Punch Brothers have announced their summer plans, with dozens of tour dates planned to take them across the United States through September. "Spring is here (!!) and summer's just around the corner," says the band. "And that means it's festival season. We're excited to be playing a bunch of great festivals and other shows including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Mile High Music Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Targhee Bluegrass Festival, and others."

Wilco has announced the launch of the Solid Sound Festival, a new festival the band will curate, August 13-15, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), featuring music, art, comedy, interactivity, and more. Wilco headlines the weekend, in the band's only East Coast performance of the summer. The festival also presents individual performances by all the Wilco members' side projects.

Pat Metheny begins the North American leg of his world Orchestrion tour today, just as the album releases on vinyl. The Wall Street Journal's Ashley Kahn takes a look at the orchestrion in action, calling the performance "surprisingly fluid and nuanced," with "Metheny's trademark guitar sound: fluid, with a clear melodic sense, flitting between a bright, pop approach and a more moody effect." The album, says Kahn, contains "as beautiful a melody as any Mr. Metheny has written since his Question and Answer session."

Louis Andriessen is set to preside over several concerts he has curated as holder of Carnegie Hall's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair, starting Friday. The New York Times recognizes Andriessen's "gift for embracing conflicting values, musical and otherwise, and making it seem as if they fit together naturally." Among the participants in these events are John Adams, Dawn Upshaw, Iva Bittová, Alan Pierson, and Nonesuch President Robert Hurwitz.

Wilco's current tour, An Evening with Wilco, may be fully sold-out, but that doesn't mean you'll have to go without. Tune in to the band site for live webcasts of Tuesday's show from Boston and Wednesday's show from Concord, New Hampshire. Relix described the tour opener as "a spirited rock-and-roll blowout." You can also enjoy Wilco live via the forthcoming vinyl release of Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.

Tony Allen—best known for his work as drummer and musical director for Fela Kuti—makes his World Circuit / Nonesuch debut with next week's North American release of Secret Agent, on April 13. Now comes confirmation of Allen's North American tour this summer, with stops in Toronto, Madison, Chicago, Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Seattle, and Northern California.

Wilco tour heads up the East Coast as Blogotheque posts its "Take-Away Show" ... Carolina Chocolate Drops stop off at The Showroom in Spartanburg, South Carolina ... Bill Frisell makes Savannah Music Festival debut on double bill with ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate ... Phillip Glass plays the Pacific Northwest ... The Low Anthem has shows in Salt Lake City, Boulder, and Omaha ... Brad Mehldau Trio sets up for a weekend at Yoshi's ... and more ...

The Brad Mehldau Trio began a four-night residency at Yoshi's in Oakland last night. Mehldau recently returned to the US after an extensive European tour and kicked things off with a solo show at Largo in LA. The Los Angeles Times says any solo set from Mehldau "promises to be an adventurous treat" and finds the pianist to be "at the peak of his powers," calling his latest album, Highway Rider, "one of the most striking jazz releases of the year."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops have been on a roll on their current tour of the US, playing sold-out sets along the way, including one tonight at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina. Tune in to North Carolina Public Radio's The State of Things live at 12 PM ET to hear a chat with the band. The Raleigh News & Observer says "the best thing the Chocolate Drops have going for them is freshness, an ability to make old music sound and feel relevant."

The Low Anthem concludes the West Coast leg of its tour at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe tonight, before heading inland for shows from Salt Lake City to Chicago before it's back East. The band walked Paste through the recording space for its next record and spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about it, after playing a number of new tunes for KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA.

The release of Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep is just over two weeks away. The Sunday Times (UK) calls it "the biggest, most musically ambitious" project of her career. Merchant will start release day, April 13, with a performance on Good Morning America. The following week, on April 21, she'll play The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In between those appearances and in the weeks that follow, Merchant will give several intimate performances, including newly added dates in New York, Los Angeles, Boulder, Boston, and DC.

The Black Keys will support their forthcoming Nonesuch release, Brothers, due out May 18, with a summer tour beginning June 2 in Salt Lake City, including a newly added second show at Central Park’s SummerStage. Pre-sale tickets for the tour go on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, March 30, through the band's site and include include a copy of Brothers upon release and an instant download of two tracks.