For those of you who think rock is dead, I give you two words: Nico Vega. The band built its reputation through a series of EP releases before finally getting the opportunity to release an epic, self-titled debut LP in 2009. Since then the group has toured with everyone from Gavin Rossdale and Neon Trees to Metric and Imagine Dragons, showcasing Aja Volkman’s description-defying vocals and the band’s unique ability to merge memorable hooks with songs built upon pounding percussion and emotionally charged riffs. Their song “Beast” received prominent placement in Bioshock: Infinite‘s massive press campaign, and with a new groundswell of support, their forthcoming full-length Lead to Light is currently being readied as a force to truly reckon with.

The band’s unique blend of rock, pop, and modern alternative sounds helps set it apart, but Volkman’s lyrics definitely put Nico Vega in a different league from their genre contemporaries. “It’s important to me that music evokes emotion”, she’s said in the past. “Lyrics have to be honest and true for me.” In that vein, the group has built up the Nico Vega persona to symbolize the warrior within, representing unity and the battle against ego. The band’s passion for exploring all things art and politics has helped fuel songs like “Beast”, which has become all but ubiquitous when the band’s name is spoken: “Stand tall for the people of America, lay down like a naked dead body”, Volkman sing-screams. “Keep it real for the people working overtime ... we are free in the land of America, we ain’t going down like this!”

Klinger: It’s almost hard to believe that we’ve only had two opportunities to talk about Neil Young, considering how he was a constant source of fascination to critics back in the 1970s and then almost shorthand for artistic integrity when he became a standard bearer in the 1990s. But here we are with his 1979 live experiment Rust Never Sleeps, which to me might somehow be, on the surface anyway, more representative of Young’s overall output than either of the two albums we’ve covered previously. In its right down the middle mix of solo works and Crazy Horse jams, we get the sense of the two sides of Neil Young—cranky acoustic troubadour and cranky electric thud-rocker.

Clearly, there’s a lot to unpack with this most unusual project, from its in-concert setting to its songwriting to the way Neil Young attempts to find his place as an elder statesmen/boring dinosaur (depending on which side of the line you stood) in the late ‘70s. I know you’ve expressed a preference for electric Neil in the past, so I’m eager to hear how you have made your way into this double-sided piece of wax.

It’s an awkward feeling when you overhear your friends talking about you. Sometimes it’s a deliberate barb, a calculated sentence dropped by an ex-lover into the ears of your mutual friends. You might hear someone ranting about you when they think that you’re out of earshot. Or, as in Courtney Love’s case, you receive a notice that your enemy Dave Grohl has asked a court to evaluate your mental condition.

Imagine if that song is a number one hit single—and you’re the famous who inspired that single.

Here are eight songs that are veiled dedications to another famous person. The Beatles air their grievances. Amy Winehouse pines after Nas. Joan Baez reflects on her unsuccessful fling with “the unwashed phenomenon”. And Carrie Fisher advises that if you can have Paul Simon write a song about you, go for it.

As always, we encourage you to add to this list in the comments section.

This Melbourne six-piece electro-pop dream team makes the best sunshine-fueled blend of hook-candy you’ll hear this side of Tegan & Sara or the Knife, and they’re definitely on the move. Last month Alpine was featured in Time‘s online “Band to Watch” column, and A Is For Alpine already won iTunes’ Australian Alternative Album of the Year honors. Their album being chock full of hit material, it’s hard to focus in on just one track worthy of repeated spins, but the two-part “Lovers” stands out as the best “sing it out loud” track since Tegan and Sara’s “Walking With A Ghost”, while “Gasoline”, the band’s lead single, definitely gives Best Coast a run for their money.

Let’s just say it clearly—if you haven’t heard the band, there’s no better time than now to dive into A Is For Alpine and learn what the rest of the world’s already talking about. But first, dueling singers Lou James and Phoebe Baker sat down with PopMatters for a round of 20 Questions. So maybe you should read this first so you’ll know them at eHarmony-esque levels before you listen, at which point you’ll be primed to spread the word. For as they sing on “In The Wild”: “North, south, east, west, take me there!” Wherever you wind up, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more interesting pop act.

Ask any familiar listener, casual or diehard, to sing the song’s infamous single-line chorus and invariably you’ll hear back: “Send it up on fire / Death before dawn.” This sinister lyric holds for the track, ostensibly about a submissive wife figure detailing to an oppressive male subject her daily domestic routine in which she “cleans the house…., put[s] all [his] books in an order” and “makes up a colorful border”. The lyric is fitting, the assumed revenge she takes warranted. Phair is comparing herself to a canary (a bird known, apart from its more charming attributes, for its extreme nervousness and restlessness when caged and handled for too long), her accomplishments are tantamount to learning her name and “jump[ing] when [he] circle[s] the cherry”. The imagery is simple, even bordering a touch on clichéd ‘90s-grrl-angst, but Phair sells it with her flat, whispery vocal delivery against the chilly, sparse instrumentation that approaches near crescendo but reliably cops out each time like a weak tide approaching the shore.