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14 posts tagged Nirvana
By Casey Newton
Wilco’s 8th record, The Whole Love, came out in September, and was greeted with hosannahs by rock critics yearning for a return to form. “Powerful, mind-reeling stuff, if you have the heart for it,” said Rolling Stone. “Wilco’s most sonically adventurous work since 2004’s A Ghost Is Born,” offered Entertainment Weekly. Pitchfork, in the most enthusiastic 6.9 review you’ll read, said The Whole Love “recaptured some of that old unpredictability”: “From Being There through A Ghost Is Born, the band’s best work has always perched itself upon the edge of traditionalism and experimentation, and The Whole Love is the first of their albums in years not to shy away from such risks.”
To make their case, reviewers fixated on the record’s little sonic oddities, which Wilco festooned upon its new songs like so many rhinestones on a belt buckle.
Recent News
Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic Talk Nevermind w/ Jon Stewart
A bunch of decent nostalgia pieces are floating around in commemoration of Nirvana’s still-great Nevermind LP reaching its 20th anniversary this week, but this is one of the more entertaining (and insightful) events so far: The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart hosting a SiriusXM chat between surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic with producer Butch Vig. In addition to fans being given a chance to question the men behind the record, Stewart is quick with on-point follow-ups, Vig offers a unique behind-the-boards perspective, and fun anecdotes abound. The whole show is long (over an hour or so), but give it a bookmark above (via Audio Perv), and be reminded that Nevermind and Kurt Cobain can rest safely in peace on their laurels.
Watch: Kathleen Hanna Sings “Smells Like Teen Spirit” + “Rebel Girl”
Iconic punk/riot grrrl singer Kathleen Hanna, Beastie Boy Ad-Rock (her husband, Adam Horovitz, of course), and others performed at NYC’s Joe’s Pub earlier this week for the latest in the “Our Hit Parade” series, a string of concerts inspired by an old radio show that ran from the mid-1930s to late-’50s in which cast members would perform sketches based on popular songs.
For their performance, Hanna and friends adjusted the formula a bit by taking on the hits of the ’90s with Hanna reminiscing on her salad days hanging out with the likes of Kurt Cobain (she recounts the famous story of penning “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his wall with a Sharpie while drunk, which, obviously, went on to inspire a certain song by the same name) before breaking into two different versions of said infamous grunge anthem — one lounge-y take and a distorted guitar-backed faithful version. Oh, and then they rock out to Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” with Ad-Rock on the bass. Enjoy this completely awesome clip (note: parts are NSFW) above.
Horse Feathers Cover Nirvana - “Drain You”
I can’t recall ever wanting to hear a subdued, folk-tinged take on Nirvana, but — in the wake of a half-dozen listens this week — it seems Portland’s Horse Feathers will be turning a few heads (or at least mine) with their tension-building interpretation of “Drain You.” After bringing down the house with a live attempt this September, the Justin Ringle-led outfit put the Nevermind cut to tape for a 7-inch single, due next week alongside B-side “Bonnet of Briars” via Kill Rock Stars. Whether you dig it or not, it’s always intriguing to hear one of Kurt Cobain’s enduring songs thrive in a fresh, nuanced arrangement. You can stream it above and download the MP3 over at PopMatters.
Girl Crisis Covers Nirvana - “Come As You Are”
Girl Crisis is an all-female supergroup based in Brooklyn, which includes members of Chairlift, Au Revoir Simone, Class Actress, and more. As the Acrylics’ Molly Shea described to Brooklyn Vegan last year, the ensemble “cover[s] famous songs in a mostly a capella arrangement and Bek Andersen films the performance on super 8 film.” Over the past year, their various cast of performers have adapted songs by the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Sade, and Chris Isaak.
Now Girl Crisis have taken on Nirvana classic “Come As You Are” (via a RT by Sarah of Cat on my Chest). For diehard grunge fans, this decidedly non-abrasive version may not be their cup of tea, but both the careful arrangement and Andersen’s haunting cinematography add unexplored dimensions to the song, which make this video well worth three minutes of your time.
