From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:13 AM

Kyle and Jack, masters of acoustic metal, strum und drang their way through a live version of a power rock anthem that has something to do with kicking elves. So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice. Sample lyric: "climb aboard my faithful steed, then we gonna ride, gonna smoke some weed."...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:12 AM

The video for "Signs of Life" is a surreal, intensely visual journey into the dream-like world of a clown. The offbeat imagery adds an unexpected dimension to the song’s theme of heartbreak and loss. Graceland is captured in richly visual performance sequences. I shot 35 mm for a high-...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:12 AM

Welcome to a universe where knocked-up horny mutant aliens croon about relationship problems while planes crash and the rats keep winning the rat race. Emily Haines haunting voice and minimalistic keyboard noodling keep an enchantingly eerie flow going throughout this low-key mood bender.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:10 AM

The title song for the Jim Carrey movie about prankster-comedian Andy Kaufman finds R.E.M. at an artistic peak in this cut off Automatic for the People. Moody and oblique, the video features singer Michael Stipe strolling movie-star handsome through the scrubby desert as split-screen montages ca...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:08 AM

These funk-rap-metal monsters lean in a more straight-up hard-rock direction in the first single off their A Crow Left of the Murder CD. But it’s the freaky, animated video that's really off the chain: barbed wire entangles the world and a bunch of winged Hitlers flutter past a Jesus Saves ...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:06 AM

Following up on her critically acclaimed indie duet album with bass-man/hubby Stephen Crump, New York singer songwriter Jen Chapin brings a full band to her new CD, Linger. Jen, the daughter of well-known folk singer Harry Chapin and an activist working for the non-profit World Hunger Year organ...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:05 AM

Va-va-vroom! The lovely ladies of Azure Ray find themselves strolling through a winding desert landscape where they’re subtly menaced by strangley-suited scooter boys. In contrasted to the parched setting the dreamy, ethereal duo of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor are musically drenched in a lush w...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:03 AM

The machine-gun-metal guitar hooks you in from the get-go, but after that the melody and arrangement bob and weave. Vague, anti-war lyrics and a Memento amnesia motif in the frenzied video make this hard rock that’s intriguing but hard to get a handle on.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:02 AM

The stripped down pop-rock sound of this Swedish combo sounds like it might be trapped in formula (or maybe just the '60s), but they make it sound fresh by keeping the production minimal and letting things happen in their own sweet time. Both the song and the video here get slightly strange...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 10:02 AM

Goth drama much? The metal madness swirls for this retching wretch as his dream girl is a nightmare who "makes my life hell."

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:59 AM

Rage against . . . whatever. It’s an adrenaline jolt of stadium-rock hip-hop from these L.A. eclectics who are "lying my way from you." It's a deafening echo of teen rebellion sent howling out to the fans--who howl right back at the band in this cut off the Live In Texas DVD.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:59 AM

You can’t rock in here, this is the war room! But Brit-rockers Muse pay no attention to the military men and women in this scene straight out of Dr. Strangelove. And, yes, it's a little strange to rock the tabletop, but this melodic, yet driving, tune commands respect--and the troops, as it...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:58 AM

Things to do on a road trip: Put the pedal to the metal in your vintage muscle car, check in to the do-tell Motel with a case full of pharmaceuticals and a head full of bad ideas, get down to some dirty bidness and, of course, rock out.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:55 AM

Get ready for the unlikeliest Phil Collins cover ever, when herky-jerky folk pop meets lo-fi electronica in this cut from the Wicker Park soundtrack. Odd? You bet.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:55 AM

The electronica fury conjured by French duo M83 illuminates an interracial love thang that seems casual but runs deep. Gorgeous eyes reflect the fast motion of endless hottie pickup wannabies, but none of them’s the right one. Moody melancholia with a continental modern twist.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:54 AM

Step into the glam-rock time machine and let the Grease sublimely slime you with their dated duds, '70s quality home video tracer effect, crazy keyboard/guitar contraption and hookadelic Bowie-meets-Bolan thing. Oh yeah, and they become grease zombies, sizzling at 2,000 degrees.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:54 AM

Breaking up and getting down and getting nekkid. This flashy splashy journey to self exposure is set to techno beats as a dancer swirls her way into memory and nudity.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:52 AM

Lush, chimey, churning sonics and broad vocal harmonies fuel a melodic slab of emo from this seasoned Washington state combo. Taste the pithy lyrics: "You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death?" Why indeed? Scenario-wise, this vid follows a goggle-eyed boy who plays with scarecrows and dead ...

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:49 AM

If Bright Eyes rocked out, they’d sound a little like Single Frame on this cut. But the video's like nothing else as an animated hottie-housewife assembles the mannequin of her dreams, who procedes to rock her world.

From: SPIKE on Wed, Apr 06 2011 9:47 AM

Talk about vroom with a view! A convertible cutie peels out, hauling ass through the desert as chick-magnet Mark McGrath and the band truck out some hard-rock hip-hop for a hostile crowd at a rowdy roadhouse. Featured on the band’s new "Best Of" CD.