Catch up on all this for the holiday season:Broken Social Scene - I've just started listening to this group with a cult following, but it's the band that Leslie Feist belongs to. Yeah, that Feist. It's definitely different but in the kind of sense that feels right at home to the soundtrack to movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Lost in Translation. Think Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service (without the suck, and yes I know it's a Death Cab side project), and so on. The Samurai Champloo soundtrack - It's really pretty good. I was always confused while watching the series, because it felt like I kept hearing the same 5 tracks used over and over again in every episode, but sure enough, the 4-album soundtrack set is chock-full of familiar beats. For fans of the shows or some Tribe Called Quest -style hip-hop sounds, it's worthy of a listen.John Mayer Trio - Try! John Mayer Trio - So awesome. This is not John Mayer as you know him. Not the guy responsible for Your Body is a Wonderland, or Daughters, or even 3x5. Not even close. This is one part early Clapton, one part B.B. King / Stevie Ray Vaughan / Buddy Guy, and one more part Mayer's self-styled guitar solos that you've heard if you've ever heard the man play live. All in all, it's blues but with a nice infusion of fresh, young blood. Mayer's voice even shifts in style, ditching the relaxed baritone of his 3 studio albums for a forced, soulful, connected-to-his-guitar kind of sound that you'd expect from a blues veteran twice his age. If you only download one track off iTunes (where the album's sitting pretty at the top of the charts), make it Try or Gravity. But to get the full effect of where that singer-songwriter-your-ex-gf-likes has gone, get the whole album and full up your apartment with cigarette smoke so that maybe - just maybe - you'll feel like you're in the House of Blues with a worthwhile host for the night.There's plenty more of this where it came from, and to keep up with my musical adventures, check the last.fm link to the right.