March 20, 2013 – Death Grips' mysterious "No Hands" YouTube series has culminated in a powerfully disorienting music video for NO LOVE DEEP WEB track "Lock Your Doors." As SPIN's own Charles Aaron reported, the Sacramento rap usurpers were stashing some tricks up their sleeves for their Saturday South By Southwest (DXDG, if you prefer) set. Zach Hill beamed in his furious drumming live via Skype, and the fellas onstage were sporting some high-tech goggles. As it turns out, the headgear (employed by Hill as well) contained cameras — hence, "no hands" — whose frenzied footage was later edited together to create the clip you see above.Early on you can hear Hill saying, "I hope it's loud enough," but with Death Grips that's never really a problem.

March 20, 2013 – With PSY's "Gangnam Style" having fallen out of favor and its replacement (Baauer's "Harlem Shake") already on the decline, the horse-dancing star would be smart to make as many friends as possible. As it turns out, he's prepping a new song whose title is a South Korean slang expression of excitement (I.E. "Oh yeah!"). That sounds like a great idea — a pint-sized culture bridge, perhaps — until you take in the term's English pronunciation: "Assarabia."Obviously the word looks a bit different in its native form. The actual meaning "suggests no ethnicity or body part," AP helpfully explains, while NBC News says that some of the trouble could stem from the fact that there's no "V" equivalent in the Korean alphabet.

March 20, 2013 – Michelle Shocked has issued a pair of statements regarding her controversial rant at a Sunday night San Francisco concert.

March 20, 2013 – Another day, another excellent set of verses served up by SPIN Hottest MC Danny Brown. On Tuesday, we heard the Detroit star reprise his "Blunt After Blunt" persona for the darkly tinted trunk-rattler, "Kush Coma," and before that it was "#HottestMC," a menacing dismissal of those who'd make a grab for his crooked crown. Now we've got a forthcoming single from psych-rock-obsessed London producer Paul White, "Street Lights."The dystopian track is the perfect landscape for Brown's bleak but chest-puffing rhymes.

March 20, 2013 – Hot on the heels of the fire-flinging "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" remix featuring Jay-Z, we get to hear an outside take on one of the many highlights that SPIN Hottest MC Kendrick Lamar delivered with his list-topping 2012 LP good kid, m.A.A.d. city. This extra goopy, bass-wobbling version of "Swimming Pools (Drank)" comes courtesy of Grimes affiliate and 4AD signee Blood Diamonds. Though the former video game designer born Mike Tucker doesn't add any vocals of his own to this revision, he has a field day with Kendrick's, warping the Compton MC's words into warbling alien transmissions. Looking for bona fides? The Los Angeles via Toronto via Kansas City producer has provided beats for Das Racist in the past, plus remixed Major Lazer, Ellie Goulding, and Niki & the Dove. In other words, the guy's got the chops to cut up a stellar song like this. 

March 20, 2013 – If SpaceGhostPurrp's 4AD debut Mysterious Phonk left you wanting for the bleakly banging lo-fi excursions that put the Floridian rap iconoclast on the map, well, you're in luck. In honor of his just launched tour, the Miami MC has gifted us with "Starz," a crunchy, unpolished slab of granite that confidently declares, "I ... am ... the nigga ... you wanna be." Leaking through the speakers like a vintage Bone Thugs cassingle caught on loop, the intensely rhythmic track is fleshed out by the rapper's hypnotic chants, which seem to summon a chorus of demonic doppelgängers who groan and toast along. "Said she go to church just to repent / Come back around me, now she wanna sin," Purrp hisses before asserting his dominance over everyone who's listening.

March 20, 2013 – Dinosaur Jr. frontman, Bless the Barn quietist (via Portlandia) and all-around gnarlmeister J Mascis has designed a very, very, very purple shoe for vegan footware house Keep. The limited-edition item will retail for $75 and come with an exclusive 7-inch picture disc featuring an unreleased Mascis song still to be announced. Pre-orders can be made now, but the purped-out pimp slipper isn't expected to ship until late June.In addition to all that lovely amaranthine softness, the shoe features an embroidered stripe styled after Mascis' signature guitar strap. The order page adds that, "sharing a deep respect for her compassionate work, Keep + Dinosaur Jr.

March 20, 2013 – At the top of the month, we shared studio footage of Chicago R&B singer Jeremih and Los Angeles bedroom beatist Shlohmo crafting a "Song From Scratch" for San Francisco video visionaries Yours Truly. Past entries to the series have found Danny Brown linking up with AraabMuzik, and Angel Haze collaborating with TNGHT's Lunice, but this latest installment is by far the most soulful. The pair's impromptu succulent slow jam can now be heard in full below, and it makes a clear case for these two working together on the regular. Shlohmo, who lovingly remixed Jeremih's "Fuck U All the Time" last year, provides a cavernous space filled with drippy effects, dramatic synths and skittering drums. Meanwhile, Jeremih lays down layers and layers of gorgeously swirling vocals promising the titular "Bo Peep" that he's gonna do her ("U") right.

March 19, 2013 – Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Mumford and Sons, and the Killers will be among this year's headliners at Lollapalooza, reports the Chicago Tribune. Also confirmed for the Chicago festival, which runs August 2 - 4, are the Postal Service and the National. The full lineup will be officially announced next month, but early bird tickets are going on sale next week. For more on this year's festival season, check out SPIN's constantly updated Festlove guide.This will be the event's ninth year at Grant Park, located along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the heart of the city. Last year's big names included Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, the Black Keys, Jack White, Avicii, Justice, Florence + the Machine, Bassnectar, the Shins, Passion Pit and At the Drive-In, who were enjoying their generally successful reunion run.

March 19, 2013 – It was an easy decision to include Danny Brown in SPIN's Real Hottest MCs in the Game list earlier this month. His 2011 stunner XXX is still in our playlist rotation, and his own "#HottestMC" track made the case loud and clear. He's also got a highly anticipated new album on the way dubbed Old, most likely out in August on Fool's Gold Records, from which the freshly leaked "Kush Coma" hails.Produced by Brown's go-to beatsmith Skywlkr, the darkly thumping trunk-rattler indeed sounds sufficiently weeded, but Danny comes across as sharp as ever, making good on his promise to "elevate at 90 miles an hour." He shouts out ecstasy and codeine, includes some callbacks to his fan-favorite refrain "blunt after blunt after blunt," and even admits that with "all these drugs up in me it's a miracle I ain't there with Kurt," but nobody could possibly be high out of their minds and rap this well.