September 20, 2010 – Welcome to the new 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: Richard Edwards of Margot & The Nuclear So and So's, whose Buzzard is out September 21. Why Margot & the Nuclear So and So's: "I was driving to class at the University of Indiana in a minivan one the morning, around 9 or 10 a.m." recalls frontman Richard Edwards, "and the name just popped into my head. I think it's because I was in the middle of an obsession with Dr. Strangelove back in 2002, 2003 when the band started. I think that's where the nuclear reference comes from. The full title of the movie is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. So I had the idea of long titles in my head too.

September 14, 2010 – It took an early failure for Jamey Johnson to find success. Now, the man responsible for the year's rawest, roughest, and best country album is determined to keep doing things his way -- whether Nashville likes it or not. [Magazine Excerpt] On a sunny afternoon in late July, the concourse of the state fairgrounds in Harrington, Delaware, is lined with red, white, and blue booths manned by texting teens selling suspiciously uniform slices of homemade apple pie. Prize-winning goats, sheep, and cows idle in the nearby livestock pavilion. A baby-faced serviceman stands under a tent, passing out recruiting pamphlets for the National Guard: Always ready, always there. Next to him, a plywood enclosure houses Tiny Tina, the little lady from Haiti, "the world's smallest woman" -- a buck a look.

September 13, 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: Sara Quin, of Canadian indie pop duo Tegan and Sara, who are currently on tour. Why Tegan & Sara: "The first version of the band," recalls Sara, half of the identical twin-sister twosome, "rotated members in addition to Tegan and I and we were called Plunk. Basically, we thought we were a punk band, but without a rhythm section we were light punk: Plunk. After we got out of high school and were trying to play shows around Calgary, we started feeling that Plunk seemed like a silly name-a little lightweight. We knew we wanted to change it and decided to use our own names, thinking it would be a placeholder until we came up with something better. We never did.

September 7, 2010 – Welcome to the weekly SPIN.com feature "Name That Band!" where we get the inside stories behind the mysterious monikers of some ofour favorite artists. (See past episodes of Name That Band! here.) This week: Portland, Oregon, punk rockers the Thermals, whose Personal Life is just out. Why the Thermals: "Me and [bassist] Kathy [Foster] had been playing in a band called Hutch and Kathy that was more of a folky pop thing," explains frontman Hutch Harris. "But when I started writing new songs-this is in 2002, and we were living in Portland-we decided we needed a new name, especially because the material I was writing was pretty different for us. It was way more rocking. Naming the band after an article of clothing seemed rock'n'roll to me-there's a long tradition of that. I also wanted something sort of shallow.

August 30, 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. (See past episodes of Name That Band! here.) This week: Legendary rocker Nick Cave's Grinderman, whose Grinderman 2 is out September 14. Why Grinderman: "We went into the studio without a name," admits drummer Jim Sclavunos, who along with Cave,multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, and bassist Martyn P. Casey formedthe band in 2006. "We'd known we were going to record, we just never thought to come up with a name ahead of time. When we finally got around to it, we found that all the names we wanted to use were taken. No matter how far out on the name limb we went, someone had been there first. For example, we considered the charmingly derogatory C**t Ox. There was already a Captain C**t Ox on MySpace.

August 23, 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: North Carolina Metal maniacs Valient Thorr, whose Stranger is out September 14. Plus: an MP3 from the band! Why Valient Thorr: "Around Easter 2000 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I was home one day watching a Discovery Channel show called Beyond Bizarre," says singer Valient Himself. "The episode had a segment about a dude back in 1957 named Valiant Thor who supposedly came to Earth from the planet Venus. Another part of the same episode was about these snake charmers who drank the poison from snakes. That was a eureka moment. I was like, 'That'll be the background for the band!

August 16, 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: Portland, OR, dance duo YACHT, who will appear at the Hollywood Bowl with the Chemical Brothers on August 29. Why Yacht: "YACHT is actually an acronym," says keyboardist Jona Bechtolt. "It stands for Young Americans Challenging High Technology. It refers to an education program that was held in Portland, Oregon. I was enrolled when I was 16, back in 1996. YACHT wasn't affiliated with the local school system or anything-it was a separate entity. I don't want to get young to deep into it because there were some shady aspects. The program was shut down mysteriously. It was very weird.

August 15, 2010 – Growing up in the small town of Cleveland, Tennessee, J Roddy Walston learned the piano by watching his grandmother's hands skip across the keys as she played gospel tunes for the family. But when the future frontman decided to apply those lessons to the scrappy Southern rock he heard in his head, his teacher was confused. "My grandma didn't get what I was doing at first," says Walston, 29. "She was like, 'Why are you playing like that?' 'Why are you singing like that?' 'Why are you doing this to me?'?" Lately, though, aided by drummer Steve Colmus, 30, guitarist Billy Gordon, 31, and bassist Logan Davis, 22, Walston has had an easier time winning converts, thanks to a riotous live show full of fleet-fingered piano trills, yowled choruses, soul, sweat, and the headbanging Gordon's bluesy solos.

August 11, 2010 – In his groundbreaking Watchmen, V For Vendetta, and From Hell comic series, Alan Moore shattered conventions by gilding his intricate narratives with allusions to pre-Christian mythology, obscure magic rituals, Masonic lore, and historical events, earning himself superhero-like status in the world of ink, paper, and story panels. But with his new project, the eccentric Englishman has decided to test his powers of multi-media. Working in collaboration with photographer Mitch Jenkins and musicians such as Mike Patton and Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, Moore, 56, created Unearthing, a spoken-word biography of his friend and celebrated fellow comic writer Steven Moore that features an accompanying score and book of photographs.

August 6, 2010 – Thursday night in Manhattan, newly minted arena-rocking heroes Arcade Fire proved themselves up to the task of headlining Madison Square Garden for the second time in two nights. (Read our review of the first show here.) The band has posted clips from the YouTube livestream of the concert, directed by Terry Gilliam, on their Vevo channel. In addition to a backstage Q&A with the band moderated by Gilliam, video of complete performances of "Ready to Start," "The Suburbs," and "Rococo," all from their latest, The Suburbs, are available for viewing -- plus "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"/"Rebellion (Lies)" from Funeral. To these ears and eyes, "Ready to Start" is the strongest of the three -- it's not like being there, but it's close. Check out all three clips below.