The Low Anthem joined The Chieftains in a performance of "School Days Over" on The Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night, in celebration of the legendary Irish band's 50th anniversary. "The perfect way to celebrate their anniversary," says VH1, "the performance was filled with soul and reverence, and if you close your eyes, will take you back to a rolling, misty, fantastical landscape filled with magic." Watch the performance here. The groups perform in concert on NPR Music on Friday and at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. The Low Anthem plays its own set at SXSW tonight.

Punch Brothers celebrated the release of their new album last month with a special show at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall. Their performance of the song "Movement and Location" from that night has premiered in a video on The New Yorker's site; watch it here. Salon's Seth Mnookin calls the song "a propulsive masterpiece that sets the tone, both musically and thematically, for what’s to come" on the album. "Punch Brothers have achieved a kind of mind-meld that’s only possible when preternaturally talented musicians spend hours pushing themselves, and each other, to explore their passion and creativity." 

Punch Brothers are currently on tour in North America and has made its way to California for shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco tonight and El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles Saturday. The band has "further refined its sound on its latest album," Who's Feeling Young Now?, writes the Los Angeles Times. Its "rich and evocative tracks capture a white-hot musical mind coming into his own and collaborating with stellar peers." Last month, following the release of the new album, the band stopped by the studios of NYC public radio station WFUV to perform a few songs off the record. Watch them here.

Björk closed out her month-long, ten-show Biophilia NYC residency last night at Roseland Ballroom. The residency also included shows at the New York Hall of Science, which collaborated with Björk on a Biophilia education series on the scientific concepts at the core of the album. One such concept is DNA, in the song "Hollow," the video for which has premiered on NPR's All Songs Considered. "It takes an artist like Björk to turn the complex process of DNA replication and transcription into something as simple and beautiful as a pop song," says NPR. "For the video of her song 'Hollow,' Björk has collaborated with biomedical animator Drew Berry to create a partly-scientific representation of the haunting song." Watch it here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops are on tour in North America, performing music from their new album, Leaving Eden, in New England this week. During a recent tour stop in NYC, the band performed three songs off the album live on WNYC's Soundcheck and spoke with host John Schaefer about the new album. Listen to the show and watch the performance of "Boodle-De-Bum-Bum" here. Glide gives the album four stars: "On Leaving Eden, Carolina Chocolate Drops move music forward, paying homage to the past while remaining rooted in the present. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable work that challenges our definition of string band music."

Punch Brothers celebrated the release of their new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, with a special set at NYC's intimate Rockwood Music Hall last night that was captured in photos by Brooklyn Vegan. The band launches its North American tour outside Boston this Thursday. While in Paris last month, the band met up with the folks at Rolling Stone France to perform a short set. You can watch their performance of the album's title track here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops' new album, Leaving Eden, is due out next week on CD with vinyl to follow on March 20. Catch a sneak peek in a new video preview featuring the band's take on the Hazel Dickens tune "Pretty Bird" here. In the UK, the Independent on Sunday gives the album four stars. The band appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music's The Huey Show, discussing and performing songs from the new album, and are featured in The Arts Desk and the Guardian, which describes their sound as "a form of old-time jug band blues played with contemporary R&B attitude."

Björk played the last of her NY Hall of Science shows of her NYC Biophilia residency last weekend and plays the first of five nights at Roseland Ballroom tomorrow. NPR's All Songs Considered spoke with app developer Max Weisel, who plays the project's custom-made instruments onstage, including musical Tesla coils. Weisel gives Bob Boilen, host of All Songs Considered, a tour of the stage set-up and a demonstration of how it works. Watch it here. In this week's issue of The New Yorker, Björk talks with Alex Ross about the educational component of the project for public school students.

The Black Keys visited the BBC's Maida Vale studios earlier this week for a special episode of BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show, which included a 40-minute set for a live studio audience that was webcast live. You can watch their performance of "Lonely Boy" here. This Sunday, CBC Television in Canada will be airing a feature-length interview The Black Keys gave CBC Radio Q; watch a preview here.

Ry Cooder, having just premiered one new song, “Going to Tampa,” has now lent another new song, “The Mutt Romney Blues,” to a short satirical video by the progressive activists Brave New Films. The song and video tell the now well-known tale of the unusual al fresco car ride of Mitt Romney’s dog, only this time from a decidedly different perspective: that of the trusty pooch himself. This dog’s tune is, of course, a blues. Watch the video here.

The Black Keys, fresh on the heels of a winter tour of Europe and in the lead-up to their North American tour, have announced a new run of European dates for this summer. The tour includes several sets at summer festivals—Way Out West, Øya, Flow, Lowlands, and Highfield—as well as headlining shows in Copenhagen and Dublin. The band performed "Lonely Boy" on Canal Plus' Le Grand Journal last night. Watch it here. The Evening Standard, reviewing their recent London show, says: "In our era of airbrushing and auto-tuning, the Ohio duo are a definitive argument for keeping things rugged and real."

Punch Brothers' new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, is out this week. The band will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Wednesday, performing the album track "New York City." Check out a preview video with the song here. The New York Times includes the album on this week's Playlist, saying the band is focusing on "playful storytelling on this album," noting though "their mind-boggling cover of Radiohead’s 'Kid A.'” The New Yorker features the album in the Listening Booth, describing it as "a mystical alchemy of old-time music and contemporary sensibilities." In the UK, where the band is the subject of a feature article in the Observer, the Daily Telegraph gives the album a perfect five stars.