SPIN - Daily Noise

• This was the week of deep thinking about Lana Del Rey and man, did we think deeply about pop's polarizing new presence this week. Thanks to our Deconstructing story and album review, we even landed in one of those amazing Taiwanese animated videos. This is truly the greatest honor to befall us in a long time. We'd like to thank our parents.

• LDR wasn't the only new artist we explored this week, however: In fact, we featured five of them in our Best New Artists for February roundup.

• When we weren't musing on new music, we were celebrating the life of Don Cornelius, Soul Train's creator and silky-smooth host, who died after an apparent suicide at age 75.

• SPIN also brought you Feist's heavy duty new video for "The Bad in Each Other," Puscifer's Lynchtastic vid for "Telling Ghosts", an incredible Disco Demands podcast, footage of Death Cab for Cutie playing live in the Artists Den, a stellar new Beach Fossils track, and full album streams by the Twilight Sad, Blondes, Band of Skulls, and Trailer Trash Tracys.

• We also chatted with Ladyhawke (about her upcoming disc), the Chemical Brothers (about their synapse-destroying documentary), All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter (about being a bad boy), and Say Anything's Max Bemis (about ... dude, everything).

• Looking onward: Saturday Bon Iver will play on Saturday Night Live and he was kind enough to share his set list with us. And don't forget about the Super Bowl — here are all the musical moments you'll want to catch.

1. Madonna's Halftime Show
It's about time: The biggest pop star in the world performing at the year's biggest televised event. Presumably, Madonna will be bringing along M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj, both of whom guest on the "Give Me All Your Luvin'" single. And, if Will.I.Am is to be trusted, LMFAO might stop by too.

2. Kelly Clarkson Singing the National Anthem
Based on the concert we just saw, we're pretty confident Kelly Clarkson will nail this. She's even got national anthem experience, having sung at the 2011 NBA Finals. At the very least, seeing Christina Aguilera flub the lyrics at last year's game should've scared Kelly into some extra practice time.

3. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert Performing "America the Beautiful"
Chalk this one up to promotion — Shelton is a co-host of NBC's The Voice, the second season of which will premiere on the network's post-game slot. He'll be performing with his spitfire wife, the great Miranda Lambert. Her participation pretty much guarantees this'll be a lively performance of the song. For something more than that, watch this video right now.

4. Lenny Kravitz and the Fray During the Pre-Game
NBC is showing six hours of pre-game coverage. They have to fill it somehow. But I'm wondering whether or not the Patriots' offensive line be able to withstand the vaunted Giants' pass rush? How will Gronkowski's ankle injury affect Tom Brady's aerial attack? And why don't more people realize that boneless buffalo chicken wings are far superior to bone-in?

5. Elton John Being Is the King of Pepsi
X Factor Winner Melanie Amaro and Flava Flav also feature in this elaborate ad, which will air during the game, and which features Elton John dressed in royal finery as a monarch who's stingy with his Pepsi. Question: Did Elton dig into his own closet for his wardrobe? The ad has already premiered online.

6. John Williams Goes Dubstep
The composer of epic soundtrack anthems (including Indiana Jones and Star Wars) will see his 2006 piece "Wide Receiver" wub-wub-ified at some point during the game.

7. Mötley Crüe Schilling for KIA
This cock-rocking ad has also launched online. In it, a mischievous elf (or something? Gnome? Fairy?) causes some some Joe Schmo to dream about Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima and burning rubber in a Kia Optima while the Crüe play in the middle of a racetrack. Ah, the sophisticated techniques advertisers employ to reach the coveted "male" demographic.

In all seriousness, enjoy the game! I'm going Patriots 27 — Giants 20, but only because I'm trying to incur a reverse jinx. Look back at five of the Bowl's best halftime shows — including Michael Jackson, U2, and the Boss — in our super roundup.

Usually day-glo man-eater Ke$ha recently posed for Glamour wearing (gasp!) regular human clothing. Between that great photo, her for the Amnesty International benefit compilation, and her collaboration with the Flaming Lips, perhaps the glitter princess is really trying to tell us something about her upcoming sophomore album, which is in its early stages right now. She did, after all, promise MTV News, "People say that rock'n'roll is dead, and it is my mission and my goal to resurrect it in the form of my pop music."

