The Magnetic Fields' new album, Quickies, will be available as a limited-edition 12” LP for Record Store Day's annual Black Friday event, on November 27. This Record Store Day exclusive edition will be available on translucent magenta vinyl and includes the previously unreleased bonus track "The Witches Fly."

On his Nonesuch Records debut album, Over That Road I’m Bound, out today, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder uses the plain-spoken songs of country-music progenitor and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon as a jumping off point, tinkering with the lyrics and reworking melodies for his chosen instrument: an electric mbira. Cooder culled songs from Macon’s vast catalog and recorded them with his band and special guests: Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, Glenn Patscha, Amir Yaghmai, Dan Gellert, and Vieux Farka Touré. "Warm, uplifting, and quietly spectacular," says Uncut. "A buoyant and joyful long-player," says Mojo. A new video for the album track "Heartaching Blues" may be seen here.

Sam Gendel’s new album, DRM, is out today on Nonesuch Records. The follow-up to his Nonesuch debut, Satin Doll, released earlier this year, DRM features Gendel’s solo musical experiments with vintage instruments such as a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, and a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar—accompanied by his voice. The album includes one cover song: Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which Gendel interprets as an instrumental, playing the melody on an old German analogue synthesizer. Also out today are short films, one for each track on the album, directed by Marcella Cytrynowicz; you can watch them here.

Lake Street Dive has released a new song, "Making Do," and an accompanying video, which you can watch here. "'Making Do' is about the world that future generations are inheriting," says the band. "We are all concerned about what is happening to our planet, so the song explores what arises when we consider both our role in it and our responsibility to address it. Hopefully it comes through as a rallying cry to do the best you can with what you have." The video comprises clips from fans and a cameo by Senator Ed Markey, a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal.

Dave Malloy's Octet, directed by Annie Tippe, is due to get its West Coast premiere in Berkeley Repertory Theatre's spring 2021 season, a co-production with NYC's Signature Theatre, which premiered Octet in 2019. "I'm so thrilled to be returning to Berkeley with Octet, and have this show continue to evolve under the care of two of my favorite theatres," says Malloy. "It's a wonderful extension of my Signature residency, bringing this work to another coast, in a theatre that will hopefully by then be filled with smiling, healthy, socially close theatregoers.” The original cast recording is available on Nonesuch.