Smack dab in the middle of the final decade before the millennium—when some truly believed the world would end—chaos and catastrophe marked a year of strong attempts towards peace and world change. The O.J. Simpson murder trial began in January, 1995. The Oklahoma City Bombing took the lives of 168 people in April. The Srebrenica […]
Wisconsinite drummer Butch Vig, Nebraskan guitarist Duke Erikson, and Minnesotan guitarist Steve Marker met in the late ’70s in Madison, Wisconsin. Although Erikson and Vig’s bands Spooner and Fire Town each released a couple of well-received albums, it was really Smart Studios, which Vig and Marker founded in Madison in 1983, that made the Midwestern […]
A Long Island hip-hop crew called Spectrum City evolved into Public Enemy in the mid-’80s, signed to Def Jam, and became one the most politically outspoken and musically innovative groups the genre had, and has, ever seen. Chuck D and Flavor Flav have been the group’s only two consistent members over the years: the high-minded […]
More from Spin: In a World On Fire, Jesse Ahern Brings Us ‘Sunshine’ Tell Me About Your Childhood, Letdown… Wand Cast Quieter ‘Vertigo,’ Meander With Curiosity “Everyone always lies about sex. If you haven’t lied about it, it isn’t sex,” Carrie Fisher wrote in The Guardian, a response to a plea for advice from a woman […]
At long last, Tom DeLonge and Blink-182 are back together again. After months of rumblings, the guitarist reunited with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, and fans of the pop-punk pioneers couldn’t be happier. The band’s co-founding guitarist has been out of the lineup since 2015, replaced during that stretch by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. But […]
There are few bigger indie success stories in the past 20 years than Death Cab for Cutie. The group, founded in Bellingham, Washington in the mid-’90s, began like many underground acts — with witty and intricate songs recorded on a budget. But they quickly displayed a penchant for radio-friendly rock anthems that tapped into a […]
What makes a truly awful metal album? It’s not just a lack of riffs, awful production, or quarter-assed vocal takes. Most of these records suffer from overdosing on compromise, whether it’s hopelessly chasing a trendy sound or a failure to age gracefully; others have visions more realized yet too noxious to raise the horns with […]
For decades, having a signature guitar was reserved for classic rock legends — the Claptons, the Hendrixes, the Pages, the SRVs and EVHs. But that’s no longer the case. From pop-punk to heavy metal, alt-country to neo-soul, modern artists of all genres and backgrounds are getting signature guitars from companies big and small. Among the […]
“Even though I did punch her, I thought she was a genius,” Courtney Love said of Kathleen Hanna in 2002, while attempting to explain riot grrrl to The Strokes live on MTV. Twenty years later, and about 30 since the movement’s inception, trying to define it still feels fraught. Riot grrrl was always a nebulous concept, […]
If punk rock’s heart belonged to any one person, it beat in the chest of Joe Strummer. At a time when the movement was largely defined as a glue-sniffing “blank generation” with no future, the Clash’s frontman shaped it into something more purposeful, empathetic, ambitious, and even idealistic. In their brief time together, The Clash […]