When Starsailor finished their set in Zurich, Switzerland recently, they received a very special nod of approval. "We played with the Police, and Sting was at the side of the stage when we came off," frontman James Walsh tells Spinner. "He said, 'I really enjoyed your set and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Isle of Wight.'"

Having Sting standing in the corner watching might overwhelm some bands, but Walsh says Starsailor doesn't get nervous anymore. "It's still a bit of a thrill to have legends like that watching us. [But] we kind of got used to it," Walsh says. "The highlight for us was when we played with the Rolling Stones and a couple of members of that band were at the side of the stage. Mick Jagger told us that he bought our first record."

Also representing the Stones at the side of the stage that night was guitarist Ron Wood. As a result of that show, Wood lends slide guitar to 'All the Plans We've Made,' the potential title track of Starsailor's forthcoming CD. "It was really cool to have him down at the studio," Walsh says. "He was only in for an hour. He came in, did a couple of takes and that was it. But we made sure we got a couple of pictures."

Meanwhile when Starsailor return to America for a tour, there's yet another icon they'd like to rub elbows with. "When Bono decides to get the boys back together for a tour, we'll be throwing our hands up to do the leg," Walsh says. "I think the missing piece in the jigsaw is a tour like that in the States. That would be a dream come true."

If you're thinking of messing with Jay Reatard's equipment or grabbing his guitar at one of his shows, think again. He's got a temper and he's not afraid to use it. "There's always people that think it's fun to go after the guy with the short fuse, to try to push his buttons," he tells Spinner. "Most of the time I chalk it up to people being drunk. When you get drunk, [you're] thinking... 'Let me do something stupid to be involved in the show.'" Got it? Good.

Reatard's 2006 solo debut, 'Blood Visions,' finally began to pick up accolades and gain attention almost a year after its initial release. He wasn't surprised, as his goals for the record weren't very lofty to begin with. "It's just some songs I wrote in two or three days," he says. "It was a transitional thing. After a while, I got bored and decided to tour for it. Once I did that, it started growing. People started finding out about it and reviews started coming out for it six months after its release."

Glowing reviews and fan appreciation ultimately lead to a deal with Matador Records, with Reatard releasing a series of limited-edition 7-inch singles that will eventually be compiled into a CD release for those not keen on vinyl. Though his first proper album for the label isn't due until next year, In the Red recently released a collection of singles he recorded from 2006-2007 called, appropriately, 'Singles 2006–2007.' The album is chock-full of Reatard's catchy quirk-punk, like the zombie-themed 'All Wasted.' "Memphis has our version of zombies, these massively dehydrated crackheads," Reatard explains. "If you drive down Cleveland Ave. at night, you feel like you're in a Romero flick or something."

The war on drugs may be something of a failed policy as far as government initiatives are concerned, but, musically, the concept has been injected with a newfound vigor. Philadelphia's the War on Drugs may not exactly be what Ronald Reagan envisioned in his campaign against substance abuse, but their new album, 'Wagonwheel Blues,' is as addictive as crack.

The band's unique take on traditional rock music realizes the potential of combining experimental ambience and looped samples with bluesy storytelling and rollicking chord progressions. The nine songs that comprise the record are the work of singer Adam Granduciel, a California transplant who, along with friend and bandmate Kurt Vile, has been formulating a dreamy Bob Dylan-meets-Sonic Youth haze for several years. "['Wagonwheel Blues'] took the last six years of my life," Granduciel tells Spinner. "[It] was recorded in so many different places, at so many stages of my own personal recording experience. I love the way the record sounds."

Granduciel says he never had grand aspirations for the songs he was recording in his home studio, and only hooked up with indie label Secretly Canadian through the good intentions of a friend in the band Windsor for the Derby. "He ended up sending [the label] rough mixes I had given to him to listen to on his computer," he recalls. "He's like, 'Hope you don't mind, I sent these to Secretly Canadian.' I was like, 'That was stupid. Why'd you do that?'"

