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Tom Gabel's no stranger to video performances, what with his new series in support of his recently released solo album Heart Burns. But when SPIN.com caught up with the punk rock troubadour in Brooklyn to film a live acoustic performance recently, Gabel was treated to, well, a lesson in multiplicity.

Below, watch Gabel perform a duet with himself -- admittedly a first for the rocker -- on new tracks "Harsh Realms" and "Anna is a Stool Pigeon" just hours before he lit up New York's Knitting Factory with old Against Me! obscurities.

Watch: Tom Gabel, "Harsh Realms"

Tom Gabel, "Anna is a Stool Pigeon"

Less than a year after her second, patchier collection of covers, Jukebox, Chan Marshall offers six slow-dancing holdovers from that album's recording sessions. While her take on Creedence's political burner "Fortunate Son" falters listlessly, the Georgia smoke bomb pays homage to soul heavyweights Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin with more success. Still, her vamping can't touch their steamy-windowed originals -- warm stabs at Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and James Carr's title track, though sumptuously arranged, work more because of Marshall's bluesy band than her bedtime croon.

When the tour manager unpacks a pistol from a FedEx box, there's a strong hint that the documentary of this French electro-house duo's spring 2008 American trek will end badly. And after numerous trips to shooting ranges, the Las Vegas wedding of Justice's mutton-chopped Gaspard Augé to a blurred-faced babe, and très Girls Gone Wild–like backstage footage, it does. Favoring excessive computer and crowd noise over the pair's concise hooks, the relentlessly bombastic concert CD accompanying the DVD combusts as if it were one 66-minute, fireworks-spewing finale.

When performing others' material, Mark Kozelek has always been stronger the more extreme the reinterpretation (see his melancholic versions of the Cars, Yes, and John Denver). But this odds-and-ends comp is unusually straightforward. His lovely rendition of Low's "Lazy" transforms an angsty lament into an earnest plea for change; and while Kozelek's take on AC/DC's "If You Want Blood" boasts a revelatory rearrangement, it sounds strangely toothless beside a sincere internalization of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns."

EPMD are back together again, more than a decade after the Long Island duo's initial 1997 reunion. Despite some truly awful lyrics -- "Don't make me get mad and Barack O-bomb-ya" is particularly wince-worthy -- both Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith sound reenergized, boosted by spirited cameos from Redman, Method Man, and Keith Murray. But this nostalgia trip has its slip-ups: "Backstabber" is a retread of the 1990 track "Gold Digger," and the latest entry in their femme-fatale "Jane" series flogs a concept, not to mention a lumbering beat, that was tired long ago.

On his eighth album, Common turns back the hip-hop clock to the days of electro, teaming up with Pharrell Williams, who comes off like a modern-day version of mid-'80s studio whizzes Mantronix. On the frantic, Roland 808–charged title track, the Windy City MC plays the streetwise machine man, with lyrics ("Chicks exotic, mix hypnotic / Superhero boy, I'm bionic") that read like cut-ups of novels by cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson.

The rockin'-no-stoppin' continues on the Kanye West–guesting "Punch Love," which conjures futuristic gator-shoed players, and the compelling Prince-ness of "Sex for Suga." Though there's one serious misstep -- the pro-Obama ditty "Changes," which mimics '60s psychedelia and is about as soulful as Donovan's greatest hits -- Common dazzles with the back-to-the-future motif on "What a World," an homage to the Bernard Edwards bass line that was the funky foundation for Chic's "Good Times," Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." The track vibrantly mashes up all three songs to create a singular gem.

While we're used to Common in the role of poetic prophet or self-righteous rhyme slayer, Universal Mind Control is primarily a rhythmic celebration, paying tribute to Afrika Bambaataa and Jonzun Crew jams. Quixotically, in this heated political year, he's reserved his strongest endorsement for the Cyborg Party.

Despite an already heavy touring regiment, drummer Lars Ulrich has said Metallica will be staying on the road behind their latest album, Death Magnetic, through 2010 -- and that the quartet hope to stop into a few new locations along the way.

"Right now we're sort of laying out fall of '09 and the spring of '10. We're waiting for a few other countries to be actually formalized as nations so we can be the first band in," he told Rollingstone.com. "We're also waiting for the polar caps to stabilize so we can go play there. There's talk about some other planets too."

But while global politics and interstellar travel logistics might make the touring itinerary a little uncertain, Ulrich promises U.S. fans they can count on the following: a setlist stacked with '80s classics like "Master of Puppets" and "One," new songs from Death Magnetic, and even a "reach for the car keys" cue: "We've probably ended our last 200 shows with 'Seek and Destroy'," he says. "Having a bit of predictability at the end gives people the chance to start thinking about putting their coats on and remembering what fucking parking lot they were in."

The boys of Green Day recently gave fans a quick peek inside the recording process for their yet-to-be titled follow-up to 2004's smash hit American Idiot. Now, bandleader Billie Joe Armstrong offers more details on the long-awaited record -- this time without the obscene hand gestures.

In an interview with Alternativepress.com, Armstrong discussed the new record's "power-pop" direction: "I really like fucking with arrangements…How do you do it in a way where the arrangements are just unpredictable? So I'm pushing myself to be progressive in songwriting and being a songwriter. I always try to look at the possibilities of how you write power-pop music."

Citing the Beatles, Cheap Trick, and the Jam as sonic influences, Armstrong also talked about the perks of working with Garbage guitarist and Nirvana producer Butch Vig. "He doesn't take for granted what we have (in the studio), but he uses everything to the best of his knowledge and the best of his ability…He's not a cheerleader type of producer; he's just a very hard-working, straightforward guy."

A release date for the album hasn't been announced -- let's hope the guys don't spend all their time in the studio, uh, fooling around.

Listen: Green Day American Idiot

"I'm rubbish with secrets." Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos confessed via his blog [via Pitchforkmedia.com], before admitting that yes, Art Brut is working with Pixies legend Frank Black on their next album.

"I was thinking about trying to put anybody off that asked me out right if the Pixies legend Frank Black was producing our next album by telling them that they must have misheard and in fact the legendary Pixie Geldof was," he added. "I'm glad I didn't have to stoop that low to hide our secret."

Argos also explained that efforts for the new album are already underway. "[The band has] written about 20 songs. We've been playing quite a few of them live; 'Alcoholics Unanimous,' 'Summer Job,' 'Art Brut Versus Satan,' 'Rebellious Henchman,' 'Moved To LA,' and 'DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake.' I can't wait to start recording."

Meanwhile, Argos' other band the Glam Chops unveiled their free Christmas download yesterday.

A dark, spectral presence in '60s folk rockers Buffalo Springfield, the youthful Neil Young also had an unnerving social adeptness. His deceptively fragile vocal style and skewed lyrical genius were already evident at age 22 in these 13 acoustic songs recorded over two nights at a Michigan Episcopal church. The chatty singer quickly had the bemused audience under his sway -- the epic sketch "Broken Arrow" presaged "Cortez the Killer"; "Out of My Mind" was as much premonition as tune; and "I've Been Waiting for Such a Long Time" was the foundation for many Young songs to come that suggested love could save his life.