Light in the Attic Records has released another tantalizing piece of Lou Reed and Velvet Underground lore in the form of the earliest known recording of the song “Heroin.” The track will appear on the upcoming archival Reed collection Words & Music, May 1965, due out on Aug. 26. Put to tape by Reed in […]
A Lou Reed archive series is coming, thanks to Light in the Attic records and the late singer-songwriter’s wife Laurie Anderson. The series’ first installment, Watch Words & Music, May 1965, is a collection of previously unreleased tracks taken from Reed’s formative years and features the earliest known recordings of Velvet Underground classics “Heroin,” “I’m […]
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by […]
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, […]
This article originally appeared in the April 1996 issue of SPIN. “Los Angeles is my favorite city in the world!” declares super foxy Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, offering as proof of his conviction the city’s name tattooed on the back of his neck. “I would never live anywhere else.” Navarro, drummer Chad Smith, […]
On the august occasion of our 36th Anniversary, we are issuing our first ever music pardons. No longer does Billy Ray Cyrus have to live in shame! The Baha Men can finally sleep easy at night, the awful yoke of their aural crime lifted! Eddie Murphy can live out the rest of his days appreciated […]
To close out Hanukkah, Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters producer Greg Kurstin closed out their ongoing Hanukkah Sessions with a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll.” The band’s late singer, Lou Reed, was Jewish. Grohl issued a lengthy statement on the meaning of the Hanukkah Sessions. As 2020 comes to a close and another Hanukkah ends (my first!) I am […]
The whole reissue concept didn’t come across my obsession desk until my first tour of duty at SPIN as an editorial intern in the fall of 1997. One of my tasks during my two days in the office — back when it was on 18th St. near Academy Records — was opening the editors’ mail. I’ll […]
In the 1980s, music and film collided for cross-promotional blockbusters both transcendent (Purple Rain) and transcendently cheesy (Footloose). In the ‘90s, soundtracks continued to sell in the millions, capturing cultural moments like the Seattle grunge of Singles or the Britpop and electronica of Trainspotting. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson reached deep into their […]
Every decade takes a couple of years to feel like itself, but the 1990s, in particular, had a soft launch. While 1991 would bring a bumper crop of era-defining albums from the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, U2, and Red Hot Chili Peppers that would set the tone for alternative rock for the rest of […]