After nine tracks from Guns N' Roses' long-awaited and allegedly forthcoming 'Chinese Democracy' album leaked onto the Internet last week, the FBI paid a visit to the blogger responsible, Kevin Skwerl, on Monday to investigate a complaint reportedly made by Axl Rose.

Skwerl – a former Universal Music employee turned Web designer – posted the material on his Antiquiet blog last week but promptly erased the tracks when Rose's attorneys asked nicely.

Skwerl, whose blog crashed from the volume of Web traffic it received, told Rolling Stone that he got the music from an "anonymous online source." He also explained he was initially told to take the files down by "a really cool guy from the GN'R camp that was a middleman between someone who was very angry and me. He was trying to reach out and see if I'd go without a fight, which is more or less what I did."

The blogger thought the ordeal was over until two young FBI officers he described as "Mulder and Scully types" showed up at his day job and questioned him for 15 minutes. "It was kind of an ambush," Skwerl said. "When I came back from lunch, they were waiting in the lobby for me. It's a little creepy they know where I work."

As for any potential legal trouble, Skwerl isn't too worried because he only streamed the tracks. "It's a legal gray area since it wasn't for download, it wasn't a finished product. We aren't sure who owns the recordings. I feel like I might survive this."

Oasis will release their first album in three and a half years when they put forth 'Dig Out Your Soul' on October 7. Recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London with producer Dave Sardy, the band's seventh studio disc, and first since 2005's 'Don't Believe The Truth,' will be preceded by a single, 'The Shock of Lightning.'

"I wanted to write music that had a groove, not songs that followed that traditional pattern of verse, chorus and middle eight," Oasis' guitarist and principal songwriter Noel Gallagher said of the new material. "I wanted a sound that was more hypnotic; more driving. Songs that would draw you in, in a different way. Songs that you would maybe have to connect to – to feel."

As for the 'The Shock of Lightning' – which is described as "unmistakably Oasis" and features singer Liam Gallagher's "immediately familiar voice" – Noel called the single "instant and compelling because it was written dead fast and recorded dead fast".

"[It's] basically the demo," Oasis' creative force adds. "And it has retained its energy. There's a lot to be said for that, I think. The first time you record something is always the best."

Bob Dylan shocked when he plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival back in 1965. His son, former Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan, is doing the opposite. "As these songs started to come in, I started to realize this is all I want to hear," he tells Spinner of his largely acoustic solo album, 'Seeing Things.' "My ears are kind of fried out with the big sound."

The younger Dylan contends this isn't a seismic shift. "This is very similar to what I've always done, which is my craft has always been songwriting," he says. "Going back to the [Wallflowers'] first record, I played acoustic songs. On each record there's an acoustic song or two."

So, why then did it take so long for him to embrace his troubadour side? "I've been in a band for more than 15 years and I've been waiting for the opportunity and the right time to take a break where I could do that," he says. "Being in a band, you do have parameters that you work within and sometimes you just gotta catch your breath and realize that train has gotta stop for just a minute."

The train will likely be at the station for more than a minute, as Dylan plans to continue touring behind his solo effort. But like most artists who step away from their band for a break, he beleves it will be the best thing for the group. "We've been doing that same thing for so long and the cycle just kind of repeats itself," he says. "There is a feeling of 'Groundhog Day' at some point. It's good to stop -- it's reinvigorating."

Broken Social Scene co-frontman Brendan Canning has been all quiet on the Canadian front as of late, but the singer-songwriter -- whose BSS collective of musicians includes Kevin Drew, Feist, Emily Haines from Metric and Stars' Amy Millan -- is about to be both visually and auditorially in your face with his upcoming album, 'Something for All of Us.'

While recording the effort, due July 22, Canning had some of the process captured on film by respected indie filmmaker Bruce MacDonald ('Hard Core Logo,' 'Highway 61'). The footage was being shot for a new Independent Film Channel series entitled 'The Rawside of...,' which is an eight-part documentary series that follows Canadian musicians through public and private parts of their lives. Canning admits that the process was a combination of honesty and surreality.

