May 3, 2013 – Los Angeles trio Clipping is a brutal mix of feel-good, party-centric hip-hop and feel-bad, sine-wave-screeching, eardrum-punishing noise. Their shrill, squeaking, squishy, itchy, glitchy mixtape, Midcity, is out now and the group has unleashed an official video in anticipation of their upcoming mini-tour. The clip for "Bullshit" matches its fuzzy vibes, put-putting along like a broken TV until Jalene Goodwin sings a Drive-ready hook. Hey, this isn't bullshit at all!Clipping tour dates May 5 - Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis May 6 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Barn May 7 - Boise, ID @ The Crux May 8 - Seattle, WA @ Black Lodge May 9 - Vancouver, BC @ Zhoo Zhop May 10 - Portland, OR @ Red and Black Cafe May 11 - Oakland, CA @ Lobot May 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell

May 2, 2013 – Chris Schlarb is set to release Psychic Temple II, the sequel to 2010's masterful, restrained ambient-jazz opus Psychic Temple, this summer via Asthmatic Kitty. Here, his drifty minimalist jazz expands to include a little more twangy indie rock and some tasteful covers — including Frank Zappa's "Sofa No. 2" and a yacht-ready version of Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out." It's beautiful and almost dangerously relaxed, a true feat considering that the many guests include such traditionally manic performers such as Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens and Paul Masvidal from death-prog band Cynic."'Til I Die" is a cover of a Brian Wilson deep cut feating Schlarb on acoustic guitar and vibraphone, Owens on the Hammond organ, and vocals by Nedelle Torrisi and some Asthmatic Kitty labelmate named Sufjan something. Hear this plaintive number while a record spins outdoors and branches wave in the wind.

May 1, 2013 – There's no blueprint for celebrating your 29th year in the rap game, so every year that LL Cool J is still making music, he's technically breaking new ground. His list of achievements already shouts for itself — teenage Def Jam firestarter, love-jam innovator, battle-rap Ali, TV star, Grammy winner, Grammy host, and That Type of Guy. Today, with the release of his 14th album, Authentic, he can add "genre-smashing, major-label-contract-completing legacy" to the list — not to mention the first guy to get Eddie Van Halen on a rap record.

April 16, 2013 – San Francisco black metal skygazers Deafheaven are set to release of the most anticipated heavy records of 2013 — the blarey, bleary-eyed, blasty Sunbather. Scheduled for release on Deathwish Inc. on June 11, their second album melts black metal's icy veneer, giving it the majesty of bands like Jesu and Mogwai — a seven-song suite that splits its time between warm piano pulses, spiraling post-rock guitars, sheer jet-engine noise, and sunstroked blasts. This nearly eight-minute teaser works as a little documentary that peeks into the making of this cinematic opus: the stress, the screams, and a few awesome shots of new drummer Daniel Tracy playing blastbeats in black and white.

April 12, 2013 – Hardcore bulldozers Coliseum are but weeks away from releasing their fourth full-length album Sister Faith. In anticipation of the April 30th drop date, they've already let loose the first taste, "Black Magic Punks," a Prong-inflected alterna-metal stormer, among others; and now they bring us the mercilessly chugging "Bad Will" with an criminal music video to boot. The "Bad Will" clip works in the long traditon of clips like the Beatles' "Let it Be" or U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," a guerilla show performed and documented in the middle of a busy neighborhood. Coliseum didn't climb up on any rooftops, but set up shop for a concert next to Louisville art gallery Ultra Pop."It was Ultra Pop's 5th anniversary and they asked us to set up illegally next door and play a set," says vocalist/guiarist Ryan Patterson.

April 8, 2013 – The sixth album from German post-metal doombringers the Ocean is huge: Written, recorded, and to-be-played live as a 53-minute work, intended to respresent a sloooow plunge into the darkest depths of the briny deep. In the course of the record, tender piano interludes get stomped on by Mastodon-shaped footprints, lush strings work next to bulldozing double-kick work, and, at the end, the submarine crashes at Melvins temposOriginally concieved as an instrumental album while vocalist Loïc Rossetti was conquering health problems, the band ultimately recorded a vocal version — and both the vocal and instrumental versions will be packaged together.

April 4, 2013 – Meat Puppets, the pioneering punk'n'western Arizona cactus-kickers, are returning this month with their 14th(!) album, Rat Farm, out April 14 (via Megaforce). The band said they were gonna "play it kind of straight" on this one, but it's certainly no flat desert-rocker: there's loping country-ska like classic Camper Van Beethoven, broken hard rock, and dreamy guitar solos.

April 4, 2013 – Out-punk saxophone abuser Sam Hillmer, leader of Brooklyn out-punk mainstays Zs, is releasing his second full-length record as his sax-and-electronics alias Diamond Terrifier. The Subtle Body Wears a Shadow is his first for Terrible Records, the label owned by Grizzly's Bear's Chris Taylor. First taste "Triple Gem" is one-fourth of a 30-minute suite that reportedly borrows from drone, ambient, rai, the Ethiopiques series, and even Chicago juke. That's a lot of stuff crammed through a mouthpiece in just these eight minutes, so feel free to deconstruct or just let the warm waves for Braxton-gone-Eno mush float over you.112010:song:Triple Gem:

April 2, 2013 – Mysterious Afrobeat-metal crew Goat have expanded the dates on their very first U.S. tour, adding an Atlanta show and beefing up their Brooklyn presence from the D.I.Y. vibes of Glasslands to the comparatively larger Music Hall of Williamsburg. In addition, the band is dropping two new 12-inches on Record Store Day (limited to 2,000 copies each, on blue vinyl), featuring remixes of the bhangra-inflected album standout "Run to Your Mama." Vol. 1 features mixes from sludgegazers Thought Forms, HighWolf, Invada Records boss Redg Weeks, the Horrors synth player Tom Furse, and Teeth of the Sea. The (also blue) Vol.

March 25, 2013 – Now that Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have soured on free culture, and David Lowery stays steady ranting at college kids, it's time the notoriously underpaid world of the avant-garde jumps into the fray. Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, the art-rocking power trio from one of SPIN's fave guitarists, is set to release their second album, Your Turn, on April 30 via Northern Spy. And if "Masters of the Internet" is any indication, they'd probably prefer if you didn't download it, you freeloader.Over a crunchy, Residents-gone-Battles death-march, Ribot yells, "Download this music for free! / We like it when you do!