Spin's 20th Anniversary issue has interviews with their list of the 20 greatest innovators of the last 20 years. I liked the Ian MacKaye interview. Interesting stuff on the whole Nike controversy and not talking to Spin for 10 years. Here's one of the questions with Mr. MacKaye's reply...
Spin: So you have no nostalgia for alternative rock's heyday?
No, I'm not nostalgic for that period at all. I'm not a nostalgic person. I don't think any more or less about '91 than I do about '81; that's just the number that was on the year. you have to understand, I'm not an anniversary-issue guy. I could give a fuck about that. What's important about Spin is what it's doing now. What you should do is put U.S. OUT OF IRAQ on your cover and just declare it, so other people who know and feel in their hearts that this war is wrong don't have to feel so lonely and isolated. That's more interesting to me. I don't think, "Oh, those were the heydays." That's just boring. You can only imagine how many people come up to me and talk about "back in the day." The fact is, the most imporant music in the world is the music being made right now, because it's the only thing that has a chance of changing things.
Related links:
Prefix interview with Ian MacKaye (The Evens)
Prefix
review of the self-titled Evens album
I think the evens will be one of my top albums of '05 (at least i dont think it came out in 2004?)
But yeah, Ian lives in the moment. For better or worse.
Posted by: Satisfied '75 | September 29, 2005 at 05:50 PM
does someone have a link or PDF of this piece in whole? if so, please email me. This was one the keepable issue of SPIN i came across during my short-lived subscription, and it somehow was thrown away.
Posted by: joe | December 07, 2007 at 11:58 PM