April 29, 2013 – Ty Segall is a multifaceted dude. The garage-punk hero put out albums last year under his own name, with Ty Segall Band, and in collaboration with White Fence; before we were through telling the world how killer those were, he came along with a new band called Fuzz.Segall's latest incarnation, on a split charity single with fellow California psych destroyers Chad & the Meatbodies, is as a post-disco instrumental rocker. "Music for a Film 1," Ty's side of the split, sets jagged shards of electric guitar over a thickly layered rhythm section.

April 29, 2013 – Dan Deacon's Record Store Day single "Konono Ripoff Nº1," named for Congolese junkyard percussion maestros Konono Nº1, offers two versions of the same song, each with different drummers. Likewise, Deacon's "Konono Ripoff Nº1" video is actually two videos in one. Above, you can watch the basic clip, which consists of twitchy animated-GIF portraits of Baltimore arts community members. If you download the Dan Deacon smartphone app, you can also watch an interactive version of the video; the app allows smartphone users to control the speed of the objects rotating in the animated GIFs. The app also comes in handy at live shows, as Deacon's network-TV debut last year and the recent video for 2012 album America's "Guilford Ave Bridge" demonstrate.

April 29, 2013 – The Knife launched their tour on Friday night, and the two concerts the electro-pop adventurers have performed so far are shaping up to be as unconventional as billed. The Knife's Karin Dreijer-Andersson previously told SPIN the duo's gigs would be "fun" and "show some humor." Then the group issued a wonderfully over-the-top announcement promising "the communal/political/conceptual/imaginational workout experience you always wanted but never could embarrass yourself enough to find or do in public."Evidence of what that means is starting to trickle in from Europe. The Knife's first show of the tour was Friday night at Bremen, Germany's Pier 2, and their second show came on Saturday at Hamburg, Germany's Docks.

April 29, 2013 – Last night, Vampire Weekend played New York City's Roseland Ballroom, and the great character actor Steve Buscemi directed a live webcast of the performance. (We were there, by the way.) You can watch the entire set above, including new songs from the New York band's May 14 album, Modern Vampires of the City. We've already written about the upcoming LP's "Diane Young," "Unbelievers," and "Ya Hey," but check out the gently swaying "Obvious Bicycle" and delicately jaunty "Everlasting Arms" below. And don't forget, Vampire Weekend will be performing on Saturday Night Live on May 11. Let's hope Buscemi is also invited.Check out SPIN's best live photos from the show here.

April 29, 2013 – Saturday night the Washington, D.C., establishment held its annual fete to itself, the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and once again President Barack Obama managed to invite in hip-hop.Obama's entrance music at this year's Conan O'Brien-hosted event was DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win," and the president also mockingly addressed the recent brouhaha over Jay-Z's trip to Cuba: "Some things are beyond my control," the president said. "For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba — it's unbelievable. I've got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one." That followed a joke about Young Jeezy at the 2012 dinner. The guy who once said there isn't a red America or a blue America also goofed on country's biggest contemporary pop star.

April 29, 2013 – Rock memoirs have been a booming business lately, with '60s guitar whizzes Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townshend lending their bylines to bestsellers detailing their behind-the-scenes (mis)adventures. The hip-hop memoir has, more quietly, offered itself as a more innovative form: Jay-Z's Decoded, in 2010, didn't dish about the rapper's much-mythologized past so much as deftly break down his rhymes and argue convincingly for them as great art. Now, Spiegel & Grau, the same Random House imprint that printed Jay-Z's book, is set to put out another convention-bucking hip-hop memoir, this time by the Beastie Boys.As the New York Times reports, the publisher is expected to announce this week that Mike D and Ad-Rock have inked an agreement to publish an as-yet-untitled book, available to be ch-checked out of libraries in fall 2015.

April 26, 2013 – Crystal Castles' new video, a document of their South American tour, arrives as the Canadian duo extend their North American jaunt with Depeche Mode. "Affection," from last year's III, is a shrouded mix of flashing electronics and downcast vocals — reviewer Barry Walters called it "tentative" — and the visuals don't remove the shadows. The song's video isn't Crystal Castles' most attention-grabbing, but it should help prepare Depeche Mode fans for Crystal Castles' unhinged live shows.Assembled by Stephen Agnew, who worked with the pair on their prior video for "Sad Eyes," the clip has a VHS feel. Frontwoman Alice Glass, her hair almost white and her lips blood-red, can be seen wrapping a microphone cord around her neck in live footage shot by producer Ethan Kath during shows in Colombia and Argentina.

April 26, 2013 – The online hunt for details about a possible new Boards of Canada album has only gotten more intense, and now the searchers suspect they've come up with a title. But there are plenty of doubts.As FACT reports, "cosecha," the Spanish word for "harvest," is a phrase buried in the data for a couple of Soundcloud links unearthed via arcane clues found by users of BoC fan message board Twoism. Some users speculate Cosecha is the title of the first album in eight years from the Scottish electronic masterminds. Others theorize that it might be the name for the puzzle itself, while some note that it might just be a red herring.To recap, this all comes after previously unannounced BoC vinyl began showing up on shelves on April 20, which was Record Store Day. Another, identical 12-inch single surfaced in London. Since then, BBC and NPR have both aired further clues.

April 26, 2013 – Country lost one of its greats today, when George Jones died at age 81. According to Billboard, a rep confirms he passed away at Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center after coming down with a fever and suffering blood pressure problems. "Possum," as he was called, released more than 150 albums in his more than 50-year career, and for many he embodied traditional country music in a way worthy of Hank Williams, his idol. The Country Music Hall of Famer's hits included the heart-rending masterpiece "He Stopped Loving Her Today," and many more. He leaves behind his wife of 30 years, Nancy Jones, as well as his sister Helen Scroggins, and his children, grandchildren, and extended family.As the AP notes, Jones' influence extended far beyond country, with Frank Sinatra, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, and many others heralding his work.

April 26, 2013 – David Bowie's slow-drip release of information about last month's The Next Day, the art-rock legend's first album of new material in a decade, has so far been more enthralling than the actual music. In January, the Thin White Duke dropped a new single on the world without any advance warning. Since then he has brilliantly cast Tilda Swinton in one video, and Gary Oldman will reportedly star in the next one.