From left: Bono, Sting, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel (holding a video recorder), Lou Reed, and Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director Jack Healey during a press conference for Amnesty International’s ‘A Conspiracy of Hope’ concert, East Rutherford, New Jersey, June 14, 1986. They were promoting the final concert of a six-date benefit tour which took place […]
“Brian wasn’t like everybody else.” The Damned’s guitarist Captain Sensible remembers first meeting his late bandmate and founding member Brian James toward the end of 1975. At the time, the then 19-year-old (whose real name is Raymond Ian Burns) was working as a janitor at a theater in Croydon, South London, before getting recruited by […]
Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson strides back and forth on a bare stage: no backdrop, no instruments, no visuals. He’s wearing his “at home” clothes, his hands planted on his hips or behind his back in his version of a runway pose. He shouts into the microphone like he’s possessed, like he’s struggling with severe mental […]
“Anybody could be ‘Ballgame,’ says Tyler Ballgame. “You could be ‘Charles Ballgame.’” The singer-songwriter is referring to baseball great Ted Williams, who earned the nickname “Teddy Ballgame” for his unparalleled talent and unrelenting passion for the sport; a figure Ballgame admires and ultimately took inspiration from. Ballgame is in Brooklyn for a show at the […]
Name Poppy Best known for Smiling at the internet while it whispers its secrets to me. Current city Brisbane, AUS. Really want to be in Tokyo. Or inside a dream I can’t wake from. Excited about My new album Empty Hands (Jan 23rd). My current music collection has a lot of Instrumental music. And a little bit of Ambient. Preferred format Vinyl: decoration, ritual, […]
Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series. Few artists veered as wildly from one style to another as David Bowie. In between recording the Philly soul experiment Young Americans and the icy Berlin art rock opus Low, he made […]
On a balmy autumn night in 2021 at Lincoln Center, Lido Pimienta made history as the first woman of color to compose for the New York City Ballet. The classical piece she created for the occasion, Lux Aeterna, scored a collaboration between the Colombian-Canadian singer and choreographer Andrea Miller called sky to hold. A year […]
Most people would probably die of embarrassment if their family photos leaked out into the world. But not the Schaldas. When Bill and his three sons Will, Paul, and Carmine—AKA the Sha La Das—finish recording one of their soulful doo-wop singles or albums, they purposely choose a glossy relic from the family albums for the […]
In the world of emo and punk, fans and musicians are often separated by six degrees of Denny’s bacon. If it’s not popping up together in a corner booth at 3:00 a.m. to nosh after a show, then it’s bands bringing the concert to America’s favorite diner. So it should’ve come as no surprise that […]
Kid Capri had a serious wake-up call in 2023. He was 56 years old and had just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer—yet he kept it to himself. That year marked the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, a culture the Bronx native helped pioneer, and there was work to do. He curated the BET Awards, introduced Derek […]