Spin
Founded in 1985, Spin was a monthly music magazine published in New York. The magazine ceased publication in 2012. An online edition continues.
450 articles
List of articles in the library
Fela Kuti: Army Arrangement (Celluloid)
Review by Carol Cooper, Spin, May 1985
IF YOU haven't yet heard of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, it isn't because he hasn't been trying to get your attention. ...
Special Feature by Randall Grass, Spin, May 1985
The King of Afrobeat enjoyed a reign of sex, hemp, jazz and rock 'n' roll — then the empire struck back, trumping up charges to ...
John Hiatt: Warming Up To the Ice Age (Geffen)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, May 1985
HIATT HAS natural brown hair in a normal-citizen style and he's white and wears a regular black suit and a regular white shirt and he ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae's Mad Scientist
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Spin, May 1985
WHEN PEOPLE said to Bob Marley that his friend Lee "Scratch" Perry was mad, Marley would reply, "Him not mad, him just Scratch." ...
Slim Harpo: The Best of Slim Harpo (Rhino Records)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, May 1985
THIS IS actually a 1983 release, but I just bought it a few weeks ago; it took two years to find, so you might want ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: VU (Verve/Polygram)
Review by Mick Farren, Spin, May 1985
ONE OF THE great strengths and also the fatal weakness of the Velvet Underground was that they made their greatest statements as a band at ...
Bronski Beat: What Is Bronski Beat?
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, May 1985
MEET WHAT IS perhaps the first real gay group in the history of pop. They’re not drag queens, not even sure they want to be ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: What's Red Hot and Chili?: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, May 1985
THE RED HOT Chili Peppers are the greatest rock band in the world. You can tell by watching them perform or you can guess by ...
Review by John Swenson, Spin, June 1985
"I find the popularity thing a bit hard to relate to." — New Order's Peter Hook. ...
Profile by Jon Savage, Spin, June 1985
They aren't teen idols, but have a number-one album thanks mainly to Morrissey, their asexual, charismatic singer-writer. ...
Review by Randall Grass, Spin, July 1985
THIS NEW Fishbone record has a great set of titles: 'Ugly', 'Another Generation', 'Party at Ground Zero', 'Lyin' Ass Bitch', 'V.T.T.L.O.T.RD.G.R.', and '?'. Now, any ...
Interview by Don Snowden, Spin, August 1985
He's been a musketeer in London and a buccaneer in New Orleans. "People want to see you in costume," explains reggae star Eek-A-Mouse. ...
Interview by Byron Coley, Spin, August 1985
Hear a rumbling from Manhattan's Lower East Side? That's Sonic Youth's squall of the wild ...
Billy Bragg: Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy (CD Presents)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1985
IT'S ABOUT time to write a deconstructionist regulation sheet to be posted in the halls of rockcritdom. I mean, surely it is so when a ...
Scritti Politti: Cupid and Psyche 85 (Warner Brothers)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, September 1985
SCRITTI POLITTI (Italian for "political writings") emerged in the late 70s as a hyperanalytic postpunk trio, breaking onto the pop-aesthetic horizon with a series of ...
The Nightingales, The Prefects: Anti-Pop Songbirds: The Nightingales
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, October 1985
THE NIGHTINGALES ARE seasoned figures on the English independent scene, epitomizing the doggedly patient and uncompromising outsider. Five years old, they still play tiny clubs-above-pubs ...
James: From An English Village: James
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, October 1985
"WHEN PUNK HAPPENED," says Tim Booth, "there was a big explosion of energy, but eventually the energy was dissipated, and in the last few years ...
The Blasters: Just An American Band
Interview by Don Waller, Spin, October 1985
The Blasters could play any bar in the U.S.A.: these roots were made for rockin'. ...
Various Artists: Best of Studio One, Vol. 2 — Full Up (Heartbeat)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, October 1985
THE FURTHER adventures in the multifaceted, knob-twirling career of seminal reggae producer Clement ("Sir Coxsone") Dodd. When we last left our hero, Heartbeat Records' two ...
Womack and Womack: Radio M.U.S.C. Man (Elektra)
Review by John Swenson, Spin, October 1985
THE WOMACK FAMILY is giving the Jacksons a run for their money. Radio M.U.S.C. Man is, in fact, the most impressive musical reunion since the ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Meaning Of Bruce
Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1985
Hey, it was the greatest show I’ve ever seen. It was like rock ‘n’ roll and a gospel meeting and a party and the World ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Freaky Styley (EMI America/Enigma)
Review by Richard Gehr, Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1985
WELCOME TO THE Day-Glo minstrel show, bro, brought to you by the baddest posse of white funk puppies west of the mighty Mississip. ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1985
How to act. How to watch Mr. Rogers. How to pick a road manager. How to live in the big city. And more solid information. ...
The Minutemen: Minute By Minutemen
Profile and Interview by Byron Coley, Spin, December 1985
The jazz-power-punk trio from San Pedro is trying its damnedest to sell out — sort of. ...
Stevie Wonder: In Square Circle (Motown)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, December 1985
THESE THINGS never do fall from the sky, like factor emissions and bird shirt. But if they did (If your mother had skates she'd be ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Spin, December 1985
THEY MIGHT be Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford 10 years after, rigged out respectively with pearl-inlaid accordion and Japanese Strat. ...
Blondie: Debbie's Back: Debbie Harry
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, January 1986
Debbie Harry and Chris Stein talk about Blondie, wrestling, disease, record rating, show biz, fear, and fantasy. ...
Kate Bush: Hounds of Love (EMI America)
Review by Steve Matteo, Spin, January 1986
IF KATE Bush had been a writer instead of a musician, she might have written something like Alice in Wonderland. She writes children's songs for ...
Teddy Pendergrass: Workin' It Back (Asylum)
Review by Randall Grass, Spin, January 1986
ONCE, IN church, the lady next to me, looking plain and 30 and man-less, felt the rapture so powerfully that she made Jesus her lover, ...
Cream, Ginger Baker: The Ginger Baker Challenge
Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1986
WHAT THE HELL is drummer dinger Baker doing in New York? Hanging out with the Celluloid Records central committee, of course, and laying down tracks for ...
The Residents: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy (Ralph)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1986
PART THREE of the Residents' Mole Trilogy doesn't exist, but we can't let that keep us from utter confusion. It all comes down to the ...
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, February 1986
THE Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedys are two of a handfulla bands surviving in name and form from the first three waves of California-style pre-hardcore ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, February 1986
ZZ Top doesn't care that it took people 15 years to discover their mega-greatness. They've known all along that if you feel sharp, you be ...
Big Audio Dynamite: He Who Laughs Last
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Spin, March 1986
Two years ago Mick Jones was dishonorably discharged from the Clash. Now that he's having a blast with Big Audio Dynamite, it doesn't seem to ...
John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Lydon vs McLaren: The End of the Affair
Report by Jon Savage, Spin, April 1986
EARLY IN 1976, the Sex Pistols were a good idea trying to get started, gate-crashing other people's concerts — with instruments allegedly stolen from rich ...
The Minutemen: 3-Way Tie (For Last) (SST)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1986
FATE SUCKS. And this this is not meant to be read in the Bob Christgau suck-is-good meaning of the word either. ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, April 1986
Take a good hard look at America's preeminent underground avant-pop ensemble – you might like what you see. ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Spin, May 1986
POP MUSIC'S intelligentsia claims Stan Ridgway as one of its own — seeing that no one else has really tried, maybe they have that right. ...
The Rolling Stones: Exiles on Mainstream
Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, May 1986
Being a Rolling Stone used to mean never having to pick up a Grammy. Until now. ...
Camper Van Beethoven: Astral Geeks
Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, June 1986
"WE TAKE way too many hallucinogens, we're totally paranoid, and we believe in giant conspiracies. If we get a flat tire, it's caused by the ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, June 1986
Erin Go Bragh-less: A liberated Irish punk band rediscovers its roots. ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, July 1986
DO YOU have any aliases? KIM WILSON (vocals, harmonica): I was Galita Slim once, as in Galita, California. And I was also Chesterfield King. ...
Interview by Randall Grass, Spin, July 1986
Nigerian authorities thought 18 months in jail might silence the rebel king of sex, hemp, and Afrobeat. They were wrong. ...
Hüsker Dü: Candy Apple Grey (Warner Bros.)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Spin, July 1986
DÜ BE DÜ BE DÜ, as new next-door label-mate Hoboken Frank likes to say. The Hüskers have joined forces with the true hard corp(oration), a ...
The Rolling Stones: Back To Zero
Report by Nick Kent, Spin, August 1986
The demise of the Rolling Stones may be attributable to one simple fact: the baddest, oldest rock 'n' roll band in the world has run ...
Ozzy Osbourne: I am Oz the Great and Terrible
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, September 1986
Everyone believes Ozzy Osbourne is the devil, the perfect scapegoat for hysteria and madness. "To be Ozzy Osbourne, you got to be special," he says. ...
Dead Kennedys: The Dead Kennedys: Goodnight, Democracy
Report by Chuck Eddy, Spin, September 1986
Sure, the Dead Kennedys are offensive, but obscene? It must be Jello, because jam don't shock like that. ...
Scratch Acid: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Spin, October 1986
Scratch Acid songs are about husbands setting wives on fire and rednecks exterminating longhairs and insects on tonight's fish dinner and humans being devoured. This ...
The Feelies: The Good Earth (Coyote)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, October 1986
THERE WERE these two guys who lived at a drug dealers' commune in western Idaho in the early '70s. One was named Ace, one was ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1986
Graceland is a pilgrimage. On the title track the singer heads for the Presley estate in Memphis, filled with faith, trailed by doubt, led by ...
Grace Jones: Inside Story (Manhattan Records)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, January 1987
PEOPLE THINK of Grace Jones as a disco queen. People think of her as Conan the Barbarian's sidekick. As just another James Bond villainess. As ...
Paul Simon: Still Mbaqanga After All These Years
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, January 1987
For 20 years, Paul Simon whined and kvetched about the same things. Then he went to Africa and finally had fun. But he broke the ...
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, January 1987
RECORDS BY the Swans have so little to do with pleasure, fun, and the, uh, joy of living that it's no off-a-log-fall explainin' why they ...
Kraftwerk: Electric Café (Warner Brothers)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1987
Platter du Jour ...
Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, April 1987
They came, they made videos, they conquered: Five nice guys from New Jersey find a place in the sun. Article by Glenn O'Brien. ...
Jimmy Swaggart: The Best of Jimmy Swaggart (Jim Records)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, April 1987
A LOT OF fundamentalists today preach against the evils of rock 'n' roll, but TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has gone and done something about the ...
Divine Horsemen: Devil's River/Mother's Worry (SST)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, June 1987
WHILE dim bulbs and babes still a-swaddling may not be familiar with the work of Chris D, it's a fairly safe bet that most practicing ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, June 1987
EVERYBODY ALWAYS SAYS Arizona's Meat Puppets sound like they're on drugs, but I wouldn't know about that kinda thing. To me, they just sound like ...
Interview by Colin Irwin, Spin, June 1987
With a platinum-bound LP and sell-out tour, U2 have finally conquered America. But first they had to conquer the problem of being a political band ...