In this latest interview, Ke$ha told Glamour a lot of very typical Ke$ha things, like that she has clothing-optional parties at her Nashville pad at which attendees basically just "body-paint each other and run around," and that she is so busy taking "so many different instrument lessons," designing clothing and jewelry, and prepping her next album, that men are not a priority in her life.

But we have to call attention to the weirdest — and most Ke$ha-y — snippet of the interview:

I'm just very amused by five-year-old humor. Don't get me wrong: I do destroy men on a weekly basis. It's like a hobby. I'm like a praying mantis. They fuck me, and then I eat them. But who isn't amused by a giant, dancing penis? Sometimes when I'm sad, I make my assistant put on the penis outfit and bounce around my house.

First of all, didn't JWOWW say that first part? Second of all, keep this in mind, potential Ke$ha assistants!

Tyler, the Creator has always seemed to go for the unpredictability angle, so it's ironically no surprise that he continues to collaborate with Toronto jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD. In this video, which was uploaded last week, he just seems so happy to be jamming with the guys. We are too. Past Tyler x BADBADNOTGOOD collabs include their covers of "Fish" and "Seven". These fusion reimaginings are so good that we're wondering whether the jazz trio should just join OFWGKTA and be done with it.

Then, there is a man named Eric Calderone. In addition to an exceptional Green Lantern forearm tatt, Eric possesses a desire to metal-ize notorious pop songs. He uploaded this insanely good cover of LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" a couple of weeks ago, but it was picked up by Buzzfeed yesterday and seems like the perfect segue into your Super Bowl weekend.

After selling over a million copies of last year's Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay have relented and handed their latest release over to Spotify. As SPIN noted last fall, the band allowed iTunes to stream tracks from their fifth record to promote its October LP, but there was no sign of the album on any streaming sites — until this week. The band released their latest Mylo video for "Charlie Brown" earlier today.

Mylo Xyloto, which sold 447,000 copies its debut week, is also up on Rdio, but doesn't appear to available on Rhapsody. Coldplay didn't explain their decision to avoid streaming sites, but a rep from their label issued a statement to CNET in October reading, "We always work with our artists and management on a case by case basis to deliver the best outcome for each release."

The Black Keys were more clear about their decision to keep their upcoming disc El Camino off streaming services. In an interview with VH1, the band said it's unfair both to artists receiving meager royalties and fans who shelled out cash for the album. "For a band that makes a living selling music, it's not at a point yet to be feasible for us," drummer Patrick Carney said.

They're not alone. Adele has also shunned streaming, along with U.K. music distributor STHoldings, who yanked more than 200 indie labels from the sites last November. Adele's blockbuster 21 is not available on Spotify however her smash single — and our best song of 2011 — "Rolling in the Deep" does appear on the service.

It's a case of life imitating art: A woman has sued hip-hop smoothie Drake claiming she's the voice on the other end of the drunk-dial on last year's eerie Take Care stunner "Marvin's Room" — and she says she has the text messages to prove it.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the plaintiff is Ericka Lee, who claims she was professionally and romantically involved with Drake from early 2010 to mid-2011. The lawsuit claims she is entitled to co-writer royalties from "Marvin's Room," which peaked at No. 21 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and has been certified gold. Drake allegedly recognized Lee's role in text messages, saying, "U basically made that song," and "It's shit without you."

Lee reportedly claims she and Drake decided to collaborate on "Marvin's Room" and share the earnings. Drake asked her to record the hook and opening monologue, the lawsuit claims. "Plaintiff's contribution is highly significant to the overall work," the complaint is quoted as saying.

While Take Care's liner notes don't mention Lee by name in an extensive list of thank-yous, a "Syren Lyric Muse" is credited for "additional vocals" on "Marvin's Room." What's more, as the Hollywood Reporter points out, Lee and Drake filed a joint copyright claim for the song on June 9, when the track debuted on Drake's blog. Cash Money Records filed a claim of its own on July 22.

Lee presumably wasn't an ex at the time of the "Marvin's Room" recording, but according to the complaint, she was on the receiving end of at least one disturbing phone call. After Lee retained an attorney in November, Drake allegedly called her up and said, "What the fuck is your problem?" Lee also claims he offered her 4 to 5 percent of publishing royalties, along with an extra $50,000 in hush money. That's up from the 2 percent of publishing royalties Drake allegedly offered her not long after their relationship fell apart.

