August 27, 2012 – NBC accidentally declared Neil Young dead this weekend while reporting the death of 82-year-old astronaut Neil Armstrong. While the network grabbed a photo of the correct man, its headline barked "Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on the moon, dies at age 82." According to the AP, NBC removed the errant headline after seven minutes and it now includes the correction, "Editor's note: An early headline on this story briefly misstated Neil Armstrong's name." But its image will live forever thanks to the Reddit-er who captured the above screen grab. Since Young was "dead" five minutes longer than Nikki Sixx, we'll grant him an honorary membership in our hall of durable rock stars.

August 24, 2012 – No contemporary band wears their influences on their Hypercolor sleeves like Animal Collective — and we'd expect nothing less from a crew that boasts former DJs, record-store employees, NYU program-board members, ATP curators, and plain old loud-and-proud music geeks. To celebrate the release of their piston-pumping, sampledelic ninth album Centipede Hz, SPIN dug inadvisably deep into the band's 127 most important influences, from obscure Dutch sound artists to sloptastic Pavement bootlegs to exactly how Texas Chainsaw Massacre's screechy soundtrack birthed their penchant for homebrewed tension.

August 22, 2012 – Elephant 6-affiliated band the Music Tapes have grand plans for a tour supporting their September 4 album Mary’s Voice called "The Traveling Imaginary," which the group describes as "a long-dreamt-of undertaking on a grander scale than anything we have ever done." The project involves circus accoutrements, like a big tent that will house "music, games, stories, films, and amusements." To raise the $5,000 needed to get the show on the road, the band, led by E6 lifer Julian Koster launched a Kickstarter (via Pitchfork) promising contributors gifts of music, posters, calls to pals on their birthdays...

August 21, 2012 – In what's either the set-up or punch line for an excellent Canadian joke, pop singer Avril Lavigne and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger have confirmed their engagement to People. What's that, you say? You didn't realize Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley's ex-wife was even dating one of SPIN's biggest punching bags in pop history? Neither did anyone, evidently. According to People, they've been a couple for six months; they met in February when Kroeger did some work with Lavigne in the studio. Strange Love: See rock's unlikeliest couples. Here. Now. Lavigne, 27, and Kroeger, 37, are indeed both Canadian, and a source tells People, "Both of their families could not be more excited." The frontman proposed with a 14-carat ring on August 8, which means somebody has been depriving us of this amusing news for over a week.

August 20, 2012 – Last night on an hour-long special, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Rihanna in the singer's native Barbados. The pair tooled around in a jeep, visited Rihanna's childhood home (where the singer squeezed a baffled small child), and gifted a massive mansion to the star's mother, who reacted with far less enthusiasm than Oprah is used to. Oprah asked Rihanna about being comfortable with her sexuality and her early career, but the meat of the interview was devoted to The Chris Brown Question. In case you can't find OWN on your channel guide, here's what Rihanna said about the 2009 assault that permanently changed the arc of both young artists' careers: "I was hurt the most. Nobody felt what I felt. It happened to me. And it happened to me in front of the world. It was embarrassing, it was humiliating, it was hurtful. I lost my best friend. Everything I knew, switched. Switched in a night.

August 13, 2012 – If, like us, you're vulnerable to a '90s-nostalgia geek-out (it's in the SPIN DNA, I suppose), the news last month that 170 clips from the House of Style archive were being released was enough to have us catwalking to the bathroom to freshen up (ah, those visions of Cindy Crawford's windblown splendor encountering alt-rock and hip-hop culture, as if she were visiting exotic villages of the Serengeti). Of course, the subsequent announcement of MTV's inevitably lame reboot in October filled us with an equal amount of dread. But don't fear, our fully flossed-out September/October "Look" issue drops August 28, and it's like a 2012 fever-dream version of HOS. Our host, of course, is dazzling cover star Azealia Banks, the Harlem-born rapper/singer/font of ferocity who has become the last year's most sought-after fashion muse.

August 6, 2012 – Sure, we covered every important performance of Lollapalooza's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But the most vital part of any concert happens everywhere but the stage. Here's the real Lolla in all it's rainy, barfy, farty glory. • Perry's Stage was pretty much an underage bacchanal. I saw braces-aged kids barfing on the barrier, young teenagers passed out alone, barely conscious girls being propped up and made out with. Early Sunday evening another writer and I went for help for a motionless girl who was being cared for by other messed up kids — strangers — as she laid in the gutter. Cops cruised by, and security personnel only seemed concerned with people not getting backstage. • Save for Bassnectar, Calvin Harris and Nadastrom, it seemed like all the EDM DJ acts at the Perry Tent were really bringing their lowest common denominator sets.

August 5, 2012 – SPIN's intrepid team has invaded Chicago's Grant Park, attempting to see as many of the 30 essential sets at this year's Lollapalooza as possible while avoiding the twin evils of 21st-century festivals (no, not Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie: bad-attitude bros and foul corndogs). Although the real star of day two was the confusion and crowd-surfing of a three-hour storm evacuation, we managed to catch a few bands anyway! Also: don't miss our instructions for seeing 48 Lolla sets from home and our guide to the fest's five most wrenching set-time conflicts. And if you're feeling nostalgic, peek back at our oral history of the very first Lollapalooza. See what you missed: our best live photos from Lollapalooza '12. Best Secret Jam Band: Red Hot Chili Peppers At this point, funk-rap-rock maesbros the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a legacy act.

July 27, 2012 – A$AP Mob and Flatbush Zombies, two of the buzziest crews from New York's ever-ascending new rap underground, have teamed up to do the least New York shit possible... bath salts! "Bath Salt" is possibly their ode to the scary new drug that's been terrorizing American suburbs, which honestly seems like a silly thing to do in a town that has weed delivery services. And with bath salts being increasingly blamed for turning people into zombies, who better to deliver a musical Public Service Announcement than some actual Zombies? Whatever this thing is, A$AP Mob love trippy textures and Flatbush Zombies love freaking people out. Together they smoke grape ape, sniff panties, tear your skin with bleach-dipped razor blades, and spend a lot of money on T-shirts. It all makes sense in some woozy, Texas-fried, '90s horrorcore way.

July 25, 2012 – This summer, Mad Decent is bringing the fifth installment of their cross-country Block Party series to a brand new block. In addition to returning to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, the Diplo-helmed label has announced plans to kick off the proceedings — with help from Puma, Red Bull, Heineken and SPIN — in Toronto on July 28. Each day will feature a new lineup and a host of surprise guests in every city they visit. Admission is free, and delicious eats and carnival games abound. Below, check out details on the forthcoming dates in Toronto (including set times), NYC and Philly, as well as confirmed locations for parties in Chicago and Los Angeles.