April 12, 2011 – With his sitcom stardom and his Wu-Tang name-generator handle, Donald Glover knows people may have a hard time taking his rap alter ego Childish Gambino seriously. That's exactly how he likes it. [Magazine Excerpt] Donald glover admits that he came to rap fandom "like a white kid," which is to say via Limp Bizkit. But in middle school, he did develop a fixation with teen rap duo Kris Kross, and in homage to their wardrobe, wore a pair of mustard-colored overalls to class one day. Some kid named Vincent, the bane of Glover's seventh-grade existence, did not let this opportunity slip by. "He was like, 'You shit your overalls,'" Glover, 27, recalls from behind the wheel of his BMW 323i, turning off Sunset Boulevard toward a recording studio in Atwater Village. "It's funny!

July 14, 2010 – Musicians debate whether a boycott is the best way to protest Arizona's new immigration law. [Full Magazine Story] Curtis McCrary, general manager of Tucson's 90-year-old Rialto Theatre, doesn't know how much longer he can last. Since Cypress Hill canceled a show at his venue in May to protest the controversial Arizona anti-illegal immigration law known as SB1070, which, pending legal challenges, was due to take effect this month, McCrary has seen about a half-dozen other bands drop the nonprofit theater from their touring plans. "It's been a drip, drip, drip thing," he says.

June 25, 2008 – When they spotted a meteor crater in the Arizona desert recently, Seattle'sFleet Foxes did what you'd expect any self-respecting bunch of psychedelic folkie kids to do: They pulled over the van, hopped a barbed wire fence, and scrambled up to the rim of the pit. "It was insane," frontman Robin Pecknold recalls before a show at Schubas in Chicago. "It was so quiet. You could stop walking and not hear a single sound." Anyone else might have mentioned the crater's topography when describing its awesomeness, but for Pecknold, a fascination with silence makes sense. After all, silence cradles his voice in Fleet Foxes' most compelling moments: Glowing, Zombies-meets–Woody Guthrie crooning opens the band's Sun Giant EP and recurs throughout their self-titled debut album. "Some of my favorite Beach Boys stuff is a cappella," says Pecknold, 22.