Destroyer’s latest album, Labyrinthitis, started out as a dance record. It would have been “just like Donna Summer’s greatest hits,” frontman Dan Bejar explained in the album’s press materials. The Vancouver-based indie-rock outfit hasn’t exactly shied away from grooves before, but Bejar often suffuses those grooves with his own sardonic twist. It creates a set […]
Not gonna lie: we kinda missed SXSW, traffic, lines, free-flowing human chaos and all. SPIN hosted a number of raging day shows throughout the years, but for SXSW’s return, we had to come back with a real-deal official showcase at Stubb’s. And who could be more official than The Lemonheads? Evan Dando and company ripped […]
In late 2018, Rosalía captivated audiences with El Mal Querer, her breakthrough album where she gave flamenco music a modern pop twist. Since then, the Spanish singer-songwriter has performed around the world and expanded her sonic palette. In her follow-up, MOTOMAMI, she changes lanes and subverts her pop and flamenco roots with global sounds like […]
Emerging as one of 11 members of a hip-hop collective in his native Richmond, Virginia, collaboration has always been central to rapper-producer Fly Anakin’s work. Now, with the release of his solo debut album, he showcases the talents that brought the spotlight on him and his local scene. Like Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade, Mutant Academy […]
For 20 years now, Avril Lavigne has swung a pendulum between her two rock personas: playful, vaguely punkish pop (see: “Sk8er Boi,” “Girlfriend” and “Here’s to Never Growing Up”) and self-serious alternative (“My Happy Ending,” “Nobody’s Home” and that unfortunate collaboration with Chad Kroeger in 2013). Yet despite regular attempts to shift her sound — […]
To label Big Thief’s panoramic new project a “double album” is something of a misnomer. In totality, the 81-minute mammoth that is Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is not two halves but four quarters, divided by as many distinct recording sessions, in upstate New York; Topanga Canyon, California; the Colorado Rocky Mountains; […]
In March, Mitski Miyawaki will play her first sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall — by far the largest headlining performance of her career, nearly quadruple the size of her last top-billing gig in New York City. Surely the indie noble will be scared shitless; who wouldn’t? That’s 6,000 people you’re supposed to entertain! […]
“Are you ready for a bit of Echo Victor?” a reverberating Eddie Vedder announces at the top of his third solo album Earthling, invoking the radio alphabet code for “EV.” And all at once, it’s clear this is the Pearl Jam frontman’s 13-song transmission from beyond our world, our time, our lives, and our dimension. […]
Say this much for Damon Albarn, the guy’s got a sense of humor. As he was winding down his 17-song, 75-minute set at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, he addressed the elephant in the room: his much-discussed comments about Taylor Swift. In case you missed it somehow, Albarn caused quite the stir […]
You are sitting in a car. The car is stuck in a tunnel; gridlock traffic. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. You are waiting your turn. All you can hear is the car radio. The smooth-talking DJ is guiding you forward, to “accept your fate with open arms.” Sounds like purgatory, huh? […]