Butthole Surfers: Locust Abortion Technician (Touch and Go)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, July 1987
THE ONLY WAY to analyze a Butthole Surfers record is to separate the good (hard, funny) bullshit from the bad (soft, tedious) bullshit, which ain't ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Spin, July 1987
Robert Smith grew up like any other alienated boy from the suburbs. Then he grew down and became one of pop music's great eccentrics. ...
Boogie Down Productions: Rap Attack
Report by Amy Linden, Spin, August 1987
ON RECORD, M.C. Shan is the mortal enemy of Boogie Down Productions' Scott LaRock and KRS One. They've been trading insults and waging a dis ...
Raging Slab Wants A Place In The Mall Of Fame
Profile and Interview by Howard Wuelfing, Spin, August 1987
RAGING SLAB is arguably the heppest metal-referent band in all of Manhattan, and among the reetest drinking buds you'll find anywhere in these United States. ...
GG Allin: Underground: GG Allin
Guide by Byron Coley, Spin, August 1987
FIRST things first. Just as 1986 was the Year of the 'Steen, 1987 is gonna be the Year of GG Allin. ...
We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It: Girls Just Wanna Have Fuzz
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, August 1987
Face it. If the four women in Fuzzbox had called their album We've Got a MIDI-compatible Digital Sampling Device and We're Gonna Use It, it ...
That Petrol Emotion: Emotional Rescue
Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, September 1987
That Petrol Emotion ignite post-punk rock with incendiary politics. And they're putting out the fire with gasoline. Article by Jon Savage ...
Einstürzende Neubauten: Fünf Auf Der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala (Some Bizzare/Relativity)
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Spin, November 1987
AT THE CORE of the Neubies' schtick is a knee-jerk rejection of every last element considered essential to rock music: guitars, drums, blues-based chord changes, ...
Swans: Children of God (Caroline)
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Spin, November 1987
CHILDREN OF God is a great Swans album and, possibly, an outstanding record by any standards. And it's the dreaded double set to boot! At times, ...
Profile and Interview by David Toop, Spin, December 1987
T-shirts may change, but Motörhead goes on. ...
Profile and Interview by David Toop, Spin, January 1988
M/A/R/R/S BEGAN AS A collaboration between Martyn and Steve Young of the 4AD band Colourbox and Alex and Rudi of A. R. Kane. ...
Tony Bennett: Rebirth of the Cool
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, February 1988
TONY BENNETT is cool. I have felt this way since the early '60s. Sinatra was hip, but Tony was cool. He was a swinger singer. ...
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1988
THE EURYTHMICS radiate a released sensibility. They break out of the groove bondage that has become endemic, out into wide open head spaces where anything ...
Megadeth: So Far, So Good...So What! (Capitol)
Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, March 1988
MATURITY IS not a concept commonly associated with heavy metal (unless you're using it as a euphemism for "old and decrepit" in which case it ...
Django Reinhardt: Djangologie/USA Vols. 1-7 (DRG/Swing Records)
Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, April 1988
GYPSY GUITARIST Django Reinhardt offers an early modern (read post-phonograph) example of how pop music travels from its native habitat, is heard through alienated ears, ...
Bill Frisell Quartet: Look Out For Hope (ECM)
Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, May 1988
BILL FRISELL IS the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he ...
Guns N' Roses: Days Of Guns N' Roses
Interview by Bill Holdship, Spin, May 1988
In which our reporter discovers that L.A.'s reputed bad boys are good-bad, but they're not evil. ...
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers: Any Other Way to Go?/Live at the Crystal Skate (Rhythm Attack)
Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, June 1988
LIKE ITS cousin hip hop, go go is a recent product of a tangled international genealogy. When U.S. R&B and soul music rode radiowaves to ...
Merle Haggard: Chill Factor (Epic)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, June 1988
NEW TRADITION, old tradition, any old way you choose it. Merle Haggard is a country music category unto himself. Any guy that lists his prison ...
Review and Interview by Len Brown, Spin, June 1988
Lyricist extraordinaire, celibate aesthete, charismatic bigmouth, the former Smiths frontman returns for tea & sympathy ...
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts: Up Your Alley (Blackheart/CBS)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, July 1988
HOW DO I love Joan Jett? Lemme count the ways, 1, 2, 3, 4! ...
Interview by Holly Gleason, Spin, August 1988
IT'S A SLOW night at the Redwood Room, a shot-and-beer North Hollywood hole in the wall where blue collar types, in heavy work boots and ...
Merle Haggard: Long Gone Train
Interview by Holly Gleason, Spin, September 1988
Merle Haggard's gone from hopping freights and serving time to being country music's strongest and truest voice. He's never looked back. But he's never forgotten ...
Fab 5 Freddy, Max Roach: Fab 5 Freddy & Max Roach: Hip Hop Bebop
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1988
Max Roach says the new Charlie Parkers are in hip hop. The inventor of modern jazz drumming celebrates the new generation with wild stylist Fab ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1988
WITH A defiant swagger, home-boy style '88 says, "Say it loud, I'm fake and I'm proud." Gucci may be good, but fake Gucci is what's ...
Sandy Bull: Jukebox School of Music (ROM Records)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, December 1988
IN THE decade and a half since his last release, the rumor circulated that Sandy Bull had died. After a string of generally brilliant albums ...
Report by Sean O'Hagan, Spin, January 1989
A heady mix of sex, drugs, and trance dance music, Acid House has swept England with a wave of hedonism and made going out fun ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, March 1989
"SAMANTHA;" according to Today's Best Baby Names, derives from Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) and means "the listener." But the listener here is me, and ...
John Cale, Lou Reed: Lou Reed and John Cale: Deja VU
Comment by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1989
POPULAR RUMOR has long held that Lou Reed and John Cale are mortal enemies. ...
Essay by Paul Mathur, Spin, April 1989
Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes ...
Mudhoney: Psycho Dirtbag Blowout
Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, April 1989
MARK ARM and Steve Turner are the Mutt and Jeff of distortion. He's Super Fuzz, I'm Big Muff, they'll say. Fuzz and Muff work for ...
Brian Eno: Man Out Of Time: Brian Eno
Interview by Don Watson, Spin, May 1989
"IS THIS 1962 OR 20 YEARS ON?" asked the sleeve notes of the first Roxy Music LP, the record that introduced Brian Eno to the ...
My Bloody Valentine: My Waking Dream
Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, May 1989
My Bloody Valentine are black sheep grazing the English countryside with the subconscious as their shepherd. ...
Cindy Lee Berryhill: Beat Poetry
Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Spin, June 1989
Cindy Lee Berryhill, a bowl of musical trailmix, left California for New York. But she brought a lot of folklore with her. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Goodness Gracious
Interview by Gavin Martin, Spin, June 1989
If Elvis was rock's first celebrity, Jerry Lee Lewis, born in hellfire, was its first S.O.B. On the eve of Great Balls of Fire, a ...
Ten City: Foundation (Atlantic)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, June 1989
I, A HONKY away-from-homeboy, first heard the deep house anthem 'Devotion' by Chicago's Ten City (here included along with their other two club hits, 'That's ...
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, June 1989
IN THE beginning there was the Jackson 5. They were cute, they were blessed with the best producers and material, they oozed personality. They were ...
Aretha Franklin: Through The Storm (Arista)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, August 1989
ARETHA'S THE Queen of Soul; you know it, I know it, it's so obvious that it should be a Jeopardy question. Hell, even she knows ...
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, August 1989
BACK IN THE late 70s, Detroit DJ the Electrifyin' Mojo would climax his nightly progressive funk'n'rock show with an on-air ceremony he called "Landing the ...
Interview by Paul Mathur, Spin, August 1989
Seventeen years ago Labi Siffre was a British R&B star who sang nothing but love songs. Today he's once again a star, singing about struggle ...
Band of Susans: Love Agenda (Blast First/Restless)
Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, September 1989
BAND OF Susans, a co-ed New York City quintet, have put more electric guitar on one record than any other band I've ever heard. Pop ...
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
New Jersey has become a hothouse of hot house music. Adeva takes you there. ...
Chaka Khan: Life Is A Dance: The Remix Project (Warner Bros.)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
LIKE A DRUG, dance music needs harder and harder hits to sustain the same level of pleasure. What would have been a seismic drum track ...
Chuckii Booker: Chuckii (Atlantic)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, October 1989
I DON'T KNOW what "new jack" is, or what the latest polyrhythm is, but I do know that when someone like Chuckii Booker comes along ...
Jefferson Airplane: Back to the Future
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Spin, October 1989
It was over 20 years ago today that the Jefferson Airplane first flew out of San Francisco. Refueled and reunited, the band is back on ...
King's X: Gretchen Goes To Nebraska (Megaforce)
Review by Deborah Frost, Spin, October 1989
VERNON REID loves them. Billy Sheehan loves them. The British heavy metal bible Kerrang! voted their debut "Best Album of 1988." But if King's X's ...
The Stone Roses: Stone Roses: Would You Like Some Candy?
Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, October 1989
Manchester's Stone Roses sing about hate, death, violence and idealism while running a guitar-driven machine. Their single 'Elephant Stone' was produced by New Order bassist ...
The Beastie Boys: Paid In Full
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
The Beastie Boys say their old record company is withholding millions of their dollars. Def Jam's Russell Simmons says he taught the Beastie Boys how to walk and talk. A ...
Big Daddy Kane: It's a Big Daddy Thing (Cold Chillin'/Reprise)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
LIKE HIS ground-breaking debut album, Long Live the Kane, It's a Big Daddy Thing finds Kane in the forefront of the most important new direction ...
Digital Underground: Rock The Art House
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
Digital Underground are the hip hop band of the future. Freaky, funky, mechanically minded and experimental. ...
Black Box, De La Soul, Stetsasonic: Sampling: Bite This
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
When De La Soul sampled a Turtles oldie, the Turtles weren't flattered. So they sued. Does their legal action threaten the existence of hip hop? Is ...
Galaxie 500: Satellite of Love
Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, December 1989
Based in collegiate Boston, Galaxie 500 favor New York because it's the town the Velvet Underground left cold and lonely. Haphazardly purposeful and accidentally poetic, ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, December 1989
Once divided by a well-guarded aesthetic border, the hip hop and house scenes are now mixing. And hip house is the new style. ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1990
In the U.K., the last few years have seen the original sequence of '60s rock replayed – in reverse. Nineteen eighty-eight was the year of ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1990
Ecology is the greatest thing on a lot of rock stars' minds these days. But what about all the plastic wrap on their albums? ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, February 1990
Rapping about bass and booty, Miami rap is party music with a foul mouth. And 2 Live Crew are the nasty rulers of the Miami ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, February 1990
On the dance floors and radio stations of New York City, reggae is stronger than ever. ...
Patti LaBelle, Regina Belle: Regina Belle: Stay With Me (Columbia)/Patti LaBelle: Be Yourself (MCA)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, February 1990
THE DIVA is that most special of musical creations; her care and feeding are extremely important. ...
