Bill Frisell and Glenn Kotche will be on hand in Cincinnati, Ohio, this week as the third annual MusicNOW festival, organized by native son Bryce Dessner of The National, gets under way at Memorial Hall tonight. Kotche performed in the inaugural MusicNOW in 2006 and returns this Friday to perform with Dessner and Bang on a Can on a double bill with Dirty Projectors. Frisell makes his MusicNOW debut tomorrow night.

Today's the day. April Fool's, yes, but also the day Attack & Release, The Black Keys' latest, hits stores. The New York Sun says "Attack & Release houses the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released to date."New York Daily News says "the duo perfectly calibrate richer sounds and fuller melodies with their usual killer riffs and scathing rhythms." Scripps Howard gives the album four stars.

The Tim Burton-directed film version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Helena Bonham Carter as his cohort in crime, is available now on DVD. The special collector's edition includes an in-depth look at the Sondheim musical, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film, and the history of the legend of the Demon Barber, among a number of additional special features.

Looking forward to tonight's Punch Brothers performance at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Detroit Free Press calls the band's Nonesuch debut, Punch, "one of the best records so far this year, an elegantly sculpted work that doesn't let its high-end chops overshadow its heart."

With just one more day to go before the release of Attack & Release, The Black Keys new album, the band will be live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today. The New York Times says of the collaboration with Danger Mouse: "Happily, the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed." The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the album an A, exclaiming: "The results are splendiferous." The Akron Beacon Journal, calls it "the band's most interesting collection of songs and sounds."

The Bravo! Canada network's award-winning series Live at the Rehearsal Hall will feature k.d. lang and her band in concert performing songs from Watershed and favorites from throughout her career. The show will debut tomorrow night, April 1. Past episodes of the series have featured a broad array of artists, including Beck, Feist, Rufus Wainwright, and Philip Glass. 

This week marked the release of the Brad Mehldau Trio's two-disc Live set, recorded during the group's weeklong residency at the Village Vanguard in October 2006; The Guardian (UK) gives four stars to the latest album from this "prodigiously gifted pianist" and his trio, offering what audiences have come to expect from Brad, namely "state-of-the-art contemporary jazz piano."

The Black Keys' tour is now under way, with the second of two stops in Arizona slated for tonight at Tempe's Marquee Theatre, and their new album, Attack & Release, hits stores this Tuesday. The Sun gives it a perfect five stars, calling it "probably greatest album by the duo." The Independent gives the album four stars, crediting Danger Mouse with adding "layers of character and mystery to the duo's core blues-rock."

The US leg of k.d. lang's Watershed tour ended earlier this week with two shows at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, but today offers two chances to catch k.d. on TV.

Tune in to Live with Regis & Kelly this morning for an encore broadcast of k.d.'s recent performance on the show. And tonight, k.d. and the band will perform live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.