"Bruce and his crew get the all-access pass into the finishing of my record and all the other things going on and around in my life," he tells Spinner. "It's a small window into my life and it feels very natural, as much as anything can feel natural when there are cameras all around you. Hopefully the soccer footage makes the cut."

Tired of singing in the shower? Want to show your inner soft-rock-star to the world? Aimee Mann is currently hosting a contest on YouTube to encourage fans to sing her new music to the world. Her management came up with the idea, admits Mann, after watching fans cover her 'Magnolia' movie hit 'Save Me' on the internet. "They sat in the office and watched them all, then called me and said, 'They are actually kind of awesome! We should do a contest, and have people make videos for [the single] 'Freeway,'" Mann tells Spinner. "It was a good idea." Mann -- who releases her music independently on her own SuperEgo Records, including her latest album, '@#%&*! Smilers' -- put an instrumental mp3 of the track up on her website so that entrants who don't play instruments could sing along to her original backing track.

Truth is, the video announcing the competition is as entertaining as many of the entrants' videos, filled with clips of unbeknownst YouTubers who have previously covered Mann's music in their own bedrooms and home studios. The singer admits to being shocked that -- just weeks after the contest's kickoff -- her own video announcement has itself already been viewed 400,000 times.

Dennis Wilson's rocky rock 'n' roll life ended twenty-five years ago this December in the ocean he loved.

The Beach Boy with the real-life passion for sunning, surfing and California girls would not have even been in his brothers' band if their mom hadn't insisted. But while Dennis never did quite distinguish himself behind the drumkit (that's Hal Blaine, not Dennis, on 'Pet Sounds' and many of brother Brian's most hallowed recordings), he did evolve into one heluva soulful songwriter, contributing majestic ballads like 'Forever' and 'Cuddle Up' to the Beach Boys catalog.

In 1977, looking more like a lost caveman than the chick-magnet Beach Boy, Dennis became the first Wilson to release a solo album, the aptly titled 'Pacific Ocean Blue.' That triumph (upon release, Rolling Stone called it "truly wonderful and touching") and its abandoned follow-up, 'Bambu,' have been given new life this week in the form a two-CD reissue.

For the uninitiated ('Pacific Ocean Blue' has spent most its years out of print), Wilson's music is, like his life, a beautiful contradiction: rambling, hopeful, troubled and blissful.

Though Wolf Parade hasn't released a new album in three years, its members have been far from dormant -- after dropping blog-busting 'Apologies to the Queen Mary,' principal songwriters Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug moonlit in various side projects. Pausing from recording the second Handsome Furs album in hometown Montreal, Boeckner tells Spinner it's precisely this extra curricular that has informed his work on his quartet's sophomore gem, 'At Mount Zoomer.'

"I'm a better, tighter guitar player because of Handsome Furs," Boeckner tells Spinner of the band he helms with his wife. "The drum machines we use are merciless. If you f--- it up, you're screwed because they have no feeling."

Additionally, his international tour with that band inspired many of the lyrics on 'Zoomer,' especially those alluding to structural deterioration ('Language City,' 'Grey Estates'). "I was traveling through Russia on tour and a lot of the places we passed were completely destroyed," he says. "They're paving the way for this capitalist superstate, and I was obsessed with that. I wrote 'Grey Estates' on a train there, which was originally a short story about an all-night drug party where it's suddenly 8am and there's a lot of coke left. That's when everyone talks about themselves in circles, building a language city."

Having recorded hit power ballads during the '80s, veteran band Chicago made an album in 1993 that was supposed to be a return to the adventurous rock of its early works. To Chicago's surprise, the finished album, 'Stone of Sisyphus,' was rejected by the band's then-record label Warner Bros.

"That was the first one out of 21[albums] that we had rejected," founding trumpet player Lee Loughnane tells Spinner. "So I guess we were sort of in shock that it was rejected in the first place."

Rather than compromising over a work it felt passionate about, Chicago left Warner Bros., and 'Stone of Sisyphus' was shelved for the next 15 years. (Three of the songs later ended up on the group's 2003 boxed set). Now 'Stone of Sisyphus' (aka 'Chicago XXXII') is finally being released today through Rhino Entertainment, a division of Warner Music Group that also includes Warner Bros.

