The last time I saw John Power, frontperson of Cast, was at a mutual friend’s wedding, where he was throwing up out of the hotel window. That was 24 years ago. When I remind him, he says, “Well, you know, those were hedonistic days.” Power doesn’t look any worse for wear. Cast just finished opening […]
“When we’re writing a song or recording a song, I think we have a pretty good internal quality control of, ‘Is this good?’ or ‘Is this exciting?’ versus ‘This feels forced’ or ‘This doesn’t feel natural,’ ” Mac McCaughan says, explaining how Superchunk have, maybe consciously or maybe not, maintained their high musical standards across […]
Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series. The duality of pleasure and pain, of comedy and tragedy, or of life’s highs and lows is fertile territory for songwriters. And John Mellencamp has created some great songs out of those […]
Name Steve Jones Best known for Swearing on the Bill Grundy Show [on December 1, 1976]. Current city London. Excited about I’m going to be touring until middle of October—all around Europe and England, then going to South America for a few dates. We end up in the States, in Dallas, and work our way all around the States. My current music collection […]
B-Real drops a bombshell mere minutes into our interview. Cypress Hill’s 1993 juggernaut, “Insane in the Brain,” was initially written as a diss track aimed at “Treat ‘Em Right” rapper Chubb Rock. Suddenly, after more than 30 years of hearing the Grammy-nominated song in heavy rotation, it was no longer perceived as just a weed […]
I was 21 when Brokeback Mountain was released. I have such fond memories of going to the gay bar in my hometown of Minneapolis and dancing to bass-driven remixes of Gustavo Santaolalla’s gentle, emotive original score. Even in its house-music version, there’s an inherent sadness in these songs, and sometimes that’s the best to dance […]
The irony isn’t lost on Guy Garvey that he had to get good and drunk to write a song called “Sober.” “Isn’t it perverse?” he says with a chuckle. The Manchester band first came up with the track’s taut, bass-driven groove shortly after Alex Reeves (The Ting Tings, Bat For Lashes) started playing drums for […]
In a big empty house high in the hills near Glendale, California, Daron Malakian is singing along to an old outlaw country tune. It’s called “Waymore’s Blues,” a classic Waylon Jennings ballad from 1975. It’s a gently loping track set to acoustic guitar, organ, and a playful bass groove. The lyrics are a little bit […]
Maye Osorio couldn’t sleep. One day, while buying a yoga mat at the Grand Central Market’s Bazaar in Downtown Los Angeles, she found out why. “I had a meeting that day in that building, and I saw a lady who was selling yoga mats, so I went up to her and she just started reading […]
As I walk into Yellow Racket Records at 2311 E. Main Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Destroyer is playing over the loudspeakers. Ben VanderHart, the founder and creative director of the store, is sitting at a table in the Listening Room, a space situated in the next room over from the main store area, where listening […]