Whitesnake: Slip of the Tongue (Geffen)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Spin, February 1990
A VENERABLE Brit rock band whose only constant was crusty-throated journeyman David Coverdale (his main claim to fame being a 1973-1976 stint as Deep Purple's ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer: The Mercury Years
Review by Nick Tosches, Spin, March 1990
I'M SITTING there in Dennis Quaid's house, this white thing on La Sombra, last spring, a few months before that stiff Great Balls of Fire ...
Public Enemy: Public Service: Public Enemy
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, March 1990
With their third album, Fear of a Black Planet, about to be released, Public Enemy proclaims the death of European predominance. Pop goes Afrocentric for ...
Ice Cube, N.W.A: NWA: Hanging Tough
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, April 1990
Hounded by the FBI and acclaimed as the new, new Sex Pistols, NWA's rise has been rapid and sensational. But now that chief spokesman and ...
Column by Danny Fields, Spin, April 1990
The Dish, The Dirt, The Inside Dope Sussed by DANNY FIELDS ...
The Chills: Submarine Bells (Slash/Warner Bros.)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, April 1990
MARTIN PHILLIPPS has a way with words. During his 10 years as singer/songwriter/guitarist for the Chills, New Zealand's leading folk-punk band, Phillipps has written more ...
The Cramps: Stay Sick! (Enigma)
Review by Bill Holdship, Spin, April 1990
THE CRAMPS have always understood those fundamental building blocks that made early rock'n'roll what it was — scary, lustful, exciting and, above all, funny. ...
Cecil Taylor: Blue Light Special
Profile by Gene Santoro, Spin, May 1990
FOR THE uninitiated, a Cecil Taylor performance can be like sitting in the middle of a breaking tidal wave on a leaky rubber raft. He ...
Sun City Girls: Torch of the Mystics
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, May 1990
JUST OUT OF the box, and so majestic that it makes my brain do out-skull jigs across my sizzling, glass-strewn floor, is the Sun City ...
Interview by James Brown, Spin, May 1990
The Stone Roses have taken Britain's pop world by storm, but they've done it on their own terms. ...
Deee-Lite: Multi Cultural Delight
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, June 1990
What will happen to dance music in a decade slated to make the '60s look like the '70s? Deee-Lite is what will happen. ...
Lee Atwater: Chairman of the Blues
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, June 1990
Twenty years ago, a young down-home Southern white boy fell in love with black music and became a hot R&B guitarist, backing the likes of ...
New Kids On The Block: Fandemonium
Report and Interview by Tony Fletcher, Spin, June 1990
Riding a wave of fan hysteria and saturation marketing, the New Kids On The Block are teen girl America's favorite group. ...
Review by Pat Blashill, Spin, June 1990
ENGLAND BREEDS pop sensations almost as efficiently as the American suburbs birth thrash metal bands. And there's a time delay: American cultural ambassadors like Anthrax ...
Bongwater: Too Much Sleep (Shimmy-Disc)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, July 1990
KRAMER AND ANN MAGNUSON of Bongwater — the Shimmy-Disc shaman and the unlikely TV star; the Carlos and Carla Castaneda of the bi-coastal blunderground — ...
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Private Waters in the Great Divide (Columbia)
Review by Hank Bordowitz, Spin, July 1990
EVEN WHEN August (Kid Creole) Darnell is writing for records, he's writing soundtracks. Historically, Kid Creole and the Coconuts' tunes worked well in concert, but ...
Robert Plant: Manic Nirvana (Es Paranza)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, July 1990
LIKE SO MANY of his fellow '70s prog-rockers (Yes, Rush, Peter Gabriel, Queen, Jethro Tull, King Crimson), Robert Plant spent the '80s trying hard to ...
Report by Tony Fletcher, Spin, July 1990
The man selling the prerecorded tapes on the street will tell you they come straight from the factory, and the reason for the low price ...
DMX: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (Def Jam)
Review by Michael A. Gonzales, Spin, August 1990
FROM THE jailhouse strut perfected by mush-mouthed Edward G. Robinson in the noir classic Little Caesar to the outlaw personae cultivated by dead hiphop heroes, ...
Esquerita: The First Wild Man of Rock'n'roll
Retrospective by Miriam Linna, Spin, August 1990
ONE OF THE truly enigmatic characters in rock'n'roll history, Eskew Reeder (AKA Esquerita) falls somewhere between the Phantom and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, although he could ...
Essay by Nick Tosches, Spin, August 1990
NOW THAT the 1980s, whatever the fuck they were, are, like the great Liberace himself, dead and gone, can't we get this whole dumb business ...
2 Live Crew: Fear Of A Black Penis
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, September 1990
A media moral panic about their alleged obscenity has catapulted Miami rappers 2 Live Crew to national notoriety. FRANK OWEN reports from Florida. ...
Andrew Ridgeley: Son of Albert (Columbia)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, September 1990
IN WHAM!, Andrew Ridgeley did whatever it is Chris Lowe does in the Pet Shop Boys. You can't call it "looking pretty for group pictures," ...
Bernard Herrmann: Blue Light Special: Bernard Herrmann
Retrospective by Richard C. Walls, Spin, September 1990
YOU MAY not know the name but you know Bernard Herrmann's work, or at least some of it. Everybody knows some of it. What most ...
Interview by Amy Linden, Spin, September 1990
Concrete Blonde leave a little blood on the tracks, says AMY LINDEN. ...
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, September 1990
Monie Love arrives in this country with a rep as the only British rapper who matters. ...
Frankie Crocker: Radio Renaissance
Interview by Carol Cooper, Spin, October 1990
A maverick talent in a sea of mediocrity, radio renegade Frankie Crocker has made New York's airwaves listenable again. ...
Geto Boys: Censorship Isn't Def American
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1990
Sexually explicit and graphically violent, the Geto Boys are Rick Rubin's latest rap signing. Now Geffen won't release their album. FRANK OWEN reports. ...
The Pixies: Bossanova (Elektra)
Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, November 1990
POP AND NOISE no longer collide for the Pixies; on the new album, Bossanova, they mutate into new beasts. The feedback and vocal frenzy of ...
Was (Not Was): Are You Okay? (Chrysalis)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, November 1990
WHILE THE last Was LP was a tribute, if you will, to '70s soul, this time the beats are more current. Purists will cry sellout, ...
Celebrity Skin: Rock 'n' Roll Disgrace
Profile and Interview by Bill Holdship, Spin, December 1990
ONLY LOS Angeles could produce a band like Celebrity Skin. In a city where celebrity is both religion and life-style, this group is a decadent ...
Faith No More: Artists Of The Year
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, December 1990
WHETHER HE'S advising Sassy readers to take drugs, kill babies, and steal everything, or wearing a shirt with multiple images of Jesus Christ jacking off ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, December 1990
After a three-year recording hiatus, INXS are back with X. STEVEN DALY corners the Australian band in a London hotel. ...
The Replacements: Replacements R.I.P.
Interview by Amy Linden, Spin, December 1990
IS IT THE END OF THE ROAD FOR AMERICA'S UNSUNG ROCK HEROES? AMY LINDEN TALKS TO THE BAND IN MINNEAPOLIS DURING A WALKING TOUR OF ...
Beats International, The Beloved, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, The Shamen: U.K. Indie Dance
Report and Interview by Tony Fletcher, Spin, December 1990
THE YEAR 1990 has been one of re-evaluation and subsequent rejuvenation for bands in Britain. Spurred on by the excitement of 1988's acid-house scene and ...
3 Mustaphas 3: Soup of the Century (Rykodisc)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1991
THE 3 MUSTAPHAS 3 are the Residents of non-Western popular music, right? After all, both groups (1) hide behind costumes, (2) make musical hash of ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1991
...is on the psychedelic tip, on the one-world tip, and on the conscious tip. But most of all, the group's on the making-house-music-intelligible-to-the-masses tip. ...
LL Cool J: Mike Tyson vs. LL Cool J
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1991
BOTH WEAR the mask of the invulnerable ultra-man. Both are naked aggressive — one physical, one metaphorical. Both are in a business where the competition ...
Monie Love turns a phrase and catches a beat
Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, January 1991
SCHOOL'S IN. Listen up as Monie Love explains what it takes to be a good rapper: "You need a good perception of the English language, ...
Monie Love: Down to Earth (Warner Bros.)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, January 1991
LET'S JUST cut to the chase on this one: Down to Earth is okay. Not great, not bad — just a firm okay. With all ...
Rosanne Cash: Interiors (Columbia)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, January 1991
ROSANNE CASH wasn't kidding when she called this one Interiors. With the exception of 'This World' (which is about child abuse, among other things, and ...
De La Soul: Cool Hip Hop: De La Soul De-flowered
Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, May 1991
Declaring that De La Soul Is Dead, the beat-box beatniks turn ornery. Have they lost the plot? Or are they writing it? STEVEN DALY explains. ...
Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1991
FOR SOME OF US, the Throwing Muses' 1986 debut was one of those records, the kind that leaves you feeling your life has been changed ...
Shonen Knife: Pretty Little Baka Guy & Live in Japan (Rockville)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, June 1991
WHAT REALLY puts the pop-rockettes in Japan's legendary Shonen Knife light-years ahead of such inconsequential Western frauds as "Lush" (how Shonen Knife would pronounce Rush) ...
Electronic: Getting Away With It
Interview by John McCready, Spin, July 1991
John McCready probes the northern soul of Electronic, the first English supergroup of the '90s ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Spin, July 1991
Fishbone is rocking the house as hard as it always has, and the rest of the world is finally listening — between stage dives that ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, July 1991
Pere Ubu remains one of the most influential, innovative groups to emerge from the mid-'70s American punk-new wave movement. JON SAVAGE listens to some pearls ...
Violent Femmes: Why Do Birds Sing? (Slash/Reprise)
Review by Jon Young, Spin, July 1991
VIOLENT FEMMES have long carried on the proud tradition of rockin' cool jerks without inspiring the respect accorded fellow geeks David Byrne and Jonathan Richman. ...
Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages (Axiom/Island)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, September 1991
GUITARIST SONNY Sharrock is best known (or at least most revered) for his work's skronk-fusionist qualities. His massively searing string-attack has been legendary in noise-fan ...
Hole: Pretty on the Inside (Caroline)
Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, October 1991
THE WEATHERVANE continues turning, from R.E.M. to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now, perhaps, to Sonic Youth. Coproduced by SY's Kim Gordon and Don ...
Primal Scream: Screamadelica (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, November 1991
WHAT A LONG strange trip it's been for Primal Scream. When the Primals emerged in 1984, their pallid psychopop was draped in the unworldly innocence ...
Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos: Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988 (Virgin)
Review by Jon Young, Spin, January 1992
HE SINGS like a dying dolphin and hasn't played a new lick in 20 years, but you'd be a fool not to love Keith Richards. ...
Tone Loc: Cool Hand Loc (Delicious Vinyl)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, January 1992
TONE LOC could well be the guy that repossesses Melle Mel's car in 'The Message' (it really was his job once), and in a sense, ...
The Electric Eels: Electric Eels: God Says Fuck You (Homestead)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, April 1992
THE ELECTRIC Eels inhabited the same '70s Ohio milieu as Pere Ubu, the Pagans, X-X, the Styrenes (whose new It's Artastic: Cleveland 1975-79 is prog ...
