Mike D: ‘After Yauch died I couldn’t make music. I’d open a computer file and just feel sadness’

As part of the Beastie Boys, the rapper shot to fame and notoriety in the 80s, before bandmate Adam Yauch’s death saw him withdraw from the spotlight. He returns with a solo album that sees him reckon with greed, mortality – and his past

Add to playlist: the righteous jangle and snaking melodies of Jawdropped and the week’s best new tracks

The LA-based powerpop project’s triumphant debut is a celebration of low-stakes creativity in the slacker-skater tradition

Stella Lefty: Long Way Home review – Boston singer’s debut is bland, boilerplate and beyond banal

The breakout 24-year-old country star’s debut is stunningly unremarkable, offering little in the way of artistic identity or her peers’ originality

‘I need to think like a CEO’: Weezer on the shifting sands of success, ugly feelings and the joy of spreadsheets

As the self-professed geeky rockers release their conceptual 20th album, Rivers Cuomo and Patrick Wilson discuss dodging failure, being saved by fans and their obsessive creativity

Amy Lee of Evanescence: ‘I could happily do an entire album of nothing but Portishead covers’

As her band hits the road, the metal trailblazer answers your questions on sexualisation in show business, finding inspiration in dreams and Spinal Tap moments on tour

Frank Beard obituary

Drummer with ZZ Top for more than five decades whose mastery of the ‘Texas shuffle’ was central to their sound

Post your questions for Beck

The genre-hopping hitmaker’s new album fingerpicks the same melancholy heartstrings as Sea Change. You can ask him anything in our upcoming reader interview

Christian metal band sues Netflix over KPop Demon Hunters name

25-year-old band Demon Hunter says name of streamer’s hit movie creates ‘substantial confusion’ among consumers

Jah Wobble on covering the Beatles, London buses and why punk went wrong: ‘Being kind is seen as square’

The maverick former Public Image Ltd bassist takes us on a typically picaresque journey through his ‘Kafka-esque’ days at Transport for London, being named by Sid Vicious and his spiritual learnings

ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dies aged 77

Tributes paid to ‘great friend and collaborator’ who played with band for 56 years and died in hospice care in Texas

Gang of Youths are back: ‘Does it sound like a cynical gesture towards pop radio stardom?’

Four years since their last album, the anthemic Australian band are back with a fresh sound and new music about finally being ‘overwhelmingly OK’

‘You’ve got to see this girl!’ Tanita Tikaram on making Twist in My Sobriety

‘People tell me it helped them with their rehab. I have to explain: Sorry, it’s not about alcohol – I was just a kid singing about injustice’

Next year’s Eurovision host is Burgas, not Sofia. Some Bulgarians are baffled

Next year’s competition won’t take place in the country’s capital, an announcement that even surprised Bulgarian winner, Dara

‘I had to learn how to be a feminist’: Greg Dulli on surviving grunge, shunning misogyny, and Afghan Whigs’ glorious return

With a soulful sound and soul-baring lyrics, the Afghan Whigs rode the post-Nirvana boom to the big leagues. Their frontman explains his exploration of the male ego – and how Usher got the band back together

Brandon Flowers: Thrasher review – Killers frontman’s country pivot is a rootin’ tootin’ cowboy-bootin’ hoot!

Even a couple of bafflingly misguided social commentary songs can’t detract from the joys of Flowers’ classically full-throated commitment to the Nashville bit