Here's a rundown of the essential albums available online and in record stores today:

[Editor's note: For our May issue's summer festival section, SPIN spoke with a number of artists on the festival circuit, from Gaslight Anthem and Metric to Doves and Jane's Addiction. Among them is neo-soul songstress Erykah Badu. Here, she tells us about her favorite moments backstage and waxes on music's power to bring people together.

This week Green Day gave lucky fans a sneak peek of their summer tour, Jack White's new band, the Dead Weather, debuted live, Rihanna planned her comeback, and Phil Spector was convicted of murder. See all these stories, plus the week's top photo galleries, editor's blogs, audio/video, news, and reviews, below:

This year, the 51st annual Grammy Awards ceremony was prefaced by a fair bit of drama -- and we're not just talking about T-Pain's suit.

For well over a decade, Mars Volta and ex-At the Drive-In guitar virtuoso Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has excited fans with a schizophrenic fury. But now with his eighth solo record, the conceptual Old Money, out digitally today via stonesthrow.com and as a CD Jan. 27, the prolific rocker has another target: exploitative industrialists.

We may not be able to see Russia from our new offices, but we here at SPIN.com have heard some sweet sounds this past week: Paramore unveiled their contribution to the Twilight soundtrack, Eagles of Death Metal let us in on their "Secret Plans," Butch Walker reminded us what "Going Home" was like, and Rachael Yamagata made our hearts beat "Faster." Check out