For then-drummer Darren Jessee, the breakup of his band Ben Folds Five in 2000 provided him an opportunity at the time to catch up living life and enjoy his new home of New York City.

"I basically took my time," he tells Spinner, "and started writing songs that I cared about. I just needed to find myself in some kind of way. Somehow it turned into a full-fledged project."

Thus began Jessee's new band Hotel Lights, which put out its self-titled debut in 2005. The group's second album 'Firecracker People,' was released this week and features Jessee's lead vocals, acoustic guitar and songs. The new album's atmospheric, subdued and sometimes melancholic sound is a departure from the rock music of his former North Carolina-based band.

"That's just how I've always kind of worked," he says. "Ben [Folds] was the primary songwriter for that other band. So I think that's the big difference. This sound of Hotel Lights is something I've been doing since about 2000, just kind of refining it and working on it."

Santa Cruz-based Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9) have always done things a little differently. (See: once touring according to the Mayan calendar and later, inviting artists of all kinds -- painters, writers, flower-arrangers -- onstage with them.) A favorite act at festivals like Bonnaroo and Rothbury, the instrumental trance-rock band's latest album, 'Peaceblaster,' is their most accessible album yet. "It's our Polaroid of America right now," bassist Dave Murphy tells Spinner. "It's a beautiful place. We live a peaceful lifestyle here, but there's also a real dark underbelly to it. It's reflected in the name, in the music, in the message and we felt like we really hit home this time."

And yet, 'Peaceblaster' might be the last CD the band ever releases. By traditional means, anyway. "For one, music has moved into a day and age when people are going to quit listening on CD players, so therefore the CD is an obsolete product if you will," Murphy explains. Additionally, for a band so environmentally conscious, it makes no sense to use all the resources it takes "to put out a CD and manufacture all that product to put out there when people aren't really buying that medium anymore."

Brazilian dance rockers Cansei Ser Sexy, or CSS as most people call them, have been having one heck of a summer. In addition to a host of festival stops around the world, including the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK this coming weekend, the outfit just dropped their second album, 'Donkey,' on their Sub Pop home.

The effort, according to guitarist and sometime drummer Luiza Sa -- the lone member of the group to base herself in New York City -- was written on tour as the band promoted their self-titled, 2006 debut release. "Everyone is different about creativity," Sa tells Spinner. "Everyone needs a different creative environment and Adriano [Cintra, the group's multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter] -- he's done music for like 15 years. He's such a work-aholic and he doesn't mind anything. Writing for him was kind of a survival thing. When bad times came, he was just writing and writing more, which is very positive."

Despite the bad times, the album is as poppy as its predecessor thanks to songs like 'Jager Yoga,' with its angular bass guitar lines and deep bass grooves. And the album's title -- 'Donkey,' gives the record a fun twist too, with its name coming from their friend -- a Brazilian-to-Los-Angeles transplant with a diverse vocabulary.

Sometimes the rock 'n' roll lifestyle isn't all that exciting but rather a series of traveling from city to city marked by periods of downtime. It's something that Nick Zinner knows firsthand over the years as the guitarist for the alternative rock group Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He's capturing those experiences through his other passion: photography.

"It's a great way to explore where you're at," he tells Spinner. "Also it's kind of [documenting] all the small moments that you wouldn't really notice or remember because it all really blurs into one haze."

Zinner's pieces have been exhibited in different places, and in 2005 he published a book of his photography, 'I Hope You Are All Happy Now.' His latest photo show, 'It's OK, Don't Look at the Road,' which just opened at New York City's Fuse Gallery and runs through September 13, contains images taken from his experiences.

Two years after their acclaimed debut, Annuals are back with their sophomore release, 'Such Fun,' due October 7. While the North Carolina-based band sticks to its colorful, indie-pop formula, frontman and co-producer Adam Baker makes sure the record lives up to its name. Working with producer Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Tom Waits), the group delivers a solid mix of post-rock, country-pop and orchestral balladry. Check out the harmony-laden opener 'Confessor' (available on iTunes August 19).

