ukulele,” from his soundtrack for the 2000 film Eban & Charley. You can watch the videos now ...

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists ...

Randy Newman performed every song off his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, this past Wednesday in a special, intimate showcase at the new LA venue Largo at the Coronet. Variety's Steven Mirkin writes that "both the concert and the wonderful new album ... show Newman to be at the height of his powers, writing some of the most acerbic and heartfelt songs of his career."

Laurie Anderson gave the first of five performances at Lincoln Center of her latest piece, Homeland, last night. The New York Sun's Joy Goodwin calls it "the work of a consummate artist at the highest level of her craft" and "the natural extension of what Bob Dylan and the Byrds were doing" in the 1960s, "taking on the establishment with words and melodies, and holding an audience in the palm of their hand."

The Magnetic Fields recently complete a sold-out, five-night stint at London's Cadogan Hall to which The Independent gives a perfect five stars, calling the band "masters of the pocket symphony" and finding the roots of Stephin Merritt's songwriting in Cole Porter and Tom Lehrer. NME asserts that with the concerts, the group "proved themselves the greatest band in operation today without even breaking a sweat."

k.d. lang is back in the British Isles to close out her European Watershed tour with a string of dates that began last night in Oxford and continue from tonight in Sheffield through Dublin, Ireland, on Monday to the last stop, Brighton, a week later. The Guardian features an extensive interview with k.d. that asserts: "First and always foremost, there was her voice, as pure and wide and open as Canadian skies."

Punch Brothers, fresh off a successful tour of Ireland and the UK, are back in the States and set to play tonight in downtown New York City as part of the River to River Festival of free summer concerts. After last week's London show, the Financial Times called the group among the "foremost practitioners" of "progressive bluegrass," and their music "Americana played with adventure and accomplishment." Please note: due to tonight's inclement weather forecast, the concert has been moved inside, to Stuyvesant High School, across the street from Rockefeller Park.