Slayer guitarist Kerry King is a badass.

"Shock rocker" is becoming an inadequate term for Marilyn Manson, whose romantic roller coaster of divorce (Dita Von Teese) and young girlfriends (Evan Rachel Wood) took center stage on his latest album, the SPIN-praised The High End of Low. We have a more fitting title: "Totally-Sick-And-Twisted Rock."

If this pop star thing doesn’t work out, Julian Casablancas has a great future as a production designer.

So much for taking the easy road.

Recently, the five members of Switchfoot decided to start every night of their new U.S. tour by playing their Nov. 10 release, Hello Hurricane, in its entirety. But backstage before Sunday night's sold-out tour opener at San Diego's East County Performing Arts Center, the decision was becoming an anxiety-producing reality.

This weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin was a tale of two days: Saturday's Sun Sun Sun Fest, with its 80-degree temperatures, and Sunday's Wet Wet Wet Fest, with sporadically heavy downpours challenging the fortitude of festivalgoers. But the crowds still came out for Sunday's gigs -- of course, it didn't hurt that metal punks Danzig were playing their first Austin show in 15 years.

Before going on an indefinite hiatus last year, Philadelphia pop-punk quintet the Starting Line played one final hometown show, which was captured for Somebody's Gonna Miss Us, a new CD/DVD release, out Nov. 10.

If you found yourself driven to New York's Bowery Ballroom on Friday night solely by the vaguely Messianic reaction to San Francisco duo Girls' debut, Album, then you could be forgiven if, for much of the evening, you wondered whether you were even in the right building.

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This week, Weezer celebrated the release of a new album by hooking up with Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester, and Steven Tyler hinted he may leave Aerosmith for a solo career. Meanwhile, the saga of Chris Brown and Rihanna continued with two revealing new interviews.

These stories, plus the week's top news, photo galleries, audio/video, and live reviews, below.

The scene was electric outside of Los Angeles' Hollywood & Highland open-air mall on Friday evening. A huge line snaked out into the streets, and much of the crowd looked strikingly similar: gaggles of teenage girls (plus guys, moms, dads, and little ones) in black T-shirts emblazoned with five key words: The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Lots of musicians tweet -- but all that Twitters is not gold.

That's why you'll want to check out SPIN.com every Friday to see whose tweets we're reading this week -- then update your TweetDeck! (Obligatory Self-Promotion: …while you're at it, be sure to follow @SPINmagazine!)

This week's winners:

British rock quartet Editors are back with a new album -- and something is missing, glaringly so: guitars.

Portland, OR, foursome Hockey recently dropped by SPIN's Manhattan offices for a rooftop set of tunes from their debut album, Mind Chaos.

Thursday, MTV's European Music Awards took place in Berlin, Germany, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. U2, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Shakira, and others performed -- and Beyonce walked away with three trophies, the night's biggest winner. Check out our take on the event's best & worst moments:

[Updated: 5:56 P.M.]