Google Books has every issue of SPIN magazine archived and searchable.  Amazing.  I subscribed to SPIN from December of 1992 until December of 1999.  SPIN turned me on to so many of the bands I adore today.  I can remember rushing back from the mailbox each month to tear into it. The Dinosaur Jr. cover story above was particularly influential on me.  I basically memorized every word of it.  Back then, music mags were the only way to get information about alternative bands (I also briefly subscribed to Raygun and Option.)  I can even remember going through old issues of Rolling Stone on microfiche in my high school’s library to find Dinosaur Jr. album reviews.

These days, everything you want to know about any band is on their Wikipedia page, and Pitchfork.com can give you up-to-the-minute news about all the cool new acts.

There was something special about having to work to “research” bands you liked and then “hunt” for their rare albums in music stores.  A long lost art for sure.

This blog put together a great list of links to old SPIN articles on awesome bands.