Just in time for another dull, hellaciously hot summer weekend, AUX is pleased to bring you the fourth episode of our news roundup podcast, Hits and Misses, posted every Friday around the end of the day. So load up your Zune-pods with our invective musical insights and start your weekend right. Or, start it this way. Whichever.

In this week’s episode, we discuss AUX Magazine‘s newest cover artist Azealia Banks and the “viral generation,” Frank Ocean’s bravery and general radness, and ’90s CanRock slander and libel.

Stream it here (or subscribe):

Our fourteenth episode of End Hits (listen to the rest another time) brings George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow to our dining table. Taken under the proverbial production wing of Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor a few years ago, Twin Shadow’s 2010 debut, Forget, launched the project in a major way, earning rave reviews and giving Lewis the audience his past bands — including post-punk outfit Mad Man Films in Boston — hadn’t. A few weeks ahead of the July 10 release of Confess, his sophomore full-length as Twin Shadow, Lewis stopped by to talk about a lot of other stuff almost entirely unrelated to the album.

Stream it here (or subscribe):

Twin Shadow’s new video for “Five Seconds” premiered last night in Times Square, which just about covers its incredibly cinematic nature. Starting with some simple narration introducing a gang war, the clip goes onto, well…feature a gang war.

Stereogum points out that the video’s credits note that its based on a novel called Night of the Silver Sun by frontman George Lewis Jr. and Eric Green, though such a novel doesn’t actually seem to exist.

Watch the Keith Musil directed video above. Twin Shadow’s new album, Confess hits stores on July 10th, through 4AD.

Twin Shadow, aka George Lewis Jr., has just released the first single off his newly announced sophomore album Confess, which will be out July 10 via 4AD.

Stream or download the very-80s “Five Seconds” below or at Twin Shadow’s website.

Listen to their remix of “Marry the Night” below.

Set to feature Gaga remixes by Goldfrapp, the Horrors, Wild Beasts, Foster the People, Twin Shadow, Royksopp and more, Born This Way: The Remix is out November 21st. Meat dress not included.

Sounding 80s is one thing, but reworking the 80s songs from which you took your sound is another. And Twin Shadow do it rather well on this re-working of talian group Bagarre’s 1982 song “Circus is Gone.“ Twin Shadow’s take is called “Changes.” You can listen to it below.

Twin Shadown’s debut Forget was released in 2010 and according to Pitchfork, we can expect its follow up sometime next year.

The folks at Halifax Pop Explosion have started announcing the line-up for this year’s festivities and, while still only released in part, its shaping up to be a dilly of a pickle (that’s a good thing). Acts confirmed to appear so far include (but are not limited to) Fucked Up, Titus Andronicus, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Rural Albert Advantage and Chad VanGaalen.

While more artists are expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks, you can head over to Halifax Fun Pop’s website (or look up) to see how the line-up is shaping up so far. Set to take place October 18th to the 22nd (in Halifax, if you somehow hadn’t figured that part out),, tickets for the festival are on sale now.

Osheaga 2011 happened, and those lucky enough to be there were basked in all kinds of musical pleasure. Check out our exclusive photos from performances such as Death From Above 1979, The Flaming Lips, Cypress Hill, Crystal Castles, and many more. Not to mention many behind-the-scenes photos of you, the fans.

Photos by: Zach Slootsky, AUX TV

Twin Shadow (real name George Lewis Jr.) knows music is a business. But as far as he’s concerned, whether an artist is making music for the money or for the art shouldn’t matter to anyone but the musician himself—provided the end product is that of quality, value, and alludes to something more.

“I do [think of it like a business],” Lewis reveals. “But you shouldn’t think about whether I think about it as a business or not. You shouldn’t concern yourself with that at all. Even if I’m doing the most outlandish business moves in the world, if you listen to my music with those kinds of thoughts in your head, it’s going to ruin the music for you.”

“It’s not your job as a listener to be concerned with what I’m doing as a business,” he continues. “That’s my business. And if I keep the quality up, then it probably won’t ever cross your mind. But if my quality starts shit-tanking, you’re probably going to be like, ‘oh, well George, I talked to him—he just wants to be a millionaire.’”

Lewis’ realist approach to the music industry shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s learned of the pop artist through blog culture or the support of his peers, as the Brooklyn-based musician has embraced the freedom allowed by ‘new media,’ and rejects the idea that artists are suffering because of it.

“It’s kind of total freedom right now,” he asserts. “It’s kind of the Wild West. You can write whatever you want and say whatever you want and that’s probably not going to last forever, so I think it’s a good thing.”

“There will always be a vehicle for those who are talented and those who are imitating talented people,” he adds. “There’s always going to be a vehicle. I don’t think it’s any faster than it used to be. Bands used to get made overnight all the time, then you’d forget about them if they didn’t have the right people behind them to keep pushing them in the face of everybody else.”

“Talent isn’t just about you having good ideas. It’s also about your – dare I say, ingenuity or whatever. How you push it out, how you kind of predict your audience’s next move. If you want to treat your music or your art like a business, then there’s a talent to doing that. And it is up to you to kind of do it and to come up with good ideas.”

Inspired by Washed Out, The Weeknd, Kanye West and Tame Impala, Lewis is no stranger to bankable talent. And while he admits he “could probably list all the bands [he likes] on both hands,” he’s not only open to collaborations down the road, but considers it vital to the music-making process.

“Music’s always been about collaboration,” he maintains. “Maybe what we’re noticing is that a band or ‘being in a band’ with four members or whatever—maybe people are tired of it. Maybe it’s cliché. Maybe it’s boring, I don’t know. But what you’re seeing is people who essentially want to be in a band, but don’t want to be tied into what a band means. We know what it’s like to be alone in our room with a computer [and] we really understand that. So we’re alone in that sense, but you can’t stop that feeling of wanting to create with someone. And collaboration is almost always the reason things become so good. You can’t have perspective [otherwise].”

And if you’re hoping to work with Lewis yourself? Consider this your in:

“I’d love to produce a band this summer,” he reveals. “It’s up for grabs. I’m not closed off to it. I listen to demos. I listen to all the demos people give me. I want the world to know that. That may not be forever, but for now every time somebody hands me something, I’ll definitely listen to it.”