FEATURES
27 Musicians Predict the 2020-21 NBA Season
If it feels like the most-recent NBA season just ended, well, it did. The strangeness of 2020 engulfed the association, but it led to one of the more innovative ideas of the COVID-era: the bubble. (Mostly) quarantined, teams competed with nary a hitch at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando. The season ended in the fall instead of its customary June, but nevertheless, the NBA is back on Dec. 22. As usual, we enlisted our expert musician panel to preview what’s shaping up to be yet another unpredictable NBA season. Mark Lanegan Los Angeles Clippers CREDIT: Travis Keller What’s your prognosis for the season? Will they ever get over the hump?At this point, I’m slightly jaded as far as the Clips are concerned. I always go into the season optimistic and the same when they hit...
28 Musicians Predict the 2020-21 NBA Season
If it feels like the most-recent NBA season just ended, well, it did. The strangeness of 2020 engulfed the association, but it led to one of the more innovative ideas of the COVID-era: the bubble. (Mostly) quarantined, teams competed with nary a hitch at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando. The season ended in the fall instead of its customary June, but nevertheless, the NBA is back on Dec. 22. As usual, we enlisted our expert musician panel to preview what’s shaping up to be yet another unpredictable NBA season. Mark Lanegan Los Angeles Clippers CREDIT: Travis Keller What’s your prognosis for the season? Will they ever get over the hump?At this point, I’m slightly jaded as far as the Clips are concerned. I always go into the season optimistic and the same when they hit...
Brad Nowell’s Family Keeps Hope Alive for Sublime Frontman’s Rehab Facility
Being the younger sibling of Sublime frontman Brad Nowell can be hard sometimes for Kellie Nowell, who never grew up wanting the spotlight. On his birthday and the anniversary of his death from an overdose in 1996, generations of fans mourn the loss of Long Beach’s influential frontman, but Kellie says she would opt to stay inside and keep her pain and sorrow to herself. “I think for about 15 years after he died, I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want to hear music I didn’t want to, you know, just, I just couldn’t handle it,” she tells SPIN. As years went by, the love shown by fans allowed her to open up little by little as emails, Facebook messages and the desire for a tangible connection to Brad showed Kellie the importance of allowing herself to let people in for the sake of hon...
2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E: Is the EV SUV Comfortable for Tall Folks?
Being so damn tall makes it hard to drive sports cars. There are some I simply can’t physically get inside. That’s one reason why I love the Ford Mustang—it easily fits my 6-foot-10 frame. So, I had to find out if the Mustang Mach-E could match its coupe counterpart’s surprising spaciousness during its stay in our stables. 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E: Squeezed in the Saddle Key in my pocket, I walked up to the driver-side door and pushed the release button—no handles here. The door popped out so I could grab its little fin to swing it open. Like I always do, I adjusted the seat to its lowest and rearmost setting before climbing in. The front door apertures are large, which made it easy to slide in (and later out) without knocking my noggin. So far so good. But...
The History of the Rugged, Full-Size Chevrolet K5 Blazer
Ford had the Bronco. Jeep had the CJ. Even International Harvester—the tractor company—had the Scout. And General Motors had…nothing? Into that sport-utility vacuum, the Chevrolet K5 Blazer was born. With it, GM created a 4×4 that was both a direct response to the existing spectrum of SUVs and yet also apart from it. The key difference was size: Unlike its would-be rivals, the Blazer was based on the automaker’s successful full-size pickup truck. That cost-saving measure allowed it both to come to market quickly and to deliver greater capability than its competition. See all 7 photos Sun’s Out, Top’s Off Chevrolet was no stranger to the SUV world, having produced the Carryall/Suburban—a large, truck-based wagon—since the mid-1930s. Although offered with four-wheel drive, ...
Rewind: On This Day in 2016, Cookie Monsta Released Fan-Favorite VIP of “Party Drink Smoke”
Back in October the dance music community tragically said goodbye to Cookie Monsta, a pioneering artist in the dubstep world, gone far too soon. The bass music producer made his mark with the support of Circus Records, a label founded by his longtime colleagues and friends, Flux Pavilion and Doctor P. Four years ago today, Cookie Monsta had a career-defining moment when he dropped an incendiary VIP remix of Flux Pavilion and Doctor P’s collaboration “Party Drink Smoke (feat. Jarren Benton).” The late artist kicked up the tempo and distortion a notch, and with bellowing bass and intricately layered vocals, he led listeners into a stampeding rush of energy capable of riling up a festival audience in a flash. With Cookie Monsta’s fresh new spin, the track see...
