May 15, 2013 – "Hell is chilly, motherfucker." So sayeth Mykki Blanco before a disturbingly bleak Sinden beat kicks off and our hostess leaves English behind for a serious of whisper-growled Latin incantations on "The Initiation." Carpe noctem ... carpe diem, Deo confidimus. "Seize the night ... seize the day, in God we trust." Coming from this Breaking Out star's throat, the words sound positively demonic, and the production never lets up, growing more claustrophobic and disorienting as the song progresses. Like the rugged heater "Feeling Special" and the bleakly woozy "Bugged Out" before it, this new one hails from the New York rhymer's forthcoming Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP, which finally has a release date. The eight-song set is due May 21 via UNO and fans should expect maximum cap peelage upon listening. "Dark" doesn't begin to describe the corner from which Blanco is rapping.

May 15, 2013 – Recent Breaking Out stars Disclosure have made their mark by recasting house offshoots two-step and garage "with a keen eye for anthemic choruses and sweeping emotional moments." Baauer is the guy that climbed the charts on the back of a highly obnoxious meme with a song that lazily sampled tracks dude didn't even have the right to use. For the record, the Philly-based producer is better than "Harlem Shake" lets on, but that doesn't mean he needs to be messing with the work of Guy and Howard Lawrence. Below, you'll find his remix of Disclosure's Eliza Doolittle-featuring "You & Me," which strips the soul out of her vocals in favor of the old chipmunk treatment, and replaces the original jittery beat with a sped-up pulse that trips all over itself. As if we needed any more evidence that the Brits are killing us where worthwhile dance-oriented pop is concerned.

May 15, 2013 – Hospital Ships specialize in a Built to Spill-style brand of frazzled, psychedelic Americana that's only gotten more urgent as founder Jordan Geiger has added members. The now full-fledged band is releasing their new album Destruction in Yr Soul on June 18 via Graveface Records, and the Kansas crew have released a brand new video for the song "Servants" that cuts right to the bloody, beating heart of the thing.

May 15, 2013 – Canuck beat wunderkind Ryan Hemsworth is dropping the Still Awake EP next week over on his website, but in the meantime he's chosen to bless a whole bunch of other ones with one of the set's highlights — a track called "Perfectly." The song was first heard in brief via last week's must-hear Downtown NYC Mix, but now it can be experienced in all of its light and graceful glory. Here we get the more sensitive side of the producer via springy melodies, marching rhythms, modified vocals that recall Cornelius' "Brazil," and chiming notes that'd sound right at home in a Dntel composition. "I hope it works this time," says a woman's voice at the start, but this is Hemsworth we're talking about — of course it works. Revisit the Wedidit dude's Last Words EP and his recent Diplo and Friends mix when you're done.

May 14, 2013 – When SPIN spoke to TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe last month, the group's founding vocalist didn't seem the least bit nervous about their first run at curating England's venerable All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Of course, with a lineup that included Shabazz Palaces, Death Grips, De La Soul, and Mykki Blanco, he had plenty of reason to be confident. It helped too that the long-dormant Brooklyn band had an additional trick up their sleeves as well: a new song called "Mercy." Witnessed above, this "fresh" track is a thrashing, fast-paced rocker that finds Adebimpe taking the lead, singing about falling in love "with professional evil," looking "lost and lethal," and seeking salvation. TVOTR get a slight assist from a two-man horn section, but the song is otherwise strikingly straight-ahead, and menacing in its force. Now if only they'd commit to making an entire new album.

May 14, 2013 – Today's festivalgoers don't divide the world up by genre. They do not group according to census demographics or their preference in (or for) pants. To them, the age-old query, "To rock, or to rave?" is not a lifelong commitment, but a choice made in the moment. And what a choice it is with so much incredible, diverse talent billed for today's field-filling musical jubilees. It's hard out there for a young stage-hopper, and that's why SPIN is here to help cut through the noise. The good folks behind Chicago's enduring Lollapalooza have at last shared the schedule for the fest's 2013 iteration — running Friday, August 2 through Sunday, August 4 at Grant Park — and there are some serious conflicts to consider. 5. Phoenix vs. Cat Power vs. the Cure, Sunday, 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.A classic conflict.

May 14, 2013 – Solange Knowles will release her next album on her very own label, dubbed Saint Records, with a distribution assist from Sony — home to her amendment-quashing big sis Beyoncé. Billboard broke the news from the Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, reporting that the album will arrive later this year and include songs from her gauzy and great True EP, which was released by Terrible Records, the label co-run by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor.Due to confusion over the new venture — the earliest accounts and subsequent chatter had her signing with Columbia — Solange clarified the news via Twitter. "Big news day for me!

May 14, 2013 – A handful of news organizations have come together to formally oppose Beyoncé's ban of press photography on her current "Mrs. Carter Show" world tour. The protest came in the form of a letter to Queen Bey's publicity firm from Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, co-signed by 19 separate groups advising that "removing the ban will help, not harm, your client’s image in the long run."Among those represented are the Associated Press Media Editors Association, the Radio Television Digital News Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the American Society of Media Photographers, Poynter reports. We also imagine that Garbage's truth-talking frontwoman Shirley Manson would partake had she been invited.

May 14, 2013 – Twice now we've noted the itchy oddity of witnessing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds rip through their awesomely raunchy material while a choir of kiddies assists. For their first Coachella performance, which included the beyond-blue murder ballad "Stagger Lee," we blessed the band with "Best Swearing in Front of a Children's Choir." And then there was the live clip of Cave and co. doing new single "Mermaids," in which those boys and girls helped out with the line, "I was the match that would fire up her snatch."Well, it turns out we weren't the only ones who were a wee bit concerned. In a new interview with the Independent, Cave explains that it's been a bit of an ordeal finding parents who are okay with letting their little lambs go toe to toe with the Big Bad Wolf when he comes to town. "Sometimes you have to have three or four goes at finding the choir," he said.

May 14, 2013 – If ever there was an episode of Judge Judy we'd actually watch, it'd start with the words, "James Murphy was staying at my house, at my house." In a new interview, Ad-Rock claimed that the LCD Soundsystem main man owes him $150. Vulture pinned the Beastie Boys OG down at a screening of Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha and attempted to interview him about the forthcoming memoir he and Mike D are authoring. Instead, they got some hilariously random thoughts about Sting's sex life, and an unexpected anecdote when Murphy walked by."There's James Murphy. He owes me $150," Ad-Rock began, then explained, "Well, he stayed at my apartment a long time ago and broke the refrigerator and didn’t get it fixed. I had to fix it." How'd he break it? "I don’t know! It was just broken. He stayed at my place, and I moved back in and the refrigerator didn’t work.