Lee is reportedly asking to be declared the co-author of the song. Claiming a breach of fiduciary duties and unjust enrichment, she's seeking unspecified damages along with the reimbursement of profits from the song. Her lawyer, Neville Johnson, previously represented Playboy Enterprises in a copyright-infringement suit against Drake for allegedly sampling Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynold's 1975 hit "Fallin' in Love," whose copyright Playboy owned. Expect Drake to turn all of this into moody, genre-confounding music in time for his third album.

Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue isn't the only long-running franchise turning to musicians for a little corporate synergy. 30 Rock's whiskey-swilling NBC suit Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is on the hunt for a Super Bowl halftime performer who isn't Madonna — don't worry, there's a reason — in a ridiculous new episode of its animated online spin-off, The Donaghy Files.

Cee Lo Green, Ryan Adams, and Childish Gambino (a.k.a. Community actor Donald Glover) all lend their vocal talents, but golden-voiced former Doobie Brothers member — and recent Holy Ghost! collaborator — Michael McDonald has to be the unanimous winner. He croons the Saved by the Bell theme song, OK? Donaghy's final reaction to all this, as you'll see, is pretty similar to that of 12-year-old boys drooling over clandestine copies of the aforementioned swimsuit issue. (Via Complex)

Remember earlier this week, when everybody was in an eloquent, must-read tizzy about Lana Del Rey? Well, the seductive singer's Born to Die is on pace to hit No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, Katie Couric

wants to know about her, and last night she appeared on Late Show With David Letterman to make everybody forget all about the Saturday Night Live performances that everybody on the NBC payroll wants you to know were awful.

Last night, once again, Del Rey sang her deeply catchy online hit "Video Games," with its Thom-Yorke-discovers-sex piano chords, desperate-to-please lyrics, and delicate sprinkling of a string section. And hey, just like last time — no matter what you might have heard — it was pretty OK! Again with a cream-colored dress, Del Rey did look a bit more relaxed ("Freedom's just another word for..."), and Letterman's people just seem to know how to make a band sound better than SNL has a history of doing.

Letterman, whose history of Mad Men sexual politics combined with highbrow self-regard makes him basically Del Rey's target demographic, was predictably aflutter with leering praise. But for those of us not in need of a cold shower, it was just the latest instance of a still-developing artist with an earworm hit or two prematurely pushed at us from a national stage. It's like the '90s, except that Natalie Imbruglia SNL performance was awesome! (Via the Audio Perv)

Hip-hop luminary Nas visited Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where he performed his no-chorus return to form "Nasty," backed by the Roots. Nas repped his New York Giants during the appearance in Indianapolis, site of this weekend's Super Bowl. "Nasty" comes from an upcoming album apparently titled Life Is Good, which has yet to receive an official release date (Via Yardie).

Evanescence, meanwhile, brought their heavy rock to Conan. On the air, the band plowed through the throttling, proggy "Made of Stone." As a web exclusive, Amy Lee and the boys performed another song from Evanescence's 2011 self-titled album, "The Other Side."

Recent Skrillex collaborators and self-proclaimed dubstep forefathers Korn also got into the late-night action. Watch the hard-rock veterans bring the thrashing wub-wub to Jimmy Kimmel Live! with heavily self-censored renditions of "Get Up" and "Narcissistic Cannibal." Both cuts are singles from the band's 10th album, last year's The Path of Totality.

Coldplay know how to please a crowd, which isn't as easy or unimportant as snobs would have you think, or else everybody could do it. If there's any justice in the world, "Charlie Brown" will be the most crowd-pleasing song from last year's Mylo Xyloto. Yes, Chris Martin and the lads sound like they're trying to please us — there's one of those whirling "Clocks"-style intro, a language-transcending "woo ooh" hook, and a trace of Arcade Fire's harrowed urgency in the verses — but it'd be churlish to deny how much they succeed.

With Valentine's Day approaching, Coldplay has revealed a "Charlie Brown" video that shows exuberant young love in a rave's neon light. Which, as it happily turns out, is yet another hugely appealing way to encounter this song. The MDMA-friendly day-glo color scheme fits the "we'll be glowing in the dark" hook and the swirling vocal intro that recalls the first time electronic dance music was supposed to conquer the States. And the giddy couples tumbling head over heels for each other speak to the sappy, old-fashioned romantic at the heart of every good Coldplay song. Pass the box of chocolates, or the Ecstasy, whichever's handier, and stick around for the piano-and-strings slow dance at the end.

