against me!
106 Musicians Predict the 2022 Baseball Season
The powers-that-be did their best to prevent this year’s Major League Baseball season from happening, but, alas, we’re back. By we, I mean the annual SPIN baseball preview. As usual, everyone (or almost everyone) is optimistic about their team’s chances in 2022. In 2021, a good chunk of the season was played with minimal fans in attendance, but things should be mostly back to normal this year. As I said last year about the season: Will it be weird? Probably. But aren’t they all? If it wasn’t a weird season with bizarre injuries, what kind of season would it be? Not baseball, Suzyn. Somehow, we almost doubled the number of participants from 62 to 105. Maybe we go for a cool 162 next year? If nothing else, we know that musicians love America’s Pastime (even if many feel that it doesn’t love ...
‘Goddammit, We’re Gonna Take This Somewhere!’: The Oral History of Against Me!’s Reinventing Axl Rose
It’s October 28, 2008, and 18-year-old me is roughly third in line for Against Me!’s show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. It’s the last West Coast stop of their fall tour behind New Wave, and my dorm neighbor has kindly driven me from the Inland Empire to the venue (I didn’t have a car for my first semester of college) hours before doors opened, sticking around to see a band she’s never heard of. As I sip my original recipe Four Loko (I did have a fake ID my first semester of college) and avoid making eye contact with the handful of other punk kids who don’t have to work on a Tuesday afternoon, the skinny kid in front of me strikes up a conversation. Frankly, I wish I could remember what he said, but here’s the takeaway: His name was Pat, and he needed my help starting a mutiny as soon as t...
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Josh Chesler, SPIN Deputy Editor
Name Josh Chesler, SPIN Deputy Editor Best known for Hanging out in tattoo shops, being the bearded guy on various TV shows and Twitch streams, and only interviewing bands I like as SPIN’s Deputy Editor. Current city Long Beach, CA Really want to be in Any place where I can turn my email off. Catch me in the South of France eating an endless buffet of fancy cheeses instead of my usual routine of responding to hundreds of emails. Excited about That week between Christmas and New Year’s where we all just kind of float around and pretend like we exist without actually doing anything. My current music collection has a lot of 2000s post-hardcore, punk rock, and third-wave emo. I might’ve outlived Myspace, but a lot of my favorite music didn’t. And a little bit of ...
Laura Jane Grace Surprise Released Her New EP Because Nothing Is Normal Anymore Anyway
Laura Jane Grace released a new EP today, but you wouldn’t know it if you weren’t paying attention. At a point in time where society, punk rock, and everything in between is more online than ever before, Grace stealth-dropped At War With The Silverfish (via Polyvinyl Records) like her fellow cultural icon, Beyoncé, did for her 2013 self-titled album. On one hand, it takes a certain amount of courage and understanding of your fan base to release a new project without any kind of prior promotion or announcement (beyond the occasional cryptic tweet). On the other, it’s not like anyone really has a “How to Release an Album During a Global Pandemic” playbook drafted up yet, so why not just go with it? “These are certainly unprecedented times that we’re living in, so the normal way of putting ou...
25 Artists, 25 Albums, 25 Years of Vagrant Records
For much of the last quarter-century, Vagrant Records has been synonymous with the emo and alternative scenes. Much like how Epitaph Records and Fat Wreck Chords have become well-established homes for punk, Vagrant remains one of the most significant labels in the world thanks to a catalog featuring hundreds of beloved albums and dozens of all-time classics. Beginning with the launch of the Get Up Kids’ Something to Write Home About on Sept. 28, 1999, Vagrant went on a several-year run that included some of the biggest names of the 2000s, ranging from Saves the Day to Alkaline Trio, Dashboard Confessional to Rocket from the Crypt. But rather than hanging the past when artists left for to major labels, breaking up, or otherwise parting ways with Vagrant, the label adapted, expandi...
62 Musicians Predict the 2021 Baseball Season
Somehow, some way, it’s baseball season again. Yes, already. Last year’s abbreviated run saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in six games to win their first World Series title in 32 years, something that Ben Gibbard predicted in our 2020 preview. As you can imagine, Dodgers fans — especially the ones below — are in great spirits heading into the 2021 season. So what does that mean about this year? Absolutely nothing. As COVID restrictions start to loosen and with more fans allowed back into stadiums, excitement is beginning to buzz, especially with our group of experts. Like last time, many are hopeful that this will be their team’s year. We searched far and wide to get predictions for the upcoming Major League Baseball season, creating a proper barometer of what these su...
Laura Jane Grace on Staying Alive and Staring Into the Abyss
There are a number of pre-pandemic luxuries that Laura Jane Grace misses during these precarious times. But the glaring absence of live shows – and the resulting human connection – has left a particularly large hole in her bleeding singer-songwriter heart. “I miss it a lot,” the Against Me! singer tells SPIN from her snowy Chicago apartment. “I miss so many different aspects of it. I just miss being part of a team…I miss the group spirit of my band, whether that’s all of us on a bus or all of us in an airport waiting for a plane, or loading in in the morning or loading out – the group experience.” The story of Against Me! is a dramatic and inspiring one, perfectly summed up by the crowds of their memorable live shows, where you can rub shoulders with both punks and rock listeners who...
Laura Jane Grace Drops Surprise LP, Stay Alive, Produced by Steve Albini
Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace surprise-released Stay Alive — her first-ever solo outing — at midnight Oct. 1. The 14-song LP, produced by Steve Albini, “takes all her pent-up fears, anger, and anxiety and releases it, like an olive branch to the weary listeners who are feeling those exact same ways,” says the album’s bio on Polyvinyl Records’ site. Stay Alive is now streaming everywhere and can be pre-ordered at the Polyvinyl Store; physical copies will be available Dec. 11. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Against Me! kicked off a tour that was supposed to see the lineup joining with Baroness in May. Of course, the tour — along with every other one in the world — was canceled. What did Grace do? “I sat around for a month-and-a-half at a home ju...
The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s
Why now? Because — and there’s no reason to ignore the elephant in the room: SPIN stewardship has changed hands many, many times since we made the online jump — we got our chance. Because plenty of our favorite albums of the last 10 years could still use a boost. Because some of the already unanimously beloved music on this list still merits further praise. Because we relish excuses to sound off on the music that’s affected us the most and to enlist some of our favorite writers to do so. Because the works of art below serve as a reminder that the 2010s weren’t all bad. Because lord knows we need the distraction. Because it’s fun. There’s a lot of music that isn’t on this list. Which, duh, but plenty of artists whose work defined the decade for many, many people, including many of us, ...
