OldStand: Spin, July 1989
Who says you can't launch new columns in the last week of the year? Many months ago, we nostalgia tripped over a couple of dogeared Rolling Stones (see May '86, June '85). In 2008, we'll be revisiting old rock magazines in this space on a regular basis....
Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like.
Spin's July 1989 issue was a monster, in both quality and quantity: eleven features in all, ranging from a profile of Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil to the obligatory, Rolling Stone-esque "conspiracy" article, about an all-powerful, Pope-worshipping cabal called the Knights of Malta. Ever heard of 'em? No? Good. Because if you had, you'd already be dead.
Nenah Cherry, Billy Bragg, Tin Machine, the Cure (it's the eve of the 90s, Disintegration is about to drop, and -- get this -- Robert Smith is thinking of calling it quits! Noooo!), and David Byrne all get the in-depth interview treatment, while the review section features Pre-James McNew YLT, Paul's Boutique, and a handful of vintage Spin-isms ("[The Goo Goo Dolls sound] like what would happen if you locked the Ramones and The Smiths up in a mailbox during their formative years"). Talk about a premature evaluation.
But there's really only one reason to dial up 7/89: Spin's third-annual Swimsuit Issue, featuring Martika, Ice T, both Julie Browns (downtown and otherwise), and not one but two pictures of Tom Jones in a green "sequined bathing brief." It's not unusual, but it is disturbing.
After the jump: CMJ's top 30, a free call to the Bobby Brown hotline, Voice of the Beehive (?!) on the beach, and one of the 6,715 reasons Flea should be in jail.
Tom's junk. Man, Bob Guccione, Jr. was like the Thomas Edison of irony.
Come on, Flea: slapping babes on the beach with your "limp dick"? At least Corey Glover is only assaulting our sense of fashion.
Aerobie!
As confusing, self-referential ad campaigns go, this one was pretty epic.
"A call to the Bobby Brown line (900 909 BOBB) costs about as much as a copy of this magazine. Here's what you've been missing, on a typical day."
Posted at 2:28 PM in OldStand
Tags: Bobby Brown | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Tom Jones | Voice Of The Beehive
"TDK Presents."
I believe my regular purchases of 90-minute TDK cassettes (in blocks of ten) probably paid for that Top 30 list. Nothing better for a mixtape. Memorex? Okay, I guess, but not nearly as good. But never, ever buy the Maxells -- "maximum dropout," you know?
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I spent so much money on Maxell blank cassettes, saving up all the reward points from the gold stickers it came with. I intended to use them for something awesome (like a cassette holder! or calls to the Bobby Brown hotline!). And then they discontinued the damn points program before I could cash 'em in.
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Yup, this was around the time an odd issue of that magazine would come my way. Everything was so different then. I only imagined what half the bands on that list sounded like because there wasn't any way for me to listen to their music. How things have changed.
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I still have this issue in a box under my bed. Sad.
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Tom Jones looks vaguely hot.
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No Billy Bragg in a swimsuit? Milkman of human kindness, my ass.
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Who's up for a slut metal revival?
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The top ten in that top 30 is awesome. My youth is validated.
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seriously. i'm not at all one of those "music sucks now" people, but compare that list to the ones we've been bombarded with for 2007. no comparison.
the pixies, love and rockets, the cure, xtc, robyn hitchock, firehose, elvis costello, ramones, new order, dickies, replacements, the swans, and depeche mode? wow. i miss the '90s.
(i like this new feature btw, keep them coming).
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I have always considered 1989 to be the high-water mark for alternative music. So many great albums came out that year, and it was a few years until the great mainstream cross-over happened (i.e. Nirvana). That was also the year I started reading SPIN (the first issue I bought had a Matt Groening Life in Hell drawing on it... this was before the Simpsons even had their own show).
I'm just amazed that Sonic Temple made it into the college chart. That's when the Cult really started to stink.
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Oh my. The Connells. I had forgotten. And the rest of that list is gold too. Tom Tom Club! Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom, Way Way Down Deep. Wow. Like yesterday.
Also that Cult record was pretty popular. It wasn't great, but it was okay.
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Did they like Paul's Boutique?
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@Bob
We scanned the Beastie Boys/YLT page (it was President Yo La Tengo, btw), but the text was too hard to read. But, for those who are interested, here ere are some highlights from the Paul's Boutique review:
"In a thinking man's world, this is a position paper for the late-Eighties avant-garde: a bricolage of samples and styles (from Public Enemy to Zeppelin), a mix that talks back to the rappers, a constantly changing relationship between the artist and the artifact. In a knuckeheaded world, it's a crushing party album, with more dumb stuff than you ever imagined."
Then:
"Long overrated as a gimmick, the Beasties have been underrated as visionary grubs; this is the sound of three guys working very hard, cramming each second with a new idea and a tough rhyme."
Writer was John Leland, one of their all-time best. Currently writes for the NYT.
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I remember this issue. I was pissed The Cult didn't make the list. Oh wait, they're #4. Hmm. Never mind.
This goes back many posts ago, but just rediscovered another insane fictitious band worth dredging up--Kaptain Kool and the Kongs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEIFR2ZHBI&feature=PlayList&p=1B04616F31C75C25&index=192
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@ Bob
Here's the Paul's Boutique write-up:
http://stereogum.com/img/oldstand/spin_july89/ylt.jpg
Also President Yo La Tengo review by Rob Sheffield.
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Hey, cool feature, and never too late. Can I rip it off and do a similar thing with my 1970s CIRCUS mags and '80s Musician Magazine? :-)
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Bob Uecker is a fucking pimp.
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I saw YLT around the time of this release. It was fall 1990 at a tiny club in Ann Arbor, opening for the Sundays(!)..absolutley dreadful. They played a half assed cover of Fleetwood Mac's,'Dreams' which equally bemused and annoyed the audience. By the end of their set, it was clear the band were pissed with each other and they thrashed out some rambling song that repeated, "your gonna miss us when we're gone!!".
Really really bad.
I pretty much dismissed them as a joke until 'Painful' came along. Completely changed my opinion and, to this day, I still can't believe it's the same band.
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I was always one for Maxell XLIIs, myself.
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Scott:
Thanks for the screenshot. I wasn't aware in those days Rob Sheffield was an actual writer, and not just a VH1 goon with the face of a lawn gnome. That is, the Rob Sheffield who gave Blink 182 four stars.
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YLT played at my college back in '95 (maybe '96). There were, if I recall, about 15 people in the audience. No exaggeration. And they rocked.
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Aerobie! Man I need to go dig that thing out of my parents' attic...
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Oh God that top 30 Alternative list makes me so happy... I was a DJ at a super kick ass college radio station at the time and those were happy happy days.
Gonna go make that playlist on my iTunes now...
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The Connells were the greatness during the post-REM "College Rock" years (before "Alternative" was the buzzword). Gotta pull out those old CDs of Fun and Games, One Simple Word, and (especially) Ring.
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love the top 30. yeah, i'm an old fogey being nostalgic, but back then you could actually sorta keep track of what was good with spin and a good college radio station.
from that top 30, i own/owned: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, & 28! geez.
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Where's the pics of the two Julies?
It's interesting how many of the College Top 30 were on major labels, as opposed to, say, 1992.
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