SPIN on Google Books

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?

http://books.google.com/books?id=8X17JjiXfYYC&lpg=PP1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q=&f=false

"Any indie scenester knows it's not kill your idols, it's kill yr idols. Yr, Axl, yr."

"scenester" was a much better term than "hipster" imo

I'm still desperately trying to find the Kim Gordon/Chuck D interview where Chuck sees Thurston's Necros albums on the wall and misreads a "c" as a "g"...

i don't think i fit in to yr indie scene..

I'm still desperately trying to find the Kim Gordon/Chuck D interview where Chuck sees Thurston's Necros albums on the wall and misreads a "c" as a "g"...

Sep '89, page 50

(And it was LL Cool J.)

The original interview between Kim Gordon and LL Cool J that served as the inspiration for "Kool Thing":

http://books.google.com/books?id=PK1uLUXpAzoC&lpg=PA50&lr=&as_pt=MAGAZINES&rview=1&pg=PA50#v=onepage

Ah! That's why I couldn't find it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZURL7ud3IwsC&lpg=PP1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=&f=false

"I'm trying, really. But everybody except me seems to get it when Billy Corgan croons, 'I used to be a little boy, so (garble) in my shoes.'"

John Leland's Terence Trent D'Arby feature:

http://books.google.com/books?id=O5KWH9rNuE4C&lpg=PP1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q=&f=false

i love looking at the ads

http://books.google.com/books?id=gJX3jzxQYbMC&lpg=PA1&lr=&rview=1&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The article that turned a wee lad onto Philip K. Dick (& Sonic Youth.)

i'm weirdly pissed off about this whole thing. like the internet wasn't enough of a time suck.

http://books.google.com/books?id=5zrzfgLFgUYC&pg=RA1-PT48&dq=jim+greer+loveless&rview=1&cd=1#v=onepage&q=jim%20greer%20loveless&f=false

first thing i looked for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU

It's a lonely ol' night.

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

― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Saturday, March 6, 2010 7:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i found my letter that was published, too! all these years i've been paranoid about it resurfacing, but it's not nearly as embarrassing as I remember, mainly because I think they edited it down to a coherent point (still not linking to it, though).

how do you think this kid would feel about SEO?

http://books.google.com/books?id=FD4jKFVQOhMC&pg=PA38&dq=spin+%22al+shipley%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=spin%20%22al%20shipley%22&f=false

haha i was asking for that, i know ::shakes fist::

You should name your band Staggering Hypocrisy.

You're from Delaware.

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iirc i wrote a far worse letter to Rolling Stone a couple years beforehand that thank god wasn't published