[Editor's note: Coldplay went all-out with the editing on this one, attempting to make us feel like we're in the rave with a bazillion quick cuts. There isn't one shot in this video longer than a split second, which we learned while trying to nab a screengrab. Thanks for making our lives hard, Coldplay!]

M.I.A.'s surprisingly tame, yet otherwise very M.I.A. video for "Bad Girls" has arrived via Vice's Noisey video channel. The clip, directed by her previous collaborator Romain Gavras, is far less violent than some of the politi-pop singer's previous videos (see: "Born Free"), but still evokes her signature glitter-and-guns aesthetic. The vid, which was filmed in Ouarzazate, Morocco, involves a lot of fast cars going "Tokyo Drift," dancers in traditional dress doing modern hip-hop choreo, and of course, plenty of body rolls and bling from Madonna's latest collaborator.

Thematically, "Bad Girls" belongs in the same wheelhouse as Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)," both in its feminist bent and desert setting. The two "Girls" both go for a sense of exoticism and globalized togetherness — though why it always seems to be a desert and not a bustling southeast Asian metropolis or a south American rainforest community, we may never know. But beyond their surface similarities (big explosions, big emphasis on the girls), these two clips veer off in different directions. Bey's ladies attack a hyper-aggro SWAT team in nothing but bustiers and garter belts with their devastating booty-popping; M.I.A.'s clip features presumably Muslim women traditionally clothed from head to toe drag racing through the desert as men look on. Maya may be rapping about ladies' sexual dominance over men, but her clip is chaste — we're oohing and ahhing over car tricks, not hard bodies. Her girls are getting it done with skill rather than sexy.

"It was dope to have so many people from so many different backgrounds speaking so many different languages come together to create something that we believed in,” M.I.A said in a statement. "I thought I was gonna die on the shoot when I saw the drifting. It was a four-day shoot so everyone was on edge the whole time specifically me when I had to do bluesteel singing to the camera while the cars did doughnuts on the wet road ten feet away. In my mind I was thinking how I was gonna deliver the video to Vice with no legs.”

According to Noisey's description of the video, M.I.A. will be posting video responses on February 10 to fans who leave the best comments on its YouTube page.

After all these years, still don't understand M.I.A.? We've got you covered.

Say Anything's Anarchy, My Dear, Max Bemis' outlying pop-punk outfit's first full-length effort for new (and independent) label home, Equal Vision Records, arrives March 13. It's a white-knuckled, sore-throated, open-hearted call to arms that Bemis recorded between Brooklyn and his recently adopted hometown of Tyler, Texas. SPIN spoke to the 27-year-old singer/songwriter about the label swap and how it changes his voice, as well his relationship with emo.

How much would you say that you feel heard?
It’s hard for me to not to try to sum up my entire life with every single record and everything I stand for, but this one really does have more of a specific purpose: the idea that you can be a centered, moral, good person and still believe that subverting the norm is a good thing. We’ve been taught that being cool is to some extent to not do shit about anything. But this record is about destroying society and starting again, and that doesn’t have to be a contrived, elitist notion. People who are good people and lead relatively normal lives can do this on a smaller level just by the choices they make and standing up for themselves and believing in what they do not based on what people tell them, but on what they think of it in their heart. I’d say I’m spoiled. There are kids across this country and in other countries and everywhere in the world, and you think about all the thousands and thousands of people who listen to my band and give what I say a chance, even just for a couple minutes, I am spoiled with the amount that I’m technically heard. After moving to Texas and getting married I needed to redefine who I was and that’s a lot of where this record is rooted. Changing labels did have a lot of the do with the creative process, with feeling like I could really put my heart and soul into something without straining it or having to be something to somebody because being on an independent label seeing us for exactly what we are. There was a little less pressure to be something that was more mass consumption-ready.

Well, what sort of what sort of an audible effect would you say that de-pressurization had on this album?
You can hear it in my voice. It’s funny, this was hard-ass work, and everyone who really puts themselves into a record does, I almost lost it at one point. But we were allowed to really make the record we wanted to make.

Your voice sounds so much more raw than it has in a long time.
On the past couple records I did a lot of punching in to try to make things sound perfect. We wanted to make a huge crossover rock record our last time out and on this one we were going for a Stones/Stooges/Clash feel. It’s very important to Tim [O’Heir], our producer, that he records as much of a vocal as you can, and in our case we actually made a point of singing every song from front to back as if we were doing it live. That includes the state of mind I was in when I did it, to capture the exact experience you would have if I was playing the song live at a concert rather than laboring over it like a science experiment.

