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.

Punch Brothers performed "Movement and Location," the opening track to their new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, live for the Guardian’s “How I wrote …” video series. Before the band plays the tune, Chris Thile gives some background to the song's title and lyrics. Watch the video here. The band's recent Celtic Connections set can be heard via BBC Radio 2. "Punch Brothers are not a bluegrass band," says Guitar World. "[T]he group takes influences ranging from Radiohead to Bach to Earl Scruggs and combines them into a strikingly unique brand of acoustic music."

The Black Keys' new music video for "Gold on the Ceiling," off their album El Camino, premiered Monday on MTV. The video was directed by Reid Long and captures the band both on stage and behind the scenes, at their album release show at New York's Webster Hall and on the road. SPIN calls the song "a punchy, swag-friendly rave-up." VH1 calls it "an honest, organic rock song that is as faithful to the roots of the genre as any modern band can be." MTV sums up the video succinctly: "It simply features The Black Keys doing what they do best: rocking the f*** out." Watch it here.

Punch Brothers' new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, is out just one week from today. Anyone who's pre-ordered or does so this week is entered to win tickets to an intimate, invite-only show at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on February 20. The band will perform on The Tonight Show next Wednesday and can be seen performing the album's opening track in a new video from Vanity Fair by photographer Danny Clinch. Watch it here.

Björk was the guest on last night's episode of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. She performed the song "Cosmogony" off her new album, Biophilia. For the performance, Björk was backed by members of an award-winning Icelandic women's choir, Alarm Will Sound percussionist Chris Thompson, and app developer Max Weisel, who will also perform on stage alongside Björk in the live shows. Watch it here, along with Björk's conversation with Colbert.