August 1, 2012 – Bloc Party's frontman has something to confess. In 2011, a little over a year after Kele Okereke released his solo record, The Boxer, the singer-guitarist impishly suggested he was worried about being given the axe by his bandmates Russell Lissack (guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass) and Matt Tong (drums), after he randomly ran into them outside of a New York City rehearsal space. "I don't really know what's going on," Okereke said at the time. "We haven't really spoken recently and I'm a bit too scared to ask." This, folks, is what magicians call misdirection. "We were making a record, but we weren't really letting anyone know," Okereke says now, speaking on the phone from a tour stop in Honolulu, Hawaii.

July 11, 2012 – Earlier this year, Disney was shilling T-shirts with Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures cover in the shape of Mickey Mouse's face. Bassist Peter Hook called it "quite a compliment for a huge conglomerate like Disney to pick up on a poor Manchester band that only existed for a couple of years." Around the same time, Akron/Family started selling a tee with Man Is the Bastard's classic skull logo encircled by anarcho-punk band Crass' archetypical typography. While Crass made no peep, the skull poaching was not welcomed by MIIB: founding member Eric Wood unleashed his fury by way of Facebook, calling the band "FUCKING LOGO STEALING LOSERS." Despite the polar reactions in these two instances, there is a long-standing tradition of appropriation of rock iconography.

June 7, 2012 – Last night's Steve Madden Music Summer Series event in New York City featuring Emeli Sandé wasn't just hot — it was humid. The guests at 100 Rivington cooled down with Tito’s Homemade Vodka cocktails and precipitation-covered bottles of Pacifico beer while DJ Kalkutta spun hits from Rihanna and Kanye West. But when the evening’s host, Miss Info, took the stage, the flush of the room came second to the anticipation for Sandé, the Scottish soul singer whose debut album Our Version of Events just got its U.S. release. Her stripped-down, four-song set turned a swaying crowd into an emotional band of belters from her kick-off, "Daddy," to her best-known song, "Next to Me." Her commanding voice added a new layer of heat, but with her kind of talent, the extra warmth was welcome.