Top 10 Songs:
10. SUBWAY, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2013)
9. LEAVE BEHIND, Martha Wainwright (2012)
8. CLOSER, Tegan And Sara (2013)
7. ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER (Bob Dylan cover), Eddie Vedder & Million Dollar Bashers (2007)
6. CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES, The Cure (1981)
5. YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, Metric (2012)
4. BORN ON THE FM WAVES OF THE HEART, Against Me! featuring Tegan Quinn (2007)
3. WHITE PEOPLE FOR PEACE, Against Me! (2007)
2. DESPAIR, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2013)
1. FOUR BLACK SHEEP, Martha Wainwright (2012)
Top 10 Nirvana Songs:
10. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (David Bowie cover), MTV Unplugged In NY (1994)
9. PENNYROYAL TEA, In Utero (1993)
8. WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT? (Lead Belly cover), MTV Unplugged In NY (1994)
7. SAPPY/VERSE CHORUS VERSE, No Alternative compilation (1993)
6. SCENTLESS APPRENTICE, In Utero (1993)
5. PLATEAU (Meat Puppets cover), MTV Unplugged In New York (1994)
4. HEART-SHAPED BOX, In Utero (1993)
3. LAKE OF FIRE (Meat Puppets cover), MTV Unplugged In New York (1994)
2. LOUNGE ACT, Nevermind (1991)
1. LOVE BUZZ (Shocking Blue cover), Bleach (1989)
Five covers? Absolutely, that represents how I feel about this band in general. Three from the same record? That's how highly I think of In Utero, despite my feelings about Nirvana. Apprentice could have ranked anywhere from 6 to 10, but the drum beat alone is worth the highest of those positions to me. One B-Side was almost two or four (also considered were Marigold, Moist Vagina and I Hate Myself And Want To Die), but I figured the Bowie cover and Pennyroyal Tea, ultimately, deserved to be on here. Something In The Way crossed my mind, then I listened to it again (after more than a decade), and opted not to.
Showing posts with label Nirvana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nirvana. Show all posts
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Lana Del Rey Vs Courtney Love
It started with this, a pretty bad live cover of Nirvana's masterpiece Heart-Shaped Box by fame-starved Lana Del Rey:
Then the internet erupted and, as masses tend to do, decided the piece of crap was marvelous. It was not. The crowd went nuts because it recognized the song, not because she made it better or anything.
The only one who seems to have some clarity on the subject is Courney Love when she took to Twitter, but like all things Courtney, it quickly went downhill:
Now, there might be something to be said about picturing Del Rey locked inside Love's ''heart-shaped box... for... weeks'', but I'm sure Kurt Cobain wrote that literally, as in ''it's such a big fucking cave I can't find my way out'' kind of thing.
In any event, I'm glad Courtney's taking the song back from that hack Del Rey. She's bat-shit crazy (well, they probably both are), borderline talentless (again...)... ah, fuck it: only Dave Grohl should sing it now.
Then the internet erupted and, as masses tend to do, decided the piece of crap was marvelous. It was not. The crowd went nuts because it recognized the song, not because she made it better or anything.
The only one who seems to have some clarity on the subject is Courney Love when she took to Twitter, but like all things Courtney, it quickly went downhill:
Now, there might be something to be said about picturing Del Rey locked inside Love's ''heart-shaped box... for... weeks'', but I'm sure Kurt Cobain wrote that literally, as in ''it's such a big fucking cave I can't find my way out'' kind of thing.
In any event, I'm glad Courtney's taking the song back from that hack Del Rey. She's bat-shit crazy (well, they probably both are), borderline talentless (again...)... ah, fuck it: only Dave Grohl should sing it now.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Overkill Much?
The most over-rated record of all time reaches a new milestone this September: turning 20. Ironic, considering most of Nirvana's fans reached that age just after 1994, when Kurt Cobain died.
In any event, the remaining members and producer Butch Vig will get together with Jon Stewart for a Q&A session on the 24th, recorded live for Sirius Radio. Of course, if you aren't a subscriber, you're fucked.
You'll also miss out on Nevermind Radio, a short-lived 24/7 station devoted to Nirvana that will run for less than a week, but there's nothing wrong with that. Missing it, I mean.
Come on, how many people still listen to ''the album that changed music forever'', especially in light of all the stupid fucking pop stars flooding the airwaves these days - and for the past decade? Not me, I tell you that.
But I will admit to listening to some In Utero once in a while.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Not My Month
From back pain to frozen bank accounts to being out of work to finding work for a week but having it be useless for the first day to it being the coldest month of the year, it just hasn't been my month.
Just sayin'. There's been no recess.
Just sayin'. There's been no recess.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Video Of Valentine's Week: Nirvana
If you know anything about me, you know I'm not a fan of this band.
