linux-build.py is a script for easily downloading, compiling, and installing the Linux kernel. I built it mostly to take the tediousness out of the download and installation steps. It does very little for you beyond that, and at any step, things can be done manually.

This is how I use it to install the latest RC kernel (see build-latest-rc.sh):

VERSION="$(linux-build.py list -n 1 mainline)"
linux-build.py download "$VERSION"
linux-build.py config --old-config ~/linux-config "linux-$VERSION" olddefconfig
linux-build.py make "linux-$VERSION"
sudo linux-build.py install "linux-$VERSION" mainline

Note: this interface isn't stable; I'm still tweaking it as I figure out what my use cases are.