August 2, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band" inwhich we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some ofour favorite artists. (See past episodes of Name That Band! here.) This week: Austin, TX's Neon Indian, currently on tour in support of last year's breakout debut, Psychic Chasms. Why Neon Indian: "Neon Indian is the only project that I've been involved in where I didn't come up with the name," says mastermind Alan Palomo. "It's especially weird since I'm the only full-time member of the band. But the name came about in 2007, when I was in another band called Ghosthustler. My girlfriend at the time was like, 'If you can have a band with a silly name like that, than I'm starting one with an equally strange name.' And she just said Neon Indian. She even started a Neon Indian MySpace page that went unused for years.

July 29, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band!" inwhich we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some ofour favorite artists. (See past episodes of Name That Band! here.) This week: Panic! at the Disco offshoot Young Veins, who recently released their debut, Take A Vacation! Why Young Veins: "At first, when we were throwing around names in the studio, we wanted to call the band the Veins," recalls vocalist-guitarist Ryan Ross, "but there was already a band called that. So we just called it the Young Veins. We liked the 'fresh blood' connotation. But really the name is a Spinal Tap reference. There's a part where the band is talking about when they were starting out. They were going to call themselves the Originals but that name was taken, so they call themselves the New Originals instead.

July 29, 2010 – The Flaming Lips may be the longest-running band to perform during the week of concerts being held in celebration of SPIN's 25th anniversary -- presented in partnership with ZYNC from American Express -- but the Black Keys, who headlined Terminal 5 Wednesday night in Manhattan, have the deepest musical roots. In a 90-plus minute set featuring a big greasy handful of songs found on the latest album, Brothers, from Akron, Ohio's favorite sons (sorry, LeBron), drummer Patrick Carney and guitarist Dan Auerbach gave a lesson on the enduring power of the blues, sending the sold-out crowd into near-delirium with their seemingly endless, endlessly entertaining variations on simply sinister chord patterns and brawny shuffle rhythms. The band's concept is easy to pin down -- the guys juice the sweaty juke-joint drones of past blues masters like Junior Kimbrough and R.L.

July 27, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band!" in which we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some of our favorite artists. This week: Metric, who'll be at Lollapalooza on August 7. Why Metric: "It came from a song that [bandmate] Jimmy [Shaw] and I were working on back in Toronto in the early days, like '97 or '98," says singer Emily Haines. "Jimmy had a song that involved a sound he'd programmed into his keyboard and called 'Metric.' When we saw that word on the keyboard's LED screen it looked so electro. It had a no bullshit vibe. It was a little cold and standoffish and we're down with that. It works for us. Some people think it has something to do with the fact that we're from Canada -- which uses the metric system.

July 23, 2010 – For millions of Americans, KISS concerts are a tradition. You go, you watch Gene Simmons breathe fire and spit blood, things explode, you listen to Paul Stanley's amazingly brash between-song banter, more things explode, you sing along to "Rock and Roll All Nite," have about as much fun as is legally possible at an arena, and then experience the spectacle again the next time the band is in town. That time is now. Starting July 23 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, KISS (with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer having long ago replaced original bandmembers Peter Criss and Ace Frehley on drums and guitar, respectively) brings its tour in support of 2009's stellar Sonic Boom back home after a lengthy run of European dates. "Right now, we're doing the biggest tours we've ever done," says ever-voluble singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, 58. "The KISS legacy is amazing.

July 21, 2010 – J Roddy Walston and the Business' self-titled debut album, out July 27, is full of spirited and sweaty Southern rock, and with its joyous oh oh oh ah backing vocals and buoyant boogie rhythm, "I Don't Wanna Hear It" is the collection's purest-party starter -- but its lyrics paint a defiant picture that started in a troubled personal moment. "I wrote this song in the middle of a bad downward spiral," says singer-pianist Walston, of the Baltimore-based band, who were one of SPIN's must-hear bands at this year's South by Southwest festival. "It was one of those times where you hate everything good and you're just trying to be a dark animal....

July 19, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band!" in which we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some of our favorite artists. This week: Florida alt-pop band Anberlin, whose new album Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place is out September 21. Why Anberlin: "I was in my dorm room at the University of Central Florida in 2002," says lead singer Stephen Christian, "and I was listening to Radiohead's Kid A. I was infatuated. I listened to that album every night for a month. But in the song 'Everything In Its Right Place,' I thought I kept hearing something in the background that sounded like Thom Yorke was singing the word 'Anberlin.' I kept hearing it: 'Anberlin,' 'Anberlin.' I searched online for 'Radiohead and Anberlin,' 'Thom Yorke and Anberlin' but didn't find anything.

July 14, 2010 – Typically, a rapper waits to blow up before branching into retail, but London's Giggs knows firsthand the value of having a fallback plan. "I've got enough people hoping I'll fail that I need to be smart with my business," says the 27-year-old, who since early 2009 has run a shop selling mixtapes and his own SN1 clothing line in the rough Peckham neighborhood where he grew up. "That's why I opened the store. I need to be able to support my music if everything else goes away." The everything else Giggs -- born Nathan Thompson -- is referring to is a burgeoning career that, in the two years since he released his first mixtape (the menacing Walk in Da Park), has seen him win Best U.K. Hip-hop act at the 2008 BET Awards and draw praise from the Streets' Mike Skinner, who appeared on the uncharacteristically mournful 2009 track "Slow Songs." Giggs also notched his first charting U.K.

July 14, 2010 – Given that Cape Town–based rap provocateurs Die Antwoord's introduction to the world came via a freaky video featuring a muscle-bound progeria sufferer and a suspiciously young-looking blonde's striptease, it's not surprising that the band's frontman, Ninja, was worried his first visit to the United States would end before it began. "I thought the customs guy wouldn't let us in," says the MC, recalling the trio's journey to Los Angeles last April to play Coachella, "but then he asked for my autograph." It was a long, strange trip for Ninja, vocalist Yo-Landi Visser, and DJ Hi-Tek to reach fanboy recognition. Born Watkin Jones, Ninja scuffled for years in South Africa's music scene -- hanging with rappers and smoking weed with Rastas -- before getting in on an idea that could travel. "In 2006, Yo-Landi thought to throw in rave shit with my rap shit.

July 13, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band!" in which we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some of our favorite artists. This week: Northern California rockers Papa Roach, whose Time For Annihiliation is out August 31. Why Papa Roach: "We came up with the name back in 1993 when we were like sixteen years old -- young and dumb," remembers frontman Jacoby Shaddix. "At the time we were listening to lots of bands with funky names -- stuff like Mr. Bungle, Primus, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We were also playing weird spastic funk-punk like they were, so we thought we should have a name that fit in with that vibe. At first we wanted to name the band Papa Gato after [a nickname for] Poncho Sanchez, the Latin percussionist. But then I thought, what if we named it after my grandfather -- his last name is Roach.