Peter Case: Six-Pack of Love (Geffen)
Review by Jon Young, Spin, April 1992
NOW THIS is more like it. After the wan folk stylings of The Man With the Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar, Peter Case has wisely ...
Review by Jon Young, Spin, May 1992
SOB, SOB. Whimper, sniff. Sorry. I was just savoring the new Cure disc, which means taking a headlong plunge into a deep, dark pit of ...
The Cure: Spectrum Philadelphia, PA
Live Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, August 1992
SO WHO'S cooler: Robert Smith or his fans? Well, it depends. From what I saw, none of his devout cultists (at least male ones) have ...
PJ Harvey: Kicking Against The Pricks
Interview by Martin Aston, Spin, November 1992
Twenty-two-year-old Polly Harvey fronts this year's most raved-over new group, PJ Harvey. Martin Aston gets bewitched and bewildered. ...
Tom Waits: Bone Machine (Island/PLG)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, November 1992
ON THE five years following his last studio album, Tom Waits moved to the country and became a family man. The influences of wife, children, ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, December 1992
AC/DC's ROLE as rap-music progenitor cannot be overlooked. ...
Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1993
MATT GROENING has breathed new life into prime-time animation and inspired a merchandising empire to boot. Richard Gehr talks to the show-biz guerrilla. ...
Seven Year Bitch, Tribe 8: Seven Year Bitch: Sick 'Em (C/Z); Tribe 8: Pig Bitch (EP Harp)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 1993
THANKS TO the Riot Grrrl revolution, perhaps, or just maybe the fact that indie labels have been sprouting up quicker than McDonald's franchises, women rockers ...
Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Harmonic Divergent Jazz Arkestra: S.O.B.'s, New York
Live Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1993
WHEN SUN RA opened for Sonic Youth in Central Park last summer, the bill confirmed at least one unavoidable equation: No Sun Ra equals no ...
Madder Rose: Bring It Down (Seed)
Review by Rachel Felder, Spin, February 1993
It's such an enticing equation that you wonder why no one else is putting it together in exactly these proportions: Mix equal parts revved-up Dinosaur ...
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, March 1993
Former Throwing Muse Tanya Donelly is up her Belly with highly imaginary tales of a very real world. ...
Shonen Knife: Let's Knife (Virgin)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1993
ALMOST TEN YEARS since its recordings first invaded the U.S. as a Japanese import in late 1983, Osaka, Japan's punkiest Barbie doll fans are finally ...
Basehead: Not in Kansas Anymore (Imago)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, April 1993
THERE'S A nice irony in the fact that, give or take a vowel or two, Basehead is almost an anagram for Sebadoh. Like its 'zine-damaged ...
Jellyfish, Lenny Kravitz: Jellyfish: Spilt Milk/Lenny Kravitz: Are You Gonna Go My Way (Virgin)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, April 1993
"DO YOU like Queen?" asks my editor. "I hope not." ...
Soul Asylum: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA
Live Review by Bill Holdship, Spin, April 1993
"WE'RE THE opening band," mumbled Dave Pirner, as Soul Asylum burst into 'Veil of Tears', kicking off the final set of what was a pretty ...
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, May 1993
KING MISSILE'S John S. Hall is eating pierogis at New York's Kiev Restaurant, the 24-hour Ukrainian coffee shop outside of which the singer finds his ...
PJ Harvey: Platter du Jour — PJ Harvey: Rid of Me (Island/PLG)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, May 1993
POLLY JEAN Harvey knows that women in positions of power or prestige quickly get demonized. So on Rid of Me, the second album by her ...
American Music Club: Lonely Hearts Club Band
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, June 1993
Evelyn McDonnell walks and talks the streets of San Francisco with Mark Eitzel and American Music Club ...
Prince and The New Power Generation: The Sunrise Musical Theatre, Florida
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, June 1993
"Y'ALL MAKE ME SORRY I stayed away so long," Prince declared, as the opening night of his first American tour in five years reached a ...
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1993
Britain’s new white-hot hope brings its liberated sexual stance to the States. Are you ready to get Suede? ...
Robert Plant: Last of the Red-Hot Rock Stars
Report and Interview by Deborah Frost, Spin, September 1993
"CAMION! CAMION!" comes the cry from the front seat of the rented Mercedes wagon. "I don't have time to die!" ...
Los Lobos: Just Another Band From East L.A. — A Collection
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 1993
BOX SETS generally exhaust you with their completeness; greatest-hits albums worship a few select songs. ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 1993
A LITTLE MORE than 30 minutes after it begins, Moby's new EP, his major-label debut, turns over in my tape deck. Gone is the last ...
Interview by Susan Compo, Spin, November 1993
After nearly 15 years as the pope of mope, the Cure's Robert Smith longs to let his hair down, watch some soccer, and read a ...
Frank Sinatra/Don Rickles: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
Live Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1994
"HE TOUCHES his dick more than Robin Williams does," mocked my wife as a tuxedoed Don Rickles lumbered around the square, center-court stage like a ...
Guns N' Roses: The Spaghetti Incident? Geffen
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1994
LISTENING TO The Spaghetti Incident? is like hearing Use Your Illusion I and II refracted through cover versions. The first song, Axl Rose's pipe-bending 'Since ...
Kristin Hersh: Hips and Makers
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 1994
THROWING MUSES' last album, Red Heaven, was a murky, tired- sounding affair, and it bombed. For her first solo record. Kristin Hersh sheds the rockist ...
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Part II (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, March 1994
BY NOW YOU may have heard of Richard James, the British techno whiz-kid who sleeps two hours a night and who is so prolific he ...
Material: Hallucination Engine (Axiom/Island)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1994
BE READY to take a passive role listening to this album, unless you're good enough to recognize Vikku Vinayakram playing the ghatam when you hear ...
Afghan Whigs: The Afghan Whigs: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1994
I ARRIVED full of doubts, prompted by the Afghan Whigs' major-label debut, one of those song-cycle LPs. The story of a man and woman trapped ...
Frank Zappa: Viva Zappa! 1940-1993
Obituary by Richard Gehr, Spin, March 1994
THE SUMMER between eighth and ninth grades — the same mystical season I smoked pot, read V, and almost had sex with someone else for ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: Revolutionary Debris
Comment by Eric Weisbard, Spin, April 1994
I STILL prefer to believe that Kurt Cobain's life was saved by rock'n'roll. ...
Ry Cooder, Ali Farka Toure: Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder: Talking Timbuktu (Hannibal)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, May 1994
DE BLUES is a harsh mistress. So what a pleasure when someone like Mali guitar giant Ali Farka Touré comes along to let us off ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, May 1994
Broadcast cowboy, spends his Sunday nights hidden in the dark hills of Berkeley, California, illegally transmitting his version of alternative radio. Is he a transistor ...
Primal Scream: Give Out But Don't Give Up
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, May 1994
YOU DON'T necessarily need the flash and appeal of the New York Dolls or Aerosmith in order to try to be the Rolling Stones and ...
Nirvana: Revolutionary Debris: Kurt Cobain
Comment by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1994
I STILL PREFER to believe that Kurt Cobain's life was saved by rock'n'roll. I picture him wearing his favorite T-shirt, the one with the image ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1994
WHATEVER happened to "dream pop"? Well, the smartest of those bands have turned on to techno, and are mixing their lustrous guitar stuff with sampled ...
Travis Tritt: Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof (Warner Bros. Nashville)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1994
WE COULD try and get worked up about Travis Tritt the woman-baiter, who made it huge with 'Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)', sang ...
Arrested Development: Bimbo's, San Francisco
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1994
AT ARRESTED Development concerts, its not enough to wave your hands around; "put your souls up" is the cry. Three songs in, Speech stopped everything ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1994
AFTER LISTENING TO Hungry for Stink long enough to decide I like it, I put on Bricks Are Heavy, which included 'Pretend We're Dead' and ...
Sir Mix-A-Lot: Chief Boot Knocka (American)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, August 1994
SIR MIX-A-LOT blew it! On his new album, he says he's trying to make Tipper Gore and Rush Limbaugh restless, but he leaves out Reverend ...
Green Day: Young, Loud, and Snotty
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1994
GREEN DAY's unexpected rise from Gilman Street punk urchins to MTV poster children has not come without a price. Eric Weisbard wonders if they can ...
House of Pain: Same As It Ever Was (Tommy Boy)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, September 1994
IF I WERE in high school now, I'd feel threatened by House of Pain — they remind me of the burr-headed white gutterboys who congregate ...
Jack Logan: Bulk (Medium Cool/Twin/Tone Records)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, September 1994
EVER SINCE Daniel Johnston's pained urks began to be appreciated by hep collegiate voyeurs, the cassette revolution has taken a turn for the worse. Dork ...
Future Sound of London: The Future Sound of London: Lifeforms (Astralwerks/Caroline)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, September 1994
GOD BLESS the Future Sound of London — Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans — for striving to infuse personality and humanity into the chip-driven technoscape. ...
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1994
THE DIFFERENCE between Lollapalooza 1994 and Lollapolooza Past is that this year Perry Farrell and colleagues decided the music being offered couldn't just be loud, ...
Warren G: Regulate… G Funk Era (Violator/RAL)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1994
THE THING that gets me about Nate Dogg and Warren G.'s 'Regulate' is how, when MTV airs the video, you hear Nate Dogg sing the ...
Jeff Buckley: Grace (Columbia)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, October 1994
ONE OF MY favourite sorts of music has no real generic handle by which it can be carried into the marketplace. Informed by jazz, rock, ...
John Fahey: The Persecutions And Resurrections Of Blind Joe Death
Profile and Interview by Byron Coley, Spin, November 1994
More than 30 years of mind-blowing guitar playing and composing have earned John Fahey a hip handful of devoted fans and a squalid room in ...
Veruca Salt: American Thighs (Minty Fresh)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 1994
THE FACT THAT Veruca Salt sounds as if it was designed in Chicago by a marketing focus group doesn't eradicate its virtues. ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Artist of the Year: Smashing Pumpkins
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, December 1994
Far Billy Corgan and his band, 1994 was both flush with success and filled, as Michael Azerrad learns, with fear and loathing ...
Mary Chapin Carpenter: Stones in the Road (Columbia)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 1994
MARY CHAPIN Carpenter is pure country. I'm talking about the format, of course — Carpenter hasn't an ounce of George Jones in her. But where ...
Joe Meek: Various Artists: It's Hard to Believe It - the Amazing World of Joe Meek (Razor & Tie)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1995
WHO WAS Joe Meek? A cut-price Spector crafting pocket symphonies in his North London studio for a stable of dodgy pre-Beatles combos? Yes, but the ...
Jimmy Page/Robert Plant: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant: Been A Long Time
Interview by Deborah Frost, Spin, January 1995
Led Zeppelin's chapter in the history of rock'n'roll has long been secure. So why have Robert Plant and Jimmy Page decided to rewrite the ending? ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain, Mazzy Star: The Jesus & Mary Chain/Mazzy Star: The Academy, New York City
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 1995
TWO BANDS, and for the whole evening not one word was exchanged between performers and audience; the spotlight never shined in the musicians' eyes. Wouldn't ...
