Snow Angels

Underworld babe as Pennsylvania working stiff? Of course!

David Gordon Green, a director who made his name creating detailed portraits of the small-town South (like George Washington and All the Real Girls), heads up to Pennsylvania and makes it look like the most middle-American place in middle America.

The Bank Job

Giddy, glossy heist flick trades sense for suspense.

The makers of this extra-­crunchy popcorn movie -- an Inside Man-ish heist flick, but also a spy tale, and ultimately a tribute to an exuberant game of chicken -- claim it’s based on a true story. If they’re serious, then it’s also a masterpiece of investigative journalism, one that shows British intelligence agents concocting a scheme too baroque to believe. Follow this exhilarating loop: In 1971 an ex-­model named Martine (Burrows, as glossy as everything else on display) gets busted smuggling dope into Heathrow, and her part-­time bedmate, a man on the rise at MI5, helps her out of the jam in exchange for a little favor.

Airbourne

AC/DC-worshipping Aussies prepare for takeoff.
Airbourne, photographed for Spin in Adelaide, Australia, Jan. 11, 2008 / Photograph by Trevor King

Talk about big balls. If Australian hard rockers Airbourne aren't the most shameless AC/DC knockoff ever, then Rancid's Tim Armstrong never owned a copy of London

Laura Marling

English folkie hates crowds, loves Victorian lit.
Laura Marling, photographed for Spin in London, Jan. 7, 2008 by Clare Shilland

With her gently bewitching songs about bad dreams and broken hearts— not to mention her flaxen hair, snow white skin, and searching blue eyes— teenage singer/songwriter Laura Marling is proud to come off more Wuthering Heights than The Hills. "I've always loved books by the Brontë sisters," purrs Marling, who was raised in the sleepy village of Eversley.

Switches

"Melodic, sexy" neo-Britpoppers turn on the hooks.
Ollie Thomas, Steve Godfrey, Matt Bishop, and Thom Kirkpatrick, photographed for Spin in London, Jan. 4, 2008 / Photograph by Rebecca Lewis

The Gutter Twins: Up From the Gutter

With 40-odd years in rock between them, the Gutter Twins' Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan have two lifetimes' worth of war stories. But rather than rehash their checkered pasts, they'd prefer to let the music do the growling.
Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, photographed for Spin in Los Angeles, December 21, 2007 / Photo by Tom Fowlks

When we went into the studio, we had nothing," says Greg Dulli, 42, the former Afghan Whigs and current Twilight Singers frontman, from a corner booth at Footsie's,

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