Spin
Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 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 ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1985
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 ...
Pogues, The: Pogues' Gallery: the Pogues
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1985
Erin Go Bragh-less: A liberated Irish punk band rediscovers its roots. ...
Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Nightingales, The: 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 ...
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. ...
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. ...
Ozzy Osbourne: I am Oz the Great and Terrible
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 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. ...
Blondie: Debbie's Back: Debbie Harry
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1986
Debbie Harry and Chris Stein talk about Blondie, wrestling, disease, record rating, show biz, fear, and fantasy. ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 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 ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Exiles on Mainstream
Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1986
Being a Rolling Stone used to mean never having to pick up a Grammy. Until now. ...
Residents, The: The Residents: Residents Only
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. Article by Richard Gehr ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, Spin, May 1987
The gospel according to Saint Julian:People who are not horny make half-assed records. ...
Cure, The: The Cure - Curiouser and Curiouser
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Spin, July 1987
IT WAS THE very last edition of The Tube, the most interesting pop show on British TV. After five eventful years, the program had ...
Fuzzbox: 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 ...
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 and Interview by Len Brown, Spin, June 1988
"Perhaps I'm unique because people are so dull. I'm not very good at being dull." – Morrissey"I have nothing to declare but my own genius." ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Robert Plant: Last of the Red-Hot Rock Stars
Report and Interview by Deborah Frost, Spin, 1993
"CAMION! CAMION!" comes the cry from the front seat of the rented Mercedes wagon. "I don't have time to die!" ...
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? ...
Cure, The: Show and Tell: An Interview with Robert Smith
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
Stone Roses, The: 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Sex Pistols, The: 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 ...
Obituary by R.J. 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. ...
Ash Ra Tempel, Can: Krautrock Revisited: Life After Can and Ash Ra Tempel
Essay by Richard Gehr, Spin, 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 ...
Beach Boys, The, 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 ...
Elliott Smith: He's Mr Dyingly Sad, And You're Mystifyingly Glad
Profile and Interview by R.J. 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 ...
Roots, The: 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 ...
Prodigy, The: 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 ...
Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, June 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 ...
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 ...
Chemical Brothers, The: 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 ...
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 ...
Ol' Dirty Bastard: Nigga Please (Elektra)
Review by R.J. 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 ...
Mos Def, Macy Gray: 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 ...
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 ...
Jim O'Rourke, Jon Langford, 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 ...
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 ...
Joe Strummer: Tougher Than Tough
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Spin, April 2003
IT WAS FITTING THAT HIS FINAL LONDON GIG WAS A CONTROVERSIAL benefit for union workers. Though Joe Strummer will be remembered for generations as the ...
Drive-By Truckers: The Mouth of the South
Profile and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 2003
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 ...
Elliott Smith: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Retrospective and Interview by R.J. Smith, Spin, 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 ...
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