​One recent trend in pop music has seen a number of old souls producing albums by the young at heart. Gospel goddess Mavis Staples's latest album, 2010's You Are Not Alone, was produced by Wilco wunderkind Jeff Tweedy; rockabilly vet Wanda Jackson's The Party Ain't Over, released in 2011, was overseen by icky thumper Jack White; and, since 2008, ?uestlove has lit fires under Al Green (Lay It Down), Booker T. Jones (The Road from Memphis), and Betty Wright (Betty Wright: The Movie). It's a great deal on both sides; one party gets to work with their idol, and the other gets to make a splash—not to mention a potentially killer record.

On April 3, another notch is added to the future-master-produces-for-an-old-pro belt with Locked Down, the new album from New Orleans pianist and singer Dr. John. Produced by guitarist Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Locked Down rewinds to the Doctor's potent late-'60s/early-'70s period, a time that precedes Auerbach's birth by about a decade. Surrounding the release, and beginning March 29, Dr. John will take over the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House for three weekends, bringing in a different project for each three-night stretch. The middle weekend, running from April 5 to 7, will offer the official debut of the music from Locked Down.

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​The Black Keys w/Arctic Monkeys
Madison Square Garden
Thursday, March 22

Better than: A Nickelback concert.

For Black Keys guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach, less is more—or at least it was last night. At the second of two Madison Square Garden gigs this month, he addressed the foaming-at-the-mouth crowd approximately twice, save for (mostly unnecessary) introductions of band members. But the scant words he did mutter couldn't have summed up Thursday's show any better.

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​Well this is outstanding. Both the Black Keys and Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig showed up on Colbert last night to argue about who's gotten their music in more commercials. Koenig: "Are you challenging us to a sell-out-off?" Black Keys' Dan Auerbach: "Bring it on, Cape Cod!" Colbert: "Clearly you have both equally whored out your music!" Somehow the "musicians trying to be comedians" woodenness of it all only makes it funnier. This is Colbert's best bit in months; watch below (both bands show up around 4:30), and lament only that there was no way to get Pomplamoose involved.

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I wore straight-up hiking boots to this motherfucker, clunky and impenetrable, and sloshed invincibly across acres of gushy, foul-smelling New Jersey mud like a hovercraft, like a Range Rover, like God moving across the face of the waters. The mud is what we'll all remember about APW, first brought to life by Friday's torrential downpour and sustained Sunday morning and early afternoon by apocalyptic storms that deferred ferries and kept the gates closed for three-plus hours as folks Twittered irately. Once everyone finally got in around 4:30, the weather was actually lovely, not a drop to fall on our pretty little heads all evening. A fabulous environment from the knees up, provided you had a gas mask. Nearly every band's banter included a simple, paternal, deeply concerned question: "Are you all OK?"

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