March 21, 2012 – "maybe some peeps get why @scareymusic is the fucking best now," tweeted Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon about a month ago, shortly after 4AD-shot footage of he and vocalist/longtime drummer/multi-instrumentalist/not-so-secret weapon Sean Carey stripping down tracks from their Grammy-nominated sophomore full-length began to circulate online. It was staggering, as well as a perfect reminder to revisit Carey's shape-shifting, jazz-influenced solo debut, 2009's All We Grow. On May 8, Jagjaguwar will release Hoyas, an EP of four similarly expansive Carey compositions, recorded in his attic on a laptop. "Two Angles" is the first, a feast of electronic ripples, stately horns, burbling guitar, and gorgeous falsetto – his own.

March 20, 2012 – Much has been made of Ceremony's ongoing sonic move away from their hardcore roots, as heard most recently on their Matador debut, Zoo, the SPIN Essential full-length that finds the Rohnert Park punks channeling Wire and the Stooges more than the power-violence of their not-too-distant youths. But on "Adult," an mpfree cut that steers toward the former, frontman Ross Farrar considers what it means to grow up and, quite possibly, out of hardcore. It's an idea that orbits the suburban cul-de-sac themes of the new, BRV BLK BRD-directed clip below, which features an ultra-saturated '50s finish.

March 16, 2012 – "We just signed with Zara," joked Matt Berninger, the frontman for the National, on hand to perform at the Spanish retailer's New York flagship store for its Wednesday opening. “They’re starting a record label.” While it’s not unheard of for a big fashion brand to start a record label these days, it was noteworthy that the Brooklyn-based band, which recently sold-out a six night stand at New York's Beacon Theater, was playing for a bunch of Italian-suited businessmen and fashion industry folk. True professionals, the band members kept their cool, despite chatty shoppers and a makeshift stage, delivering a seven-song set that transported the lucky fans beyond the midtown store setting. Stranger things have happened. Set List: Anyone’s Ghost Bloodbuzz Ohio Mistaken for Strangers Afraid of Everyone Sorrow Apartment Story Terrible Love

March 9, 2012 – In the March/April issue of SPIN, David Bevan ventured to Korea to explore the country's fruitful system for producing top-flight pop stars. He'll be writing additional K-pop stories right here at #1 Crush. "I got off the plane, and there was a different scent in the air." That's how Jay Park remembers his first seconds in Seoul, in January of 2005, just months before he graduated from high school back home in suburban Seattle. Park had been flown over to begin training for JYP Entertainment, one of three major entertainment companies headquartered in the South Korean capital. Only 17 at the time, he spoke little Korean and knew even less about Korean pop music — his passion was b-boying, which he utilized during a local JYP audition he attended at the behest of his mother. "I met all these people and I couldn't really communicate with them," he says of that first day.

March 6, 2012 – At about this time yesterday, Spoek Mathambo was washing dishes in his Malmö kitchen, thousands upon thousands of miles away from his birthplace of Johannesburg, South Africa. But as he explained to SPIN, Father Creeper, his first full-length for Sub Pop (due March 13), is an album born in transit. Mathambo assembled so much of its zig-zagging rap ruckus while touring throughout Europe, North America, and South Africa in collaboration with his wife, Swedish rapper Ana Rab a.k.a. Gnucci Banana, Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist CHLLNGR, and Okamulukat of South African hip-hop troublemakers Dirty Paraffin. Below, get an exclusive first listen to the disc while you read Mathambo's recollections of how each vibrant piece came to be. "Kites" " 'Kites' has quite a long history. It started with the producer that I originally worked with, Richard the Third.

March 6, 2012 – Lo! Finger-piano! Rippling fields of snare! Flights of banjo and mandolin! Choruses the size of Ponderosas! The hundred sounds of a woman possessed by song! King Con is the relatively long-awaited (at this desk, anyway) full-length debut from Detroit-bred multi-instrumentalist and pop enchantress Alex Winston. It's a wellspring of implacable melody and seismic quirk due to drop April 10 via V2/Cooperative. Hear it in its entirety exclusively here:

March 5, 2012 – Tomorrow, intrepid Brooklyn singer-songwriter Mike Wexler will release Dispossession, his second full-length and first for new label home, Mexican Summer. It's also his finest: a leap forward whose elliptical arrangements and understated, serpentine delivery find Wexler really owning that odd space between Robert Wyatt and Nick Drake. Drink it up in its entirety in our exclusive first listen:

March 2, 2012 – White Arrows invented a genre tag for themselves so nerds like us wouldn't have to: "psychotropical." There's poetry in knowing yourself. The Los Angeles fivesome indeed puree a slew of equatorial guitar sounds and rhythms and textures, which combined, bridge the gap between Animal Collective and Foreign Born. "Fireworks of the Sea" is an early listen from their debut EP of the same name. It's due April 3 via Votiv Music, with a full-length on the way.

February 29, 2012 – We're still slackjawed. For a band whose earlier songwork sounded like it was buried beneath so many bundles of hiss that nuance might never make it out alive, the beat-driven, synth-splashed, arena-ready, prom-night moves of "Let's Get Away" scans like someone else entirely. But it's still PO PO, and though it's been floating around the web since late last year, it figures prominently on the Philadelphians' long-awaited full-length studio debut, Dope Boy Magick, out this week on Mad Decent. Check out a remix of the cut that finds Diplo, label boss and mentor, tidying up here and there without changing the complexion of the original at all. So when frontman Zeb Malik sings, "I want to be the woman who makes you smile," you really can hear him. He's got a great voice. DOWNLOAD

February 28, 2012 – Few songwriters are as brave as Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart. For ten years plus, the Bay Area native has been unafraid of bringing us (sometimes uncomfortably) close to topics and textures and characters we might normally sidestep or miss. And on Always, his collective's latest full-length (due March 6 via Polyvinyl) and an album fraught with line-up changes, honesty remains in the foreground. Hear the album in its entirety while exploring Stewart's breakdown of every track: "Hi" It is rare, if ever, that I would describe a Xiu Xiu song as populist, but I think "Hi" fits into that notion. While it came from a series of e-mails from a friend while she was coming to terms with how physically and sexually abusive her childhood and current relationships were, even though it is her singular experience, it is not an uncommon one.