November 15, 2011 – Aerospace hub Huntsville, Alabama, used to be about seeing stars. Thanks to G-Side and the rest of a tight-knot rap community, it's now about making them. More From SPIN's December 2011 Issue:• Live from the New Underground: SPIN Celebrates Hip-Hop's DIY Moment• Odd Future: The New Underground's Loud Family Goes on the Road• An Insanely Obsessive Infographic Tries (in Vain) to Diagram the Hip-Hop Galaxy "There it is," says ST, easing his beige Chrysler Concorde onto I-565 in Huntsville, Alabama. "The motherfuckin' rocket." Just off the highway, a 363-foot-tall white Saturn V points toward the heavens, a beacon for visitors to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

October 31, 2011 – On the opening night of Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne tour in Atlanta on Friday, there was a lot to look at. The show opened with Jay and Kanye trading verses on the frenetic Watch the Throne single "H.A.M.," as they rose up at opposite ends of Philips Arena atop giant hydraulic video cubes projecting images of rather ill-tempered Dobermans. A few minutes later, a huge American flag dropped from the ceiling flanked by bursts of pyrotechnics for "Otis." Multicolored lasers shot off in every direction all night long and massive video screens behind the stage projected a stream of images to complement many of the songs — tigers and leopards for "Welcome to the Jungle," fighter jets and eagles for "Touch the Sky," police cars for "Run This Town," bears for "Monster," etc.

October 11, 2011 – For his story "Second Acts," in the March 2010 issue of SPIN, contributing writer David Peisner spoke with 44 musicians who chose to leave pop music behind for other pursuits. His subjects included the late Mikey Welsh, who played bass with Weezer from 1998 to 2001. Welsh later resurfaced in Burlington, Vermont, as a painter, and spoke frankly with Peisner about how his time spent in the band was a dream come true that soon turned overwhelming and unmanageable. Here is an extended version of the interview that ran in the magazine. SPIN: Do you have a personal highlight from your Weezer days?Mikey Welsh: I guess, probably, the week that the "Green Album" came out. That was a good week. It debuted really high and we played Saturday Night Live and got flown in a private jet from L.A. to New York to do the show.

August 24, 2011 – A rapper named El General posted a song to his Facebook page that became the anthem to his country's revolution. David Peisner travels to Tunisia to see how hip-hop brought down a dictator. The most dangerous rapper in the world sleeps in a narrow twin bed in a small room he shares with his brother in a tidy, comfortable home on the outskirts of Sfax, an industrial port city in central Tunisia. The comforter is decorated with pictures of teddy bears, rocking horses, and a red wagon adorned with the words BEAR EXPRESS. His brother's identical bed sits four inches away. On the morning I visit, he walks out of his house into the dusty, sunbaked street wearing a black T-shirt, black sweatpants, and flip-flops.

April 11, 2011 – For Robin Pecknold, following up Fleet Foxes' beloved debut wasn't just a labor of love -- it was an all-consuming head trip. David Peisner goes to Seattle and finds an artist who's still learning where his off switch is. [Magazine Excerpt] Robin Pecknold stands outside a small triangle-shaped building in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, wearing a weathered green barn jacket over his slight frame and smoking an American Spirit.

September 22, 2010 – Although they're credited as emo godfathers, the Tempe,AZ four-piece Jimmy Eat World have spent the better part of the lastdecade carving out a space on modern rock radio playlists for amiable,straightforward power-pop unencumbered by gimmicks, trends, or larger-than-life personalities.

September 14, 2010 – The arrest this summer of elusive alleged drug kingpin — and Jamaican folk hero — Christopher "Dudus" Coke served as a dramatic reminder that when it comes to partying at the crossroad between organized crime and pop music, rap's got nothing on dancehall. [Magazine Excerpt] The Sun Sets behind Tivoli Gardens on a warm Wednesday evening in late June, shooting streaks of burnt-orange light between this West Kingston community's crumbling buildings.

August 17, 2010 – One guy's homeless, one likes sleeping all day, one's in Pearl Jam, and one's Chris Cornell. Beloved '90s titans Soundgarden are back, but where are they going? [Magazine Excerpt] From a distance, it doesn't look like much has changed. On a cool Thursday evening in June, three-quarters of Soundgarden stand on a street corner in the Belltown section of Seattle, smoking cigarettes. From half a block away, I can make out the long, lean figure of Chris Cornell clad in a green military jacket, leaning against the window outside the Palace Ballroom, a private dining room serviced by local celebrity chef Tom Douglas. The Soundgarden frontman's dark locks hang past his shoulders, a throwback to the band's heyday and a reminder of his status as grunge's only bona fide sex symbol.

June 11, 2010 – Last Christmas, Vic Chesnutt delivered on the promise of a career's worth of haunting, darkly comic songs and took his own life. David Peisner talks to his friends and family to get the untold story of one of rock's most curious characters. [Magazine excerpt] On December 5, 2009, Vic Chesnutt sat onstage at the Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, backed by a six-piece band that included Fugazi guitarist Guy Picciotto, Quavers multi-instrumentalist T. Griffin, and members of the Montreal chamber-rock ensemble Thee Silver Mt. Zion. A Christmas tree decorated with ornaments towered behind them, and large stained-glass windows flanked the stage. Chesnutt, his face heavy with scraggly stubble, propped a small wooden guitar on his lap as he slouched in the wheelchair he'd used since breaking his neck in a car accident in 1983.

May 25, 2010 – Do you remember your first music festival? Probably Warped Tour when I was 16. Social Distortion played. I remember Mike Ness was like, "I wrote this when I was young and angry. I'm still angry!" [Laughs] That was my most vivid memory. What's the best thing about playing festivals? Being in a band, you don't get to see a lot of shows, so festivals are your chance to see bands play. You're also playing for an audience that isn't your own, so you have something to prove. What's the worst thing? Let's just say some of the more long-standing European festivals have a disorganized bathroom situation. You know there's going to be thousands of people, get it together! You guys have been accused of selling out your anarcho-punk ideals. Is it difficult to block out that criticism? You get numb to it. There's no way you'll ever convince people who feel like that to think otherwise.