Bettie Serveert: Lamprey (Matador/Atlantic)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1995
A CERTAIN ubiquitous film director has commented that surf music isn't about surfing, it's just spaghetti western soundtracks sped up. Nice one, Quentin, but why ...
Green Day: Nassau Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Spin, March 1995
GREEN DAY at Nassau? The band that had been playing graffiti-riddled ratholes for gas money only months before took six minutes to sell all 14,895 ...
Nine Inch Nails: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, March 1995
FOR A LONG TIME NOW, there's been but one thing missing from Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails: Crackerjacks! ...
Offspring: Revenge Of The Nerds
Interview by Chuck Eddy, Spin, March 1995
The Offspring put the pop back in punk and fashioned the indie success story of the decade. Chuck Eddy testifies. ...
Guns N' Roses: The Ten That Matter Most '85-'95: Guns N' Roses
Retrospective by Chuck Eddy, Spin, April 1995
GUNS N' ROSES surprised me in 1987 simply by being search-and-destroy young punks who weren't afraid to sing and dance. ...
Nirvana: The Ten That Matter Most '85-'95: Nirvana
Retrospective by Eric Weisbard, Spin, April 1995
What does it take to be named one of the top ten artists of the decade? Innovation, influence, imagination, integrity. It all adds up to ...
Pavement: Wowee Zowee (Matador)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, May 1995
THINK ABOUT IT. A band works years to learn its instruments, play out, record, suffer the blows of fortune, regroup, play better than ever — ...
Radiohead: The Bends (Capitol)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, May 1995
THIS IS one of those follow-up albums (like the last Spin Doctors one and, I fear, the next Counting Crows, the Offspring, and Blur records) ...
The Stone Roses: The Morning After
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1995
"I guess you had to be there – probably Manchester, definitely England – to understand how the Stone Roses came to matter so much in ...
Throwing Muses: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1995
WHEN KRISTIN HERSH leads Throwing Muses, it's what she doesn't do that scares you. Drummer David Narcizo wastes himself rolling his wrists far past any ...
The Auteurs, µ-ziq: μ-Ziq: μ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs (AstralWerks/Caroline)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1995
WITH ITS jungle rhythms and uncouth passion, rock'n'roll used to be the enemy of civilization and refinement. So I'm amused that it is rock fans ...
Aphex Twin: I Care Because You Do (Sire/Elektra)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 1995
NO, MR TWAIN, I care because you do. I wasn't sure I did, for a minute — the largely drumless synth moans of 1994's oddly ...
R.E.M.: Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1995
"I DON'T FIND R.E.M. transcendent." complained a friend who had just witnessed one of the band's first U.S. performances in five years. Well, fair enough, ...
Stone Temple Pilots: Peace, Love and Understanding
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, August 1995
AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR ON THE CHARTS WITH THE TRIPLE-PLATINUM ALBUM PURPLE, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' SCOTT WEILAND LEARNS TO LIVE WITH HIS MONSTROUS SUCCESS ...
Everclear: In The 'Clear': Everclear
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, September 1995
ART ALEXAKIS SAYS says all the right things. In a cushy, white conference room in Capitol Records' midtown Manhattan offices, Everclear's frontman utters such statements ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, October 1995
'NO RAIN' by Blind Melon was a very popular song around my house two summers ago — all I can say is our life was ...
Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia: The Fat Man Sings
Obituary by Richard Gehr, Spin, October 1995
Richard Gehr pays tribute to the mind-bending music and halcyon spirit of the late Jerry Garcia. ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1995
SAMPLER-WIELDING CYBER-STOOGES, The Young Gods have been the world's first 21st Century rock band for nearly a decade now. But being ahead of your time ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, November 1995
THE MORE Blur and Oasis act British by pretending to be funny without punch lines on their long-awaited new albums (long-awaited in England, anyway, where ...
Robert Earl Keen: Gringo Honeymoon (Sugar Hill)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, November 1995
ADD COUNTRY singer Robert Earl Keen to the expanding pantheon of Texas songwriting gurus. On his fifth album, Keen excels at crisp and witty first-person ...
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 1995
THE MOMENT to remember was the two headliners playing together, the end of the Nine Inch Nails set fusing without pause into the beginning of ...
Green Day: Insomniac (Reprise)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 1995
GREEN DAY'S success has returned to vogue one of rock's simplest and most crucial sounds, the uptempo party bash that dates to all those garage ...
The Grifters, Pavement, Sonic Youth: Memphis Sound Machine: Easley Recording
Interview by Robert Gordon, Spin, December 1995
Bands from Sonic Youth to Pavement have turned Easley Recording into the new lo-fi capital. ...
Cypress Hill: III (Temples of Boom) (Ruff House/Columbia)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, January 1996
CYPRESS HILL'S stoned slowness on Temple of Boom is definite proof that hemp demolishes brain cells. Middle-of-the-road and lame-in-the-membrane is how Temples hits me. Only ...
Garth Brooks: Fresh Horses (Capitol)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1996
LISTENING TO Walk a Mile in My Shoes, RCA's recent boxed set of 70s-era Elvis Presley, I caught an echo of Garth Brooks. For years ...
Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor: Trent Reznor: Sympathy for the Devil
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1996
POLITICAL OPPORTUNISTS MAY HAVE BRANDED TRENT REZNOR MORALLY REPUGNANT, BUT YOU BRANDED HIM SPIN'S ARTIST OF THE YEAR. SENIOR EDITOR ERIC WEISBARD JOURNEYS TO REZNOR'S ADOPTED ...
Lou Reed: Set The Twilight Reeling (Warner Bros.)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1996
LOU REED is old-school about albums; he looked the word up in a dictionary, found it meant a binder of blank of pages used for ...
Girls Against Boys: House of GVSB (Touch and Go)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, April 1996
I WISH THIS review was on a CD-ROM, so you could click and hear 'Super-Fire' open the festivities here for 40-or-so seconds. A fast metal-chime ...
Pavement: Liberty Lunch, Austin, Texas
Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, May 1996
THERE AREN'T many Australian tours with Texas on the itinerary, but leave it to Pavement's Stephen Malkmus to figure that America's Western states are, like, ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Spin, May 1996
Radiohead's The Bends reveals a band whose musical flights go far beyond 'Creep' — and, as J.D. Considine discovers, rely on none of the ususal ...
Hampton Grease Band: Music To Eat
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, June 1996
THE HAMPTON GREASE BAND were an Atlanta-based combo unlike any other. A genuinely strange and Southern-fried cross between the early Mothers of Invention, the Grateful ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, June 1996
Years down the road, Los Lobos defy all odds, making the most radically experimental music of their career. Richard Gehr hones in on their secret ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 1996
Eric Weisbard finds a knotty center inside Imperial Teen's yummy pop. ...
The Sex Pistols: A Seance in Finsbury Park: The Sex Pistols Reunite
Live Review by Jon Savage, Spin, August 1996
JUST BEFORE the Sex Pistols take the stage in the waning light, a curious hush falls on the boisterous punk crowd. A myth is to ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1996
Is there life after 'Loser'? Eric Weisbard explores the artistic ups and commercial downs of the boy wonder known as Beck. ...
A Tribe Called Quest: Beats, Rhymes and Life (Jive)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 1996
LESS INTROVERTED THAN De La Soul and less weird than the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest were always the populists of the Native Tongues ...
Rage Against the Machine: Red, Hot and Bothered
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1996
Rage Against the Machine have scorched America with their Molotov cocktail or hip-hop, hardcore, and extreme politics. But are they too rad for Russia? RJ Smith ...
Butthole Surfers: Feeding the Fish: An Oral History of the Butthole Surfers
Retrospective and Interview by John Morthland, Joe Nick Patoski, Spin, November 1996
CAST OF CHARACTERS Jim Berry Road sound engineer for the Butthole Surfers, 1985-92. Jello Biafra Lead singer of the Dead Kennedys and self-described "absentee thoughtlord" of Alternative Tentacles, ...
Sheryl Crow: Sheryl Crow (A&M)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 1996
ALMOST ANY song here would sound just fine played next to Beck on the radio. Both artists are rejuvenating the LA singer/songwriter for a digital ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, December 1996
TOOL'S GENRE is yawning-chasm metal — instead of concrete songs beginning and ending, volume knobs simply open and close, engulfing you like a sperm whale's ...
Obituary by RJ Smith, Spin, December 1996
Tupac Shakur was more then just another million-selling gangsta rapper. He polarized the races like few pop stars, in death as in life. ...
PJ Harvey, John Parish: John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey: The Fleece & Firkin, Bristol
Live Review by Ben Thompson, Spin, January 1997
POLLY JEAN Harvey first met John Parish ten years ago, when he was the neighborhood performance-art lecturer in her hometown of Yeovil. She went on ...
Aphex Twin: Richard D. James (Sire/Elektra)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 1997
IF EVERY DJ IS essentially a critic, as Robert Christgau once noted, then Aphex Twin Richard James is a critic's critic, using rave music signifiers ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, February 1997
DOWN UNDER beach-teen trio Silverchair displayed billabongloads of angst on their 1995 debut Frogstomp, but except for the song where they threatened to commit suicide ...
Offspring: The Offspring: Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, February 1997
OF COURSE The Offspring hail from Orange County. They have to be from Orange County. Frontman Dexter Holland was a high school punk rocker who ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1997
One-time electronic-music evangelist Moby has converted to alternative rock. Talk about bad timing. ...
Serge Gainsbourg: To Serge With Love
Retrospective by RJ Smith, Spin, March 1997
SERGE GAINSBOURG was an unrepentant slave to lust and liquor. He recorded 'Lemon Incest' with his then 13-year-old daughter — in the video, they sang ...
Review by James Hunter, Spin, April 1997
WITH BRITISH soul sage Howie B. dispensing '90s groove advice and a thousand rhythm tracks bulldogging throughout this exhilaratingly complex album, Pop could get slotted as U2's ...
Live: Tower Theater, Philadelphia PA
Live Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, May 1997
ALL THE MOST-embarrassing-to-watch dancers in the '90s are bald: Sinead O'Connor, Michael Stipe, Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, and now Live's Ed Kowalczyk. ...
The Chemical Brothers: Who, Us?
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1997
The world wonders: Can a shlumpy pair of English breakbeat obsessives rescue rock music from its current doldrums? Ugh, groan the Chemical Brothers. Ugh, seconds ...
Wu-Tang Clan: Phantoms of the Hip-hopera
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, July 1997
After four years of frenzied solo excursions, the members of Wu-Tang Clan reconvene as a group amid the usual circumstances — mystery, panic, tragedy — ...
Michael Jackson: Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (Epic)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1997
ANYONE CAN BE rebellious or avant-garde — even fanzine writers — but if you hope to be reckoned amongst the truly weird, it sure helps ...
Report by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1997
VH1's strange mix of retro specials and toothless rock have turned the network into something, completely unexpected: hip ...
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, September 1997
"JUST A SECOND, just a second now," said Canadian performer Kinnie Starr as she abruptly swung her electric guitar down and stepped off the tiny ...
