Quote of the Day

"Courtney Love is a psychopathic bitch. She's basically the 'Osama Bin Laden' of the music industry." - Krist Novoselic (Detroit, 4-27-02)

 

Couldn't have put it any better myself

 

Who is Krist Novoselic and why did he say this?

 

She was not bad opposite Woody Harrelson in Milos Forman's movie The People vs. Larry Flynt. In light of what people seem to think about her, one should wonder if she had to act there at all, or just be herself.

 

Chris was the bassist for Nirvana. He was Curt Cobain's best friend before and during the Nirvana years until heroin got the better of Cobain. He and drummer Dave Grohl (current Foo Fighters frontman) are in legal hell with Cobain's widow (Love) wrt. control of the Nirvana catalogue. A box-set was put together by the remaining band members (don't know if there was her involvment, I think so) when the issue of legal control came up. She held what she feels is the trump card (Nirvana's final recording) and has bounced this into court. I'm not really a fan of her music, but Cobain was a contemporary (he was my age) and I had mucho love of his talent. (that went to waste before anything really really cool could've happened)
Make no mistake about it kiddies. Nirvana, live, in their prime (1990-1991) was every bit as revelatory a gig as Led Zeppelin or The Who were in theirs. This is no debate. This is fact. I was there since 1989 and it all went downhill after "Nevermind" came out. Poor soul.

Two Questions for any guru or two!

1. What do we think of the sound that Steve Albini (who hates compression of any kind; even the good stuff) achieved on "In Utero". (dig his remarks about setting your tone controls, etc... reminds me of John Cage!)

2. What do we think of the MFSL (lp is what I've got) of "Nevermind"?

 

The MFSL LP of "Nevermind" is going for big money. Fetching $160 sealed, $80 used on ave.

Is it worth it? No. Nice pressing, though. Bought mine new for $22 when they were obtainable - new.

 

Funny this should come up because I snagged a sealed copy for $16 a(of all places)a comic book store that had a small shelf of vinyl. "Nevermind" sounds better(IMO)on vinyl than on CD(at least the stock version). Haven't heard the MFSL, so can't compare. Cobain was a tortured soul, but a great talent. When Nirvana appeared on SNL, backstage guitarist G.E. Smith was heard to say, "Jesus, that guy can play". That says it all.

 

Unless you're a vinyl nut, don't spring for the MFSL Nevermind LP.

The Nirvana CD and vinyl are damn close sound-wise, but I never really liked the Anadisq pressings much. A good RTI pressing will kill most anadisq issues noise-floor wise, though some are really good. I'd be interested to hear the Nevermind that Tom Port claimed was the best. He felt the MFSL was too bright, I think (though I like it).

 

Just be herself.

 

Play? Play what? How can anyone actually believe that boy was talented? I find it truly amazing what the media can do for no talent. Absolutely incredible. If it's on MTV or on the radio it must be talent.

 

Couldn't disagree more. Not a virtuostic musician (if he was, Nirvana would have sucked), but one hell of a songwriter, long before MTV picked up on their stuff. Bob Dylan thinks so (on hearing "Polly" he was convinced) and I can't think of someone in a better position to say so. Remember, Cobain's band succeeded despite not being part of the formula success at the time (hair bands were still pretty damn big, GOD!). There was no such thing as "grunge" until Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains exploded into the mainstream in the media's face. A huge upsurge of grass roots listener support made Nirvana & the rest, not freakin' MTV and not the media, though the media spinned their success fully once things got rolling fast. The media spent a lot of time playing up (and down) the Beatles too - did that make them any less great to me or most anyone else.

One of the best periods of music IMO was when "grunge" first got off the ground. It wasn't called grunge then - it was just damn good music. A very exciting, fresh time for music, when everything else (to me anyway) sounded like rehashed crap, dull and lifeless masturbatory self-praise music for the glorification of the band only. Nirvana killed those idiots off, thank God. Another public service. Although Nirvana's imitators have never failed to disappoint, the 4 bands I mentioned will forever be remembered as some of the greatest and most original voices in popular rock music.

That's usually a pretty good measure of true talent IMO. And 30 years from now, people will still be buying their ****, another true test!

 

Ha, ha...no. Boy bands, Britney, and Christina dominated radio and MTV for awhile, but I never heard any serious critics hailing them as major talents.

Cobain wrote great songs, and what's amazing is how uncompromised it was, recapturing the punk spirit that never was popular in its time. They were great performers, and it may be awhile before we hear anything as personal, direct, and uncompromising over the mainstream airwaves again.

