June 26, 2012 – When Gwen Stefani enters a recording studio, it is customary for the horn players awaiting her to begin playing "The Imperial March." We learn this key factoid and a few more nuggets about the first No Doubt album in 11 years from the band's latest studio webisode, which was posted early this morning and captures longtime collaborators Gabe McNair and Stephen Bradley adding some of their horny flair to several of the new LP's tracks. Based on this latest peek inside the studio, we know now Push and Shove does indeed feature trombone and trumpet — Stefani proclaims there are more horns on Push and Shove than there were on the band's last album, 2001's Rock Steady. Also, guitarist Tom Dumont seems almost jealous of McNair and Bradley's "freshness" and "excitement" — even though they've been playing with the band since 1993 and 1995 respectively.

June 25, 2012 – Rockists in Amsterdam must be having a field day (though their wallets surely haven't) over the past few days, as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Pearl Jam's tours are currently dominating the city's major venues. The latter arrived over the weekend and is slated for two back-to-back performances at Ziggo Dome tomorrow and Wednesday, but — and chock this up to the generous vibes PJ have been emanating recently — Eddie Vedder decided to spend one of his nights off giving Petty fans a little bang for their buck, and joined the Heartbreakers for performances of "The Waiting" and "American Girl" at the Heineken Music Hall (via CoS).

June 25, 2012 – As if to apologize for his umpteenth Tumblr megavent over the weekend, EDM lightning rod Deadmau5 just dropped this extraordinary — and extraordinarily Disney-inspired — clip for his recent Bradbury-nodding, fan collaboration track "The Veldt." Deadau5 premiered the instrumental version of "The Veldt" three months ago, claiming to have been so inspired by Ray Bradbury's 1950 dystopian short story of the same name, which serves as an admonition against the dangers of modern technology, that he created the three-minute soundtrack in tribute to the writer, who died June 5 following a "lengthy illness" at age 91. Shortly after the DJ, also known as Joel Zimmerman, dropped the track, he lauded a fan, songwriter Chris James, in another Tumblr rant for "righteously [doing] his homework" (i.e., actually reading Bradbury's short story) before offering up lyrics for it.

June 25, 2012 – Justice have polished off the stateside tour dates supporting their fall 2011 LP Audio Video Disco and decided what to do next: release a remix EP and go on tour again, of course! New Lands, which is comprised of the French electro-dance duo's Audio Video Disco cut "New Lands," along with a live version and three remixes by Falcon (which you can hear below), A-Trak (which you can already hear here), and Sebastian, dropped this morning via Ed Banger Records and is available to purchase here.

June 25, 2012 – Believe it or not, Green Day is not the only band playing New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience in October: the fest organizers have announced the rest of its lineup, which will now include Neil Young and Crazy Horse and the ubiquitous Jack White, as well as Silversun Pickups, Skrillex, and the Avett Brothers — and not, despite his seemingly best efforts, Frank Ocean. Voodoo began in 1999 and has nearly always been held at New Orleans City Park, except in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck two months before the fest's start date, forcing organizers to split the shows between New Orleans and Memphis.

June 25, 2012 – The latest larynxial victim to join the seemingly unending list of artists recently sidelined with throat problems is Maxwell, who cancelled his brief U.S. tour on Friday, citing vocal swelling and hemorrhaging. The AP reports that the singer's six-date run, which was to comprise three two-night "residencies" in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Newark, New Jersey, from July 20 through August 4, will be refunded and that Maxwell will be resting and "undergoing treatment," per a statement from his representative.

June 22, 2012 – Why did so many musical figures use dubious metaphors this week? We cannot answer that question. But we can compile them into a list for you. Disclaimer: Technically, several of these are not literal metaphors (some are similes! some are straight-up comparisons!), but for the sake of rhetoric, we hope you'll forgive us like the Vatican forgave John Lennon. 5. T.I. and His Ammunition: We already brought you this one, but the recently incarcerated-for-arsenal-possession rapper selected a poor choice of words earlier this week when explaining his upcoming follow-up to 2008's Paper Trail to MTV, explaining that he's "got a lot of ammunition; I'm about to start shootin'." What, like how you told all those kids not to? 4.

June 22, 2012 – The Black Keys owe a lot of their recent explosion into superstardom to the omnipresence of their music in commercials like this one for this beer brand and this one for this cell phone, and this one for this car. How much do they love selling out? Just ask them! However, as fellow duo Beach House well know, that delicate balance can swiftly flip from a band-and-brand partnership to a band-versus-brand showdown, and now two companies have allegedly crossed the one contemporary rock band you seriously don't want to cross. The duo, in tandem with El Camino producer Danger Mouse, are suing Home Depot Inc.

June 22, 2012 – Remember that one time at the Grammys this year when analog king Dave Grohl made a backhanded comment about electronic music not being as important as rock'n'roll because it wasn't human-made? Well, it's a good thing he subsequently clarified those comments as referring to the human aspect in all music, because the video our dear SPIN cover star Skrillex shared on his Facebook page (via Daily What) yesterday may have officially put the kibosh on any criticism that EDM is too robotic — it's a Dutch choir performing his Hook-a-licious single "Bangarang." Completely a cappella. As Gawker points out, the arrangement was commissioned by 3FM DJ Roosmarijn, who hosts a three-hour dubstep block cleverly called "Wob Wob Wednesday" on her show 3VOOR12RADIO.

June 22, 2012 – Lil Wayne had no trouble making the split-second decision that resulted in a ridiculous Summer Jam beef, but he's also learned the value of exercising a little patience. Which is why his upcoming I Am Not a Human Being II has been, you guess it, delayed! In a clip pulled from the same interview with MTV in which Weezy correctly identified Nicki Minaj's gender last weekend at Atlanta's Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash, the perpetually shirtless one explained that the difference between the first installment of I Am Not a Human Being — which made him the first artist since Tupac to hold a No.