November 20, 2012 – This is the first piece in SPIN's series of Year-End stories, which we'll be publishing now through the end of the year.So, to get to the question everyone's thinking about: Whose penis is that on the cover of your album?After 90 minutes of spiraling conversation with Death Grips, the query completely sucks the energy out of the room. Tonight, that room is the posh, twin-bunk-bedded "band room" at Brooklyn's yupster-chic Wythe Hotel, which overlooks the East River and the twinkling Manhattan skyline — not especially bad digs for two guys who blew through their major-label advance and are currently homeless. An awkward laugh is exchanged and an even more awkward silence follows. While an overturned coffee lid in front of the duo overflows with spent American Spirits, the question hangs dead in the air.

November 12, 2012 – Japan's shoegazyiest heavy metal band and America's most heavily stylish shoegaze band have joined forces for two sides of vinyl to be unleashed on Record Store Day's Black Friday. Yes, Boris and Asobi Seksu are going the Mudhoney/Sonic Youth route and covering each others' songs, and their respective labels (Sargent House and Polyvinyl) are footing the bill.On the A-side, Asobi Seksu leans into a twinkling, shimmering version of "Farewell," from Boris' 2005 coming-out-party for thier shoegazer tendacies, Pink. Then on the flip, the mighty Boris cranks up the fuzz on Asobi's breezy, blurry, "I Melt With You"-summoning "New Years" (as "Neu Years," lol).

November 9, 2012 – Hell, the year that underground rap re-exploded wouldn't be complete without the return of the mighty Latyrx!On their 1997 debut, The Album, the Bay Area duo of Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truthspeaker were prog-rap pioneers: rapping on top of each other like Gang of Four, spitting word streams in obtuse angles, and imagineering labyrinthine cadences that'd funk yer whole head up — often over beats by an emerging pal named DJ Shadow. In the years since, Lyrics Born has released a handful of excellent solo albums, Lateef has popped up in some crews (Maroons, the Mighty Underdogs), and their Quannum Projects crew has launched more than a few careers (Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Curumin).The six-song Disconnection EP, due November 13, is the triumphant warm-up before their long-awaited second album, The Second Album, drops in April 2013.

November 1, 2012 – Mostly imprisoned Russian fire-starters Pussy Riot have been shown mucho American love from Madonna, Green Day, Ad-Rock and everyone in between; and now they can add Jesus to that list — sort of. Last night's South Park episode "A Scause for Applause" spoofed the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and everyone's obsession with those LIVESTRONG causes-as-fashion rubber bracelets (to wit: we're still rocking our "VOTE JASMINE TRIAS" wristbands from Idol Season 3).

November 1, 2012 – Unscrupulous contemporary totem of douchebaggery and occassional pop singer Chris Brown has somehow discovered yet another icky fashion choice to put in his closet next to his OOPS! chain and his tattoo that looks creepily like his battered ex-girlfriend. Never afraid to venture into new frontiers of insensitivity, Chris Brown attempted the modern classic of idiot fratboys everywhere: the racist Halloween costume!Looks like Chris and the rest of Team Breezy decided to show up at Rihanna's Halloween party (disturbia!) dressed as Middle Eastern terrorists...or, possibly, the world's worst ZZ Top cover band.

October 16, 2012 – Mysterious collective Goat dropped one of 2012's most coveted pieces of vinyl with World Music, a damn-near indescribable collision of searing psych-metal, trance-inducing Afrobeat congas, Krautrock infinity-gazing, and demonic disco. Recorded hot-as-hellfire to tape, this thing could be mistaken for a Now Again or Finders Keepers reissue from West-Africa (via Mars), but in fact the group hails from a small town in Sweden called Korpilombolo. The band claims this town runs deep with a history of practicing voodoo and ducking religious persecution, but this may just be another great backstory from a country filthy with genre-bending anonymous bands (holler at us, Ghost).

October 12, 2012 – Looks like Halloween and Christmas come early this year! Chapel Hill one-man doom-drone euphorist Horseback and Chicago's ridiculously prolific séance organizers Locrian have proved themselves to be quite the excellent sparring partners on last year's vinyl-only New Dominions 12-inch (ed. 477) and self-titled 7-inch (ed. 300). Luckily the fine folks have Relapse have saved these four spectacular sides from record collector obscurity (and added a James Plotkin remix) for their swagged-out New Dominions reissue, coming via CD and vinyl November 9. The album's centerpiece is the 14-minute solitary-confinement anthem "Our Epitaph" which mixes both artist's propensity for terrifying-yet-transcendent dronework with a feedbacky pulse like Joy Division gone totally joyless. Hear it below!

October 11, 2012 – "I was such a fan of the band," says parody kingpin "Weird Al" Yankovic about Nirvana. "I heard Nevermind and I thought, Oh this is really great. I wish it were popular enough for me to do a parody…but that's never going to happen!"For years, the food-obsessed zeitgeist surgeon and former college-radio DJ had been attracted to alternative music — see his note-perfect swagger-jacks of Devo, Talking Heads, and B-52's from the '80s for proof. But after the three unlaundered, longhaired, unapologetically sloppy, Seattle-borne feedback enthusiasts started chewing up MTV's airspace, it was the first time alternative culture had come to him. "It's hard to articulate for me exactly what I loved about Nirvana," he says. "It was the energy, the attitude. I liked the sound of real instruments. I like guitars.

October 9, 2012 – When not drumming for delirious, Suspiri-ous bloodfeasters Zombi, A.E. Paterra is a full-time cosmonaut. His Majeure project has been steady releasing astronomical space electronic/drone/kraut/minimal synth music for a minute, and his second full-length, Solar Maximum, hits all the warmest, creepiest, retromaniacal sweetspots: Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Harald Grosskopf, Vangelis, Terry Riley, and especially John Carpenter (whose fog seems to be leaking all over 2012's great records, from Beak>, to Emeralds, to the Alchemist, to Majeure tourmates Maserati). If you like your synths analog and and your vibes heavy, stream this thing...and see you in another astral plane!

October 5, 2012 – Ed Droste, Grizzly Bear: We got him in 2005. He was found on the side of road with a broken leg. Some place was about to kill him. One of the ladies there — she would only save Chihuahuas — saved him and put him on her Chi farm where she tried to give him up for adoption. You know how TV stations do "Adopt This Dog"? He was a featured dog. They made him run around in a ballroom with a Phillies jersey.He came with the name DeForest because the woman who ran the Chi farm was obsessed with Star Trek. And for a month we tried to call him DeForest but it just felt so random. So he basically doesn't have a name. We kind of call him Beast, but we also call him Mr. Peepsins, or Professor Poopsins, or Stink Breath, or Rat, or just Stupid. Or Stupid Face. Any name goes. If you just use a high-pitched voice and call out a random word, he'll come.