July 19, 2012 – All due respect to Carly Rae Jepsen, but Gotye is the left-field success story of 2012. The smoky-voiced Aussie's inescapable breakout single, "Somebody That I Used to Know," from his Making Mirrors album, shot into ubiquity this past winter thanks to an exceptional synergy of hooky ingenuity and video virality. (Over a quarter billion views and counting.) The numbers are proof that the man born Wouter De Backer knows his way around an earworm. But what songs have wriggled inside Gotye's brain? The 32-year-old singer spoke with us about his favorite inescapable songs. You'll forgive him for including two of his own, which he's hoping to bring to audiences when he undertakes a U.S. tour in August. Major Lazer, "Get Free" "That gets stuck in my head a bunch. All the vocal aspects, ya know?

July 18, 2012 – Despite White Zombie's large cult following and well-documented endorsement from Beavis and Butt-Head, it's unlikely that few pop-culture observers circa 1993 would have preserved images of barking, dreadlocked frontman Rob Zombie in a time capsule. But nearly 20 years later, the unlikely rock star and horror film auteur has not only survived, but thrived, continuing to release music (the UME remix album Mondo Sex Head is out August 7), movies, and, touring. (He'll soon be on the road with Marilyn Manson.) While en route to Comic-Con to promote his upcoming movie, The Lords of Salem, Zombie, 47, chatted with us about appreciating what you have, going with your gut, and learning when to say no. You have to work on everything with a gut-level response.

June 6, 2012 – Belying his Rotten reputation, John Lydon is actually quite the sweetheart. Not that you’d guess after listening to Public Image Ltd.’s first new album in 20 years, June’s fiery self-released dub-punk opus This is PiL (distributed via Redeye). But in conversation, the ex-Sex Pistols frontman, 56, is gracious and good-humored, even while addressing some very contentious issues. On the phone from his home in Los Angeles, the native Londoner chatted with SPIN about label hassles, encouraging compassion over group-think, and how to evolve into a genteel firebrand. I grew up thinking that music all comes from a place of verbal warfare, and it doesn’t. I learned to write songs with the Pistols. And good on them and all that, but we were always in some kind of animosity — of course the gossip mongering that the management spread didn’t help.

May 11, 2012 – Time isn't exactly a linear construct for the Cult's Ian Astbury. The crooning frontman made his name during hard rock's '80s halcyon days, but his spiritual roots reach back to the mystical '60s (it wasn't exactly a shocker in 2002 when the remaining members of the Doors asked Astbury to pull on the Lizard King's leather pants), and his band is set to release the intense Choice of Weapon (Cooking Vinyl), their first new studio album in five years, on May 22. Fittingly, the headscarf-loving Englishman, who turns 50 the week before Weapon's release, covers a lot of territory as he offers his alternately shamanistic and common-sense guidelines for enlightenment. I'd rather take my directions from a woman. I came from a very strong matriarchal background — my mom, seven sisters.

June 13, 2011 – If you want to be heard, you've got to make a big noise. That's been Viva Brother singer-guitarist Lee Newell's m.o. since the self-styled "gritpop" band formed in dreary Slough, England (the setting for the British version of The Office), in 2009. Whether promising the polarized U.K. press that his stomping quartet are the kind that "take over the world"; telling a crowded Brooklyn club that they'll soon be playing "Madison Square Gardens [sic]"; or slagging off American A-listers (Kings of Leon have "pandered"), he's not shy about stirring things up. "We just do what we feel," says Newell. "Maybe that's self-destructive, but that's who we are. We're not ashamed." Newell, 23, bassist Josh Ward, drummer Frank Colucci, both 22, and lead guitarist Sam Jackson, 24, met and started playing together as teenagers.

August 5, 2008 – Lollapalooza has once again come and gone like a summer beacon of bountiful awesomeness, having passed through Chicago's Grant Park from Aug. 1-3.

July 28, 2008 – If there's one thing we here at SPIN.com like more than rocking out, it's making the world a better place to live in. Luckily, Amnesty International -- as well as some of our favorite bands -- agrees: From Sept. 10-Dec. 10,Amnesty will be launching their Small Places Tour, which marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Besides functioning as really sweet gigs, the concerts are intended to bring attention to urgent global human rights concerns, as well as to raise funds for future Amnesty campaigns. But beyond that, acclaimed Catalan filmmaker Lluis Danes shot public service announcements with more than 30 artists supporting Amnesty and the tour, including R.E.M., the National, Vampire Weekend, and Justice. And you can check out the first of a handful that SPIN.com will be premiering -- this one featuring Michael Stipe of R.E.M. -- below.

July 25, 2008 – Moonlighting gigs have seemingly become the central preoccupation of many of today's more relevant indie artists, and the inhabitants of Islands are no exception, despite the recent release of that group's excellent Arm's Way. Nick Thorburn and sometime Island resident Jim Guthrie (a reputed lo-fi lothario on his own solo time) are set to release their Aug. 19 debut (though Suicide Squeeze) as Human Highway, aptly titled Moody Motorcycle. For a free, premiere download of "Sleep Talking" off that very release, look no further than this very Web page. The duo's purported intent was to harken back to the days of heavenly melodies, like those of the Everly Brothers and other blue-eyed soul/doo-wop-era vocal groups. And on the cleverly titled "Sleep Talking," Thorburn and Guthrie succeed -- in a knowingly rough-around-the-edges kind of way.

July 24, 2008 – Fitting that we ran a story yesterday regarding Dr. Dre's continued toiling on The Detox, as his protégé 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) is now -- shockingly --in the headlines. You may recall a good-natured open letter Taco Bell aired to the public recently, encouraging 50 to "think outside the bun" and alter his surname to 79, 89, or 99 cent. Some time later, the MC reportedly got wind of the promotion, as well as sporadic fan outcries of "sellout," and has subsequently sicked his legal team on the franchise to the tune of $4 million. The papers ostensibly accuse the Gordita-peddling purveyors of using his name unjustly and without permission, and in such a way that has besmirched his reputation. Now, we're in no position to debate how seriously a man who openly shills his supposedly authentic persona to Vitamin Water and Reebok should safeguard his good name.

July 23, 2008 – This past Sunday, July 20, throngs of music-hungry fans converged on Los Angeles' Gibson Ampitheatre for Download 2008 to have their craving satiated by sets from Tapes N' Tapes, Datarock, Ghostland Observatory, Gang of Four, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, among others. SPIN.com's Peter Gaston sat down with Brooklyn bohemians Yeasayer; watch video of Peter catching up with the uber-hyped outfit about the rigors of performing under oppressive heat, getting into imagined MC battles with Q-Tip on New York's subways, and being baffled by snoozing front-row fans. More on SPIN.com:>>Mates of State, Jesus and Mary Chain, Duke Spirit, and Others Sparkle at Download Fest's L.A. Date>>Video: SXSW '08: Yeasayer>>Download 2008: In Pictures