Punch Brothers, in their second year of residency at the Oberlin Conservatory, have been named Affiliate Scholars at Oberlin. A rare distinction at Oberlin, Affiliate Scholars are named in recognition of significant professional achievement and with the purpose of facilitating artistic or scholarly endeavor in association with Oberlin. As part of their residency, Punch Brothers engage with students through a wide range of activities, including coaching sessions, master classes, lectures, and performances. 

The Black Keys and Nickel Creek will be featured on Austin City Limits (ACL) as the series unwraps the second half of its Season 40 in January. Nickel Creek, appearing for the third time, kicks things off when ACL returns to PBS on Saturday, January 3, on a double bill with The Avett Brothers. The Black Keys make their second appearance on the show on Saturday, January 31. Emmylou Harris appears on a special episode with performance highlights from the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame presentation, as ACL closes out its celebratory season on February 14.

Brad Mehldau Trio kicks off a ten-day, eight-city US tour at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California, tonight. It's the first of three stops in the state, including Stanford and a double bill in Northridge with The Bad Plus, followed by shows in Phoenix, Durham, Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany. Mehldau's electric duo album with drummer Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, was named to Jazzwise magazine's list of the Best Albums of the Year. 

Nonesuch releases Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced The Phosphorescent Blues on January 27, 2015; vinyl follows on February 24 with four additional tracks not available elsewhere. In celebration, the band embarks on a 23-city North American tour on February 20. The Phosphorescent Blues is available to pre-order with instant downloads of the album tracks “I Blew It Off” and “Julep,” which you can preview here.

There's still about a month to go before 2014 comes to a close, and already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Uncut, Mojo, and Q have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys and Sam Amidon; the label debut albums from Robert Plant and Conor Oberst; and a special reissue from Emmylou Harris.

Congratulations to Boyhood, which received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film of the Year, Best Director for Richard Linklater, and Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette earlier this week. Also this week, the film, which was written, directed, and co-produced by Linklater, received the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award and was named among the Top Films of the Year by the National Board of Review.

Audra McDonald launches her extensive 2014–15 concert season with a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA tonight. The season includes shows in more than 30 cities in 18 different states across the US, among them five cities in California and five in Florida; three each in New Jersey and upstate New York; dates in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Boston, Chapel Hill, and Tucson; and a return to Carnegie Hall. McDonald won a record-breaking sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year and released her latest solo album, Go Back Home, in 2013.

Sam Amidon recently stopped by NPR with Bill Frisell and Shahzad Ismaily to give a Tiny Desk Concert. They perform two songs from Amidon's latest album, Lily-O, on which both perform and which Tiny Desk Concert host Bob Boilen calls "gorgeous"—"Blue Mountains" and "Pat Do This, Pat Do That"—as well as the song "Short Life" from his 2013 Nonesuch Records debut album, Bright Sunny South. Watch the Tiny Desk Concert here. Amidon opens for Wilco at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago this Saturday, then leads his own shows in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Toronto.

Happy Cyber Monday! The savings continue as the Nonesuch Store anniversary sale, which began last week, rolls into Cyber Monday and beyond, with all currently available CDs, LPs, DVDs, MP3s, and FLAC here at nonesuch.com (pre-orders excluded) 15% off the everyday low prices listed on the site; the sale discount will be show at checkout.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and that means, among other things, Record Store Day Black Friday, offering unique recordings from some of your favorite artists, including Conor Oberst. He releases a special, limited-edition 7" featuring two exclusive tracks recorded during the sessions for his new album, Upside Down Mountain, that are unavailable anywhere else: "Standing on the Outside Looking In" and "Sugar Street." To pick up a copy of the 7" while supplies last, head to a record store near you.

Nonesuch Records wishes everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving in the US and a fruitful Black Friday. (Not to mention a Happy Birthday to Randy Newman on said Friday.) Remember: everything out now on the site (excluding preorders) is 15% off our everyday low prices for the store's anniversary sale. There are also some noteworthy performances in the coming days: John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary is at the ENO in London, his Saxophone Concerto with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Timothy McAllister; Sam Amidon concludes his European tour in Paris; Jeremy Denk joins San Francisco Symphony for Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Tigran Hamasyan tours France; Pat Metheny Unity Group is in Mexico; and Robert Plant closes out his sold-out UK tour.

In December 2007, the Nonesuch Store opened at nonesuch.com with just a couple of new releases. Now, seven years later, the store has grown to include hundreds of new and classic Nonesuch albums. To celebrate this anniversary, everything now on the site that's out now—CDs, LPs, DVDs, MP3s, FLAC; pre-orders excluded—is 15% off our everyday low prices. That's 15% off the already discounted prices listed on the site on hundreds of CDs, dozens of recordings on vinyl, some unforgettable DVDs, and, for the first time, hundreds of MP3s—including classic recordings no longer in print—and, for digital audiophiles, scores of FLAC lossless files of our latest releases, and a number of new HD FLAC files too.