August 26, 2011 – "I think we're having a little help from antiquity," cracked St. Vincent, the priestess of the hour, gazing reverently at the Egyptian ruins that comprised her stage. It was a contradiction of size that the deity-fearing Egyptians would have appreciated: The towering Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian sandstone edifice built during the reign of Julius Caesar, set opposite the frail yet ferocious New York-based singer-songwriter born Annie Clark. In fact, the temple, one of the most celebrated permanent exhibits of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was utilized Thursday night as an eleventh-hour substitute for the equally picturesque rooftop of the museum, which was plagued all afternoon by the foreboding rain of pre-hurricane Manhattan. The regal evening marked the first New York performance of St. Vincent's third record, Strange Mercy, out September 13 on 4AD.

June 22, 2010 – Call him, for Monday night at least, the worst-kept secret in showbiz. When Eminem took the stage as the covert headliner of the "Red Bull Emsee: The Road to 8 Mile" freestyle battle, not a single person in New York City's sold-out Bowery Ballroom looked surprised. Groggy after a protracted set by Slaughterhouse, sure. Wild-eyed after one too many caffeinated cocktails, definitely. But surprised that Slim Shady was pacing the tiny stage at just past midnight on the release day of his seventh album? Not in the slightest. The show's name gave it away; even hip-hop neophytes know Marshall Mathers from the movie 8 Mile and its Oscar-winning anthem "Lose Yourself" (who knew rhymes about upchucking mom's spaghetti could be so galvanizing?).

June 13, 2010 – Nowadays, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo squanders the majority of his genius on KISS-lite arena riffs and regressive rhymes about malls and homies (see: 2009's Raditude and the preceding two albums), but his musical prowess isn't dead; it's just dormant. Cuomo has jumped deeply down the rabbit hole of his current endeavor, which is to subvert the brilliant introspection of Weezer's Blue Album and Pinkerton albums (the crux of their fame) into a prosaic second adolescence. Unfortunately, he hasn't entirely mastered how to become a frantic frontman and also an agile musician. During Saturday's dusktime set at Bonnaroo, he climbed the scaffolding and leapt in scissor-kicks during The Red Album's "Troublemaker," but the theatrics caused him to trail his bandmates' pace by half a count and never fully catch up. Audience response was indifferent.

June 12, 2010 – If anyone still doubts that Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are the new Pied Pipers of hippie kids and trustafarians, they were not in the Other Tent audience on Friday. The latest melodic mini-cult from singer Alex Ebert (formerly of Ima Robot) lured an impressively large crowd to their early-afternoon performance: Young Bonnaroo patrons in tie-dye bikini tops and board shorts spilled out from the awnings for a hundred feet in every direction, craning to see their messianic Ebert, who, for his part, seemed bewildered. "I bet you haven't seen this on a stage yet, people onstage not knowing what to do," he said, strolling languidly among the nine other stock-still members of his folk-pop militia. "It's a new concept. People are going to start copying us." And indeed, the Zeros' set list was like a shakily construed shuffling of their 2009 LP, Up From Below.

November 24, 2009 – SPIN recently visited the Brooklyn apartment of Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig for the magazine's "In My Room" section, where we show off the decor and beloved possessions of your favorite rock'n'rollers. HOW TO VIEW EZRA'S ROOM: Click the image at right to pop-up a full image of Ezra's room, then scroll down on this page to read Ezra's comments about his favorite things. BONUS VIDEO!Scroll to the bottom of this page for exclusive video of Ezra explaining three more items that weren't discussed in the magazine -- including a sentimental story about his Dirty Projectors vinyl. Yogurt and granola"I go to great pains to find the best yogurt and granola. It's a very easy thing to fuck up. The yogurt is Liberté, the best you can buy in New York." Zabar's mug"[Food shop] Zabar's is a lasting symbol of oldschool New York Jewish culture.

October 15, 2009 – Joel Stoker, cheeky frontman for the Rifles, doesn't mind if Britpop fans are confused by his band's new album. "It's okay ifpeople buy it accidentally," muses the singer about The Great Escape, which bears the same title as his countrymen Blur's landmark 1995 effort. "In fact, that's a good strategy: to call your album after another massive album. We'll name our next one Thriller." A title isn't the only thing Stoker, guitarist Luke Crowther, bassist Rob Pyne, and drummer Grant Marsh -- who formed the Rifles in 2003 in a fit of inspiration after an Oasis gig -- took from their forebears. The quartet's everybloke rock mixes the Gallaghers' cocky sing-along choruses with the stylish mod snap of the Jam.

October 13, 2009 – Lenny Kravitz came to the Fillmore in New York City Sunday night to blow out the birthday candles for Let Love Rule, the breakthrough debut album he released 20 years ago. He's barely aged a day since, though the same could not be said for his sweaty, sold-out audience. They were generally over 35, frequently in turtlenecks, and almost universally, profoundly drunk, which abetted the gentle arrhythmic bobbing that proved their rowdiest civil disobedience. Has there ever been a rock show that didn't stink of weed two songs in? Yep, this one -- a disappointing fate for the official Lenny Kravitz rolling papers, retail $5, that sat lonely and unloved at the merch table. The common perception in the pit was that Kravitz would perform Let Love Rule in its entirety.

May 4, 2009 – The Bamboozle is the ultimate annual music festival for teenagers, in all that implies. Held in the parking lot of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, it crammed 9 stages with raucous rock, pop-punk, and hip-hop acts -- most of whom are youngbloods with a max of five active years and two albums behind 'em -- and brings higher-profile but disparate marquee names in at night. Because there was no real pattern in the Bamboozle booking -- the theme seemed to be "new" until you saw '90s frat rockers the Bloodhound Gang, or "emo" until you saw budding rap star Asher Roth, or "decent" until you saw anything before 4 P.M.

November 13, 2008 – What's more indigenous to the college experience than total, abject confusion? The mtvU Woodie Awards offered that in spades: Who is mumbling listlessly at the podium, Moby? (Yes.) Does this award show exist for any reason besides priapic puns? (Maybe.) What defines "college music" to the greying beast MTV and how did both Kanye and No Age fit through their voters' siphon? (No clue.) Do any of these artists even go to college? (Some: see Chromeo singer/guitarist David Macklovitch, Columbia University's fiercest French and Romance Philology Ph. D. candidate.) But at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom last night, the sweatshirt-clad crowd seemed quite happy to celebrate "their" music, whatever it is.

May 29, 2008 – In Katie White's native Manchester, they call it "footballer's injury." Or, in her case, "spazzing out." "I got groin strain awhile back 'cause I was carrying gear that was much too heavy," the Ting Tings singer/guitarist breezily recalls, as drummer Jules De Martino winces. "We didn't have a roadie, and we were touring the U.K. and carting equipment ourselves-us against the world." Burlier folk now do the band's heavy lifting, but a few traits remain from that period: The twosome are still tenaciously self-sufficient, and White continues to hurt herself. (Today, over flutes of champagne at New York's Tribeca Grand Hotel, she sports a luridly bruised pinkie, the result of overzealous banging on a bass drum.) They speak with reservation about their rising U.K.