It fits really well, though, with what you’re doing lyrically. How do you think that aligns with a lot of the other songwriters that you tour and work with?
I write lyrics in a fashion that I think any reasonable, intelligent person can connect with on a gut level. I mean, there’s a sort of dark irony to a lot of it and that’s what pleases me and that’s what makes me laugh in my day-to-day life. My brother-in-law asked me yesterday, who’s been one of the most influential lyricists in my life. And you know, I think he was expecting I’d say Dylan or something like. But honestly, I think the biggest influences on my lyrics are probably Woody Allen and Larry David. As a weird, neurotic Jewish guy, I just want to communicate the way I would if I was talking. And there’s some poetry in there.

There’s also this sort of seething in there that I don’t know that I’ve felt from a “pop-punk” or “emo” record in a long time, if ever.
I mean, we were sort of on the periphery of that whole emo boom in our way, and that’s definitely something we’ve associated with. But when we first started writing music and being a part of that, we were listening to music that was creepier, edgier. Refused and At the Drive-In were two really big bands for me, but then things did kind of become a little more safe as it progressed and were on the outside and really weird the entire time. Now that it's all gone to some degree and faded off and we’re still here doing our thing, I think I feel even more freedom to not be classifiable, and to kind of reach out and be the kind of quirky post-punk band that we are and not get lobbed in as something that’s blowing up right now. Because it's not.

How have you seen your audience evolve over the years, though?
The odd thing is that there are all these new people finding out about our band, so our audience is like this weird mixture of young kids and people my age and the totally random, much older people. I’m an example of someone like that. There’s tons of bands from say, 10 years ago that I discovered, that I loved at the time, but I honestly don’t enjoy listening to now. The most dedicated Say Anything fans may have grown up listening to us and other bands all those years ago — kids who sort of moved on to greener pastures and discovered more interesting music, but then came to the realization, hopefully, that we are a band that stands the test of time. Because we’re not just making new records for the sake of it; we’re making new records to try to outdo our old records and hopefully continue to hold people’s attention the same way bands like Modest Mouse have been for who-knows-how-long, you know?

At the same time, though, how much of a stigma do you have to overcome when you do come out of a scene like that? Saves the Day's Chris Conley, for example, is a fantastic songwriter that was completely eclipsed by that “emo” tag. Indie rock purists especially seem to have an allergy to those late-'90s, turn-of-the-century emo records that were also indie rock records.
They were. Some of my first understanding of what indie rock was came through bands that were influenced by Fugazi and Superchunk and bands that indie purists love. But because it became cool, because it blew up so big, and because it involved a bunch of attractive young men that a bunch of young girls started liking a lot, it became too safe for them. It had gone the other way. I remember going to those shows when I was that age, and it was mostly people my age who are now, literally, writing for Pitchfork. It was not a bunch of screaming young girls when I first went to go see the Get Up Kids and Saves the Day and bands like that. But again, thankfully, we arrived late. I mean that’s why I wrote an entire album called In Defense of the Genre. That’s always been a natural part of who we are as band and maybe its why, beyond timing, we’ve managed to sort of transcend those boxes placed around us for so long. That’s just how I naturally write. Part of that is always going to be trying to remain current and play music that I would like to hear as like a 27 year-old grown man. It’s going to be dark and twisted and a little scary.

How often are you able to kind of catch yourself when you’re taking things in a darker, scarier direction?
I just let it flow: The darker and the scarier, the happier I am. I never stop myself from being too dark because there’s some pretty low stuff in the scheme of the history of our music. This one’s a little more uplifting, but it’s still pretty scary.

Was there ever a point when you didn’t let it flow, where you wanted to kind of fight it?
No, I just know that that sense of danger is pretty much all we’re worth, and brutal honesty is the main appeal of our band. Censoring it would mean we wouldn’t have much to offer.

I don’t know if that’s the case.
Hopefully we’ll never know.

Madonna is not a woman who likes to share her spotlight, so the fact that she surrendered the aesthetic of her new video for "Give Me All Your Luvin' " to promoting her upcoming appearance at Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show and asked M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj to appear on the track is no small feat.

