Five Things I Learned From Reading Every Last Word of Spin My first New York publishing job was an internship with Spin in the summer of 1987. It wasn't glamorous. Most of my time was spent in a stockroom stuffing envelopes with T-shirts to be sent to new subscribers. Perhaps a nonsubscribing friend or two of mine received a Spin T-shirt as well. I can remember exactly two highlights that summer. First, John Leland, who was a terrific Spin columnist (and who now works here at The Times), took pity on my musical ignorance and gave me a couple of preview cassettes (cassettes!) that would change my worldview: "Sister," by Sonic Youth, and "You're Living All Over Me," by Dinosaur Jr. The other event was writing my first article for a national publication. It was a brief item on the CBGB Record Canteen, which was a new record store attached to the venerable Bowery punk club. I wrote the article and handed it in, and then Bob Guccione Jr., Spin's publisher, got into a fight with his father. Bob Sr. owned Penthouse magazine and furnished Spin with offices a floor below the Penthouse suites. (The proximity made for some surreal elevator rides. The whole place smelled like coconut oil.) Whether the father evicted the son, or the son refused to stay, I'm not sure. But I do know that Spin moved out and didn't publish an issue that October. A month later, Spin published a double issue and entered its golden age. My Record Canteen story died in layout. So it's fitting that I happened to pick up the new double issue presaging Spin's hope for a new golden age. Earlier this year, Spin made the decision to relegate its record reviews to Twitter posts. That I had heard. What I didn't know was that 1) Spin the magazine was bimonthly from here on out. With its new perfect binding and heavy paper stock, it seems to be leaving the ephemera to Spin.com. I'm not sure what that leaves for the magazine, actually. Although it does remind me of mid-"80s issues of Interview. And like "80s-era Interview, it's the random non sequitur in an otherwise banal Q&A that sticks out. For instance, did you know that 2) Bethany Consentino, the singer of Best Coast - as if you even knew that Bethany Consentino was the singer of Best Coast . . . as if you even knew Best Coast! - has a cat named Snacks? And that Snacks is hugely popular among Best Coast fans, and that the band sells plush-toy Snackses at its shows? Because of Alexis Krauss's absolute fealty to her Betty-Page-as-hair-metal-moll look (see magazine cover, above), you've probably noticed some press coverage of the band she sings in, Sleigh Bells. The band is no less devoted to the "story" behind its new record - essentially, a love of Def Leppard without irony! Which I have read elsewhere and which is duly repeated here. What I was surprised to learn was that 3) the band is signed to M.I.A."s N.E.E.T. label - as if I even knew M.I.A. had her own boutique label! Even music insiders are confused by the many tentacles of the Odd Future collective, which features Tyler the Creator, Earl and, like, dozens of other artists who seem to come and go at random. I did know that Frank Ocean was connected to Odd Future. What I was delighted to learn was that 4) after his excellent record, ""Nostalgia, Ultra,"" came out, Island Def Jam desperately tried to sign him - without realizing that Ocean was already signed to Island Def Jam as a songwriter. All this may seem random, but there is one thing running through the entire issue, which is nominally united by Simon Reynolds's theory-of-everything essay about pop music endlessly repeating itself. And that is that 5) David Lynch is the coolest name you can drop in 2012. There are Lynch references in the articles about Lana Del Rey, Sleigh Bells, Trailer Trash Tracys. I guess "Twin Peaks" is on Netflix on demand?