Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes was reportedly robbed at gunpoint in Nashville, Tenn. on Saturday night (Dec. 15)

The Shakes singer was hanging out on the porch of an East Nashville home with members of Clear Plastic Masks, after playing a show together as Thunderbitch, when they were accosted by two "skinny little" teenage boys.

The "hoodie-clad" teens, estimated to be around 15 or 16, approached Howard and crew with guns drawn, and relieved them of a "few dozen dollars in cash and some cellphones."

Artist: Ben Howard
Video: "Esmerelda"
Highlight: "An epic song with such a heavy vibe," filmmaker Mickey Smith tells Spinner. "Winter storms on the west coast felt like the one thing that could do 'Esmerelda' justice. As far as shooting the film goes, getting blasted in the wilderness, observing all that power, nothing better."

Watch Ben Howard's "Esmerelsa" Video

Grammy-winning producer Benny Benassi recently wrapped up his Rough Road North American bus tour, with openers Pink is Punk, Krewella and Congorock, performing to more than 45,000 people over 16 dates.

The Italian producer, who has helmed tracks and contributed remixes for everyone from Chris Brown ("Beautiful People") to Madonna ("Celebration"), kept track of his journey in a tour diary that he sent over to Spinner RPM.

From afterparties and impromptu beach raves to performing with Madonna, it sounds like the Rough Road was actually pretty smooth.

The old line goes, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

Montreal's recently-reformed Statue Park are messing around with that very idea: they're musicians who write music about architecture. The dancing part is optional, but encouraged.

"I think there are a lot of similarities between songwriting and architecture, life and architecture, relationships and buildings," Statue Park's Toby Cayouette told Spinner during this year's M for Montreal. "They're all about the process of building something, and they always turn out differently from what you'd hoped, and inevitably, at some juncture, they fall apart.

Nothing is more thrilling for an up-and-coming band than receiving the personal endorsement from a rock 'n' roll icon. That very scenario happened recently for L.A.-based indie-rock quartet, Family of the Year.

"We were on tour and driving out by Austin and my brother was like, 'Steven Tyler's on the phone.' I was like, 'Yeah right. Whatever. You're kidding.' But that wasn't the case," says Family of The Year frontman James Buckey. Tyler, who is represented by the same attorney as Family of the Year, got a hold of the band's debut album Songbook and subsequently described them as "The Mamas and the Papas on acid."

"One spring day, as the story goes, [our attorney] was giving Mr. Tyler a ride back to his place and she had Songbook in her car and played him some songs. He seemed to fancy it," Buckey says, recalling the time bandmate Joseph Keefe got a call from the Aerosmith frontman. "He said some very nice things and a few weeks after that Joe and Sebastian [Keefe] were able to meet him in person and he gave them a few pointers, one being that we needed a shtick -- scarves, clown masks, blood, whatever -- to stand out. We're still working on what would work best."

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's "Portlandia" is back with a little help from Jack White. [Rolling Stone]

Paul McCartney and Nirvana's performance at the 12-12-12 event last week was repeated this past weekend on "Saturday Night Live." Now you can hear the studio version of the heavenly band's one-off single "Cut Me Some Slack." [Antiquiet]

Happy holidays! If you're still shopping for that special music lover in your life, we've got you covered. Check out our picks for this year's best rock 'n' roll gifts in the gallery below, if you want to be known as the person who picks out the best presents.