Of course there’s Spotify these days, and Daniels used this precious tool to produce the graph above and a few others, examining the popularity of the songs released from 1990 to 1999. Should we be surprised? Nirvana’s ‘Smell Like Teen Spirit’ is by far the most popular song of the 90’s getting more than 50 million play counts! Let’s hope Courtney Love doesn’t get any of this money.
Mj Poukkula, daughter of Tony Poukkula has chosen this moment to make public a few never-seen-before pictures of a very early Nirvana show, probably the first Nirvana show ever, according to Alternative Nation. She tweeted these pictures (above) with the comment ‘Pictures of my dad and Kurt Cobain playing together back in the day’.
The problem with “Soaked In Bleach” is Tom. Tom has a story to tell that has nothing to do with Love and Cobain and everything to do with forgiving himself. If the movie dealt with that it would have had the arc of a true dramatic tragedy, because it doesn’t it appears to be a partial truth.
‘If Kurt were still alive, he would be so over Courtney’, she says at one point. There has been a lot of speculation about an eventual divorce, and Alice says she doesn’t know exactly but ‘they had broken up, sort of, he was angry at her, at the way she was behaving’.
Cobain’s death was ruled a suicide by the Seattle Police Department shortly after his body was found, but 21 years later, suspicions and theories around the events leading to his death have never been more alive, and a long series of inconsistencies, oddities and plain weirdness (including taped phone conversations with Courtney Love) have let Tom Grant to continue his investigation about the case till this day
He told them that we were promoting him to “lame, hair metal” mags (or maybe he called us lame, metal publicists?) and that’s not what Nirvana was about. He couldn’t handle being that popular with just about everyone, it made it fake somehow to him. I know I was devastated that I wasn’t going to be working with them anymore, but I was tired too. Working for a “phenom” can wear you out, even at 24.
I have to accept that his greatness hasn’t managed to survive the decades intact. So maybe he is very much of his time, maybe he was such a cusp superstar, such a harbinger of the new century, he hasn’t quite managed to move forward. But songs as great as “All Apologies”, “Heart Shape Box” “Negative Creep” “About A Girl”… maybe they are ripe for re-discovery for the voice of a generation, beyond it all
Prior to anyone seeing this film, the ‘Holocaust deniers,’ as I like to refer to them, started writing conspiracy theories about my movie,’ he said. ‘Now this is before anyone’s seen a frame
If Morgen had wanted to make a film about the impressions that Cobain may have inspired him, the overwhelming sensations that a Nirvana concert may have left on him, I would be totally fine with it, and I would even said this is brilliant. Unfortunately he sells us his movie as the first authorized documentary about Kurt Cobain, and this is where I have a problem, because when it comes to documentaries, I care about fact-checking.
‘In response to recent articles regarding comments from Kurt’s daughter, Frances, I want to make it clear that Frances is an innocent victim here. The real questions is; What does Frances really KNOW as opposed to WHAT SHE’S BEEN TOLD?’ Exactly!
“Gold Mountain, [Nirvana’s management company], still denies that a suicide attempt was made. A note was found, says a company spokesman, but Kurt insisted it wasn’t a suicide note. He just took all of his and Courtney’s money and was going to run away and disappear.’
I was four months old and my dad was attending art school at the time, and his friends would often ask for help with their projects. So his friend the photographer Kirk Weddle called him and said, “Do you want to make some money today and throw your kid in the pool?”
Oh but they were saying, ‘what if you meet Frances Cobain while wearing this shirt and she gets upset’? Yeah, because you meet her at Trader Joe’s every Saturday morning! Plus the girl has Courtney Love for mother, she has seen the most tacky, bad taste, brutal things that can exist
This sounds quite amazing and the most astonishing part is the name of Frances Bean Cobain, as the executive producer. Brett Morgen, who also directed ‘The Kid Stays in the Picture’, will write, direct and produce the documentary, and so far Courtney Love’s name is not associated with it, which could be the best part of the whole story
‘I make enough to live on. I’m financially solvent. I focus on what I make now’, she also told the Times. And this is the same woman who insulted David Grohl for stealing and wasting Nirvana’s money… saying in one of her numerous stage rants, ‘The Foo Fighters are gay. I don’t care what you listen to at home, but if a guy takes off money off my kid’s table, f**k him.’