 

I'll vote that grunge came waaaay before Nirvana and the Seattle scene took off; set your wayback machine to around 1965/1966 and aim for Tacoma; grab copies of The Sonics Here Are and Boom lp's (mono for you, I'd like stereo, please), bring them back and crank them up to 12; you'll hear needles in the red recordings of smashing, thumping jack hammer drumming, mondo distorted guitar slinging, honking/skanking sax work, wailing Wurlitzer keyboard action, booming bass and one baaaaadass punk with a chip on his shoulder screaming/growling out vocals about ingesting strychnine, devil songs (He's Waitin' is a killer), folks being psycho, and even a charter about a chick being a witch - criminy, the blueprint was laid out then and waited about 20 years to rear its own bad self again. Grab those reissues on Norton (vinyl or licorice pizza, mono only, Bob Irwin at the controls) and get a lesson in grunge 101...

 

Got news for ya, indy mike...got those Sonics reissues already! You are right, they're grunge 25 years before the fact. Cobain must have heard those when but a young'un. Hey everyone thanks for coming to my defense about Kurt Cobain. I still think he was an original, and yes, he did have talent. He played from the stomach(and we've heard about how he constantly complained about stomach pain...hence the anger!).

 

Indy,

I'll definitely check out the Sundazed (I assume, right?) on your recommend, so thanks!

Anything else we all might find interesting? Take it easy on the uninitiated, OK?

 

It's funny that this topic came up today, just yesterday I caught an old SNL show with Nirvana. As my wife and I watched it we both agreed that here was a guy that all the right makings he had the talent, looks and attitude. Although, I'm of the Beatles generation, Cobain IMO is just as revelatory as John Lennon was on the Plastic Ono Band album. He was as much a great rhythm guitarist as Lennon or David Crosby was.

 

I remember seeing them on SNL that day (night), and just being blown away. I really felt then I was witnessing greatness in the making. My wife, at the time a big Santana & CSNY fan (not at all into metal or punk), was equally enthusiastic. These guys appealed to a very broad audience.

 

Alice In Chains blew away..Nirvana. LOL! Sales have nothing to do with talent! Thanks for proving my point. Yea and Cobain was the new John Lennon... Indeed.

 

I won't disagree that Alice in Chains was an amazing band, but is this a battle of the bands discussion? Nirvana was great, Alice in Chains was great. But how do you really feel about Cobain??

Poor bastard Kurt. I think he had a hyper-developed sense of empathy, the kind that makes you feel all the pain around you and within you. And horribly self-loathing and critical. That's very much like Lennon for sure.

 

I feel a little strange about making a Lennon comparison, just because I got into Nirvana first, and it wasn't until a year or two after Cobain's suicide that I began listening to the Beatles/Lennon. I do see the relevant comparisons now: the catharsis they can find in their music, the way they loved and championed their influences, the way they 'hated' their enormous fame, the traumatic childhood, etc.

Before Nirvana came along, much of the music surrounding my childhood sucked. I didn't realize it then (the only band I really hated was New Kids), but MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were far more popular than Public Enemy, and Guns N' Roses was beginning to implode. When Nirvana came along, I don't think anyone I knew thought of it as revolutionary. Punk was unheard of, garage rock a relic from the distant past. It was much more kick-ass than anything going on, but to most of my friends and myself, it was just a really good album. A lot of people connected to it on a personal level, and if they didn't, they still could have loved it just for really rocking out, no holds barred.

 

Not many I knew thought so either, though I really honestly did. I guess if you were in tune with the '80s indie scene at Sub Pop & SST, then Nirvana wouldn't have been such a revelation, but at the time. I wasn't.

Your perspective is good (Vanilla Ice & Hammer? ). Puts everything in it's proper context!

 

I'll be kinder and gentler!!! Those Sonics reissues are on Norton Records, mastered for them by Bob Irwin; the Norton folks have Bob and Vic Anesini master a lot of their stuff. Those reissues have excellent, passionate liner notes that get to the heart of the Sonics' story - they're must haves if you love the big beat... Other stuff you might like once you start digging the Sonics? Well, check out the Northwest collections licensed from Jerry Dennon's Jerden label on Norton and Ace UK - more thumpy, garagey, punky rock and roll with some names you might know (Tommy Chong shows up slinging guitar on a couple of tracks, and one of the Moby Grape guys, too). Sundazed has some good garage comps in the Psychedelic Microdots series, and Ace UK has some Nuggets From the Golden State comps devoted to California garage bands (the Hush Records set is awesome, great sound and lotsa stereo). The Nuggets box on Rhino (often discussed here) has sound that a lot of folks here aren't too keen on, but the booklet has an essay by Greg Shaw that puts garage bands into perspective, and rightly tries to reclaim the "punk" nomenclature back to the 60's garage band era, rather than the later revival of 2 and 3 chord rock that the Ramones and their pals got rolling in the 70's (more fuel for grunge down the road) - there's a lot of bad attitude stuff out there that set the plate for Nirvana to pick and choose from...