Nirvana Magazine

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Wednesday, 9 April 2008

Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (R.I.P. Kurt Cobain)

By John Lucas 08 April 2008 www.straight.com

On this day in 1994, the body of Nirvana singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain was found in his Seattle home. He had committed suicide a few days before, first injecting himself with a lethal dose of heroin and then following up with a shotgun to the head.

Let's remember him with the song that brought Nirvana international fame (and arguably started Cobain on his inexorable slide toward self-destruction).

For people of a certain age, hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time was like a bomb going off. Do you remember what you were doing the first time you heard it?



Source: www.straight.com

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posted by kanx1976 at 04:24 0 Comments


Friday, 8 February 2008

Portrait of a teen spirit

Kurt Cobain film a haunting document of artist
Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, February 08, 2008

Kurt Cobain: About A Son

Directed by AJ Schnack.

Rating 3 out of five

Speaking over gloomy shots of big green trees, low clouds and strip mall hell, the disembodied voice of Kurt Cobain floats through AJ Schnack's About A Son with pensive clarity as though the late Nirvana frontman realized his time was short, and the time to speak his truth was nigh.

He refers to suicide several times over, and even talks about the idea of putting a gun to his head, but always with a coda: It would be a bad thing to do because he's a father, and he has a lot to lose.

Those are the moments in Schnack's rather loose film that have the most power because they offer the front door to Cobain's many demons, and drag us down the spiral staircase of his inner life, where he seemed to wage a never-ending war against his own unhappiness and perpetual misanthropy.

"I couldn't stand people," we hear Cobain say, many times, as he attempts to explain why drugs offered him so much comfort. But people weren't the only thing on his hate list.

He also hated dogs because they "are too willing to please you could do anything to them," as well as jocks from high school, idiots from small towns and music that wasn't trying to push the envelope.

Selected from more than 25 hours of taped interviews conducted between December 1992 and March 1993 by official band biographer Michael

Azerrad, these Cobain memoirs offer up a fully formed picture of who the enigmatic musician really was without flinching at the ugly bits.

Whether we're listening to him reminisce about how people assumed he was gay because he hung out with a known homosexual during his teen years, or how he walked down the street in his dad's sneakers playing Beatles music on a bass drum, or how Courtney Love is the only one who really understands his sense of humour and thinks he's funny, Cobain both affirms and negates rock 'n' roll cliche as a completely self-absorbed personality who learns to loathe the persona he's become.

You can hear Cobain's frustration as he tries to create emotional and symbolic distance between himself, and every other fallen rock god who crashes and burns in fame's fast lane.

For a moment, you almost believe him, too but that's what makes the reverie so compelling. We know how it all ends, and by hearing Cobain attempt to rewrite his own last chapter brings a different tint to the misery.

He clearly knew the dangers, and he tried to move in the opposite direction, but somewhere along the way, lost his taste for the constant struggle between survival and surrender.

For this reason, as a haunting document from a spectral source, Schnack's film is an important piece of pop culture history that deserves attention. Also, for anyone who still has a candle burning in the Cobain window, About A Son will bring a sense of long-awaited closure to a rather ragged and messy finale.

For the casual observer, the movie will be challenging because it so carefully avoids the devices of its own documentary form. Without a scrap of archival footage or even still photographs showing Nirvana and Cobain in action, the movie may prove frustrating for those who are not intimately familiar with the people and places discussed in the film.

The ambient visuals of the northwest are very pretty, but surprisingly ineffective when it comes to bringing context to the film, and specifically Cobain's world view. Some shots work better than others, but it's hard to shake the feeling the filmmakers steered clear of archival footage and all Nirvana music because they didn't want to deal with the hassle of rights and clearances.

The result is an impressionistic essay on Cobain that makes a great audio experience, but a rather uneven visual one despite all the revelations along the way.

© The Calgary Herald 2008

Source: www.canada.com/calgaryherald

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posted by kanx1976 at 04:04 0 Comments


Monday, 4 February 2008

Smells like Licensing Deal

Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Larry Jaffee

Music publisher Primary Wave has revived the lost art form of the deluxe promotional CD package.

