September 18, 2012 – During a recent lunchtime meeting with the men of RNDM — that newly formed supergroup comprised of Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur, and former Fastbacks drummer Richard Stuverud — we couldn't help but notice that each of the outfit's three members boasted similarly shaved manes. While Arthur claims he suggested the threesome shave their heads as an act of solidarity, Ament, the Montana-born son of a barber, upped the ante by recommending they all adopt mohawks like his instead. Below, in the South Brooklyn-shot, silent film-like clip for "Modern Times," a skittering, intermittently psychedelic cut from their forthcoming debut, Acts, the guys introduce themselves as they groom themselves. See it for the first time below:

September 18, 2012 – Two weeks ago, we posted "Toil," a sample of Unnatural Helpers' forthcoming Land Grab LP that could have only been made in the city of their birth: Seattle. Though the outfit began as a feral garage-rock foursome comprised entirely of Sub Pop employees, lineup changes (main man Dean Whitmore remains the only constant) haven't caused them to stray too far from a sound Whitmore's former co-worker and onetime tourmate, Mudhoney's Mark Arm, helped make famous in the late '80s and early '90s. Today, you can hear the record in its gloriously indigestive entirety, as recorded and mixed by former Fastbacks frontman and local lifer Kurt Bloch.

September 17, 2012 – Lucius is a Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig-fronted fivesome whose luscious, leonine, '60s-indebted indie-pop lullabies have been garnering a startling bit of interest since they stormed last year's CMJ Music Marathon in New York. That was well-earned buzz, as evidenced by the beautifully arranged, slightly sinewy hooks of "Turn It Around," a standout from their self-titled, recently self-released EP. Hear it exclusively below:

September 17, 2012 – Though Your Youth describe themselves as a "loud alternative band from Brooklyn," the duo's white-knuckle pop-punk suggests maybe they somehow snuck over here from the Pacific Northwest. "Thick Gold (Bodied)," a jouncy cut from their forthcoming Battery EP (due October 30 via Old Flame) is a compact, highly explosive combination of those guitar strains made famous by bands like Built To Spill and Nirvana. Hear it below.

September 17, 2012 – This past May, during a trip to Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis' home and studio in Amherst, Massachusetts, SPIN watched as the legendary indie rock trio finished up work on I Bet On Sky, their third full-length since reuniting in 2005. At the time, Mascis in particular seemed vexed by one song, a candied bruiser (working title "Downtown") whose vocal-less mix he and longtime producer John Agnello spent much of an afternoon scrutinizing as it blasted on the Mascis family stereo. That song would later be known as "Pierce the Morning Rain," and the record itself, out tomorrow on Jagjaguwar in North America (today in the U.K. and Europe), would take its title from one of its striking lyrics. Hear it exclusively below and be sure to look out for a lengthy, in-depth profile of the band here this week.

September 13, 2012 – Gap Dream is the psychedelic bedroom pop project of Cleveland native Gabe Fulvimar, a Lou Reed-indebted, weed-endorsing wisenheimer whose melodic sensibility offers a less symphonic (but no less potent) extension of Jason Pierce's brain-pureeing visions. While the lion's share of Fulvimar's output has come to us previously by way of Burger Records, Suicide Squeee will continue their fine Single Series work by releasing "Generator" on limited 7" vinyl this Fall, a release that will join others by Cloud Nothings, Julianne Barwick and more. Hear it now below.

September 10, 2012 – It's rare that Sic Alps frontman Mike Donovan — a San Francisco cab driver for the past ten years, on and off — feels comfortable listening to his own music with a customer in the backseat. But a few weeks ago "this young, Irish fella" jumped in and asked to be taken to the city's Sunset District, at a moment when Donovan was listening to his outfit's latest, forthcoming self-titled full-length. "It was the last song on Side A," says Donovan. "Wake Up It's Over II. And he asks, 'Hey is this your band? It's really good.' And I tell him it is. Then "Thylacine Man" comes on — this really sad, mellow song — and it's super loud and he's just totally, stone quiet. When it's over, he says, 'Oh. I think, I think I had a moment there. Yeah, I just had a moment.

September 7, 2012 – A lot has changed since we last heard Chris Carrabba alongside his bandmates in South Florida emocore fivesome Further Seems Forever. A few years after he left the band to pursue his Dashboard Confessional project full-time in 2000 (he would appear on 2001 LP The Moon Is Down), Carrabba transformed quickly from indie pin-up to SPIN cover star to Madison Square Garden headliner. Emo would morph into mall-punk and a pop cultural punchline. But after several lineup changes, shared bills, and one-off reunions, the original lineup of Carrabba, guitarists Josh Colbert and Nick Dominguez, bassist Chad Neptune, and drummer Steve Kleisath are gearing up for their first studio release in 11 years, Penny Black, a record (due October 23 via Rise) will include "So Cold," a bruiser for which they shot the appropriately frigid (and exclusive) clip below.

September 6, 2012 – Jemez Mountain Hawkz is a new, country-inflected project from Dameon Lee Waggoner, the madman behind hallowed '90s Albuquerque punk outfit Scared of Chaka (a band that also featured Shins guitarist and JMH co-conspirator Dave Hernandez). On October 2, they'll release Hey-Mez, a debut EP set to feature the wind-swept, sun-splashed notes of "CA-2," the very same tune for which Waggoner crafted the found footage visual below. "The main inspiration for the video," says Waggoner, an L.A. transplant, "is Southern California in the '70s, surf and skateboard culture through the hazy lens of Super 8 nostalgia." Perfect for a song whose title references the highway that runs from the Angeles National Forest to Santa Monica. "[It's] about leaving your job and worries behind and heading out to the beach."

September 6, 2012 – When it came time to conceptualize the video for "Splitter," first single from Algiers, the latest from Arizona indie-folk cross-pollinators Calexico, Spanish director Paloma Zapata looked toward the heavens. "The idea came after a conversation with [Calexico guitarist/vocalist] Joey [Burns]," says Zapata. "For him, the song was about the migration going through the border of any country. I thought that setting up a story within a particular border was very limiting. So I developed the idea of 'the escape' into a generic concept, adding a touch of fantasy to lighten the dramatic tone that those situations already have. To escape aboard a spaceship to an unknown reality as an idea of change, mystic encounter and rebirth." The resulting visual, premiering exclusively below, was so cinematic it's inspired Burns to take things further.