A lot of changes made for a pretty great year.
My January promotion to Executive Editor meant leading online site editorial. Aside from some input by our Acting Editor-in-Chief, SPIN Founder Bob Guccione Jr., I managed the editorial staff, the stories, and the overall site strategy. So it was a big year for me.
More from Spin:
The Worst Songs We Heard in 2019
50 Best Albums of 2017
The 25 Best Music Videos of 2014
One of the most exciting events of our year: After 12 years, at the end of August, SPIN was back on newsstands, relaunching with cover artist Lainey Wilson. The print team was led by Bob, with Senior Editor Matt Thompson (who also penned some of the most spectacular in-depth works of our 2024) as his second in command. By the time you read this, the December year-end issue will still be available at all major newsstands—but if you subscribe you can get it right to your door! (Subscribe!)
While we published such incredible editorial and worked with so many fantastic new writers throughout the year, it’s impossible to include everything. Because I wrote so few pieces this year, I’ve included most of those here, as well as some other highlights to show the breadth of subjects and stories—and hopefully inspire you to visit the site for more.
Too much of a good thing is an excellent problem, but it made approaching this roundup a tough task. Thank you to all of the incredible talent we had the privilege to work with this year.
January
My fourth, annual Rock Hall letter was for Indigo Girls, which, like all previous letters (The Go-Go’s, Sinéad O’Connor, Tori Amos) feels like such an obvious overlook. I’ll never stop insisting that great artists get recognized while they’re alive. (Oh, and for more Indigo Girls, check out my March 2021 deep dive with Emily and Amy, which was also featured on Goodreads.)
Mid-month I launched a new series, Singles, as a means of highlighting new song releases and the stories behind them. From AFROJACK to The Struts’ Luke Spiller, G-Eazy, Poppy, Davina Michelle, Ruel (to name a few) — these are some of the most fun, intimate, and whimsical interviews of the year.
And then, at the end of the month, an idea I’d had for years was finally ready: a series on local record stores. Called (appropriately) The Record Store, this has to be one of our most heart-warming series of profiles and will forever be a career favorite for me. From what it means to start a small business to insider insights on vinyl-collecting—the focus was on real talk with real people who buy, collect, and sell records. We got hundreds upon hundreds of submissions from all over the world and met so many phenomenal new writers through this series.
I wrote the first piece, featuring Main Street Jukebox in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
February
Since I started our weekly 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without franchise I’ve interviewed literally hundreds of musicians. It’s impossible to point to a favorite.
However, February’s phone interview with Ace Frehley was an experience I still talk about, little to do with his five albums, but for so many other reasons. In sum: 1. He makes his own interview phone calls, 2. We discovered that we live in the same area, 3. He told me stories of being abducted by aliens, 4. As well as some other non-alien related tales that will remain off the record, 5. And when I asked him about his iconic 1996 SPIN cover (where all four members of KISS had their own) he said: “I thought I looked stupid in that picture because I looked too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Maybe it was because I just did a couple of lines of coke. I don’t know.”
March
I spoke with Taylor Momsen and Ben Phillips to commemorate 10 years of The Pretty Reckless’s Going to Hell, this story is so deep and layered (and at times quite heartbreaking) and they were so honest and open…it was such an honor to write this one.
Others to check out from March: Faye Webster (Steve Hochman), Taj Mahal (Lily Moayeri), Jean Dawson (Kyle Eustice), Sheherazaad and Fletcher (both by Vrinda Jagota).
April
April marked 30 years since Kurt Cobain’s passing and with SPIN’s deep history with the band (we gave them their first cover) we devoted our April cover to Kurt. Veteran SPIN writer Jim Greer penned a poignant story. We also re-ran Bob’s Top SPIN editorial from when Kurt died. Both Jim and Bob knew Kurt personally.
All of the editors were doing tributes and I wanted to do something a little bit different—a focus on the next generation’s view of Nirvana. An old grad school pal helped facilitate a kids’ reaction art project. I couldn’t have anticipated how moving the results would be, check it out: Smells Like Teen Art: Kids’ Reaction Art to Nirvana’s Classic Single.
May
Shannon and the Clams’ album The Moon Is in the Wrong Place is one of the most remarkable records of the year with a gut-wrenching story behind it, one I told in my May interview with the band’s Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard. I named their single “Real or Magic” one of the year’s best.
Read also: Vrinda Jagota’s Gracie Abrams profile.
June
I wrote three cover stories last year, but this year only one, on the warm, razor-sharp, ultra-talented budding superstar Stephen Sanchez.
And, so you can have it on-hand for future graduation days, I penned an off-beat “advice for new graduates” piece based on the ‘93 William S. Burroughs song “Words of Advice for Young People.” (Not your average grandpa advice, that’s for sure.)
July
I’m going to say it: Nick Bell is the best film writer out there. In honor of July’s National Orgasm Day, he wrote a list of The 10 Greatest Cinematic Orgasms—but I can promise it’s not what you think.
Some other conversation-starters: Charles Moss’ deep-dive into 50 years of NYC punk, Stephen Deusner’s Bad Soundtracks list, Adam Steiner’s ultimate tribute to NIN’s Downward Spiral, Leila Sales’ all-too-relatable piece about songs that inspire speeding tickets, Candace Hansen’s fantastic take on Hole’s ‘Live Through This’ at 30, the only Devo profile you’ll ever need (by Kyle Eustice), that time I paid a guy $35 to write a song about my dog, Tamlin Magee’s revelatory dissection of pizza thrash, and Lily Moayeri’s no-holds-barred interview with Moon Zappa about her new memoir.
Also read: Ernesto Lechner’s profile of Girl Ultra.
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September
Even though I launched my A Day in the Life series in January 2021, somehow it only gets better and better. The interviews are great, but BTS artist videos are a game-changer.
Though it’s impossible to choose a favorite, September’s A Day in the Life of… BLOND:ISH (with an interview by Charles Moss) not only provided me with a new favorite NYC matcha place, but also had me wondering why Joe’s pizza doesn’t do more spontaneous pizza renegades. (Give me a heads up next time, please!)
Check out other 2024 DITL interviews—including CMAT, Grace Bowers, Bailey Zimmerman, BoyWithUke—here.
Also from September: David Gilmour (Bill Kopp), JHAYCO (Vrinda Jagota), Judeline (ER Pulgar).
October
This month had some of the most powerful pieces of the year.
The following pieces perfectly represent the variety of exceptional October storytelling: Lily Moayeri’s The Land of the Not Free (republished from the print issue), Steve Hochman’s beautiful interview with Samara Joy, Brendan Menapace’s fun profile of the Billy Joel tribute band Turnstiles, and Charles Moss’ intimate chat with Jaden Smith.
December
The Cure’s long-awaited Songs of a Lost World spoke to us—and apparently many of you—and seemed an obvious choice to become our 2024 Album of the Year. I called the album “elegant, gut-wrenching, and indisputably authentic—an absolute masterpiece.” Even more, it “elevates us,” reflecting the good, the bad, and the ugly of our humanity.
A perfect way to end the year, and start a new one.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