"The people involved now are completely different than the people who were involved then," Loughnane says. "But it is ironic that it turns out to be the same company."

Amanda Palmer has freshly healthy vocal nodes and is not afraid to use them. The songwriter/co-vocalist of the Dresden Dolls underwent surgery in March to repair her damaged cords, and has subsequently moved full-steam ahead into new musical ventures, including two upcoming performances with the Boston Pops (June 19-20) and a planned September release of her solo debut album, 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer?' which is being produced by fellow pianist Ben Folds.

"It is really wonderful and really overwhelming," Palmer tells Spinner "I've never, ever felt this way about anything I've made. I think that people are going to be so blown away by it. I can't say enough awesome things about Ben Folds and how he made this record."

The upcoming CD also features a handful of guest musicians, including singer-songwriter Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent, who contributes to a "highly ironic" cover tune from the 1940's musical 'Carousel') and former Dead Kennedys axeman East Bay Ray. "He plays on a song called 'Guitar Hero,'" Palmer enthuses. "He just shreds it!"

U2 fans should expect a new album before the year's out, according to manager Paul McGuinness. When pressed for details, McGuinness told the BBC the release date for the group's first album in four years was "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October."

One thing's for sure -- U2 will not follow Radiohead's recent decision to offer 'In Rainbows' on a pay-what-you-like basis, saying the move "to some extent backfired." Although that album -- which was placed online in October -- went straight to number one in the UK and U.S. when it became formally available on CD in January, the internet monitoring company Comscore said only 38% of 'In Rainbows' downloaders willingly paid.

"We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible," McGuinness told BBC 6. "[But] for U2, physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."

While media and fans keep speculating on a new singer for Velvet Revolver, Slash isn't waiting around, but rather, keeping busy with solo project. "I'm working on it pretty aggressively right now while I have the time cause as soon as Velvet finds its singer, then it's going to be off the races with that," he tells Spinner. "I'm using this little period to be able to do as much on my solo record as possible. I'm not sure exactly when it will come out, but hopefully it will come out before the Velvet record."

"It'll be my first solo record," he" continues. All the other ones were just me putting other bands together and going out and just jamming. This will actually be a little bit more personal."

Slash was in a bit of a reflective mood when he spoke to Spinner as it was just after he was honored for his sobriety at a MusiCares event in L.A. There, Slash shared the stage with Steven Tyler, who presented him his award, fellow honoree Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Camp Freddy. "When I was 14 years old, I was going to Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper gigs," he says. "And if you told me, 'In the future, you're going to be jamming with Steven Tyler, Robin Zander and Alice Cooper,' I never would've believed it. That would've been an premise."

When pressed, many musicians will admit that what they really want to do is act, and many actors will admit that what they really want to do is direct. But what Wu-Tang Clan mastermind, established solo artist, actor, soundtrack composer and author RZA really wants to do is become a one-man U.S. government think tank. "They'd have to pay me millions of dollars for it 'cause I got a millionaire life, know what I mean? Maybe that's the reason it don't happen," he says, laughing. But he seems to be pretty serious about the concept. "All these f---ing ideas I got in the scientific world, they just not being heard because I'm a musician. That's kind of weird. I was talking to my wife about this recently. I was like, 'Yo, don't you think [the government] should just hire me and put me in a research lab for ten years so I can just research something?'"

Until that day when he puts on his government-issued lab coat, RZA has got a new release from his alter ego Bobby Digital set for release this month. 'Digi Snacks' is the third concept album dealing with the exploits of his character, this time augmented by the contributions of members of System of a Down, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante and rapper David Banner. RZA has found inspiration in some of cinema's greatest for his Bobby Digital persona. "When I made the first Bobby Digital album, I was inspired by Robert De Niro. I was high, of course," he admits. "I have many voices in my head, many styles of rhyming. I said, 'I'm gonna become a character when I do my styles.' For me, it's all part of expressing artistic creativity, whether I'm doing it musically, acting on the silver screen or whether I'm sitting there playing chess."