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 1997
"DO YOU WANNA see the first band, or do you wanna see me jump to my death?" a paunchy MC bellowed from a perch atop ...
The Geraldine Fibbers: Blood on the Tracks
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1997
The Geraldine Fibbers' new album, Butch, is a wonder, a violent, uncompromising sprawl of a rock record, a punch to the heart. But, worries RJ Smith, if ...
Fela Kuti: Afro Poppa: Fela Kuti, 1938-1997
Obituary by Richard Gehr, Spin, October 1997
IN THE annals of pop political activism, taking on TicketMaster or spoofing K Mart consumerism hardly compares to the cheeky dissidence of Nigerian superstar Fela ...
Review by James Hunter, Spin, October 1997
THE SINGER throws up lyrics about pursuit and desertion. A snare drum lightly skips across a series of bass pinpoints, an organic foundation unthinkable before ...
Insane Clown Posse: The Great Milenko (Island)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1997
IN ITS OWN way, the deal must have made perfect sense. Here was a label, Hollywood, among the most staggeringly unsuccessful on Earth. In its ...
Everclear: So Much for the Afterglow (Capitol)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, November 1997
A DECADE AGO, I pushed my toddler son's stroller through Ann Arbor, Michigan, where marijuana was almost legal and even adults dressed like college students. ...
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 1948-1997
Obituary by Will Hermes, Spin, November 1997
IT'S SADLY IRONIC that superstar qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan — the uncontested voice of modern Pakistan — would die on August 16, only ...
Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Spin, December 1997
FOR BRAIN-CELL-overloaded teen nerd-boys sitting alone in their bedrooms, grown-up nerdboy Brian Wilson was always a more realistic role model than, say, Steven Tyler. With ...
Radiohead: Band of the Year: Radiohead
Report and Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, January 1998
Thom Yorke is one paranoid android: freaked out by cars, haunted by houses, suspicious of everyone. You couldn't ask for a better rock star. ...
Jane's Addiction: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1998
I'M SITTING in a second-story box on the opening night of the Jane's Addiction reunion tour, and suddenly Perry Farrell is floating overhead, lying face ...
Metallica: CorseStates Center Parking Lot, Philadelphia
Live Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, February 1998
IT WAS DUBBED the "Million Decibel March," but Metallica's purported return to hard rockin' drew a crowd you might expect to see at a Bryan ...
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, Spin, February 1998
Brazil's pop bomb squad do the samba on Strawberry Fields ...
Atari Teenage Riot: What's the Frequency, Alec?
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, March 1998
The revolution is nigh, heralds radical German dude/Atari Teenage Rioter Alec Empire. RJ Smith learns it will all be in the mid-range. ...
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, March 1998
ANGELS are God's designated hitters. They're represented in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, among many other religions; they pretty much show up any place people put ...
John Fahey: Resurrection Shuffle
Report by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1998
John Fahey's Revenant label bestows the breath of life. ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1998
Speed garage, a hybrid of house and jungle, has conquered British clubland. ...
Pulp: People's Poet: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island)
Review by Nick Hornby, Spin, May 1998
On the long-awaited sequel to Pulp's breakthrough album, Different Class, England's unofficial laureate Jarvis Cocker perfects his poetry of the prosaic. By Nick Hornby ...
Rancid: Plotting a Punky Reggae Party
Interview by Chuck Eddy, Spin, May 1998
TIM ARMSTRONG once sang about punk-rock squats and dirt-cheap crash pads. Now the Rancid singer/guitarist is giving the grand tour of his Los Angeles dream ...
Massive Attack: The Bristol Method
Profile and Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, June 1998
Trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack heat up the chill-out room ...
Lucinda Williams: Lost in America
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, July 1998
HOW DID A 45-YEAR-OLD "NEUROTIC DIVA" WITH ONE FOOT IN FAULKNER'S SOUTH AND ONE FOOT IN GARTH'S MANAGE TO MAKE THE YEAR'S BEST ALBUM? SIMPLE, SAYS ...
Ash Ra Tempel, Can: Krautrock Revisited: Life After Can and Ash Ra Tempel
Essay by Richard Gehr, Spin, 20 July 1998
EVEN BEFORE KRAFTWERK'S great mid-'70s cars, trains, and airwaves trilogy, Krautrock was largely about getting away – especially from Germany itself. The band Can in ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Imagination (Giant)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, August 1998
IT IS HARD NOT TO harbour mixed feelings about Brian Wilson in the late '90s. While it’s great that he’s up and about (and not ...
Live Review by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1998
BEFORE ANYTHING else is said about the opening night of the 57-date Lilith Fair, let's note the nice: The climate at Portland's Civic Stadium was ...
Lauryn Hill: Triumph of the Hill — Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Columbia)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1998
With her solo debut, Fugee Lauryn Hill claims a place in the pantheon of R&B greats. ...
Korn: Harvest of Sorrow: Korn: Follow The Leader (Immortal/Epic)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1998
For millions of kids, Korn's house of pain feels like a home away from home. ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, December 1998
The biggest female rock star of the '90s returns with an album even more schizo than Jagged Little Pill ...
DJ Rap, Neotropic (Riz Maslen): Neotropic, DJ Rap: D.A.T. Girls
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, December 1998
NEOTROPIC AND DJ RAP: TWO EAST LONDON DJ'S, TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SOUNDS ...
RZA: The Man With The Microchip Brain
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Spin, December 1998
Wu-Tang Clan frontman RZA makes his first movie: the bizarre sci-fi hip-hop adventure flick, Bobby Digital ...
Elliott Smith: He's Mr Dyingly Sad, And You're Mystifyingly Glad
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, January 1999
ELLIOTT SMITH recovers nicely. Just one hour ago he was sitting in a tiny backstage room, enjoying a postshow libation and breathing in a blue ...
Timbaland: Tim's Bio – Life from da Bassment (Blackground)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 1999
MAYBE YOU'VE heard of the Jamaican tradition of "version" albums: a dozen or so tracks all built on top of the same bass-and-drum undercarriage. Different ...
Vic Chesnutt: The Salesman and Bernadette (Capricorn)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 1999
THIS IS THE best record of the year at making time stop. Vic Chesnutt tells a story. Maybe the tale pulls into it specific figures, ...
Profile and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1999
DOUG MARTSCH, the leader of Built to Spill, has this winter coat with a hood and lots of pockets. It was yellow originally, maybe, or ...
PJ Harvey: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1999
IT'S A TRIBUTE to Polly Jean Harvey's gift that this perfunctory hour-plus-encores concert, with most of the songs drawn from her disappointing last two albums, ...
The Black Crowes: By Your Side (Columbia)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, February 1999
Whenever I shoot pool, my first jukebox quarter inevitably goes to 'Hard To Handle' by the Black Crowes, which inspires such grand delusions of well-endowment ...
The Roots: Apocalypse Now: The Roots
Report and Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Spin, March 1999
THE ROOTS' new album, Things Fall Apart, bears all the signs of the Big Statement. There are five separate covers, each featuring a disturbing historical ...
Built To Spill: Keep It Like A Secret
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, March 1999
BUILT TO SPILL are maybe the only (formerly) indie rockers whose fans trade mad bootlegs but don't get into that cosmic noodle-dance thing. Sure, Pavement's ...
Paul Westerberg: How Paul Westerberg Got His Groove Back
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, March 1999
ON HIS CLEAR-EYED NEW ALBUM, THE ONETIME BASTARD OF THE YOUNG MAY HAVE FINALLY LAID TO REST THE BEERY MEMORY OF THE LATE, GREAT REPLACEMENTS. ...
Review by Neil Kulkarni, Spin, March 1999
WHAT'S SO satisfying about the new offerings from Prince Paul and the Roots is how cut-off they seem from both indie-rap's 12-inch fetishism and pop-rap's ...
The Olivia Tremor Control: Black Foliage: Animation Music by the Olivia Tremor Control (Flydaddy)
Review by Marc Weingarten, Spin, April 1999
IF APPLES in Stereo are the Elephant 6 movement's white-gloved archivists, and Neutral Milk Hotel are the resident primitive surrealists, then the Olivia Tremor Control ...
Fountains Of Wayne: Utopia Parkway (Atlantic)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, May 1999
WAYNE, NEW Jersey, I don't know, but Utopia Parkway was a mile from where I grew up, and let me tell you, Joseph Cornell's artistic ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: Smack My Mix Up
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1999
EVER SINCE 'Firestarter' and 'Breathe' transformed Prodigy into rave'n'roll superstars, Liam Howlett, the band's leader and musical brain, has taken pains to distance Prodigy from ...
Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner
Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Spin, June 1999
NOW THAT they have your attention, Ben Folds Five want you to feel their pain. Although the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, drums-bass-piano combo rose through ...
The Beta Band: Beta Band: Space Jammers
Profile and Interview by Craig McLean, Spin, June 1999
THEY PLAY SNIPPETS OF BONNIE TYLER HITS. THEY WORK POTTED PLANTS INTO THEIR LIVE SHOW. MEET THE BETA BAND — THE WEIRDEST GROUP IN ENGLAND ...
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1999
New York State of Rhyme ...
Pavement: The Long and Winding Road: Pavement: Terror Twilight (Matador)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, June 1999
Pavement turn down the noise and open up their hearts, sort of. ...
Obituary by Richard Gehr, Spin, July 1999
JAMAICA'S A QUIRKY PLACE, to say the least, so it's oddly appropriate that its foremost instrumental soloist would turn out to be a low-key virtuoso ...
The Chemical Brothers: Back To The Lab
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, July 1999
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE BLOCK-ROCKIN' SOUND YOU INVENTED HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO LAME TEEN FLICKS AND TAMPON COMMERCIALS? IF YOU'RE THE CHEMICAL ...
Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, July 1999
"PSYCHEDELIA" has undergone some curious convolutions since its Haight-Ashbury heyday. For the most part, though, the hallucinogens have gone, leaving a purely musical residue - ...
Souled American: Weird Old Country: The Disinternment of Souled American
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, Spin, July 1999
WITH DUE RESPECT to old Uncle Tupelo, it was the cultishly-revered country-and-Midwestern combo Souled American who laid the deep, dank groundwork for the No Depression ...
Beck, Tenacious D: Casino Royale: Beck, Tenacious D, Tropicana Casino & Resort, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by RJ Smith, Spin, August 1999
HORNS: CHECK. WIGS: CHECK. FALSETTO: CHECK. BECK PULLS OUT THE STOPS IN SLOTSVILLE. BUT THOSE BUFFETS ARE TOUGH COMPETITION ...
Kool Keith: The Man Of 1000 Masks
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, August 1999
WHEN HE'S NOT RAPPING ABOUT ALIEN AUTOPSIES AND FUNKY GYNECOLOGISTS, KOOL KEITH IS COMING UP WITH THE STRANGEST PERSONAS THIS SIDE OF PLANET JUPITER. HOW ...
Loud, Fast, and Out of Control
Report by Pat Blashill, Spin, August 1999
Welcome to the Hardcore Rave scene, where the DJs throw meat, the kids stick their heads inside speakers, and the scent of grape lollipops mixes ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: To Live and Die in L.A.