The singer is a whiny brat who, when alive, didn't get half the media attention they claimed to have given him when he died; every ''Year In Review'' Top 10 list had him and them at #2 (for the highest), most at #5, many at #10 for most categories (album of the year, song of the year, video of the year, songwriter of the year - the whole gamut). Who was #1? The same band (and singer/songwriter) that made the front page of Time Magazine as the Voice Of His Generation - Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam.
And since Pearl Jam didn't do interviews for the press, every magazine that put them at #1 ran interviews... with the runner-up. And invariably, he would complain that he wasn't shown the respect he deserved, that his talent went unappreciated, and threatened to stop making music altogether if he didn't get more attention.
But when he offed himself, suddenly he became the guy who didn't like the media, who had trouble fitting in and just wanted to be left alone. And the media swallowed it up, and turned him into a hero, without analyzing his body of work in its right context.
Nirvana are always known to be 'grunge', a title they bear with fellow Seattle acts Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (I'll leave Tad, Mudhoney and rest out of it to keep it simple), and whose song structures is often defined by quiet verses and loud choruses. Nirvana and Soundgarden both having released records in 1989 are widely viewed - incorrectly - as being the originators of this, or at least those who brought it to the forefront at the tail end of the 80s, when, in fact, Soundgarden at the time were actually more of a metal band, and The Pixies, from Massachussets, were actually the quiet-loud-quiet masters who came a few years before Nirvana and had a decent impact America-wide.
Which leaves Nirvana's first record, Bleach, a decent one, but nowhere near groundbreaking. Look for their cover of Shocking Blue's Love Buzz as the standout track on it. But it wasn't enough for them, and the politics of being on a small independent label didn't suit Cobain's dreams of grandeur, so he set out looking for a major label and signed with Geffen in 1990 - keep in mind the follow-up record would only come out in September 1991.
Then came Nevermind, the record that 'broke them through' to the mainstream, that famously dislodged Michael Jackson from the top of the charts (in January 1992)... it was bubblegum punk, a watered-down version of The Pixies for the masses of teens ready to bounce to rock music after years of kids-pop and cock rock, over-produced by Butch Vig. In my opinion, Lounge Act is the best song off that record.
Not quite inspired to record an actual follow-up to Nevermind, they instead opted to release a collection of b-sides entitled Incesticide. It sounds like a ''fuck you'' to their new fans, with no clear single, no promotion, just another product to sell to fans, although the ''official'' propaganda was ''to circumvent bootleggers''.
So forgive me for not awaiting In Utero with much trepidation... and allow me to say it is an unbelievably solid piece of rock'n'roll, definitely one of the 10 best records of the decade. Solid and noncommercial, from the first song to the last, with a few radio-friendly tunes just to keep the fans' attention. They came to town after the release of that album, in November 1993, at the Verdun Auditorium, and pretty much nailed it. Not all the songs were great, not all the performances were as good as on their records, and I would only find out a little later that they always had the same damn setlist that they barely changed around (even Unplugged In New York, released posthumously, had pretty much the same songs in the same order, with very little change). Same shit every night? It gets repetitious, no wonder he killed himself.
Oh, and while Pearl Jam actually did shun media attention and stopped making videos altogether until 1998 (Do The Evolution, all-animated, in which they didn't even appear), Nirvana kept doing theirs, feeding the MTV monster that spawned them just like it had spawned Poison years before. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, as you'll see here, because it takes a kick-ass song, Heart-Shaped Box, to a beautiful new level.
I was hesitating and wasn't sure which song to use in a week that includes Valentine's Day - I was thinking J. Geils Band's Love Stinks, which actually better suits my mood these days, but their label won't let me hotlink it here, so I went the more traditional route.
I guess life is like a box of chocolates... a heart-shaped one...
The singer is a whiny brat who, when alive, didn't get half the media attention they claimed to have given him when he died; every ''Year In Review'' Top 10 list had him and them at #2 (for the highest), most at #5, many at #10 for most categories (album of the year, song of the year, video of the year, songwriter of the year - the whole gamut). Who was #1? The same band (and singer/songwriter) that made the front page of Time Magazine as the Voice Of His Generation - Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam.
And since Pearl Jam didn't do interviews for the press, every magazine that put them at #1 ran interviews... with the runner-up. And invariably, he would complain that he wasn't shown the respect he deserved, that his talent went unappreciated, and threatened to stop making music altogether if he didn't get more attention.
But when he offed himself, suddenly he became the guy who didn't like the media, who had trouble fitting in and just wanted to be left alone. And the media swallowed it up, and turned him into a hero, without analyzing his body of work in its right context.
Nirvana are always known to be 'grunge', a title they bear with fellow Seattle acts Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (I'll leave Tad, Mudhoney and rest out of it to keep it simple), and whose song structures is often defined by quiet verses and loud choruses. Nirvana and Soundgarden both having released records in 1989 are widely viewed - incorrectly - as being the originators of this, or at least those who brought it to the forefront at the tail end of the 80s, when, in fact, Soundgarden at the time were actually more of a metal band, and The Pixies, from Massachussets, were actually the quiet-loud-quiet masters who came a few years before Nirvana and had a decent impact America-wide.