EDM.com’s Best of 2020: Songs
This year, the team at EDM.com is proud to publish four installments of “Best of 2020” coverage: Industry Leaders, Performances, Music Producers, and Songs. When COVID-19 stomped on the sandcastles of the live music industry and its countless venues, the streaming world mushroomed due to a massive influx of new music. With nowhere to share their art but the blue light of our devices, producers turned to streaming platforms and released new music at a breakneck pace in 2020. With so much new music offered by EDM’s artist community, it would be unfair to its diverse range of creators to publish a nebulous blanket list of the year’s top songs. So to highlight the best songs of the year, we’ve chosen ten of the most popular sub-genres of dance music and recognized...
Coolest Junkyard Mopar Ever! 1969 Dodge Charger “Scraptona”
When you look at a machine like this and find out it’s the result of a risky, hare-brained business decision, you know you’re hanging with passionate car guys. That’s the ethos that drives Michael Hunt and Lee Clayton, the owners of TredWear. Their business revolves around permanent tire graphics that can be applied to any tire to dress them up. The best way in the automotive world to display your product is to build cool cars that embody the spirit of what you’re selling, so that’s what they’ve been doing, and as it turns out, this hare-brained idea is actually pretty business savvy. TredWear’s last creation, the “Tarantula,” was featured in the July 2018 issue of HOT ROD magazine and debuted on the 2017 HOT ROD Power Tour. The 1939 Ch...
EDM.com’s Best of 2020: Music Producers
This year, the team at EDM.com is proud to publish four installments of “Best of 2020” coverage: Industry Leaders, Performances, Music Producers, and Songs. DJing and music production are different. But the difference between the two is like a wallflower—it hides in plain sight, and it is vastly misunderstood. Many artists do both, but not all DJs produce music and not all music producers DJ. Producers create the music that a DJ will then play out to crowds—it’s an important distinction that eludes many. Like a sleek Lamborghini driving from one coast to another, the art of DJing is a stylish means to an end. And music production is the engine that powers it. To publish a “Top DJ” list would be to undermine the originality, ingenuity, and dauntless imagin...
Marcus Haney on Photo Book Documenting Last Innocent Decade of Concerts
The cover of James Marcus Haney’s new photo book, Fantatics, doesn’t feature a massive arena crowd or rowdy mosh pit — any of the obvious concert imagery one might expect. Instead, it shows two people mid-kiss: eyes largely closed, mouths agape, seemingly transfixed amid a sea of strangers. Haney has “no idea” who they are. “I took one photograph of them, and I don’t think they even registered that a photograph was taken,” he tells SPIN with a laugh. “I hope they are together and married with kids or something. If they see themselves on a bookshelf somewhere, I hope that’s a good thing.” In this case, the image illuminated Haney’s purpose for the book: documenting the personal — and often intimate — side of the concert experience from 2010 through the early pandemic. “Right from the b...
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS: What We Know About the EV Flagship
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS: New Electric Architecture Mercedes plans to put six EVs on the market by 2022, and at the forefront of the three-pointed star’s electric vehicle pursuits is the EQS sedan. Unlike the GLC-based Mercedes EQC electric crossover, the EQS is due to ride on a dedicated EV platform, dubbed EVA2. It might be the S-Class of Mercedes EVs, but the EQS won’t share its architecture with the brand’s recently redesigned flagship sedan. Although we’ve yet to hear from the German automaker regarding the production EQS’s specifications, we suspect the big EV will initially debut with all-wheel-drive (one electric motor at each axle) and an approximately 100-kWh battery pack. 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS: Big Range See all 27 photos 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS: Deca...
Artist of the Year: Run the Jewels
In a year filled with chaos, social reckoning, protests, rage and financial ruin, there appeared to be no light that would save the world from the roiling political issues that had been brewing for decades. There was no Death Star, though it would have surprised no one if the Earth imploded like Alderaan. At least we had the two heroes we definitely needed but didn’t deserve: Run the Jewels. In February, El-P and Killer Mike were gearing up for what was set to be the biggest year of their career. Run the Jewels had become a tour de force with each of their studio albums (and of course, the cat-themed remix album Meow the Jewels), and opening for Rage Against the Machine on the band’s latest reunion tour would have opened up the duo to a much wider audience. Then, March 2020 happened. The p...
