Spin's 25th Anniversary, with Paw

What: Spin magazine’s 25th anniversary issue, featuring 100 moments that rocked Spin’s world.

When: May 2010

So What: Moment No. 54 is “Paw and the Year Scrunge Broke”

  • The author (Craig Marks) recounts the time he flew to Amsterdam to catch Paw while on tour and interview them amidst the “next Nirvana” craze. That article appeared in the August 1993 issue of Spin.

  • Spin coined the term “scrunge” to label the batch of bands that benefited (justifiably or otherwise) from the meteoric rise of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Helmet is considered Lower East Side Nirvana, Bush is regarded as British Nirvana, L7 as female Nirvana, and Paw as wheatfield Nirvana.

  • Flash forward to 2010, and it’s easy to see the insanity of record labels in their pursuit of the next Nirvana, as well as the incongruity of Paw’s sound with Nirvana. Quotes from Grant Fitch support this.

  • The short piece encapsulates Paw’s up-and-down history remarkably well, especially within the space of a few hundred words.

John Rockhold2010, Spin, 1993, Nirvana, Dragline, Scrunge, Record Deal Courtship, Grant Fitch, Mark Hennessy, Death To Traitors, Home Is A Strange Place