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, August 1999
IN THE FOUR YEARS SINCE THEIR LAST ALBUM, THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS HAVE SURVIVED DRUG RELAPSES, MENTAL FREAK-OUTS, AND THE DEPARTURE OF DAVE NAVARRO. ...
Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse: Mercury Rev/Sparklehorse: Irving Plaza, New York City
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1999
HERE'S A TRACK worth savoring: Veteran modern-rock band collaborates with Chemical Brothers and incorporates into their music bowed saw, arching melodies, and a gaggle of ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1999
IT ONLY SEEMS like Tricky is making the same album every time out. 1996's Nearly God stripped out whatever commercial possibilities Maxinquaye's paradigmatic trip-hop held; ...
Armand Van Helden: 2 Future 4 U (Armed)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
A YEAR AGO, Armand Van Helden was signed to Ruffhouse/Columbia. Now the DJ/producer is releasing 2 Future 4 U through Armed, his own fledgling indie ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
COMING OUT OF THE ART-ROCK CLOSET, DEATH IN VEGAS SHED DANCE BEATS FOR SINISTER, TRIPPED-OUT PSYCHEDELIA. BUT THEIR SNEAKERS REMAIN THE SAME ...
Dot Allison, One Dove: Dot Allison: When Doves Sigh
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
FORMER ONE DOVE SINGER DOT ALLISON MAKES HER SOLO DEBUT ...
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, November 1999
RAISED ON the self-consciously savvy white American soul of acts such as the Black Crowes, Beck, and Slayer, these five young Mojo cover boys ("The ...
Les Rythmes Digitales, Jacques Lu Cont: Jacques Lu Cont: The "French" Prince
Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, November 1999
LES RYTHMES DIGITALES' JACQUES LU CONT IS AN '80s-LOVING FAUX-FRENCHMAN WITH A FORBIDDEN LOVE FOR PHIL COLLINS. HE'S ALSO MADE ONE OF THE MOST IRRESISTIBLE ...
Ol' Dirty Bastard: Nigga Please (Elektra)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, November 1999
THE TRUE opener of this dazzling, daffy album gets buried near the end. Nigga Please should have begun with his mocking yet eerily touching cover ...
Fiona Apple: When The Pawn... (Clean Slate/Epic)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 1999
FIONA APPLE presents herself as damaged goods, both a woman wronged and a gleeful wrongdoer. That alone sets her above the teen-pop Mouseketeers; makes her ...
Ol' Dirty Bastard: Law And Disorder
Report by RJ Smith, Spin, December 1999
OL' DIRTY BASTARD PUTS ON A SHOW — THIS TIME IN COURT ...
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, December 1999
Kicking and screaming, Rage Against The Machine drag their contradictions into the light. By RJ Smith. ...
Rage Against the Machine: Band Of The Year: Rage Against The Machine
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 2000
The funk was deep. The rock was heavy. The politics were thick. Rage against the machine unleashed a rock-rap masterwork and a series of incendiary ...
Prince Paul: Eight reasons why Prince Paul rocks
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, January 2000
1. Not content with merely putting skits on hip-hop albums, he invented the hip-hop skit as album. ...
Goodie Mob: World Party (Laface/Orista)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 2000
WHEN A BAND with something to say wants to communicate to the largest number of people, it generally resorts to what's known as "sweetening the ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 2000
WHAT DOES IT say that the guy who led last year's pimp-rock pack was the son of a car dealer and a homemaker, a neat ...
TLC: Civic Center, Hartford CT
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, February 2000
FOR THE PAST decade, TLC have challenged the usual pop-girl predicaments. They sported condom fashions as teenagers, took on their management and record company, addressed ...
Aimee Mann: Catcher In The Wry
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, May 2000
She scored with the heartbreaking Magnolia soundtrack, but Aimee Mann isn't gloating just yet ...
Macy Gray, Mos Def: Macy Gray/Mos Def: Roseland Ballroom, New York City
Live Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Spin, May 2000
IF THERE WAS ever any doubt, the huge plaque onstage honoring the gold status of Mos Def's Black on Both Sides made it clear: The ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 2000
Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts: Beneath the Country Underdog (Bloodshot);The Handsome Family: In the Air (Carrot Top); Mekons: Journey to the End of ...
D'Angelo: Radio City Music Hall: New York City
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Spin, June 2000
LIVE PERFORMANCE is where music becomes ceremony, a ritual redefining the performer for his or her audience. Like videos, concerts turn a performer into a ...
Neil Young: Silver & Gold (Reprise)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, June 2000
"I DON'T KNOW what I'm doing/My software's not compatible with you," Neil Young moans on 'Without Rings', the last song on his 36th (!) record. ...
Sleater-Kinney: All Hands On The Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 2000
IT'S TIME TO DO BATTLE for the planet of the apes. On last year's The Hot Rock, Sleater-Kinney suddenly became sheepish about pounding folks over ...
Neil Young: The Old Man and the MP3
Interview by Alan Light, Spin, June 2000
FIFTY-FOUR AND ORNERY AS EVER, NEIL YOUNG DISCUSSES HIS NEW ACOUSTIC ALBUM. THE BACKSTREET BACKLASH, NAPSTER, AND WHY CDs STILL SUCK. ...
Modest Mouse: Caught in a trap
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, July 2000
For seven years, Modest Mouse have been writing songs about being stranded in boom-time America. Now they’re signed to a major label and more lost ...
Book Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 2000
BECAUSE ROCK HAS always been about capable amateurism, it's only logical that a certain kind of rock fan prizes outright incompetence. ...
The Great Rave/Jam Band Crossover Syndrome
Report and Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, August 2000
THE DISCO BISCUITS are onstage at Philadelphia's Trocadero surrounded by the entire contents of their living room: the bong-water stained sofa, a decrepit TV (with ...
Jon Langford, Jim O'Rourke, Wilco: Chicago: Indie City
Report and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 2000
Sick of a world ruled by Britney and Backstreet? Visit Chicago: a salt-of-the-earth midwestern town where old-world pleasures like community, cheap rent, cheap beer, gritty ...
Victoria Williams: Water to Drink (Atlantic)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, September 2000
I SING THE SONG of the okra: There's a lot more there than you think. If it's the pluperfect artifact of the country kitchen, the ...
Merle Haggard: Workin' Man Blues
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, November 2000
MERLE HAGGARD'S DONE MORE TIME THAN OL' DIRTY BASTARD AND HAS BEEN MAKING HARDCORE COUNTRY RECORDS SINCE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN. AT 63, HE'S GOT ...
David Axelrod: 1968-1970: An Anthology (Stateside import); The Axelrod Chronicles (Fantasy)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2000
IMAGINE ITALIAN film-score wizard Ennio Morricone as an acidhead staff producer at Stax/Volt, and you have a rough idea of the utterly cosmic funkiness of ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 2000
SO, WHAT'LL IT BE: Tears for Fears? .38 Special? Whitesnake? It's become impossible to keep abreast of all the best-ofs, as labels keep foisting greatest-hits ...
Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast (XL/Twisted Nerve)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, Summer 2000
ENGLAND’S SEARCH for post-Britpop heroes goes on. Following the Oasis implosion, everyone’s looking to the bedsit mavericks to save the day: Summer 2000 saw indie ...
Jeb Loy Nichols: Just What Time It Is
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 2001
JEB LOY NICHOLS shares a gift with folks like reggae's Joe Higgs, country rock's Victoria Williams, and soul's Bill Withers: He can be corny without ...
Ludacris, OutKast: OutKast/Ludacris: The Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 2001
REMEMBER WHEN hip-hop shows were sloppy mishmashes of mistimed records and ten people bellowing at once? ...
Rufus Wainwright: Poses (DreamWorks)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 2001
AS RUFUS WAINWRIGHT is far too aware, the studied indolence that undercuts his artistry is also the essence of his appeal. ...
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Music From the Motion Picture)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 2001
THIS SOUNDTRACK arrives from a country that doesn't exist (or maybe it's just called Britain). ...
Chocolate Genius: Godmusic (V2)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 2001
LISTENING TO this album on headphones, I feel like I still need headphones within the headphones. ...
The Avalanches: Since I Left You
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 2001
IN MUSIC, misery's got a monopoly on credibility — just ask Thom and Trent. A furrowed brow and a tormented soul are essential if you ...
Tori Amos: Don't Mess With Mother Nature
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2001
Taking shots at male violence, the gun lobby, and Eminem, Tori Amos has made an unlikely covers record — a cross between Sybil and Quadrophenia. ...
Le Tigre: Feminist Sweepstakes (Mr. Lady)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 2001
OFTEN RADICALS get so entrenched they even distrust their own sense of pleasure. But Kathleen Hanna is such a great rocker that at the very ...
Profile and Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, November 2001
Phish x Primus + Police = Oysterhead. What's that smell? ...
The Strokes: England's Creaming…
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, November 2001
…itself over New York City "it" band The Strokes. So who the hell are they? ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, December 2001
HOOD MAKE mope rock for the laptop era. This British quartet are survivors of a brief early-'90s moment of mingling between U.K. indie rock and ...
Obituary by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2002
THE YOUNGEST member of the world's most revered rock group, George Harrison — who died of cancer on November 29 at age 58 — worked ...
The Chemical Brothers: Come With Us (Astralwerks)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 2002
No surrender: With dance music in a funk, the Chemical Brothers return to Big Beats ...
Norma Jean Bell, No-Neck Blues Band: The Fringe: Rackjobbing
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2002
American music you can believe in ...
Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, April 2002
AN EVENING with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead goes something like this: For dinner, Conrad Keely and Kevin Allen kill ...
Boards Of Canada, Takagi Masakatsu: Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi/Takagi Masakatsu: Pia
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2002
GENREPHOBES HAVE had it easy lately. It's been a while since electronica coughed up any New Sounds of note. ...
Trey Anastasio: Trey Anastasio
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, June 2002
IF YOU'RE THE DE FACTO LEADER of a band long dismissed by critics, it takes cheek to open your solo debut with a chorus of ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, July 2002
NOW THAT MOBY AND FATBOY SLIM HAVE BECOME POP-CULTURE POSTER BOYS, IS IT TIME FOR HIP-HOP MONK JOSH DAVIS, A.K.A. DJ SHADOW, TO CLAIM HIS ...
Alice In Chains: The Man Boxed In: Layne Staley, 1967-2002
Obituary by Jason Cohen, Spin, July 2002
LAYNE STALEY was already something of a ghost. Alice in Chains, the Seattle band he'd fronted since 1987, was officially on "hiatus," a two-year respite ...
Dave Matthews Band: Busted Stuff (RCA)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, August 2002
DAVE MATTHEWS' dark side has been spotted frequently but only fleetingly, lurking in the shadowy corners of otherwise upbeat tunes but bolting the minute those ...
Gorillaz, Linkin Park: Linkin Park: Reanimation/Space Monkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 2002
WHO INVENTED the remix? Let P. Diddy debate that one with a posse of royalty-deprived Jamaican dub producers. ...