The Madonna- and Martin Solveig-produced song — the first single from March 26's M.D.N.A. — channels the retro vibe of her Austin Powers single "Beautiful Stranger" through the "Mickey" filter (Tony Basil is even rocking a similar cheerleader chic look in its single cover). But Madonna has a little additional firepower here: Minaj contributes a blitzkrieg 16 referencing "boy toy" and her own alter ego Roman, while M.I.A. joins in a few seconds later with a handful of slo-mo bars that ends with a gun blast censoring her parting shot, "I don't give a shit." In short: Everyone plays themselves perfectly.

The video, directed by Megaforce, is regrettably light on Madonna's dancing, especially considering her videos for 2008's Hard Candy were elaborately choreographed. Her attempt to find a bridge between sports, love, and fame falls a bit flat — "Fans can make you famous, a contract can make you rich, the press can make you a superstar, but only luv can make you a player" is scrawled in cursive at the top of the clip — but in the end, the football players and cheerleaders in the video are all literally faceless passersby. They, like the two high-profile MCs, are all here in service of the Queen of Pop — they are shouting "M, A, D, Madonna" and taking bullets for her, after all.

But are those Smirnoff bottles we spy on the bar while Madonna strikes familiar poses and Nicki and Maya are decked out like virgins? Everyone's gotta play the stupid game these days, even if she is not only a different kind of girl, but a different kind of queen.

Earlier this week, rapper Big K.R.I.T. unveiled a mixtape track called "Boobie Miles." The title could just as easily apply to the new Adult Swim-produced animated video for Neon Indian's nuclear-decaying synth-pop incantation "Fallout," from last year's fine disc Era Extraña. Directed by Flying Lotus collaborator Lilfuchs, the clip shows an anatomically exaggerated chillwave Barbie taking her hot-pink sports car to the shop. Whatever Psychic Chasms, the title of Neon Indian's stellar debut album, referred to, we're pretty sure that's where the car drives next. Somebody tell Detroit about the latest ingenious marketing device: miles per décolletage.

Perhaps the indie-est festival in the U.S. — Sasquatch! — announced its lineup last night. Performers at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, for the 11th installment of the fest (May 25-28) will include Jack White, Bon Iver, Beck, St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, Feist, Tenacious D, the Alabama Shakes, Shabazz Palaces, Dum Dum Girls, the Roots, the Walkmen, Zola Jesus, the Shins, Spiritualized, the War on Drugs, and more. The comedy section of the fest includes Twitter terror Rob Delaney and beatboxing Brit Beardyman.

Passes go on sale February 11 at 1 p.m. ET on the festival's website.

Full lineup:
Jack White, Beck, Bon Iver, Pretty Lights, Tenacious D, The Shins, Beirut, Girl Talk, The Roots, The Head & The Heart, Portlandia, Feist, Silversun Pickups, Metric, Explosions In The Sky, The Joy Formidable, Mogwai, Nero (DJ), M. Ward, John Reilly & Friends, Childish Gambino, St. Vincent, The Civil Wars, Jamey Johnson, Little Dragon, Tune-Yards, Wild Flag, Blind Pilot, Wolfgang Gartner, Beats Antique, Apparat, The Walkmen, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Mark Lanegan Band, Spiritualized, Blitzen Trapper, The Cave Singers, Shabazz Palaces, Fun., Grouplove, Tycho, SBTRKT, Strfkr, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Deer Tick, Imelda May, Alabama Shakes, Dum Dum Girls, The Helio Sequence, Kurt Vile, Cloud Cult, We Are Augustines, Ben Howard, Here We Go Magic, Zola Jesus, The War On Drugs, Shearwater, Cass McCombs, Active Child, Trampled By Turtles, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Araabmuzik, Star Slinger, L.A. Riots, Com Truise, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, I Break Horses, Walk The Moon, Dry The River, Allen Stone, Pickwick, Hey Marseilles, Gary Clark Jr., Purity Ring, Electric Guest, Yellow Ostrich, Nobody Beats The Drum, Coeur De Pirate, Lord Huron, Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Beat Connection, The Sheepdogs, Hey Rosetta!, Said The Whale, Howlin Rain, Gardens & Villa, Felix Cartal, Craft Spells, Vintage Trouble, Poor Moon, Black Whales, Gold Leaves, Greylag, Awesome Tapes From Africa, Thee Satisfaction, Dyme Def, Fresh Espresso, The Physics, Sol, Metal Chocolates, Grynch, Spac3man, Don’t Talk To The Cops, Scribes, Fatal Lucciauno, Fly Moon Royalty, Katie Kate

Comedy: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Todd Barry, Beardyman, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, Howard Kremer, and more.

