YUNGMORPHEUS
SPIN at SXSW: The Lemonheads Reignite Austin With It’s a Shame About Ray Performance
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 through their classic 1992 album, It’s a Shame About Ray, as the party’s marquee feature, and even if at least half of the audience hadn’t been born by the time they initially broke up, Dando’s youthful warble still filled Stubb’s vast gravely lawn. One could probably hear Dando and the rest of us “Raaaaaay” from the Capitol less than a mile from the venue. Nearly three decades later, the one-two punch of “Bit Part” and “Allison’s Starting to Happen” still goes for the punk...
SPIN Daybreaker: Peach Fuzz
Another whirlwind of a week is coming to a close and there’s lots to reflect on and hopefully learn from. Just like life, any themes explored through music can all be classified as moments to find something new and exciting about ourselves. This week, the roundup is the epitome of discovering music to discover yourself. It is an amalgamation of all the best emotions we encounter in this lifetime: angst, self-absorption, selflessness, curiosity, love, confusion, confidence, you get it. These artists are setting the new standards of music – that is, blurring the lines, doing what they want, and focusing their attention to expressing themselves wholeheartedly instead of trying to create more boundaries for creativity to adhere to. They’re truly making the industry embrace what it is to b...
The 30 Best Albums of 2021 (So Far)
Despite what some “best of” blurb intros may tell you, there is no exact science to list-making. And constructing one so methodically just might ruin the joy altogether — for both us, the curators, and you, the readers. Even though debate is a natural reaction, anger is not. These stories are supposed to be fun! And hopefully unique — who wants to read the exact same list at every publication? Sure, SPIN’s Best Albums of 2021 (So Far) does feature some of the year’s biggest buzz bands. But we hope you’ll also discover some records that slipped through the cracks — and maybe, just maybe, reconsider some LPs you previously dismissed. Let’s meet back here in six months and see how things shake out. Adjective Animal – America’s Got Talons CREDIT: Adjective Animal For over a decade, Jon Bi...
Blue Chips: YUNGMORPHEUS
Blue Chips is a monthly rap column that doubles as a scouting report. Each month, SPIN selects a rapper (or group of rappers) who could be Rookie of the Year candidates turned Hall-of-Famers or forgettable flashes in the pan. Only the passing seasons (and the number of streams) will tell. To read previous columns, click here. Academia is an insular world with a limited, often privileged audience. Economic and racial disparity is the norm, and institutional change is incremental at best. After four infuriating years at Boston College, YUNGMORPHEUS didn’t want to become one of many (and too few) Black academics stymied by systemic hurdles while questioning his reach. > “You may be saying some ill shit, but who are you talking to? There’s just a gang of schmucks in here like, ‘I’...
