The Black Keys have been named an Artist of the Year by SPIN magazine! "The Black Keys are closing out a year that saw their sixth album, Brothers—a dark, swampy, R&B-inspired stomper—become an indisputable hit," says SPIN in the cover story on the band. Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach discuss the making of the album and the unprecedented response the band received upon the album's release. "We had no idea what to expect," says Auerbach. "All we knew was that we felt we had made the best record we could and were pretty excited about that." SPIN has also named Brothers to the magazine's list of the 40 Best Albums of 2010 and "Tighten Up" to its list of the 20 Best Songs of 2010.

The Black Keys' Brothers lands at No. 2 on NPR's All Songs Considered listeners' picks of The Best Music of 2010. Also on the list are Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig and Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Lonely Avenue. All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton says of Brothers: "I think this is their fattest, richest, most sonically diverse album that they've done." Philip Selway's Familial has made the NPR All Songs Considered list for Best Album Covers of 2010. Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig is No. 4 on the Americana Music Association's Top 100 Albums of the Year.

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed will curate a month of programming at New York's The Stone this February. Their curatorial skills are well known to anyone who attended Sydney's Vivid LIVE festival or who read of its much beloved Music for Dogs concert. The Stone events include a special Valentine's Day duo by Anderson and Reed, a duo performance from Anderson and Fred Frith, and weekly Open Houses. "And," says Brooklyn Vegan, "the rest of the month isn't so bad either." You can download Anderson's Grammy-nominated song "Flow," off Homeland, here.

Ben Folds brings his fall Lonely Avenue tour to a close at the Beacon Theatre in New York City tonight. Time Out New York includes the concert as a critics' pick, describing Folds as "a consummate professional." AOL's City's Best features the show as well. The Sing-Off, NBC's a cappella singing competition, continues in its second week this week. The Baltimore Sun suggests that Folds "should be a judge on every show ever." You can read Folds's thoughts on the show in his Sing-Off blog, On Key.

To celebrate her new album, The Party Ain’t Over, out January 25, Wanda Jackson will play two special New York City and Los Angeles shows around its release. Wanda will be accompanied by the Third Man House Band featuring Jack White, who also produced the album, on guitar. The Party Ain't Over is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store at 33% off; the first 250 pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition poster autographed by Jackson.

"This past year has been good for new music from the more established names in African music," including AfroCubism, says NPR. Indeed, AfroCubism has made Barnes & Noble's list of the Top 10 Albums of any genre for 2010; The Black Keys' Brothers comes in at No. 5 among the best in rock. Brothers and Ali and Toumani, from Ali Farka Touré and AfroCubism's Toumani Diabaté, make The Huffington Post's Top 10 Albums of 2010.

Tune in to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today to hear the Black Keys perform tracks from their album, Brothers, which host Jason Bentley rated No. 1 on his Top Albums of 2010. The album comes in at No. 7 on TIME's Top 10 Albums of the Year; the magazine calls it "a classic, unmuddled rock-'n'-roll record." The New York Post places Brothers, an album "filled with ear-candy," at No. 6 in his Top Ten Albums of the Year. Watch a video for the album track "Everlasting Light" here.

The Black Keys play three California festivals ... John Adams concludes San Francisco Symphony residency ... Timothy Andres premieres piano piece in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Low Anthem conclude joint tour ... The Low Anthem joins Emmylou Harris on Grand Ole Opry ... Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin perform benefit in Austin ... Christina Courtin concludes tour with Aoife O'Donovan ... The Hard Nuts opens in Brooklyn ... Punch Brothers close out fall tour in Chicago ... and more ... 

The Low Anthem's forthcoming album, Smart Flesh, is still a couple of months away from its February 22 Nonesuch release, but fans have been listening to a free download of the album track "Ghost Woman Blues" all week. The video for the song, set in the abandoned pasta sauce factory in which the album was recorded, premiered on NPR's All Songs Considered earlier today. Watch it here.

Nonesuch releases composer Carter Burwell’s score for the film True Grit on December 21, 2010. The film is directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and features Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, and Hailee Steinfeld. The Coen brothers wrote the script, which is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis. True Grit opens on December 22. The soundtrack is available now for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

John Adams concludes his residency with the San Francisco Symphony with performances of his chamber music by members of the orchestra and the St. Lawrence String Quartet on Sunday. Recent SFS performances of Adams's El Niño lead the San Francisco Chronicle to call it "one of Adams's greatest achievements" and the San Jose Mercury News to call it "extraordinary ... one of Adams's marvels." The Chronicle said of SFS performances of Harmonielehre that "this brilliant and dynamic opus emerged with all its force intact." The Mercury News called it "epic ... one of those capital-E events that music lovers are constantly craving."

The Hard Nut, Mark Morris's 1991 retelling of the classic tale of The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann, returns to New York for the first time in eight years, with an eight-performance run at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, starting tonight. The New York Times says: "Mr. Morris creates a marvelously musical, choreographically ingenious response to Tchaikovsky’s great score that has its own magic and speaks its own truths about the nature of love." The Hard Nut DVD is now 33% off in the Nonesuch Store.