When Bon Iver finished up work on their self-titled sophomore effort a little over a year ago, frontman Justin Vernon and his crew had hopes for one song in particular. “It was a Christmas dream,” frontman Vernon laughs.“Maybe we can play Saturday Night Live and maybe we can play 'Beth/Rest.' That’s the scene.”

And when Vernon and his nine-member outfit take the stage at 30 Rock on Saturday night, the often-polarizing soft-rock closer will indeed comprise one half of his set list. The other song will be “Holocene," the honeyed, far more straight-forward finger-picked beauty that’s garnered a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.

According to Vernon, who was posted up with members of said crew in New York’s Woolworth Building bar for an (Elijah Wood-DJed!) event celebrating Bon Iver’s “collaboration” with Bushmills Thursday night, the connection between SNL and “Beth/Rest” go deeper: When team sound engineer (and Bushmills billboard star) Brian Joseph was tracking the song in late 2010, he was nudging saxophonist Colin Stetson to channel legendary Saturday Night Live Band tenor sax soloist Lenny Pickett as best he could. And as the band dug into rehearsal yesterday, worlds collided for a few seconds.

“We’re playing that song and I realize Lenny Pickett is five feet away from Colin, watching,” Vernon beams, breathless. “I realize people are going to hear it [on Saturday] and think it’s different. But it’s anthemic, it’s got Pickett-esque saxophone in it, and we feel confident in it. Whenever we listen to that song, we feel this extra… 'Yes. We’re going to do this, motherfuckers.’ It’s not irony.”

Believe it or not, Courtney Love isn't that great at taking care of pets.

In an ebook published on Tuesday, the editor of addiction website the Fix has revealed details from the deposition papers that the Hole singer's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, filed in 2009. One of the more shocking claims: that Love was responsible for the deaths of the family's cat and dog. The dog allegedly died after eating a bunch of Love's pills and the former "after getting entangled in piles of Etsy fabrics, boxes of paperwork, trash and other possessions."

Though Love herself has kicked her heroin and crack habits, Cobain also said in the deposition that "she basically exists now on.. .Xanax, Adderall, Sonata and Abilify, sugar and cigarettes." She added that Love has started at least three fires by falling asleep with a lit cigarette in hand. That would explain the blaze in Love's West Village bedroom last June.

A judge granted Frances Bean a restraining order against her mother — and the papers indicate she also requested her dubiously named dog, Uncle Fester, be included in the order, along with her grandmother and aunt.

The ebook, Courtney Comes Clean: The High Life and Dark Depths of Music's Most Controversial Icon, comes from a year's worth of interviews with Love and the people in her life, including "employees, friends, attorneys, and even her media-shy mother, Linda Carroll," all surrounding her storied history of drug addiction. In addition to the details of the restraining order, the 60-page digital tome shares details about — among other things — Love's baffling knack for calculus while she was hopped up on crack, how Winona Ryder and Andy Dick allegedly fed her pills at Pam Anderson's Comedy Central Roast, and how she had coke delivered while living at Dr. Phil's house in Beverly Hills.

The Coathangers are building momentum. The Georgia punks' third LP Larceny & Old Lace got a healthy dose of notice thanks to badass tracks like "Jaybird," their homage to the late Jay Reatard, and now they're already dropping some new music on us — today SPIN brings you "Smother," the A-side of a split 7" with VICE's demonic San Juan kids Davila 666. The release is part of Suicide Squeeze's singles series, and it arrives April 17 in a very limited edition, with just 750 copies pressed (250 gold, 500 black) The cover was designed by Westin Glass of the Thermals, with whom the Coathangers toured Europe last year. Davila's B-side is "No Crees Que Ya Cansa," which translates to "Don't You Think It's Tiring" — based on these shots of the Puerto Rican rockers on the road, we can understand where they're coming from.