Listen to 'Confessor'

Even back during her punk rock days in the late '80s group Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield has always had a knack for melodic pop. The singer-songwriter's prolific solo career spans 16 years, and her upcoming album, 'How To Walk Away,' proves she is still going strong. For her latest single, Hatfield endured 40-degree weather in a short skirt to help portray the song's message. "The song 'This Lonely Love' is about being in love with a song, or with the sound and feeling and spirit in someone's singing voice," she says. "So with the video I wanted to show myself as all alone, with only music as my companion." Have a look. Buy it on iTunes.

As a former member of the rock group that dog, singer and violinist Petra Haden remembers one time when it was unfashionable to play violin at the height of alternative music's popularity in the '90s. She once had stuff like food thrown at her when that dog was opening for another band onstage.

"Someone in the audience [was] like, 'More guitar! We don't need violin!'" Haden tells Spinner. "But then I got over it after a while. I was like, 'Screw you, I'm gonna keep playing the violin.' That's when I started noticing more violins in rock bands -- David Mathews Band, the Dixie Chicks -- [and] I felt more positive. "

The violinist, who is the daughter of renowned jazz bassist Charlie Haden, has since become a solo artist and a collaborator with the Decemberists, Beck, Bill Frisell and many other musicians. Her latest album is 'Hearts & Daggers,' her second project with accordionist and vocalist Miss Murgatroid (aka Alicia J. Rose). Featuring violin, viola, accordion and voices, 'Hearts & Daggers' is an ethereal-sounding work that shows some classical and avant-garde influences.

Chess players finally have an anthem they can raise their fists to ... or at least, tap along with as they contemplate their next move. Electronic dance trio Fujiya and Miyagi (yes, that is an intended 'Karate Kid' reference -- another element that might excite chess types) wrote and recorded the song 'Rook to Queen's Pawn Six' about legendary champion Bobby Fischer. The song is included in F&M's new album 'Lightbulbs,' which drops in September.

"I was interested in how, quite often, chess masters go a bit mental," F&M singer/guitarist David Best tells Spinner of the song. He notes he doesn't personally agree with some of Fischer's viewpoints and that the lyrics were written a few years ago, long before Fischer died. "It's more snapshots of his battles with Boris Spassky and his attitudes to tournament officials," he says. "I like people who are single minded in their pursuits and don't bend to the accepted ways of doing things."

As for his own chess playing, Best admits, "I have never been able to get my head around it. I think there's plenty of time for chess in my old age ... along with jazz."

Like Joni Mitchell before her, if there's one thing Sarah McLachlan knows, it's pretty ballads about the good, the bad and the ugly of love. Twenty years since the release of her debut, and McLachlan's still musing on matters of the heart. On October 7, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and First Lady of Lilith will release a greatest-hits album, 'Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan,' featuring 16 lovelorn and love-filled tracks. While McLachlan collections are nothing new to her fans (she's notorious for taking lengthy hiatuses between albums), 'Closer' contains two new songs: 'U Want Me 2' and 'Don't Give Up on Us,' the first of which you can hear below. A proper follow-up to McLachlan's last album, 2003's 'Afterglow,' isn't seeing a release anytime soon, so enjoy.

Meanwhile, McLachlan, who gave birth to her second daughter last year, recently came out of hiding to perform in her hometown of Vancouver as part of the True Colors tour. "It's been awhile for me," she admitted to the fans. "I'm sorry ... I got knocked up again."

Listen to the song!

For their upcoming album, 'Villainaire,' the Dead Science took inspiration from an unlikely source. "The Wu-Tang Clan hold a heavy thematic and stylistic influence over 'Villianaire,'" Dead Science bandleader Sam Mickens tells Spinner. Specifically, Mickens identified with the Clan's "mode of embedding a great deal of content subdermally into their songs."

Throughout 'Villianaire,' fans can expect recurring themes, buried treasures and other Tang-flavored treats. "Also, a lot of their content grapples essentially with the tension between being a fairly degenerate type of dude and trying to maintain higher aspects of your intelligence and consciousness," Mickens, who embraced that concept -- as well as straight-up Wu-Tang Clan references -- in many of the songs on the album, says.

Chicago-bred singer-songwriter Mike Mangione has his brother to thank for all the wise cracks fans make during his shows or out in public. After all, his brother taught him to play the guitar upside down -- just like blues star Albert King.

