November 9, 2012 – The Rolling Stones generally left the goopy romantic stuff to the Beatles, but Mick Jagger could write a sensitive love letter when he needed to. Marsha Hunt, the singer who starred in the original London production of Hair and is the mother of Jagger's first child, is auctioning off letters the singer wrote her in the summer of 1969, as the Guardian reports. "I'm broke," Hunt is quoted as explaining.The previously unseen letters will be sold as a single lot at Sotheby's on December 12. They're expected to sell for £70,000 ($111,384) to £100,000 ($159,120). The Guardian's account doesn't include any particularly juicy or tender details, but we do see Jagger reflecting on books Hunt gave him, complaining about unattractive "chicks" at a party, and lamenting missing "John & Yoko boring everybody" at the Isle of Wight festival.

November 9, 2012 – Look, what you're about to read isn't even a particularly original argument anymore. Thinkers like Thomas Frank have already contended persuasively that the '60s posture of rebellion, rather than challenging the moneyed establishment, actually echoed what corporate America's top marketers were already thinking. In other words, the Clash were wrong: You can't turn rebellion into money. Rebellion already is money; it's called capitalism ("creative destruction"!). Add to that how the Rolling Stones, led by a once-promising London School of Economics student, did pretty much what British imperialists had done for centuries, taking artistic influences that once had been communal and then stamping their copyright on them.

November 9, 2012 – "Leave Me Out," from JEFF the Brotherhood's summer album Hypnotic Knights, is a loud-soft fuzz-popper about unrequited love, with unsubtle echoes of mid-'90s Weezer and the Rentals. Fittingly, the Nashville duo's video for the song takes a similarly nostalgic tack. Showing the brothers straight-facedly bashing out the song in front of a green-screen background that spans from hot air balloons to outer space (and beyond?), it's almost the music-video equivalent of that Wayne's World scene demonstrating the wonders of Chroma key. "She's so out of reach," sighs guitarist-singer Jake Orrall, when with the click of a button he could be in... Delaware.

November 9, 2012 – Ja Rule isn't going to believe this. While that rapper, who's scheduled to be in prison until February 2013, earlier this year told a reporter prison is "amazing," another MC is here to tell him that house arrest is, like, totally better. "Being on house arrest really is a blessing for me," Gunplay, who was arrested last month on an outstanding armed robbery warrant, said in an interview with TMZ.The Def Jam MC still faces charges of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault. But he's looking at the bright side. He's reportedly making music, playing video games, and getting laid. "One main difference from house arrest instead of jail is that I can still get sex... which is a wonderful thing," Gunplay is quoted as saying.

November 9, 2012 – Rihanna's Facebook interview last night suggests the 24-year-old singer has, understandably, not yet exactly come to terms with the mundane realities of one day waking up over the hill. What she wants in 30 years, she said, is to be "skinny," to be "fierce," and that her "tits are still sitting up," because, she explained, "Nothing else will matter at that point." Now that Rihanna's current single "Diamonds" has been around for several weeks, it's becoming clear that it, like this quote, is an example of the pop powerhouse conceptualizing maturity but somehow failing to grasp its true essence.The mellow self-affirmation jam's video is here now, and despite the Chris Brown-like tattooed arm, or what appears to be Rihanna rolling a joint full of diamonds, or the intermittently blazing flames, it's a confirmation of Rihanna's awkward segue into adult-contemporary-dom.

November 9, 2012 – In late 2000 and early 2001, Pearl Jam began releasing the first of what would turn out to be hundreds of "official bootlegs" containing high-quality recordings of the band's concerts (SPIN parsed the first 72 double-disc shows in our March 2001 issue). The band has continued the fan-friendly practice all the way through this year, most recently issuing bootlegs from its European tour. But now, like ESPN Classic replaying an immediately unforgettable football game, Eddie Vedder and company are launching a new "Instant Classic" bootleg series, the band has revealed (via Antiquiet).The first installment is a recording of Pearl Jam's September 30 show in Missoula, Montana.

November 8, 2012 – Psychedelics — siiiike! — are a psyche-out for Kevin Parker. True to its title, the Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist's SPIN Essential second album as Tame Impala, Lonerism, explores emotional states more than altered ones, feelings rather than pharmaceuticals. Even swaggering first single "Elephant," a character study about the macho bloke Parker clearly thinks he isn't, ends in tears. Fellow album standout "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" uses its loping Spacehog bass line and psych-soaked guitar swirls to turn wimpy lovesickness into instant bliss. Directed by Joe Pelling and Becky Sloan, the song's new video is a wonderfully animated one that continues the trippy theme of the "Elephant" clip.

November 8, 2012 – The first sound you hear on Scott Walker's new album, for several disorienting seconds, is a clipped percussion sample that sounds not unlike a skipping CD. The former U.K. teen idol, who long ago remade himself as a willfully challenging avant-garde avatar, returns on December 4 with Bish Bosch, his first album since 2006's brutalist masterpiece The Drift.

November 8, 2012 – Kyle Thomas has made a whole lot of friends since moving from Vermont to Los Angeles. But should that be any surprise? A garage-rocker with arena-friendly melodies in the grand Bob Pollard tradition, Thomas packs his excellent new self-titled Sub Pop album as King Tuff with good-hearted good times well worth writing home about.

November 8, 2012 – Sometimes Kendrick Lamar needs to be alone. A lack of a much-discussed Lady Gaga feature didn't hurt the West Coast rapper's SPIN Essential major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, which continues to sell well enough to stay in the Top Five. Given past Lamar producer Soundwave's lush future-jazz production, "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" sure wasn't going to harsh anyone's buzz as a solo joint. But the artist apparently intended to have company on the track: Gaga's non-appearance was "a deadline situation," Lamar has told MTV News.Gaga's DJ White Shadow has posted an Instagram-style behind-the-scenes video with a demo of the Mother Monster's "Bitch" version to his Vimeo account, and it's, well, unlikely to settle any arguments between Gaga fans and Lamar heads.