SPIN on Google Books

Something an editor told me they wanted who was then dismissed so it was killed by some replacement and I forgot about for a couple until someone at a party told me they're read my Stryper thing in their latest subscription copy.

http://books.google.com/books?id=5oyYjDeNc_AC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=George+Smith+stryper+spin&source=bl&ots=3p7L6VUQrU&sig=xocMXmddcRPnr3zkpkKhONjGY-o&hl=en&ei=tnySS7zcCYSEswPUo5n7CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

good lord ... feeling like I'm 14 again here. it feels funny.

Best albums of 2003!

http://books.google.com/books?id=dJ7nHM_LvUUC&lpg=PP1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q=&f=false

er, 1993

In a gaffe they continue to apologize profusely for at every oppportunity, Spin names Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque Album of the Year over Nirvana's Nevermind:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5zrzfgLFgUYC&lpg=PP1&rview=1&pg=RA1-PA56#v=onepage&q=&f=false

This is AMAZING, btw.

And here they actually reviewed my record, a year earlier. They they fired that guy, too.

http://books.google.com/books?id=VVODZz_egcEC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=Dick+Destiny+spin&source=bl&ots=B6Xa9RLZGG&sig=STd6LAXys8L4Jg83DcO2loPwUo4&hl=en&ei=X4CSS9FGmLq2A9ikocsI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

A subscription to Spin is $9.99. That's insane. Is it still worth it?

Actually, Amazon says $9.95.

Jayzus. I have to leave the house to run errands. Instead I'm reading Jim Greer on why Robyn Hitchcock's "She Doesn't Exist" is the greatest song Hitch ever wrote.

OMFG! I've been trying to find John Leland's Singles column on Public Enemy for years. This thing totally changed my life. I remember where I was when I read this and then when/where I bought the tape of Bum Rush the Show then popping it into my Walkman to go out for run and having my white suburban mind blown.

http://books.google.com/books?id=baaFL4PyjS0C&lpg=PA1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q=&f=false

This issue was huge for me when I was in college: Spike Lee guest edits. No idea if it holds up now, but anyway:

http://books.google.com/books?id=hV6_z7r2zQMC&printsec=frontcover&lr=&rview=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It also gives readers an opportunity to see when the originals when the magazine was one of the leading AIDS deniers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Peter+Duesberg+AIDS+SPIN&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

yeah I remember Spin's irresponsible coverage of AIDS/HIV - appalling. tho to be fair the John Leland stans on the thread probably didn't read the magazine's non-music articles.

Yeah, did they ever address that era of their AIDS reporting and, I guess, apologize? I remember it was very confusing at the time.

No, we stopped reading them. (xpost)

Honestly it was that AIDS conspiracy coverage that kept me from looking at the magazine at all outside of the briefest of glimpses. No question I missed some excellent writing on music but even so.

haha in my case I think I made it through half of one of the Celia Farber pieces. even before I knew they were irresponsible or whatever they just seemed impenetrable. but I was a teenager, which is probably why.

I wouldn't have articulated it this way at the time but in high school ('89-'93), Spin > RS for music pieces and RS > Spin for non-music pieces.

no those Celia Farber pieces were impenetrable (insert Bob Guccione Jr joke here)

hey GORGE - and chuck too - i got the official word that there will be a book coming out compiling all the issues of andy shernoff's teenage wasteland gazette. hopefully sooner rather than later. worth it for meltzer's non-music stuff alone, but even without that stuff they are a serious kick in the head.

I've never seen an issue so it'll certainly be worth keeping the old eye peeled.

Holy shit @ that AIDS article :(

I didn't ever read one of their AIDS articles. No interest.

First Annual Swimsuit issue w/ Susanna Hoffs!! A++++++

Another genius Leland Singles column, this one pitting Prince against Bruce.

I wonder if they ever reviewed Vodka (the [not bad] band that Celia Farber drummed for...)

Interesting to revisit this review of Christmas:

http://books.google.com/books?id=B_38rmDqlLQC&pg=PA30&dq=christmas+in+excelsior+dayglo&ei=KNqSS63sCY6ENv7X2OsM&rview=1&cd=1#v=onepage&q=christmas%20in%20excelsior%20dayglo&f=false

I still remember the time when reading that something was the best album ever would send me running to the record shops! (To be fair, it is a pretty great album.)

Another genius Leland Singles column, this one pitting Prince against Bruce

That's the best piece written about one of my least favorite Prince singles. I'm gonna play it right now.