March 12 - New Orleans LA @ Siberia
March 13 - Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s Downstairs
March 14 - Austin, TX @ Swan Dive (SXSW)
March 18 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada @ BROFEST
March 19 - San Antonio, TX @ Korova Basement
March 21 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
March 22 - San Diego, CA @ Tin Can ALehouse
March 23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Los Globos
March 26 - Portland, OR @ The East End
March 28 - Seattle, WA @ Comet Tavern
March 29 - Vancouver, BC @ Waldorf Cabaret
March 30 - Spokane, WA @ Mootsy’s
March 31 - Missoula, MT @ Zoo City Apparel
April 1 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
April 2 - Denver, CO @ The Hi Dive
April 4 - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
April 5 - Carbondale, IL @ Hangar 9
April 6 - Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone
April 7 - Nashville, TN @ The End

Dave Grohl is getting into the TV business. The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer is executive producing a 30-minute comedy currently in the works from FX, Deadline Hollywood reports. Grohl got involved at the behest of the show's creator and star, comedian Dana Gould, who's evidently a Foo Fighters fan. And look, they both have the same initials!

The show will focus on (surprise) a rock band. This particular rock band is about to get huge, but it's also about to break up, so its members take a page out of Metallica doc Some Kind of Monster and hire a therapist. Of course, this is a TV comedy, so their therapist turns out to specialize in couples, hate people, and be really close to breakup of her own: a divorce. We'll bet she has a heart of gold and that, once everybody works through their differences and the bass player makes an unexpected yet moving confession, the rockers and the couples' therapist will realize they're not so different, after all.

Grohl has always been known to have a sense of humor, as Foo Fighters' videos up through and including their Wasting Light-era "Hot Buns" clip clearly show. According to Deadline, he also knows a bunch of comedians, which, well, it makes sense, right? Grohl's IMDB resume includes voice acting roles in The Muppets, the Metalocalypse TV series, and Daria, plus he played Satan in Jack Black's Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny and, as you can see below, he had uncredited cameo on TV's The X Files and a fantastic appearance in the SNL short "People Getting Punched in the Face Right Before Eating." Get Butch Vig involved and this thing will be a surefire hit.

Meridian, Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. just dropped a smooth gem from his upcoming 4eva N a Day mixtape. Staying right in his comfort zone, "Boobie Miles" is pure K.R.I.T. — a lush, sleek, self-produced beat that is just begging to be played outdoors in warm weather, preferably with a top dropped. Lyrically, K.R.I.T. runs with the title's namesake's sports connection (Friday Night Lights), basically giving his own 'hood halftime speech on how to get money, pick yourself up, beat the odds, etc. Sadly, the track is lacking in Coach Eric Taylor references and Crucifictorious samples.

Beach Fossils frontman Dustin Payseur promises fans he’s holed up in his Brooklyn home, toiling away on his band’s second LP.

But as it turns out, inspiration is a fickle beast that’s easily spooked by impromptu afternoon hangouts, the lingering bliss of a mid-winter Mexican vacation and flexible, self-imposed deadlines. In short, Payseur’s life currently resembles the dreamy slacker manifestos (see “Lazy Day,” “Vacation,” “Daydream” from their self-titled debut) on which the band has built its reputation.

But that’s all about to change.

“Indie rock has been so safe for so long,” Payseur says, between sips of tea at a coffee shop in his Greenpoint neighborhood. “People have been playing this pretty music that’s quiet and melodic and while there’s beauty in that, in making this album I’ve just ended up wanting to rebel against myself and make something really noisy.”

His first attempt at aggression: “Shallow,” A-side to a new Beach Fossils 7-inch (due February 21 via Captured Tracks), culled from the dozens of tracks he’s scrapped in his effort to craft an album. The cut, available exclusively below, features that familiar, yet impossibly bouncy guitar jangle, as well as Payseur’s light and breezy vocals, still buried in heaps of fuzz.

Okay, so it’s not exactly mosh pit-material, but Payseur plumbed the depths of his punk past, and the bizarrely raw live show it’s produced, for reference. “A lot of people are surprised when they come to see us live that we perform way more aggressive than our sound is,” he says. “I played in a lot of punk bands, so when I get on stage that’s just kind of all I know. The more we’re touring and playing shows that energy just kind of spreads across the stage and we all just get really into it.”

Last time around the on-stage antics eased his angst, leading him to write the soft, mellow jams on last year’s What A Pleasure EP. “I sort of ended up hating it,” he admits. “Everything sounds so clean because that’s just where my head was at.”

And now?

“I’m just kind of chilling,” he says. “I’ve been on vacation for the last few months, including a tour that was more like a vacation. Really relaxing. I’m just going with it. I just sort of let the songs happen.”