Pigs for parallel compression
Compress
tar -c --use-compress-program=pigz -f someDir.tar.gz someDir/
DeCompress
pigz -dc someDir.tar.gz | tar xf -
Jeff Smith
Compress
tar -c --use-compress-program=pigz -f someDir.tar.gz someDir/
DeCompress
pigz -dc someDir.tar.gz | tar xf -