Following a world tour with The Killers, San Diego rockers LouisXIV went on hiatus and singer Jason Hill seemed to go off the grid for a year. What did he get up to? “I was in a dark place,” he said. Here’s what Jason Hill Did Next in this BSR exclusive.

July’s Rock Hands of the Month is awarded to the San Diego’s finest and cleanest, Republic of Letters. Bask in this San Diego pop-band’s double devil horn action.

Avant-freaky sister-act CocoRosie came through Vancouver to the Vogue Theatre on June 24 and brought with them some fabulous tie-dyed body suits, flowy dresses, blue wigs and NYPD baseball caps, plus a harp, a beatboxer, a French pianist, a squeeze box, toys, metallic balloons and a snake-charmer flute. Yep, CocoRosie’s wooshy folkhiphopera is certainly…unique.

Seven hours with with the King of Lo-Fi. What to do? Start with soundcheck, detour to a homemade dinner and the kindness of strangers, end up backstage with a scaredy cat poster, drink beer, rock out, then laugh a lot. Here’s a photo gallery of the first day of summer, BackstageRider-style. There’s even rockhands.

FROM THE VAULTS: Another random diary entry from the BSR, in which our heroine finds herself hanging out with one of her fave bands from Cincinnati, Afghan Whigs, while they watched porn and chuffed up lines. “Now, THIS is the rock n’ roll life,” she thought. “Holy crap, it’s pretty sad.”

NXNE has grown like Galactus over the years, and might soon be ready to eat a small planet or two. And in our so-far short lifetime, Backstage Rider has been all about bringing you the rock (and punk and alt-folk and dance and stuff). Here we combine bands we’ve covered, with bands that are playing this week at NXNE. See what we did there? Clever, no?

Few two-pieces make as much wonderful noise as Becky Black and Maya Miller from The Pack a.d. Bask in their rocktacular glow with a gallery from June 4, with ADDED ROCKHANDS.

Massive Attack live and blindingly good at Vancouver’s Malkin Bowl, May 29th. Behold this gallery with light show bonanza. The Backstage Rider celebrated her birthday remembering time she had a chance to meet Massive Attack, but couldn’t think up a good enough opening salvo, so walked on by. Nevermind, they were still fugging awesome. Even in the rain.

The National are back! The National are back! High Violet launches today and comes with a marketing juggernaut. Also find out why on May 15 you should be glued to your computer and turn up the speakers.