“The labels don't do it any more,” says Devin Lasker, partner and chief imagination officer of Primary Wave, a newly formed music publisher, whose catalog includes compositions of the late Kurt Cobain, of the early 1990s band Nirvana.

Since this is the first time that its music is available for commercial uses, Primary Wave wanted to get the attention of potential licensees.

Lasker devised a heart-shaped box — incidentally the title of one of Kurt Cobain's more enduring songs — made out of wood and cloaked in flannel, which was the musician's favorite attire. When the lid is open, a jewelry box instrumental rendition of “Heart-Shaped Box” plays.

Inside the box are five CDs, containing Nirvana's greatest hits, such as “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and cover versions.

Only 500 units of the limited-edition boxed set were made. It puts Geffen's official multi-disc collection from a few years ago to shame in terms of creativity.

The box was sent in November only to the creative heads at advertising agencies, film and TV production companies and several select marketers. Lasker reports the effort has already resulted in a few licensing deals.

Source: promomagazine.com

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posted by kanx1976 at 05:49 0 Comments


Nirvana News In 2008

January 2008

Music Preview: Local bands to capture raw spirit of Nirvana - January 31, 2008 By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

February 2008

Smells like Licensing Deal - Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Larry Jaffee

Portrait of a teen spirit - Friday, February 08, 2008, Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service

April 2008

Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (R.I.P. Kurt Cobain) - By John Lucas 08 April 2008

May 2008

Michael Stipe: 'I can't Listen To Nirvana Following Kurt Cobain's Death' - by Jason Gregory 16 May 2008 www.gigwise.com

Cobain-Inspired Converses Court Controversy - Fri., May. 30, 2008 2:17 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg www.eonline.com

June 2008

Kurt Cobain's ashes stolen, says widow - by Sam Kelton June 02, 2008 12:05pm

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posted by kanx1976 at 05:43 0 Comments


Music Preview: Local bands to capture raw spirit of Nirvana

Thursday, January 31, 2008
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Normally, there's a strong scent of pierogies and sausage at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, but on Saturday night it's going to smell like teen spirit.

A handful of local bands are assembling there for a tribute to Nirvana that will blitz through the ragged wonders of the Kurt Cobain repertoire, from the raw "Bleach" to the transcendent "MTV Unplugged" session.

It was organized by John Huffman, a big Nirvana fan and a former member of The Flash Darlings now playing bass for the new band Bowhunter.

"Nirvana was one of my biggest influences growing up in the 1990s," Huffman says. "I was 12 years old when 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' hit big all over MTV in 1992. Nirvana, Beck, The Violent Femmes and Juliana Hatfield all hit me at about the same time that year and I can credit them all for influencing me to pick up the guitar and the bass that year. Nirvana was at the forefront of the group I listed as far as intensity and anger, so they quickly became my favorite."

Cobain, who would have been 41 next month, took his life in violent and dramatic fashion on April 5, 1994, at the height of the Seattle band's popularity. His suicide note quoted, and took too much to heart, the enigmatic Neil Young lyric, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

If he's looking down now, Cobain knows that Nirvana has hardly faded away. Radio stations still spin its songs, countless bands still try to imitate its sound and posthumous releases keep the fan base engaged. The latest project was "About a Son," a documentary about Cobain told in his words, based on conversations with journalist Michael Azerrad. It debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006, and finally arrives on DVD Feb. 19.

This Pittsburgh tribute jumps in before the anniversaries of his birth and death with Nirvana covers by the Weird Paul Rock Band, the Maxi-Pads, Bowhunter, My Prodi, Devin Russian and the Flu Fighters (get it?), bands and musicians who are passionate about the cause.

"The first CD I think I ever got," says Jason Dignon of My Prodi, "was the 'Beavis and Butt-head' soundtrack with Nirvana's 'I Hate Myself and I Want To Die' on it, and I was totally freaked out. I started saving for drums immediately. Nirvana is my original inspiration."

Source: www.post-gazette.com

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posted by kanx1976 at 05:41 0 Comments