Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters performed songs from his new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, at the 2014 iTunes Festival in London last September. Their live take on the album track "Turn It Up" from the festival premiered via The Guardian, which says Plant's new album and tour made for "one of the marvels of 2014." Watch the performance here. Robert Plant and the band will tour Latin America in March and play a number of festivals in the US and Europe this summer.

Conor Oberst kicks off a tour of Australia and New Zealand, featuring music from his 2014 Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, with a performance at The Triffid in Brisbane Wednesday night. The tour includes multiple shows in Melbourne and Sydney, a stop in Auckland, and a culminating set at the Golden Plains Festival. The Felice Brothers join as special guests. In June, Oberst will play The Governors Ball in New York City.

Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, which was released late last month on CD and digitally, is now available on vinyl. The double LP, pressed on 140-gram audiophile vinyl, includes four additional tracks not available elsewhere. The band continues its North American tour in Asheville, North Carolina, tonight, followed by stops in the days ahead in Atlanta, Nashville, and Chicago, where the Chicago Reader calls the new album "stunning."

Congratulations to Boyhood's Patricia Arquette, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards last night. The night before, Arquette had won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and Richard Linklater won for Best Director. Paul Thomas Anderson's film Inherent Vice received the Independent Spirit Awards' Robert Altman Award, given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. The soundtracks to both films are available now on Nonesuch Records. 

This Oscar weekend, Jonny Greenwood, London Contemporary Orchestra play his film music in Oxford ... Laurie Anderson gives keynote for Innovative Women in New Music in NYC ... Timo Andres joins NOVUS for Ives’s Fourth Symphony at Carnegie Hall ... Jeremy Denk joins IRIS Orchestra for Bartók in Tennessee ... Richard Goode performs Schumann, Brahms at Carnegie Hall ... Tigran Hamasyan takes US tour to LA ... Kronos Quartet performs in Irvine ... Audra McDonald joins Des Moines Symphony ... Nico Muhly is in London .. Punch Brothers kick off tour in DC ... and more ...

Punch Brothers kick off a North American tour featuring music from their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, with three nights at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, starting tonight (Chris Thile's birthday). The tour includes stops in Nashville, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Vancouver; four dates in California; three in Texas; and more, with supporting sets from Gaby Moreno, Michael Daves, and Gabriel Kahane along the way. The vinyl edition of The Phosphorescent Blues is due out Tuesday.

Rhiannon Giddens recently stopped by Q104.3 in New York City for an appearance on Out of the Box. She spoke with host Jonathan “JC” Clarke about her recently release solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and about working with producer T Bone Burnett on that and the Lost Basement Tapes project. She also performs the song “Angel City,” which closes out Tomorrow Is My Turn. Watch the interview and performance here.

The ECHO Jazz 2015 Award nominations have been announced by the German Recording Academy, and among the nominees are Brad Mehldau, who is up for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano/Keyboards, for his album with drummer Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon; Pat Metheny for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Guitar, and Pat Metheny Unity Group for International Ensemble of the Year for Kin (←→); and Joshua Redman for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Saxophone/Woodwinds, for Trios Live. 

The Staves unveiled a live performance of "Black & White," off their forthcoming Justin Vernon–produced album If I Was. You can watch it here. The album version is available to download now with album pre-orders, along with two additional tracks: "Blood I Bled" and "Steady." The Staves will perform at the Eaux Claires Festival, curated by Vernon and Bryce Dessner, held in Eau Claire, July 17 and 18, as will Sam Amidon, among others.

Devendra Banhart and longtime friend, musical collaborator, and fellow singer-songwriter Andy Cabic (Vetiver)—who together formed the vanguard of an experimental and folk-influenced aesthetic that emerged in the Bay Area around the turn of the millennium—will tour Spain and Portugal in May, performing both individually and together in a casual mix of older and newer material, including Banhart's 2013 Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala.

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan's Nonesuch Records debut, Mockroot, is out now, featuring new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more. "There are many brilliant and perfectly finished young jazz pianists around," says the Telegraph, "but Hamasyan stands out because he has something important and urgent to say." "You will find it difficult if not impossible to get this disc out of your machine for quite a while," raves the Buffalo News. "Don’t count on getting it out of your head for a long while either." Hamasyan and his trio are currently on tour in the US.

Conor Oberst is the guest on the latest episode of WTF with Marc Maron. Oberst, whom the show calls "a virtuoso singer-songwriter," talks with Maron about his Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, what WTF describes as "the intangible nature of writing songs," and much more. Oberst kicks off a tour of Australia and New Zealand with special guests The Felice Brothers next week.