Watch Ilirjana Alushaj, Elizabeth Harper, Annie Hart, Jane Herships, Jessica Lauretti, Caroline Polachek, Erika Spring-Forster, and Natalie Weiss sing the third track off Nevermind above.
This isn’t a big surprise per se (it costs a ton of money to keep even a legendary studio in business), but we have a soft spot around here for some spaces and walls that once resonated with such classic records. And so, we sadly must report that Butch Vig and Steve Marker’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin plans to close up shop this spring, according to Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express.
Their source, a current studio employee, revealed that they simply couldn’t make ends meet, or as he put it: “Money out > money in.”
Not only were all the Garbage (Vig and Marker’s own band) records made at Smart Studios, but also eight demo versions of songs from Nirvana’s Nevermind were tracked there (the Smart Studios version of “Polly” made the final album), and then subsequently shopped to major labels. Also, Death Cab For Cutie’s major label debut Plans was mixed there, as well as the recording of the Smashing Pumpkins’ debut album, Gish.
R.I.P. Smart Studios. You will be missed.
Lemonheads singer Evan Dando has been a rumored notch on Courtney Love’s bedpost ever since he and Kurt Cobain had a falling out in the early 90s. In an exclusive interview with Gigwise’s Paul Reed, Dando recently revealed that the rumor was started by Love herself in a likely attempt to make Cobain jealous.
“Courtney was saying that we were having an affair - I was never attracted to Courtney,” Dando said. “She was like ‘I made Kurt cry last night’. She is crazy.” The whole debacle troubled Dando for years because Kurt, as he says, “went to his grave misinformed” about the rumor.
There’s a bit of a trend of musicians burying the hatchet with Cobain lately (save for Brandon Flowers), including Eddie Vedder’s recent statement that, “if Kurt were around today, I know he’d say to me, ‘Well, you turned out OK.’”
For more from Gigwise’s talk with Dando, click here.
Not long ago, I offered a defense of Brandon Flowers in his alleged dissing of Kurt Cobain, but the guy just won’t stop talking. For some reason, Flowers is bitter that The Killers’ latest album is a lot more successful in the UK than in the U.S. and he can’t help but publically analyze the possible reasons.
In an interview with NME, Flowers has brought up Nirvana once again, but this time he’s brought Led Zeppelin into the mix. “We’ve been embraced in Britain in a way that I’ll never understand, and it’s such a wonderful thing,” he said. “But over here [in America], people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed [to grow].”
This is the third time in the past couple weeks that Flowers has brought up how he doesn’t understand why The Killers aren’t bigger in America. In fact, he even brings it up a fourth time later in NME’s article. This is really plaguing him, it seems.
Here’s the real kicker though: Flowers goes on to say that Americans bands are held back by bands like Nirvana and Zeppelin that they’ve put up on pedestals, adding, “I’m tired of it, you know? I just want to knock them all off! And people don’t like that attitude. It’s almost like they don’t believe that it’s possible that anybody else can be the real deal.”
Sorry, Brandon, but this time you’re sounding like Miley Cyrus claiming she’s going to “ruin” Radiohead.
Don Henley is suing a Republican for allegedly using “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” without permission on YouTube videos for his campaign to replace California Sen. Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate. The Daily Swarm has a nice roundup about this latest spat between the GOP and a famous folk rocker.
Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy covered John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” for a Chase Bank commercial. Prefix got the scoop.
When Krist Novoselic said recently that they’ve run out of unreleased Nirvana audio, but have plenty of video, he wasn’t kidding. Their next posthumous release will be Life Takes No Prisoners, a DVD of Nirvana’s 1992 performance at the Reading Festival. NME says it includes a cover of Journey’s “More Than A Feeling.” Can’t they just Hulu this stuff?
Agyness Deyn might be the new Winona Ryder. There was some Coachella drama involving the supermodel and her rotating cast of rock star boyfriends, according to the Mirror.
Billy Corgan is asking his fans if they want to pay $40 for 60 “exclusive web-video and photographs” from the studio “posted in a less-than-24-hour consistency.” It’s like Twitter, only 100% more expensive.