SPIN 35
Precious Metal
A trip through SPIN’s 1985 archives reveals plenty of cool underground culture—deathrock, early industrial, Henry Rollins doing stuff. When it came to metal, however, coverage in ‘85 tended toward the glossy, poodle-haired end of the genre, with Mötley Crüe and Christian metallers Stryper getting the most ink. Meanwhile, down in the metal underground, seeds were being sown for something uglier and way less pious. These seeds sprouted into bands from all over the world pushing metal to new extremes and embracing over-the-top depravity, with many of them defining entire subgenres with their stylistic shifts. These five releases show some of the clearest through-lines from 1985 to the extreme metal of 2020. CELTIC FROST: To Mega-Therion CREDIT: Brigitte Engl/Redferns Switzerland’s Hellhammer ...
The Most Influential Artists: #29 Tyler, the Creator
As part of our 35th-anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #29. From Los Angeles, California, here is Tyler, the Creator. CREDIT: Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images Introducing himself as a shock rapper with exceptional production skills on his 2009 mixtape, Bastard, a young Tyler, the Creator took over the underground by helping build up the careers of Odd Future group mates — including Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt and the Internet — as the collective’s mainstay. But once Tyler pushed into the groovy production of later records Cherry Bomb and Flower Boy, the rapper-producer showed he didn’t need to say crazy shit to sell records. He capitalized on melodies instead of fake threats to Bruno Mars’ life, putting it all on ...
Top 10 Reasons Why I Hate Mark Knopfler
You have to love New Orleans. There is always something happening, but it’s never happening in a hurry. No matter what the hour, people are always milling about; some for nefarious reasons, sure, but it’s hard to feel lonely in the Big Easy. A guy creaks by on a rusty, Frankensteined bicycle and lifts his chin in a greeting. If he lets go of the mismatched handlebars to wave, his ride might come apart. Most people who are up this early on Annunciation Street are just getting home. Like vampires, we shield our swollen eyes from the first rays of the sun and growl in protest, but while they’re settling into bed, I’m settling into this wobbly porch chair to begin the painful process of trying to bleed ink onto an empty page. With a looming deadline and a trashcan full of failure, I contemplat...
Tom Petty’s Last Dance
Some of the most shocking nights in music are the ones that seem the most normal. My parents were in town for my son’s third birthday in September 2017. Ho-hum. Unbeknownst — or rather, very unbeknownst to me – my mother’s favorite singer-songwriter, Tom Petty, was playing a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl to close out his 40th-anniversary tour. The tickets were long sold out — and if you’re familiar with the Bowl, for a decent ticket, you know it’s going to set you back at least three digits. My mother didn’t deserve that. I volunteered to cover the show for my former infernal freelance rag, OC Weekly. I asked for the final night. Besides, on this tour, Petty and the Heartbreakers performed the same songs at each show. The Arroyo Seco festival took place earlier that year by...
The Most Influential Artists: #30 Spice Girls
As part of our 35th-anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #30. From London, UK, here are the Spice Girls. CREDIT: Paul Bergen/Redferns In the early 1990s, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and Bratmobile ushered in the feminist punk riot grrrl movement. But when the Spice Girls released their breakthrough single, “Wannabe,” in 1996, the English five-piece — Melanie Brown (Scary Spice), Emma Bunton (Baby Spice), Geri Horner (Ginger Spice), Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice) and Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) — brought that ethos to the mainstream. With the group’s popularity came an electric mantra of “girl power” and a branded style of female empowerment that would define an era. Beyond music, the Spice Girls were everywhere — from movies ...
Omar Apollo Is Embracing His Whole Being With Apolonio
Omar Apollo has landed. Following the release of his debut album, Apolonio, the free-spirited singer-songwriter donned a fuzzy purple suit and took the stage at Prince’s Paisley Park studios. Gyrating to his own music, chest bare and guitar in hand, he became the first artist to play a concert in this sacred space. “His estate reached out to my management,” Apollo tells SPIN. “I’m just like, ‘Dude, of course, I’ll be down.’” The 23-year-old, who is pushing the boundaries of pop with R&B and funk references from Prince’s playbook, made history on the turf of his late idol. Inspirations he was dreaming about three years ago are now part of his world. When Apollo didn’t have the money in 2017 to upload music to Spotify, a friend who believed in his talent let him borrow $30. H...