Jay-Z, Kelis, N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D: Irving Plaza, New York City
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 2002
WHAT do you do when you're a studio rat who's passed the Courvoisier with Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy and logged hits for 'N Sync, ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2002
Tears of a Clown: Beck is back, riding that midnight train from Malibu ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, November 2002
IF ROCK'N'ROLL were high school, Ryan Adams would be the faintly irritating yet firecracker-hot 2001 valedictorian-acing history, kicking it with that cute young chem teacher, ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, November 2002
BE CAREFUL what you wish for. When we asked Tori Amos to compile a list of the records that have inspired her music, she brought ...
Drive-By Truckers: The Mouth of the South
Profile and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, December 2002
The Drive-By Truckers are hard-ass punk rockers from Alabama by way of Athens, Georgia. They drink too much. They love Lynyrd Skynyrd. And their Southern ...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Yanqui U.X.O. (Constellation)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, March 2003
GODSPEED'S 1997 debut CD, f#a#?, began with words so eerily prescient that it's a wonder the Montreal band aren't currently being held at Guantánamo Bay. ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, March 2003
Do you suffer from skammdegispunglyndi? For many Icelanders, the cure for this brand of wintertime depression — in addition to drinking — is making weird ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Tougher Than Tough
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Spin, April 2003
Joe Strummer was the soul-rebel idealist who gave punk a cause ...
Phish: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, April 2003
YEP, the drummer still wears a housedress. The band still pause mid-song for the occasional "silent jam". And the shows still draw more deadlocked whiteys ...
The New Pornographers: Bands to watch: The New Pornographers
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, June 2003
They may look like mild-mannered grad students, but they're actually super-rockin' Canadians!: Todd Fancey, Neko Case, Blaine Thurier, Carl Newman, Kurt Dahle, and John Collins ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, 26 June 2003
BETWEEN U.K. MC Ms. Dynamite's debut and the rhyme battle rumoured to be brewing between Birmingham's Mike "the Streets" Skinner and Brixton's Roots Manuva, 2002 ...
Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Faint, The Good Life: Omaha: Next Stop Nowhere
Report and Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, July 2003
America's new indie-rock capital was born when a 13-year-old songsmith named Conor Oberst started putting out recordings on his brother's bedroom cassette label. Ten years ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, July 2003
IT'S ALL RIGHT – you can admit it. When the bedroom lights are out and all you can see are the shooting stars on your ...
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, July 2003
WHO: Florida femme fatale "VV" and Englishman "Hotel," chain-smoking vegans with a beatbox and vintage gear, both of whom sing and play guitar. ...
Belle and Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Rough Trade)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2003
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN are more than a band of underachieving indie-rock layabouts from Glasgow. ...
Spiritualized: Amazing Grace (Spaceman/Sanctuary)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, October 2003
Garage rock from Mars ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, 13 November 2003
MAYBE THEY COULD change their names to the Jaxxes. With half-assed rock bands now enjoying all the hype once reserved for half-assed DJ acts, it's ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2003
POP RADIO is so appalling that even a modest charmer like Nelly Furtado's 'I'm Like a Bird' makes you kneel in gratitude. ...
Dizzee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner (XL/Matador)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2004
Speaking in Tongues: East London rap star Dizzee Rascal's war of words ...
Elliott Smith: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Retrospective and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, 18 February 2004
WHEN ELLIOTT SMITH played Los Angeles in the fall of 2002, after more than a year of semi-seclusion, he didn't look so good. His hands ...
Bright Eyes: Northsix, Brooklyn, New York
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2004
WHEN CONOR OBERST WAS 16, he fronted a promising, alt-rockin' band calledCommander Venus. They signed an ill-fated contract — at one unfortunate juncture, the band ...
Pavement: Gold Standardz: Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins (Matador)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2004
Pavement's second album gets classic-rock props ...
Review by Yancey Strickler, Spin, January 2005
Seattle shriekers rage against the fleshbots ...
Queens of the Stone Age: Lullabies to Paralyze (Interscope)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, April 2005
Josh Homme, all alone, explores his artistic side ...
Hot Hot Heat: Elevator (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, May 2005
BACK IN THE day, new wave meant different things to different people. For some it was a way to add a little bump'n'grind to punk ...
Konono No. 1: Konono No.1: Congotronics (Crammed Discs)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, May 2005
IN FEBRUARY the Motherland finally got its own MTV channel; vive la revolucion! Sure, there may be just one TV for every 16 people in ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, June 2005
SONY STUDIOS, New York, March 25. With aromatherapy candles lit and a soul-food spread in the back. Common plays his latest album for a bunch ...
Coldplay: Dodge Music Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2005
Even after The New York Times declared them "the most insufferable band of the decade" (does that include the new INXS?), Coldplay continue to exist ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2005
Reflecting on Seattle's dangerous heyday and Pearl Jam's legacy, the grunge icon comes clean ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2005
Proof that there's an Icelandic word for uplift — and we can't pronounce it ...
Interview by Alan Light, Spin, November 2005
From Beastie Boys to Run-D.M.C. to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash, he's produced them all ...
Hot Chip: Coming on Strong (Astralwerks)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, January 2006
TIMMY THOMAS' 1972 beat-boxdriven hit 'Why Can't We Live Together?' is a paradigm of how machine rhythms can make the human voice sound simultaneously stalwart ...
Cat Power: The Greatest (Matador)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2006
Memphis Belle: Down South, Chan Marshall gets the blues ...
Various Artists: Run the Road Volume 2 (Vice)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2006
U.K. rap's coming-out party gets its second act ...
Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, March 2006
BESIDES HAVING THE SEXIEST snaggletooth in indie rock, Neko Case may be the scene's hardest-working gal. She records and tours with Canuck ultrapoppers the New ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Out Of Their Tree
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Spin, May 2006
TWO YEARS AGO, RHCP went to Europe to play in front of the largest crowds of their 20-plus-year-career. After surviving numerous personnel changes, drug problems, ...
The Good Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad and the Queen: The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Review by Jon Young, Spin, January 2007
AFTER THE high-concept pop art of Gorillaz, it's startling to see Damon Albarn in a rock group again. ...
Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2007
THIS EXQUISITE trio's sole LP, released in 1980, is coolly minimal and warmly human, all understated guitar and bass lines, chintzy organ riffs, and cheap-drum-machine ...
Hot Chip: The League of Very Ordinary Gentlemen
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Spin, February 2008
Everybody seems to love Hot Chip's catchy, endearing dance pop. But are these bookish Brits ready to love everybody back? ...
Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, 25 March 2008
IN 2006, TWO avant-garde hip-hoppers — a producer known for DJ'ing in a mouse costume and a Dirty South MC who abandoned a legendary crew ...
The Replacements: The World's Most Unsatisfied Band
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Mehr, Spin, May 2008
Nearly two decades after the Replacements' strangely quiet demise, the gloriously ramshackle catalogue of one of American underground rock's defining bands gets a proper makeover. ...
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend (XL)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, June 2008
AT 1:32 A.M. last Valentine's Day, a demo titled 'Oxford Comma' by a band of Columbia University buds was posted on the blog Music for ...
My Bloody Valentine: "It's The Opposite Of Rock 'N' Roll"
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Spin, August 2008
In 1991, My Bloody Valentine released one of modern rock's most influential albums, then mysteriously imploded trying to surpass it. On the eve of their ...
Comment by Michael Azerrad, Spin, 27 October 2008
For a music critic, being immortalized in song could be the highest compliment...unless the song is a death threat. ...
Grinderman: On the Road With Grinderman
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Spin, 14 December 2010
Ratso Sloman takes SPIN behind the scenes with Nick Cave and his travelling band of merrymakers. ...
Review by Jon Young, Spin, 10 January 2012
COOLER THAN COLDPLAY but less provocative than R.E.M., the Irish-Scottish modern-rock quintet Snow Patrol embrace the "bigger is better" philosophy on their sixth studio album, ...
Metallica's Kill 'Em All, the Album to Credit and/or Blame for "Extreme Metal" Mania, Turns 30
Retrospective by Chuck Eddy, Spin, 25 July 2013
IN 1983'S International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver make the claim that two different California bands put out ...
Review by Jon Young, Spin, 5 September 2013
EARLY EXPOSURE to the fifth Arctic Monkeys record might betray a few symptoms of Pretentious Artiste Syndrome – frontman Alex Turner has name-checked Dr. Dre ...
Lester Bangs: Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lester Bangs and Almost Famous
Retrospective by Jaan Uhelszki, Spin, 3 February 2014
WHEN PHILIP Seymour Hoffman died Sunday of an apparent overdose in his Greenwich Village apartment, it was like losing Lester Bangs all over again. ...
Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire for No Witness
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 21 February 2014
ANGEL OLSEN buries a thesis statement at the end of her third album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness. On 'Window', over a barely audible ...
Dwight Yoakam: Second Hand Heart
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 13 April 2015
ARTISTS DEPENDENT ON TRADITION as muse and subject gamble on fate. Eventually the marketplace will deal — so they think. Well, Dwight Yoakam has won ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 20 July 2015
THE SINGER AND WRITER of the most exquisite sighs in modern country, Ashley Monroe doesn't come off as a mope. Her high, fluting voice projects ...
The Libertines: Anthems for Doomed Youth
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 15 September 2015
NOW THAT CARL BARÂT AND PETE DOHERTY have proven they are capable of collaborating again, they can go away and write a better album than ...
Brandy Clark: Big Day in a Small Town
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 6 June 2016
A WRITER SINGING HER OWN SONGS isn't necessarily a singer. Brandy Clark made this point clear on 2013's 12 Stories; the title's J.D. Salinger allusion ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 15 June 2017
Ride's disappointing comeback album lacks the things that made them great. ...
The Killers: Wonderful Wonderful
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 2 October 2017
AT LAST I KNOW: George Herbert is Brandon Flowers' Rosetta Stone. Writing from the point of view of an object of sacramental importance or as ...
tUnE-yArDs: I Can Feel You Creep into My Private Life
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 25 January 2018
MERRILL GARBUS COULD SING in Esperanto through sixteen vocal filters and it still wouldn't stop listeners from parsing her lyrics. Nonetheless, with her Tune-Yards project, ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 20 March 2018
FEW WORDS DESCRIBE Kim Deal's songwriting and delivery of emotion better than "terse." In the Pixies and a series of Breeders albums she presented herself ...
Yo La Tengo: There's a Riot Going On
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 20 March 2018
THE MOST VULGAR THING about Yo La Tengo's latest is its nod to Sly and the Family Stone's 1971 landmark: on the Hoboken trio's fifteenth ...
Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 14 June 2018
TO BE COURTNEY BARNETT and learn that Liz Phair released the Girly-Sound to Guyville set is like being Bryan Ferry and opening your door to ...
Chic: What Is Chic in 2018? It's About Time Gives an Unsatisfactory Answer
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 4 October 2018
WEALTHY AND COOL ENOUGH to maintain a reputation on the sweet fragrance of thirty years' worth of fumes, Nile Rodgers nevertheless wanted a new Chic ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Spin, 15 May 2019
A DUBYA-ERA STAR whose pop distillations of crunk failed to win her label's confidence at the turn of the decade, Ciara Princess Harris has spent the time since ...
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