January 16, 2009 – How seriously are we supposed to take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions? Certainly, plenty of the musicians who make the cut are inarguably great. But a conception of classic rock'n'roll that makes room for solid journeymen like Percy Sledge and the Dave Clark Five, but doesn't include more talented, slightly more obscure singers like O.V. Wright or innovative talents like Todd Rundgren, isn't one I give much credence to. Still, the selectors did a decent job this year. Below is my take on the nine new inductees, along with a "Hall of Fame Worthiness" rating of 1 (worst) to 10 (best) for each.Metallica The first true metal band to be inducted is the most commercially lucrative headbanging outfit of all time and the most artistically successful. Straight thrash, proggy epics, moody ballads, and an amazingly candid documentary -- these guys did it all.

January 12, 2009 – On January 20, when Barack Obama is sworn in, millions of Americans will appreciate the event as proof of racial progress, and deservedly so. But in the course of reporting "Ugly Hate Machine," the story I wrote about the availability of white power music online for SPIN's January issue, I learned that racist Obama haters aren't a media invention. They're real, they're angry, and they play shitty hardcore.

December 29, 2008 – As the host of VH1's Best Week Ever, dapper comedian Paul F. Tompkins makes a living siccing his snark on cultural ephemera. Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy does much the same via his witty rhymes on songs like "Drnk Txt Rmeo" and "Cookie Jar," both from 2008's The Quilt. Unsurprisingly, when the talking head and the rapping mouth came together to pass judgment on a pupu platter of the year's most noteworthy tunes, neither one held back. Well, maybe with one notable exception... Check out these nine songs, then check out Travis and Paul breaking down 10 more in the January 2009 issue of SPIN, on newsstands now! VAMPIRE WEEKEND, "OXFORD COMMA"Blog-fueled smarty-pants phenoms declare their disregard for punctuation particulars atop a spare, breezy groove. McCOY: This song is really pussy, for lack of a better word. I don't understand the buzz about this band.

December 28, 2008 – Taylor Swift was the elephant in my cultural room this year. Perhaps that's not the most apt metaphor for a tiny, flaxen-haired teenager, but there's no doubting that Swift's success was big and that I basically ignored her. So with the year coming to a close, I thought I'd try and rectify the situation. It's been hard not to pay attention. Swift's second album, Fearless, released on November 11, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, selling almost 600,000 its first week in stores. Not bad -- and not the end. Over a million sold in three weeks; back to the top spot after five weeks. She even outsold that long-awaited release by Guns 'N Roses, not to mention Kanye West, Britney Spears, and the Killers. Despite her popularity, the music media, me included, paid relatively little attention to Swift, especially when compared to others in her sales stratosphere like Britney or Beyonce.

December 23, 2008 – Like any musician, Brutal Attack's Ken McLellan wants to be heard. Only, what he wants people to hear are self-described "white power" anthems with lines like "This is the Final Solution / Our turn / They'll burn." Unsurprisingly, McLellan, whose group has been labeled by the Anti-Defamation League as "one of the oldest hate bands in continuous existence," has run into some obstacles. Most record stores don't sell his music. Ones that do risk protest by activist groups like Turn It Down and the ARA (Anti-Racist Action), both of which target retailers that distribute white-power music. "Because stores wouldn't carry us, selling records used to be laborious," says McLellan, 44. "We relied on mail order. We relied on concerts." Not anymore. For $9.99, you can download Brutal Attack's anti-immigrant, pro-white Tales of Glory from iTunes. It's a buck cheaper on Amazon.

December 19, 2008 – Before Wednesday night's show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Liam Gallagher's contemptibility had just about slipped my mind. After all, it had been seven years since I last saw Oasis live. It didn't take long for him to get back into my bad graces. The weirdly annoying rooster strutting, the Fonzie collar-flipping, the impassive stares into the audience, the sneering "fooks." Oh yeah, I remember this guy -- he's the arrogant bastard from Oasis. (See concert photos here.) If Liam were in almost any other band, he would be utterly unbearable. Instead, as the lead singer for one of the few remaining acts that can reliably pack an arena with rabid fans ready to sing the deep cuts, he's oddly compelling -- the embodiment of what makes Oasis interesting. These droogs write soaring, stomping, galvanizing rock songs. It's the songs that truly make their show worth checking out.

December 12, 2008 – Dig out your flannel, Pearl Jam fans! Word came this week that the band is readying a deluxe re-release package of their first album, 1991's Ten, which is set to include remixes, demos, vinyl LPs, live material, extended liner notes, and a pair of vintage Eddie Vedder jean shorts. You've got to hand it to the band. For all their obvious discomfort with the big rock machine, the guys have always gone out of their way to offer fresh product to their insatiable fan base (Vedheads? Pearl Harborers?).Yet somehow, they've never come across like a crass indie-indebted version of KISS. The Seattle quintet has mastered the art of maintaining its career without selling its soul. Lord knows they could have. In today's flat sales-scape, Pearl Jam's early success seems like it took place in some magical land of milk, honey, and robust record sales. Nearly ten million copies sold of the debut.

December 4, 2008 – 1. Interesting that the two acts with the most nominations are Lil Wayne, with eight, and Coldplay, with seven. Besides the obvious contrasts (white vs. black, rap vs. rock, English Vs. American), Coldplay and Wayne represent wildly divergent approaches to stardom. Coldplay still operate under the album-as-event paradigm, taking years between releases, carefully doling out interviews, hitting the stadiums. Weezy, though, drops mixtapes at a moment's notice, is more likely to spend time playing rudimentary guitar than plotting a tour, and blogs about sports for ESPN. He's a loose cannon; Coldplay is a well-oiled machine. Will Grammy voters reward one style over the other? 2. The Album of the Year category is refreshingly free of an obvious sop to older voters. Along with Wayne and Coldplay, albums by Ne-Yo, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Radiohead merit the award.

November 25, 2008 – There's a song on the new Killers album, Day & Age, called "Neon Tiger." It's a mid-tempo anthem that, on the verses, features a chiming, vaguely oriental synth line, staccato guitar, and singer Brandon Flowers stringing together a bunch of Pan-Asian nouns ("Assam"; "Saigon"). The chorus stomps forward on fuzzy major chords and the lyrics, "Run neon tiger/ There's a lot on your mind/ they promised just to pet you/ Don't you let them get you." It's a difficult song to parse. And therein lies its awesomeness. Also, "Neon Tiger" wins points for reminding me of Dio's 1983 pomp-metal classic "Holy Diver," which has a strikingly similar set of lyrics. "Ride the tiger," sings Ronnie James Dio, "You can see his stripes but you know he's clean/ Oh, don't you see what I mean?" I don't.

November 20, 2008 – It's two hours before showtime, and the Vivian Girls are poppingpills. "I'm totally gonna get seasick in the middle of a song," grumbles drummer Ali Koehler as she passes the Bonine to her bandmates, Kickball Katy (bass) and Cassie Ramone (guitar, lead vocals), in preparation for a performance on the Half Moon, a boat harbored in New York City's East River. But aside from occasional queasiness and the odd, as Katy puts it, "guy who stands at the merch table waiting for you to talk to him," it's been smooth sailing for the New Jersey trio. "We're really lucky," says Ramone, who graduated from graphic design school last May.