KJB, have you gone out today? My contact lenses dried from reading this shit all Thursday.

Nope not at all. I'm genuinely exhausted right now.

dlp, it's searchable but vodka + "celia farber" turned up nothing.

To stop the sausage train a bit, I always loved this 1995 feature by Elizabeth Gilbert (anyone know her?) on the morons populating MTV Spring Break. Given that I surrounded myself with such morons at the time, this astounding passage hit me hard: "They're like a species evolved on an island without natural predators. They never learned how to be shrewd." (56)

"Genius Lessons" by Sean Landers, oh man.

From Wiki...

During her time as a writer at Spin, Farber was romantically involved with the magazine's publisher, Bob Guccione, Jr. In 1994, a Spin employee filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Guccione, Jr. and the magazine, alleging sexual discrimination and favoritism. Farber was a key witness in the ensuing trial, as the prosecution alleged that Farber's relationship with Guccione, Jr. led to her promotion and other job opportunities. Ultimately, the jury found that Spin editors had created a "hostile environment" and awarded $90,000 to the plaintiff; the remainder of the charges, including those of sexual favoritism, were rejected.

I never knew any of that.

I too remember those articles (and being fascinated by and confused by them) in high school, as well as the subsequent coverage of the Foo Fighters playing at AIDS-denial concerts organized by Farber's non-prophet group (ugh).

yes! man. early 90's SPIN taught me and my friends how to hate music

the letters page from the June 94 issue
http://books.google.com/books?id=_4roLQT9sPgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q=&f=false

"If Nietzsche 'saw Hatfield coming from a century away,' it must be what drove him insane."
"She wears her suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo."
"Amos' current incarnation as sensitive-but-angry New Age chanteuse is about as plastic as the boots she used to wear. Tell her to shove her crystals up her own ass!" (signed, "Joni Mitchell Liberation Front")

"They're like a species evolved on an island without natural predators. They never learned how to be shrewd."

they also got the last laff tbh

MTV spring break.. i remember when that came on every summer & i was so confused by it, wondering what planet those people were from

i found the letter that i wrote about bob stinson when he died in 1993
omg

PLEASE KILL ME I WANT TO DIE
not even the new Matador mail order catalog can end my grief. Selections from LIZ PHAIR, THE FALL and THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION are featured, but why not end it all now?

xpost. I've always thought that this photo of Celia and her sister explained a lot. Celia on the left...

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/29/1375/1024/Marginalized.jpg

"Call me cynical, but I can't help but wonder if Evan Dando isn't just the dopey victim of the music industry's alternative music marketing machine."

the letters page from the June 94 issue

they're hilarious!

"At least the Deal sisters come by their attitude honestly. How much did Juliana Hatfield have to pay for hers?"

Can someone summarize the magazine's AIDS coverage? What was so awful? (I honestly don't know)

http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/cfmbeki.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/26/aids-south-africa

oh, aren't the letters great? i still have that issue on my bookshelf right now but chopped out a bunch of those letters w/x-acto knife to paste onto mixtape covers, because they were just so funny. The Breeders "acting out some postpunk version of a George Cukor bitchfest" - this made NO sense to me at the time, but then, about 75% of the content made no sense to me at the time, all the allusions to artists/films/stories of which I'd never heard.

I also had no idea about the AIDS coverage, I skipped reading all the news articles in every issue, and (sheltered conservative small town) had no idea what AIDS even was, it just didn't register to me. that's really strange that they covered it that way..

i wrote one of those letters. in it, 17 year old me invited the late bob stinson to live in my parents' attic with me. it's pretty hilarious. (to me at least)
i called him a "fallen rock star"
hahahaha

dnw to post here b/c of irl name fyi

<3
that's awesome

i never wrote them any letters. thank god, because i'd have written something so overwrought and mean-spirited that they'd have printed it just to laugh at. i mean the crazier everyone around me irl got at the time, the more exaggerated became the importance of issues like "is it REALLY ok to still like this band if they're in the buzz bin now?"

"Your full-page photo of Vanilla Ice ('The Iceman Cometh Back,' May '94) reminded me of a quote by Oscar Wilde."
"Your taste sucks. If Jim Gr33r can't grasp Counting Crows songs, maybe he should stick to something he understands."

<3<3<3
i can't tell if these letters are serious, but i can't tell if the original articles are serious either, i wonder if the people writing them even knew for sure?