A Music-Friendly Holiday Gift Guide so You Don't Have to Think for Yourself

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This post is sponsored by Olio Devices.

It's that time of year when you start to panic about how to maybe please your loved ones this holiday season by getting them something that they will tell you that they like but also might not actually like. To help with that music fan in your rolodex, the geniuses here at Noisey have determined what you should get them. Also, if you want to send us these as gifts, here's our shipping address:

Noisey
97 N. 10th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249

Anyway, welcome to the holiday gift guide, baby!

Getting someone a book as a present can be a dubious proposition and an easy way to stress them out. "Great," they'll think, "another incomplete task hanging over my head that I owe it to someone else to finish in case they want to talk about it." But Shea Serrano's Rap Yearbook, which breaks down every year of the genre's existence by discussing the most important rap song to come out that year, is the sort of book that your friend/family member/coworker will want to discuss and that, frankly, they owe it to themselves to read. Stuffed full of entertaining infographics like a graphical analysis of 50 Cent's "In Da Club" and equally loaded with actual historical context, the book is a must-have for rap fans. Notably, it wraps up each chapter with a rebuttal offering an alternate song of the year, a gesture intended to make its true spirit as clear as possible: The Rap Yearbook above all intends to capture hip-hop's spirit of banter and love of debating who's best. This isn't a book that's a chore to read; it's one that's a pleasure to argue over. Buy it.

Ah, Guitar Hero—that bastion of your hazy, Cheeto-fingered glory days spent in a friend's parents' basement or college dorm room. But just like the music fan in your life, the new Guitar Hero Live is all grown up—sleek, sophisticated, and still nerdy in all the right ways. The new edition scraps the toy-like controller, animated avatars, and third-person perspective in favor of a more accurate guitar feel and a live performance setting to play along with actual human bandmates to a crowd of actual human fans (both cast from real musicians and audiences) in a simulated festival environment. Players can choose from a variety of bands and festivals (options include the indie "Portland Cloud Orchestra" and emo "Blackout Conspiracy"), complete with curated set lists and stages. The experience is uncannily immersive, thanks to a high-tech, motion-controlled camera set up. Screw up, and your singer might throw you an eerily intimidating stink eye while trash is lobbed at you from the crowd. Nail it, and it's tough to deny the satisfaction of their screams for more. The music itself stays fresh, thanks to a diverse track list and the Guitar Hero TV mode, which streams hundreds of constantly-updated music videos that users can play along to anytime (selections range from Courtney Barnett to Iggy Pop to Rihanna). It's all the joys of touring, with none of the cramped vans, hangovers, or petty drama.

A phrase that always gets tossed around when reminiscing about the good ol’ days is “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” Those are the words you’ll utter to yourself over and over while reading Nick Tosches’s biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire. They don’t make artists like Jerry Lee anymore, a man who married his teenage cousin, was divorced several times over, had a long-running feud with Elvis (even trying to ram his car through the front gate of his house at one point), and lit his piano on fire on stage. They also don’t make music writers like Tosches anymore. He paints Lewis’s life with the type of brazen, old-school music journalism that rarely exists these days. Hellfire is a story so jaw-droppingly well-told that Rolling Stone once called it “quite simply the best rock and roll biography ever written.” Hard to argue with that. Buy it.

One of the many problems with this modern age is that we're all used to listening to music via our headphones (which can make for a lovely intimate experience), or we press play and a record comes blasting out of some tinny laptop speakers. Sheer laziness. This needs to stop. There's no greater gift than giving someone you like a lot a nice speaker system. All that person needs is a wi-fi and then they can share the love and annoy the neighbors by playing music really loud. SONOS do a sweet singular speaker which has been fine-tuned by Abbey Road producer Giles Martin so that the music coming out sounds exactly as the techies intended. It's also got this nerdy new function that maps the room and adjusts the SONOS settings accordingly, so if you wanted to hide the speaker behind your TV, the SONOS Play:1 would recalibrate so that the music doesn't sound muddy. Technology is pretty sweet. Buy 'em.