"It was actually by accident," Mangione tells Spinner. "My brother and I took music lessons when we were kids. He took guitar. I took drums. His guitar teacher didn't have the best vision. Actually I think he had one glass eye and the other eye wasn't doing too good. Anyway, three months into practice, the head of the music store walked in to tell the teacher something and asked why his student was playing like that.

"He looked at my brother and realized he was playing upside down. I had no idea. After three months of lessons, he felt like he knew everything."

This week, Mangione, who appeared in the comedy 'Anchorman' as "mail boy," celebrates the release of 'Tenebrae,' the entire project of which was licensed for use in several MTV shows including 'Road Rules,' 'Human Giant,' 'My Super Sweet 16' and 'The Hills.' Mangione will continue to tour behind it with a violinist, cellist and electric and acoustic guitarists. But it all comes down to smart aleck fans.

"At every show somebody makes a comment about my guitar playing," Mangione says. "I always joke that it's great because you don't have to be very good when you're playing upside down because everybody will be impressed."

If you're still trying to catch up on the first four seasons of 'Lost,' but you want to emerge from TV hibernation and go out dancing with friends, we may have the solution for you: New York's Previously on Lost advertise themselves as the "world's first recapitulation band," performing songs that, yes, recount what's happened so far on the popular primetime series.

"It's totally the best TV show ever," band member Adam Schatz tells Spinner. "Come on." During Season Four, the band studiously watched each episode, composing recap songs and finally unveiling their schtick at NYC's Knitting Factory at the end of the season. Previously on Lost will take their wrap-up rock on the road to the West Coast in August before returning for a tour in the East. Inflatable palm trees and a clip-art slide show will be in tow.

While it's appealing to get up to speed through the glory of live music, if you're way behind, watch out for spoilers. On the other hand, like every other 'Lost' fan, the band has their own theories to how the show ends, but they keep those out of the songs. "We only recap what we see," Schatz says. "Never the future. It's unrecappable. For that reason, our songs contain no speculation -- only cold, hard, melodious fact."

They've supported the Rolling Stones, been on the cover of NME twice and had a number one album in the UK, but this weekend's appearance at Lollapalooza marked the debut appearance of British rock trio the Enemy, in the USA.

The band, fronted by Tom Clarke, has been riding high on their debut album, 'We'll Live and Die In These Towns,' which hit U.S. shelves this week. And starting the band's seven date Stateside tour at a festival seemed perfect for an act, who spent all summer hitting big music events across the world. "They're pretty good," Clarke tells Spinner of his festival tour schedule. "There's normally a lot of mud and it rains, and it's bit sh---- like that. But when you get to a [certain] level, there's a lot of people that want to slag you off. It's a good time to change a lot of people's minds."

Clarke says he was proven right thanks to the message he's received on the Enemy's MySpace, which yes, the band checks themselves. And it was comments they got from early American fans that made them want to come Stateside so much, even though -- like many UK acts -- they'll lose money.

Indie rock piano man Ben Folds is readying his third solo album, titled 'Way to Normal.' The album's first single, 'Hiroshima,' is brought to stop-motion animated life in a video that features Folds living large with a go-go dancing Kewpie doll, among other bizarre images. "I laughed until I cried. It's not the way to normal, that's for sure," Folds told Spinner of the clip. Enjoy the new video exclusively on Spinner before the album's September 30 release date.

Outspoken rocker and conservative Ted Nugent is angry again -- this time it's about America's obesity problem.

"Obesity is a manifestation of a cultural depravation," he tells globetrotting chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, "in its most vulgar and displeasing-to-look-at form. And it's suicide as a lifestyle."

The Motor City Madman recently expressed his views on the topic in an episode of 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,' scheduled to air Monday night at 10 EST on the Travel Channel. In this segment, which focuses on the sights and cuisine of the American Southwest, Bourdain pays a visit to Nugent's ranch in Texas.

During their conversation Nugent describes obesity as an unhealthy choice. "That's a liability," he says. "You have chosen to be a liability to yourself, your family, your neighborhood, and this country."

The two opinionated men talk about obesity's impact on health and the safety of others. Bourdain says he likes the idea of a 'fat' tax and charging someone who uses up an additional airplane or subway seat. Nugent then adds, "It all comes back to the horror, the soullessness of a trend in America that is the abandonment of parenting. Somebody's got to go, 'You can't eat that. You're way too fat.'"