SPIN is gearing up to celebrate its 25th anniversary and, as has been the trend for print publications for some time now, the celebrations are set to occur across various media platforms.

SPIN will kick things off with a year-long series of 25 musical performances beginning this month at South by Southwest. The inaugural show will coincide with the magazine's annual SPIN@STUBB’S party, featuring none other than Courtney Love and her band, Hole. Said Love about the upcoming show, "Banshee cretin panda sick? Whenever teak kettles run amok and then a sandwich! Twitter!"

More after the jump!

Then, in July, SPIN will host five consecutive nights of concerts throughout New York City called "SPIN’s 25 Hours of Music." And then there's the "An Evening With…" series, which feature an intimate performance with an artist followed by a Q&A session with a SPIN editor and, one hopes, not a herpes outbreak.

On the print end of things, the magazine's March, April, and May issues will all be special editions with content and packaging relating to SPIN's 25th anniversary. The March and April issues will include "Where Are They Now?" "The Greatest Rock Fashion Icons of the Past 25 Years," and "Under the Influence: Musicians Interview Their Idols" features. The official 25th anniversary issue will come in May and will focus on "100 Moments That Rocked Music" since the magazine's launch. Contributors will include the likes of SPIN founder Bob Guccione, Jr. (son of Penthouse founder -- yes, you guessed it -- Bob Guccione), Chuck Klosterman, Marc Spitz, Jim Greer, Craig Marks, and Sue Cummings.

Additionally, SPIN and Wiley Publishing will release a book due this fall, titled SPIN: Greatest Hits. The book will include select writing from the magazine's 25 year span, including interviews, articles, Q&A's and more.

Online, SPIN will launch a microsite called SPIN25, which will integrate user-generated content, event footage, contests and other media related to the big "two five." One such contest will occur in conjunction with Foursquare, rewarding users who attend the most concerts in a given amount of time. SPIN will also partner with Google to release the entire magazine catalog digitally as of Spring 2010. These searchable, free archives will span the magazine's entire 25 years.

We'll admit we're pretty excited to see how this pans out - we love seeing a little creativity when it comes to combining various forms of media.