July 3, 2012 – Over the weekend, Gotye dismissed exaggerated rumors of his death with a Pink-deprecating tweet. "I'm not dead. #Pinkalbumtitles," the singer-songwriter who's Australian for Sting wrote. The real Pink, who is also very much alive, is indeed prepping her first album since 2008's Funhouse, but let's not forget her 2010 Greatest Hits... So Far!!! compilation spawned two big hits in its own right ("Raise Your Glass," "Fuckin' Perfect"). And while Gotye has been standing around naked painted the same color as the walls, Pink has been, y'know, being a mom, so she has a pretty good excuse for any delay. "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)," the first single from the LP, has arrived, and while it might not fully satisfy those who love her past smashes like 2008 glam-rock romp "So What" or 2001 coming-out moment "Get This Party Started," it has hooks galore.

July 2, 2012 – Damon Albarn, during performances of his new opera, Dr Dee, looks down at the stage from the point of view of what the show's director recently described to the Economist as "a nation in decline." That's an often-missed distinction from the '90s Britpop wars between Blur and Oasis: Although both English band's mid-'90s albums draped themselves in the Union Jack, Albarn's songs often explored a nation's tattered promise, while the Gallagher brothers swaggered on as if the sun still never set on the British Empire. (It's probably no coincidence that Oasis had larger-scale commercial success on this side of the pond, where national exceptionalism remains a political article of faith.) The reunited Blur's live debut today of two remarkable new songs — their first since 2010 Record Store Day one-off "Fool's Day" — also bears consideration as art that reflects a diminished era.

July 2, 2012 – Girls' Christopher Owens is leaving the band he formed with bassist-producer Chet "JR" White, the San Francisco-based singer and songwriter has revealed. "My reasons at this time are personal," Owens said in a series of tweets on his personal account. "I need to do this in order to progress." Owens said he will still make music and promised that "more will be announced soon." The official Twitter account for Girls has yet to reflect the news. The duo released two critically acclaimed albums, including last year's Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and an EP during their brief career. They recently wrapped up a U.S.

July 2, 2012 – Last year's Civilian, by the Baltimore duo of singer-guitarist Jenn Wasner and drummer-keyboardist Andy Stack, was one of the year's understated pleasures. Wye Oak's latest, the rhythm-driven "Spiral," takes a new-wavey turn from that album's smoldering, Americana-smudged indie rock, adding marimba, programmed drums, and mesmerizing vocal effects. It's no less of an entrancing slow burner, however, and will be available for download today through Adult Swim's website. Read SPIN'S 2009 Breaking Out profile on Wye Oak here.

July 2, 2012 – Azealia Banks has joined forces with Styles P, just after declaring the Gangster and a Gentleman MC, via Twitter, "literally my FAVORITE rapper." The Gotham duo kicked off the weekend trading tongue-twisting, catchily crass verses on "Nathan," backed by Scotland producer Drums of Death's squiggly synths reminiscent of '80s acid house. Although Banks and Styles both come hard with sinister-sounding vows that "y'all niggas ain't gettin' Nathan," Styles' references to Coney Island — and Banks' relish-taking references to hot dogs, ketchup, etc. — raise questions about precisely which Nathan we might be talking about here. "Boom, pow, Batman words," Styles exults. Just wait until they try the cheese fries. Breaking Out artist Banks is slated to release her new mixtape Fantasea on July 11, pushed back from a planned July 4 date.

June 29, 2012 – The first day Red Hot Chili Peppers ever played together with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, as bassist Flea told SPIN a year ago, the L.A. alt-rock funksters had just learned about the death of a close friend. That friend was much-missed author, punk icon, and former SPIN contributor/pithy-quote-provider/letter-writer Brendan Mullen, who died in 2009 at age 60. RHCP's latest LP, I'm With You, pays mournful tribute to Mullen on "Brendan's Death Song." Directed by Marc Klasfeld (Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Kid Rock), the track's video gives its subject a proper jazz funeral, RHCP-style, down in New Orleans. "It was a poignant moment for us," Flea said of the writing of the song. "It was an emotional thing." So is this video.

June 29, 2012 – The original soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick' 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's classic dystopian novel, was a landmark in electronic music history. Wendy (then Walter) Carlos' score not only made extensive use of the Moog synthesizer but also pioneered the role in music of the vocoder, as Dave Tompkins' chronicles in his essential vocoder history How to Wreck a Nice Beach. Burgess, however, wrote his own musical version of the novel, and the BBC reports that his 26-year-old songs have finally received a live U.K. debut. "Discipline, discipline, let's have discipline!" exults a chorus of male voices over jaunty piano plinks, in one audio snippet posted by the BBC. Oddly, the effect isn't that far off from a professional, grown-up version of the "you're a crook, Captain Hook" musical flashback from TV's Arrested Development.

June 29, 2012 – In the latest turn in the decades-long back-and-forth between Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, Liam has started singing Oasis songs again. As the Guardian reports, Liam performed two Noel compositions from their former band — "Rock 'n' Roll Star" and "Morning Glory" — during a show last night in Warrington, England, with current group Beady Eye. Too bad Liam was never the lead vocalist on "Don't Look Back in Anger," or that might've been thematically appropriate. The 12-song set was a trial run for Beady Eye's show Saturday opening a homecoming show for the reunited Stone Roses in Manchester. And it's not as if Liam hadn't already warned the Britpop-loving public of his plan to revive some of the Oasis catalogue at Beady Eye shows. "I feel they're just as much my songs as they are Noel's," he explained to XFM earlier this year.

June 29, 2012 – "Instead of just being a dubstep DJ, I'm starting to play everything," Troy Beetles tells our own Camille Dodero in SPIN's exploration of North American dubstep, from the brand-new July/August Outside issue. The Canadian producer better known as Datsik takes a playful approach to more than just music, as evidenced by his new "Datsik Diaries" video from this month's Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Beetles turned 24 at the massive dance-party event, and you can see him celebrate by shooting guns, DJing in front of a wild and amped-up crowd, and hanging out with boldface EDM names like Steve Aoki, Afrojack, Benny Benassi, Zeds Dead, Kaskade, and more. Someone even sets off fireworks in Datsik's honor.

June 29, 2012 – Odd Future's new video for "Sam Is Dead" ventures into Vietnam-war-movie territory, and yes, they were in the shit. As with previous OF Tape Vol. 2 clips "Rella" and "NY (Ned Flander)," it's warped and a bit mystifying, but this time the results are elegantly shot and enjoyable to watch, whether or not you can make sense of any apparent connection to the American Revolution young-adult novel My Brother Sam Is Dead. From the cat artwork on a wall in an interrogation room to the straight-faced absurdity of the inevitable, ambiguous death sequence, the video's playful attention to detail recalls Rushmore as much as The Deer Hunter or Platoon. The closing credits are hilariously extensive, taking up about a whole minute of the video, which runs to nearly seven; Odd Future's Earl Sweatshirt, Trash Talk's Lee Spielman, and many others affiliated with the the L.A.