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."

Tricky is a make-out mixtape staple. Part downtempo, part dirty soul, part rough rock, the UK-based musician has been in more bedrooms than Ron Jeremy. So what does the man who makes soundtracks for sexual liaisons listen to when he's makin' sweet love? Strangely enough, nothing at all.

"I've never had sex to my music," Tricky tells Spinner. "Other people have sex to my music, but you know what? I don't think I've had sex to music ever. There's not an album that I put on for sex."

Those anxious for some new material can get their fix come September 9 when Tricky releases his eighth studio album, 'Knowle West Boy.'

Weeks after their song 'Wooden Heart' was used in promo spots for the NBA finals, Britain's the Duke Spirit are riding high and heading back to the U.S. for a summer tour.

After a host of past treks spent mostly in vans, the band, fronted by Liela Moss, are finally getting a luxury liner for the jaunt that will take them to a number of summer music events including the Download Festival in both Mountain View and Los Angeles, California.

"We've got a proper tour bus for most of this [tour]," Moss enthuses to Spinner. "I guess we'll just be waking up on festival sites. Maybe for once, I'll get to see other bands."

And it's not just having an 18-wheeler that has the UK act thrilled. After parting ways with Polydor in the UK and Startime in the U.S., the band found a home for their sophomore album, 'Neptune,' on Shangri-La Music. The label dropped the album in April, and helped them land the NBA spot and turned up the buzz on the London five piece.

With so many hip indie bands getting all the blogosphere buzz these days, one can't help but wonder what happened to the frenetic shredding of long-haired, face-melting metal gods. The members of Lamb of God have been doing their part to keep metal alive during their 19 years together, and among their greatest successes was 2007's Grammy-nominated album, 'Sacrament' -- the creation of which has been documented for the band's new two-disc DVD set, 'Walk With Me in Hell.

Entire live performances and candid behind-the-scenes footage comprise the DVD's five-plus hours. Check out a preview, which features the guys rocking on tour and introducing a plush tiger head that invites beat-downs. Buy 'Walk With Me In Hell' on Amazon.

In celebration of Slipknot's fourth studio CD, 'All Hope Is Gone,' we got our hands on the Iowan rockers' brand-new set of masks, and promise you're in for a treat.

The latest masks are creepier and more intricate than ever -- some evoking the chilling countenance of film horror figures like Hannibal Lecter and Pinhead. Not kidding. So feast your eyes on the new collection, then take a trip back in time with pics of every mask worn by the band throughout its career -- all right after the jump.

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?'"

The RZA, Bobby Steels, the Abbot, Prince Rakeem are all names that the Staten Island bred Wu-Tang beat maker Robert Diggs might present himself as. Most recently coming at you as Bobby Digital, on the heals of his newly-released 'Digi Snacks' album, Digi spat a fresh verse off the cuff to remind everyone that Wu-Tang is still for the children.


16 Bars on the Boombox

"I have no desire to go back and play in Blink-182 again," former Blink guitarist and now Angels and Airwaves frontman Tom DeLonge tells Spinner, assuredly. "When you start out as a teenager you have different priorities. I couldn't be the father and husband I wanted to be the way the [Blink] was operating. I wanted to do a different kind of art in my life. I needed to be surrounded by different people."

DeLonge's 2005 split -- officially called a "hiatus" -- from fellow Blink members, bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker, has been anything but pretty. Hoppus and Barker went on to form a new band, +44, and penned 'No It Isn't,' a scathing song directed at DeLonge, which begins: "Please understand, this isn't just goodbye/This is I can't stand you." Barker was quoted in an interview in NME on September, 21, 2006, as saying the song was "absolutely about the end of Blink-182. It was a classic case of something bad happening and everyone around you not telling you what the deal was."

Despite the musical and verbal barbs between the two parties, DeLonge says he harbors no "bad feelings" towards his old bandmates, and that his current band, Angels and Airwaves, is "everything I have ever wanted to do."

New York City's the Bloodsugars look for answers to life's questions with catchy hooks and imagination in the video for 'Purpose Was Again,' the band's debut single. Filmed in downtown Brooklyn, the clip features animated instruments and band members floating alongside the planets in space, while frontman Jason Rabinowitz's sweet, airy vocals incite a living coloring book. Buy it on iTunes.

Tijs Verwest -- the artist better known as Tiësto -- is a Grammy-nominated Dutch born DJ and producer, who's been able to elevate his sets from the club to the arena. Tiësto closed out last year's Coachella festival, joined Bonnaroo's line-up this year and offered up a remix of Tegan and Sara's hit single, 'Back in Your Head.'

"I had heard their record and really love what they are doing," Tiesto tells Spinner. "My manager tracked them down and we hooked up, but I know they liked it."

The enlessly touring DJ is currently promoting his recent mixed-album 'In Search of Sunrise, Vol. 7.' "On a typical day, I leave the hotel around noon, fly for two hours, arrive in the new city, do about one hour of interviews, soundcheck, have dinner with promoters, friends and other artists, hang back stage for an hour and then perform," he says.

It's been 15-plus years since the release of Tori Amos' breakthrough solo debut, 'Little Earthquakes,' in 1992. The girl who had teased up her hair, put on some fishnets and grabbed a sword for her first outing, Y Kant Tori Read, had traded all the window dressing for some jeans, bodysuits and a batch of melodic diary confessions. The transformation can be seen on a DVD, featuring Amos' performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in both 1991 and '92, due this fall.

"It's the first performance that's been caught on film of the pre-'Little Earthquakes' music," the Cornwall, England-based Amos tells Spinner. "That's exciting, and we've pulled it together and mastered it [in our studio]."

As for what it was like to watch those performances, Amos recalls the time with fondness. "You look back and think, 'Oh, great,' because in 1991, this was before there were stylists, before there was makeup, before there was all that. It can be your friend in that way," she says. "But at the same time, as much as I enjoyed watching [the performances], I had no idea what was going to happen. I was playing tiny little pubs, and playing these songs in a living room. 'Little Earthquakes' hadn't been released. There had been no attention and I walked out in front of a few thousand people as an opening act in 1991. Wait, I think I was the opening act for the opening act. Then you see the 1992 performance. By then, the EP had been released and the album had been released, and you can tell that there's a different audience. It's kind of fascinating to me. You ask yourself, 'Has it been that long? Where has the time gone?" And you look in the mirror and you realize you're not that person, but you feel that person."

Rivers Cuomo knows an ironic genius when he crosses one. He and his Weezer mates take a page straight from R. Kelly's 'Trapped in the Closet' for their new Sessions performance. In a rendition of their new B-side 'Miss Sweeney,' which can only be described as 'Trapped in the Office,' Cuomo pines for his blond secretary, who dances around his desk as he sings a little love song.

But the goodies don't end there: Weezer perform a total of three B-sides, along with their latest single, 'Pork and Beans,' and 'Why Bother,' from 'Pinkerton,' which finds Cuomo taking a seat at the drum kit while guitarist Brian Bell handles vocal duties. Trust us, folks: You won't want to miss this.

2008 has been quite a year so far thus far for the pride of Louisville Kentucky: My Morning Jacket. The band's fifth studio album 'Evil Urges' has sparked tour hysteria with sold-out shows across the globe. My Morning Jacket offer a glimpse into their future in the year 2038, when the band had disappeared after their whirlwind tour. Find out where the band will be should they reunite thirty years from now.

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."