Full disclosure: in the mid-90s I did a tropical Latin music show on WPFW-FM so I wasn’t paying attention in those years to Anglo-American music, and in the late nineties I had a kid and was too exhausted to keep up, but in the mid-00s, I did go back to fill the gaping lacunae. I’m sure I missed some major tunes, so feel free to let me know what they are.
many believe that the famous the line ‘it’s better to burn out than to fade away’ taken from his alleged suicide note (it is actually a line from a Neil Young song) was a bye-bye to the music industry rather than to life, as Cobain had become really fed up with the fame game
‘It was the Hall of Fame ceremony, but it meant so much to all of us personally that sometimes you forgot about the other stuff — like the arena and the trophy — and focused on real, personal things. I saw Courtney walking past [earlier in the night], and I just tapped her on the shoulder and we looked at each other in the eyes and that was it — we’re just family
How much would you pay for a pair of old moldy-rusty benches covered by graffiti? No less than 10 bucks right? The bid on two like the one above has
But like Jett spit out on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” rock is a denial and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is all about an admittance. It really is a squalid rabid horrible dingy thing. It really adds up to something that is nothing.
I took me a little while to understand this picture above, what was this about? The surrounding looked strangely familiar, but these head tops give it all… of course! It’s Abbey Road!
I have to say that Richard Lee gives bad press to people who are trying to find the truth in this sort of cases, to give you a taste of this curious character, this is how the Stranger described one of his numerous and very public interventions
Ciesynski insists on the huge amount of heroin Cobain took that day and says ‘He killed himself because of the shotgun blast but the heroin did the trick also?’ Does he realize how overkilled it looks?
‘When I told my daughter about the induction, she was super excited for me! So much of my excitement about it is for her! She’s pretty awesome! My little boy’s too young to understand though. So yeah, it does feel pretty good!’
There is somebody I really wanna see. Cat Stevens. And it is because of Stevens I went out of my way to score a ticket. But before we discuss him, let’s talk about everybody else.
It might not be fair to lay the blame for the hell that is 21st century rebellion at his feet, but he personifies it so perfectly. He is such a cheerful shill for organized crime known as the music business, it offends me to look at me. Grohl is the rock and roll star as Amway salesman.
Will they invite bands to cover Nirvana songs? Will the Foo Fighters be there? Will they screen that dreadful Gus Van Sant’s movie? And most important, will Courtney Love be invited? I hope not, and anyway she is currently way too busy crying at the stand
You get the feeling it is going to be wretchedly terrible self congratulations for four hours seen from miles away, Just the thought of Dave Grohl’s acceptance speech for Nirvana terrifies me. And yet, yes, for the chance to see Cat Stevens in person I just don’t feel like I have any choice in the matter
It’s difficult to comprehend it, but 20 years after his death, there’s still some footage of Kurt Cobain, unseen by most people, which are suddenly surfacing. On December 30th, Dave Markey, who directed ‘1991: The Year Punk Broke’, uploaded this 15-minute video of Nirvana’s last show in Los Angeles
“This is a great honor. Thank you to the people who nominated and voted for us. Thank you most of all to Kurt Cobain. And to everyone who’s kept rock music going strong for 60 years and counting.”
You’ve heard these arguments – rock ‘n’ roll is a rebellious art form that shouldn’t be enshrined, it’s not legitimate because The Swinging Blue Jeans aren’t in, Jann Wenner is a socialist Commie that wants to destroy America, etc., etc., etc. So, people love it because it’s one less thing to worry about
Pearl Jam have been well loved and have certainly had their moments, and as far as mainstream rock bands are concerned you can out every Linkin Park on the planet on one side, and they wouldn’t be as good as Pearl Jam, but still, they’re dodgy and half hearted, on record any way
