Unknown Mortal Orchestra are in town, and their live show is earning them some fast friends. Following Homebake on Saturday, they perform Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory tomorrow (Weds 7), Melbourne’s Toff In Town on Thursday, and after Meredith on Friday, wrap it all up with a show at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday. Stream a few of the stand-out tracks from their debut record, released July, below.

December is here! Feels like a good time to glance back and recap with our 2011 Spunk Sampler. Featuring Youth Lagoon, Leader Cheetah, AA Bondy, Active Child, The Middle East, Emma Russack & Holly Throsby, we’ve compiled a free collection of our favourite songs this year. Many of these guys are touring this summer, and have incredible new albums out now. You can grab Spunk’s brand new 12 track sampler here. Hear its opener, AA Bondy’s gorgeous ‘Surfer King’.

She & Him, Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward, have just released a holiday album - A Very She & Him Christmas. This week they stopped by Jay Leno’s show to perform its opener, ‘The Christmas Waltz’ live in studio – a classic acoustic version, which is paired with big band numbers and sweet duets on the record. We’ve packaged the album with a free 2011 Spunk Sampler – available in all good music retailers now.

Youth Lagoon’s debut album, The Year of Hibernation is made of grainy, dreamy vocals and melodic, nostalgic synthesizers and guitars. Here, Trevor Powers and his band perform album track ‘July’ – originally recorded during album sessions held over Trevors’ university holidays – live in studio for Pitchfork Media.

From the SMH. GOTYE (aka Wally De Backer) and Wagons dominated The Age EG Awards 2011 on Wednesday night at the Prince Bandroom. Gotye scooped three trophies, including best male, song of the year forSomebody That I Used To Know featuring Kimbra and a new award presented by Music Victoria for achievement of the year. Wagons took out best band and best album for Rumble, Shake & Tumble. There were 81,904 votes cast across the eight reader-voted categories this year, making these the largest public voted awards in Australia. The Age photographer Rebecca Hallas attended the night to capture all the color. http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/music/eg-awards-20111124-1nwdo.html

Wherever she plays, Erika M. Anderson has people talking about how incredible her band is live. Performing as EMA, they’re headed to Aus this January for Laneway Festival, and two sideshow performances with London’s Yuck – playing Melbourne’s East Brunswick Club on Friday February 3, and Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on Thursday 9. Tickets are available here, and Step Panther will support both dates.

Visiting Australia for January’s Sydney Festival, we’re pleased to be releasing Lambchop’s new album Mr. M on February 24 – a string filled, soulful record dedicated to Kurt Wagner’s dear friend and collaborator Vic Chestnutt. It’s such a beautifully weighted album – so personal and delicate in acoustics, but rich with string swells and southern guitars. You can read all about the album here, and stream its opening song below.
Lambchop – ‘If Not I’ll Just Die’ 

Surf filmmaker Andrew Kidman has long soundtracked his own films with his band The Windy Hills. Not long ago, they scored Director Jolyon Hoff’s documentary Searching For Michael Peterson, and tomorrow we’ll release a limited-edition Windy Hills double album – the band’s recent longplayer Friend From Another Star, coupled with their Michael Peterson soundtrack. Some pretty classic sounds from the past and present of Australian surf rock, from the much-loved east coast band.