MLB 2K8 All Star Kick Off Party
New York, NY
June 9, 2008
To celebrate and kick-off All Star Week in New York, SPIN
and Major League Baseball 2K8 partnered to present
DJ sets by Pase Rock and Alex English, and a special
performance by Albert Hammond, Jr. who played tracks
off his newest album ¿Como Te Llama?
WHO
Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester, members
of Your Vegas and Band of Thieves, and Diego Garcia were
just a few of the guests who flooded Hiro Ballroom to
dance and play the MLB 2K8 games set up on Nintendo
Wiis in the gaming lounge while sipping on complimentary
cocktails from 42 Below and Red Bull.
PHO TOGRAPHS BY ADAM MIGNANELLI [ 1-2, 4, 8 ]; DAVE ALLOCCA/S TARPIX [ 3, 5-7 ]
“THIS IS ALL AN AVALANCHE of confetti and balloons and kazoos,” Beck Hansen told writer Mike Rubin back in 1994, on the occasion of the artist’s first Spin cover story. “Before, the party was just an empty room with a bare lightbulb on the ceiling.” As Beck marveled at the breakout success of his debut album, Mellow Gold, he also fretted that his self-deprecating hit single “Loser” was being misinterpreted, making him the unwilling spokesman for the slacker generation. “I’ll be laughed out of the room in an instant,” he said. Thankfully, that slacker tag never stuck, since for nearly 15 years, his prolific kitchen-sink sonic experiments in folk, hip-
hop, funk, electronica, balladeering, psychedelia, what-have-you have left an indelible mark on modern music and, by extension, this magazine. For this month’s cover story (trainspotters note: the sixth time he’s graced the front of this publication), Dallas-based writer John McAlley traveled to Zurich and Amsterdam to spend time with Beck, touring in support of his dazzling new album, Modern Guilt. In McAlley’s illuminating and idiosyncratic profile, the performer opens up about the methods to his wonderful madness, the toll the road has taken, and how he plans to adapt to the new music-biz paradigm—whatever that may turn out to be. Elsewhere in the issue, Matt Diehl, author of My So-Called Punk: Green Day, Fall Out Boy, the Distillers, Bad Religion—How Neo-Punk Stage Dived Into the Mainstream (whew!), profiles emo-rap-rock-R&B phenoms (and FOB protégés) Gym Class Heroes, who find themselves facing down haters and their own demons while balancing the pleasures of high-profile girlfriends and blunt-filled buses. Tough life.
All this plus Crystal Castles, Patti Smith,
Russian billionaires, Fabulous Stains, and the grandson of Satan (sorta). Just think of this issue as an avalanche of confetti and balloons. Sorry, no kazoos.
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