Precious Star
Joan Jett’s been up all night. This is the first thing she tells me when I finally speak with her, a moment I’ve been waiting for as long as I can remember. We all have our reasons for doing what we do, most of mine revolve around Joan Jett. If Venus came into this world on a delicate, frothy clamshell, Joan Jett rode in on the back of a bound, gagged and fully leashed Poseidon, all five-foot-five of her riding a roaring tidal wave with the ease of an escalator, while flashing a hypnotic sly side grin that says: Just shut up and swim. Joan Jett is everything. If you’re a Gen X-er like me, you likely became obsessed shortly after the release of her January 1982 hit single — actually a cover of a 1975 Arrows song — “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, from the album of the same name. Yes, there wer...
The Most Influential Artists: #31 Bikini Kill
As part of our 35th-anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #32. From Olympia, Washington here’s Bikini Kill. CREDIT: Steve Eichner/WireImage Marches, protests and mass movements against misogyny — no, these aren’t moments from ‘60s second-wave feminism or even the ‘90s third-wave. It’s all happening now, and with punk rock having its own insurgence against patriarchal predators in the scene, there’s been a dire need for girls in the front now, more than ever before. Enter: Bikini Kill. Gen X-ers remember the days when Kathleen Hanna would blare this famous call to arms at gigs, while millennials and gen Z-ers simply grew up with an appreciation for the ‘90s riot grrrl movement they led, with hopes for a modern comeback. Riot grrrl may h...
Thurston Moore on New LP, 2020 Election, Meeting Our Publication’s Founder
Calling from England a few days before the release of his new LP, By the Fire, Thurston Moore admits the dire situation of the U.S. homeland occupies his mind over anything else. And this is before Trump caught COVID-19. “For me, it’s not so much Biden versus Trump — it’s us versus Trump,” the guitarist tells SPIN. “Right now, this is the main conversation on the table because it’s a serious, serious time. You have leaders putting their heads in the sand while the Earth is fucking being burned up. The health of the planet is the primary situation on hand, and they’re in denial of it. That to me is the most major issue.” If you’ve been listening to Moore and his old band Sonic Youth these last 40 years, politics has always been at the forefront for the New York noise-rock greats. It’s...
The Most Influential Artists: #32 Drake
As part of our 35th-anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #32. From Toronto, Ontario, Canada, here’s Drake. CREDIT: Paras Griffin/Getty Images You can easily compare Aubrey Graham to one of those automatic baseball-pitching machines. Every throw somehow lands exactly where he wants it. Drawing from Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak playbook, Drake’s first move was his 2009 breakout So Far Gone, a mixtape that truly “sounded like an album,” as opposed to, well, a mixtape. And while his signature sing-rapping smashes haven’t since found their way onto equally great albums — with Take Care a major exception — Drizzy could be modern music’s most consistent hit-maker. Attempting to even list his top five is impossible — there really is...
The 35 Best Songs of the Last 35 Years
They’re the songs that changed the face of music. To create the most bad-ass (and possibly random) playlist of all time, we’ve been sure to limit each artist to one song only—and our choice may surprise you. Some might really surprise you. They are anthems, they are bedrocks. Game-changers, decade-definers. They are really great fucking songs. That’s what makes them the best of our best—the best of the last 35 years. 35. “Black Hole Sun” Soundgarden (1994) In an interview with Uncut, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell stated: “What’s interesting to me is the combination of a black hole and a sun…. A black hole is a billion times larger than a sun, it’s a void, a giant circle of nothing, and then you have the sun, the giver of all life.” RIP, Chris Cornell...
Glasses Half Full
There are few things more intrinsically associated with Bono than his sunglasses — other than his ego, of course. And while the U2 frontman has taken his shades to the White House and the Vatican to help lend a lead singer’s perspective to the Pope and President on how to save the planet, he and his specs have not always seen eye-to-eye. As close as they are, Bono’s spectacles offer a unique and dark perspective inside the Easter Island head that rests on the self-important shoulders of the née Paul David Hewson. We spoke with his shades to get an intimate view behind the mysterious ways the Irish rocker looks at himself — which he does a lot — and the world he’s convinced is lucky enough to have him. CREDIT: Sandra Mu/Getty Images How long have you two been together?That depends on your p...
