EDITOR’S LETTER

[ 1] Danny Fujikawa of Chief

[ 2] Ryan Harris,

guitarist for Matt Toka

One of these things is not like

the others.

[ 3] Satisfaction

Finding My Religion

SPIN & Original Penguin
Open Mic Series

FOUR YEARS AGO, in a decidedly lukewarm
review of the R.E.M. album Around the Sun

NYC, Dallas, Newport, LA, and Miami
November 2007–
January 2008

for another publication, I mused: “Michael

Stipe and Co. finally reveal they have no

interest in playing ‘rock’ anymore.” After

The six-week-long series held in Original Penguin

stores in New York City, Miami, Newport Beach,

hearing the combustible Accelerate, their 14th
studio endeavor, I’m thrilled to have to eat my

Dallas, and Los Angeles proved to be

words. Count me among the longtime fans who

the perfect stage for emerging local musicians

to perform acoustic sets for fans, friends,

shoppers, and curious bystanders.

WHO

Soft, Chief, the Walkup, Band of Thieves (N YC);

Matt Toka, the Airlines, Moving Picture Show

ANDRE W SIMKISS [ 1& 7]; HOLLY KIESZ [ 2 & 5]; KERR Y BULL [ 3]; ELLEN RONES [ 4]; AUBIN VIEGER [ 6]; ERNES TO ESPINOSA [ 8]

(LA); Venus Infers, Another Day Late, Satisfaction

(Newport); Chris August, Cabrio, Taylor Vieger,

the Standard Issue (Dallas); Modernage, Robots

& Butterflies, Montgomery Drive (Miami)

[ 8] The Airlines

sorta tuned out over the last decade, preferring
to remember their vibrant early days over the
dreary recent past.
I first saw R. E.M. perform live—spectacu-
larly—in 1983, at Queens College’s tiny
student union. R.E.M. were, at the time,
perhaps the leading purveyors of what was
then called college rock, and their influence
was just beginning to be felt nationwide. It was
an era wonderfully documented in the 2001

book Our Band Could Be Your Life, whose author,

[ 4] Montgomery Drive

Michael Azerrad, wrote this month’s cover story.
As Azerrad suggests, to reinvigorate

[ 5] Matt Toka

themselves, R.E.M. headed back to the
proverbial basement. And they did just that

That’s them on

at our cover shoot: A lucky few of us were

the cover (from

treated to a short jam session in the bowels

top): October

’ 86, March ’ 91,

of Chelsea’s Milk Studios, where Stipe, Mike

and August ’ 95

Mills, and guitarist Peter Buck played a bit of
the Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday in Cambodia,”
as well as lively versions of the Modern Lovers’

[ 7] Chief

“Roadrunner” and Beat Happening’s “Indian
Summer.” An extraordinary moment, and
we’re proud to present visual evidence of it
within our pages. Enjoy.

PHO TOGRAPH Y B Y:

Doug Brod

Editor