relient k
Odd Jobs: Relient K’s Matt Hoopes Found New Musical Success With 1981 Inventions Guitar Pedals
Odd Jobs is a new series that takes a look behind the curtain of professional musicians’ secondary careers and side hustles. If Matt Hoopes made his biggest mark on the music industry as the guitarist for pop-punk/Christian rockers Relient K, most people would’ve considered it a successful career. Eight studio albums (plus a pair of Christmas albums and one covers project), a song that you couldn’t escape for a chunk of the mid-2000s, and nearly a quarter-century standing next to singer Matt Thiessen’s curly blond hair is more than most accumulate. But in 2018, Hoopes launched 1981 Inventions, a company based around a single guitar effects pedal that he’d spent years perfecting. The pedal (named the DRV) sold out immediately. It earned rave reviews as a slightly brighter and refined take o...
The 40 Best Emo Love Songs
While emo music might be most associated with sadness and heartbreak, those lovelorn artists couldn’t have written such songs without experiencing some serious romantic highs. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, we wanted to focus on the good parts of love more than the bad — although there’s still some unhappiness and resentment mixed in. (I mean, it is still emo after all.) SPIN’s writers spanned decades, waves and numerous albums looking for the top emo love songs, and now we’ve gathered them all here to save you the work. And yes, we know “emo” is just as broad a term as “love song” — you may also describe some of these acts as pop-punk or post-hardcore or even heart-on-sleeve indie-rock. But all of these bangers branch off the same family tree. From trailblazers like The Get Up Kids...