I don't know if you were aware of this, but being a fan of music often intersects with being a huge nerd. As a huge nerd and music fan, one of the first soundtracks to capture my interest at a young age was that of 'Batman: The Animated Series.' Hearing the Danny Elfman composed title sequence track and all of its tension building and danger was one of the first moments I became aware of how powerful and energetic a soundtrack could be. Mondotees also know how important this soundtrack is, so they've gone and produced an 8 LP Vinyl Boxset featuring the soundtrack from the show. Each record is housed in a beautifully done vinyl sleeve showcasing which episode the record soundtracks, bringing into mind the many interpretations of Batman and his rogue's gallery over the years. The soundtrack has stood the test of time as what someone can expect from an animated series, and this set does it justice. Buy it.

First published back in 2004, this book woke up an entire generation from our nu-metal hangovers and introduced us to the good stuff. Personally speaking, it blew my damn mind when I stumbled across it in a Borders (remember Borders?) in rural New Jersey, and a decade on, I've yet to find another book on the subject that even comes close to its depth of knowledge and extreme readability. Penned by Decibel founding editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian, this hefty tome comes with a glowing introduction by legendary BBC radio DJ John Peel (aka the guy who introduced the world to Napalm Death) and walks you through the genre's earliest prenatal stirrings across the pond and all the way up to the present day's twisted permutations. This year saw the book get a serious upgrade, too— with 100 new pages, 50 new interviews, three new chapters, and spankin' new cover art by famed death metal illustrator Dan Seagrave, this new, improved version of Choosing Death is the final word on brutality, laid out by a peerless writer who's spent decades of his life analyzing, appreciating, and listening to death metal and its many ugly cousins. It's a perfect primer for anyone with even a passing interest in the genre or its bloody roots, and a snazzy reminder that only death is real. Buy it.

Want to maintain your vintage integrity while slowly and inconspicuously integrating into the 21st century? Crosley now makes a tiny, finger-sized, portable record player. There's no turntable— it's just a needle and a speaker that you can clip onto any slice of vinyl wherever you are. Hipster jokes aside, this is actually pretty tight. Christmas is the perfect time to nerd out on something like this because you can always blame it on someone giving it to you as a gift when you definitely bought it for yourself. Buy it.

Wearing a watch is always a strong, classy look in this day and age when you can just use the computer in your pocket to know what time it is—and as we move into a post-smart watch world, it's tough to know which device you should get without, um, looking like a huge dork. Thankfully, Olio delivers connected watches that are not only practical, but don't look like you have a Jetsons-style piece of plastic strapped on your wrist that you found in a garage sale. These things are rare, and so beautiful your grandparents will be impressed. We prefer black. Buy it.

It's tricky finding a gift for your favorite rock nerd that they don't already have and actually want, and trickier still to navigate the deluge of reissues and remasters hitting stores week after week to sort gratuitous cash grab re-releases from the truly special boxes. One of this holiday season's best bets is Bruce Springsteen's The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, which follows the E Street bandleader's recent Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town reissues in not only presenting crisp audio of his 1980 double LP The River, but also scraping the archives for material even superfans might not have heard. The box includes The River in its entirety, the single disc The Ties That Bind version of the album Springsteen turned in to his label in 1979 but pulled back to expand, a disc of outtakes (half of which are previously unreleased), an hour-long making-of documentary, a Blu-Ray of a hotly sought after 1980 gig in Tempe, Arizona, and an over 200-page book of rare photos, including an essay about the album and its original Rolling Stone review. I'm salivating just typing this. Grab The Ties That Bind: The River Collection on December 4. Buy it.

If you enjoy listening to music, which we assume you do considering you’re reading Noisey, you probably will one day ask the question, “What headphones should I buy?” This is a question that shouldn’t be taken lightly, because how good your headphones are will determine a basic level of happiness on a daily level for the foreseeable future. Look at this like an investment, because a good pair of headphones can last a decade or longer. That’s why we recommend the latest from Meze, the 99 Classics. The elegant walnut wood earcups not only offer great sound, but unlike most headphones, this pair doesn’t look like it comes with a weed grinder for a 14-year-old who just started wearing streetwear. You’re going to be using these headphones for awhile, so you might as well invest in looking like an adult while doing so. Buy 'em.

Feel free to shamelessly send the Noisey Staff gifts this holiday season. Follow us on Twitter.

This post is sponsored by Olio Devices