Cool excerpt from the new documentary, “The Punk Singer,” at Spin today.
The film is about former Bikini Kill leader/ current The Julie Ruin front-person, Kathleen Hanna, and in this clip Hanna and others talk about Nirvana and Hanna’s role.
This is a weird one. I’ll let the folks who did this speak for themselves:
What might some of the rock ‘n’ roll era’s greatest stars have achieved and what might they look like now, if they had not died before their time? To explore these tantalizing questions, Sachs Media Group partnered with photo restoration and manipulation company Phojoe to create this gallery of images. It is a heartfelt tribute to the memory of beloved artists who helped shape generations of music fans, in order to keep their memory alive for future generations.
Here are some insights about the Kurt Cobain image:
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Given his aversion to celebrity, had Cobain lived he would likely have continued to work with Nirvana but also explored smaller, less commercial projects with other players, trying to recapture some of the anonymity and artistic freedom of his early years. He would probably have pursued artistic outlets offstage and behind the scenes, eschewing the limelight and using his fame to bring attention to young musicians on the cutting edge, as well as exploring his deep interest in Americana styles by producing and collaborating with older roots artists.”
Dr. Reebee Garofalo, a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he taught for 33 years. Dr. Garofalo is an internationally known scholar of popular music studies who has written numerous articles on music and politics, racism, censorship and the globalization of the music industry. Among his recent publications is Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the U.S.A.
Elijah Wald, a musician and frequent writer about music, including more than ten years as world music writer for the Boston Globe. In recent years he has written books on such diverse subjects as Delta blues, Mexican drug ballads, hitchhiking and a broad social history of American popular music. He has authored eleven books, including How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music.
To see images of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Karen Carpenter and others as they might look if they were still alive, head here.
James Sherry interviewed Nirvana a number of times between 1990 and 1992 for Metal Hammer magazine.
From Sherry’s new introduction to the interviews:
“It’s hard to express quite how important Nirvana were to my life and the direction it took. In the late eighties I started my first job as office junior at Metal Hammer magazine. I had my own fanzine ‘Phobia’ and I was over-flowing with enthusiasm and eager for every bit of nasty noise that came my way; ‘you used to like everything….everything’s great,’ an old work college reminded me recently. And he’s right, I loved it all.
In one of my first weeks in the office I happened upon a package of records that had been sent to the then reviews editor John Duke. He had recently left the magazine and I was charged with the job of sorting through the pile of records for review. One of the packages really caught my eye. It was from Anton at Bad Moon Publicity and had three records inside; ‘Superfuzz Bigmuff’ by Mudhoney, ‘Bleach’ by Nirvana and a Tad record which I now forget. I snuck the records home and suffice to say, they tore my little teenage mind apart.”
Read more here.
Read what James Sherry has to say about his experiences with Nirvana here.
In an interview Krist Novoselic did for a story Rolling Stone is running about In Utero, the bass player speaks about the group’s creative process.
“There were songs that Kurt would woodshed,” Novoselic said. “He would come in with it, and we would work it out, build it up. There were songs that were made up on the spot, coming out of jams, which took a few rehearsals to come together. But they would find form. That was another thing with Kurt – he could have a riff, but then he was so good at vocal phrasing. He would usually write the lyrics at the last minute. But he was so good at vocal phrasing [in rehearsals]. And voilà – you have a song.
“Once we settled on an arrangement, we never changed anything,” Novoselic continued. “You can see that in different versions of songs we recorded [live] over the years. We never changed the arrangement. Once it was done, it was done: ‘Let’s play it.'”
Read more at Rolling Stone.
Next Tuesday Nirvana’s third album, In Utero, will be released with all kinds of bonus tracks and videos, depending on which ‘deluxe’ package you buy. To get a buzz going a killer video of “Scentless Apprentice” is currently featured on the website of the British paper, The Guardian. But you can watch it right here.
It sounds is great; the band is in top form. Check it out.