As praises continues to surface for their latest album Honor Found in Decay, Oakland metal heavyweights Neurosis talk about the biggest influences during their three decades in the music game. [via SPIN]

SF band Social Studies returns to the stage this next week (December 5) in support of their much-buzzed-about sophomore LP, Developer. [via Brick & Mortar]

Ty Segall gets a snazzy cover story on Pitchfork, about his touring life and his evolution from thrashing garage rock figurehead to something harder to pigeon hole. [via Pitchfork.com]

Today is a big one for Metallica: They just launched their very own label, called Blackened Records, and take ownership of all their masters from Warner Bros. [via SF Weekly]

East Bay rap legends E-40 and Too $hort just dropped their collaboration album The History Channel. Pitchfork's particular review says both MCs sound "ageless," and remarks that most of the guest rappers on the album sound like they're auditioning for 40 and Short. [via Pitchfork.com]

SFWeekly highlights a crucial cog in the Bay Area indie record label scene, Dulc-i-Tone Records, which is helmed by The Mantles bassist Matt Roberts. [via SF Weekly]

One of the best breakouts of 2011 was Mikal Cronin, who released a self-titled debut and continues to do time as the bassist of Ty Segall's band. Well, he finally got his due: This week, he signed to the seminal label Merge Records. [via Merge Records]

Sunny retropop group Ash Reiter is about to release its first professionally recorded album (and second overall), Hola, and just made the first six tracks from the LP available for streaming–and we're definitely liking what we hear. [via The Bay Bridged]

Former Girls frontman Christopher Owens discusses his first solor album Lysandre, as well as what it's like to start over. [Pitchfork.com]