Which leaves Nirvana's first record, Bleach, a decent one, but nowhere near groundbreaking. Look for their cover of Shocking Blue's Love Buzz as the standout track on it. But it wasn't enough for them, and the politics of being on a small independent label didn't suit Cobain's dreams of grandeur, so he set out looking for a major label and signed with Geffen in 1990 - keep in mind the follow-up record would only come out in September 1991.
Then came Nevermind, the record that 'broke them through' to the mainstream, that famously dislodged Michael Jackson from the top of the charts (in January 1992)... it was bubblegum punk, a watered-down version of The Pixies for the masses of teens ready to bounce to rock music after years of kids-pop and cock rock, over-produced by Butch Vig. In my opinion, Lounge Act is the best song off that record.
Not quite inspired to record an actual follow-up to Nevermind, they instead opted to release a collection of b-sides entitled Incesticide. It sounds like a ''fuck you'' to their new fans, with no clear single, no promotion, just another product to sell to fans, although the ''official'' propaganda was ''to circumvent bootleggers''.
So forgive me for not awaiting In Utero with much trepidation... and allow me to say it is an unbelievably solid piece of rock'n'roll, definitely one of the 10 best records of the decade. Solid and noncommercial, from the first song to the last, with a few radio-friendly tunes just to keep the fans' attention. They came to town after the release of that album, in November 1993, at the Verdun Auditorium, and pretty much nailed it. Not all the songs were great, not all the performances were as good as on their records, and I would only find out a little later that they always had the same damn setlist that they barely changed around (even Unplugged In New York, released posthumously, had pretty much the same songs in the same order, with very little change). Same shit every night? It gets repetitious, no wonder he killed himself.
Oh, and while Pearl Jam actually did shun media attention and stopped making videos altogether until 1998 (Do The Evolution, all-animated, in which they didn't even appear), Nirvana kept doing theirs, feeding the MTV monster that spawned them just like it had spawned Poison years before. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, as you'll see here, because it takes a kick-ass song, Heart-Shaped Box, to a beautiful new level.
I was hesitating and wasn't sure which song to use in a week that includes Valentine's Day - I was thinking J. Geils Band's Love Stinks, which actually better suits my mood these days, but their label won't let me hotlink it here, so I went the more traditional route.
I guess life is like a box of chocolates... a heart-shaped one...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Chinese Democracy
Seriously, I saw Guns N' Roses live in '06, and they really are the best GN'R cover band in the world.
It's too bad they suck at writing their own songs and ran out of covers before they could release something as terrible as their version of Sympathy For The Devil again (or as decent as Spaghetti Incident again).
Chinese Democracy has to be the muddiest-sounding, most poorly written, anticipated rock record ever. 3 okay riffs on one record, one barely listenable song that is almost a 'cut/paste/recut/turn the pieces around' rendition of Estranged, but shorter and more like a cheap knock off.
And considering some of Buckethead's parts still made the record, it's also got to be the most disappointing release by a bunch of (mostly) very talented rockers ever (also Brain Mantia, Robin Fincke, Tommy Stinson).
I guess that's what $15M buys you: talent to play on your record, but not an ability to work well together - or songwriting talent.
Or maybe we're all wrong, and 50 years from now we'll realize how much Axl was ahead of his time and will be considered the Mozart of rock, you know, like supposedly the history books will be kind to W. Bush as the conservative Americans say.
There will always be those who dismiss them as another Bon Jovi-type hair metal band. But their sound was pretty far from that of Poison, Ratt, Mötley Crüe and the like... they had a rawness and a 'realer' rock sound that was closer to a mix of Zeppelin and Dead Boys, rather than a castrated and emasculated Aerosmith/Van Halen like the other bands that I would qualify as 'cock rock'.
Those who don't see the difference will say they didn't have any memorable songs apart from the hits, but it all depends what you want to listen to. As far as straightforward rock goes, Rocket Queen, My Michelle, Mr Brownstone, 14 Years and a few more are just as good as any Nirvana or Pixies or Stones song.
Also, I doubt anyone living outside the U.S. would really be that excited about that record, since only Americans are allowed their free Dr Pepper when the record gets released. But it's here, it's hyped, it cost a fortune - curiosity can bring a listen and that listen brings the inevitable conclusion that it wasn't worth the wait, for whoever actually was waiting.
It's too bad they suck at writing their own songs and ran out of covers before they could release something as terrible as their version of Sympathy For The Devil again (or as decent as Spaghetti Incident again).
Chinese Democracy has to be the muddiest-sounding, most poorly written, anticipated rock record ever. 3 okay riffs on one record, one barely listenable song that is almost a 'cut/paste/recut/turn the pieces around' rendition of Estranged, but shorter and more like a cheap knock off.
And considering some of Buckethead's parts still made the record, it's also got to be the most disappointing release by a bunch of (mostly) very talented rockers ever (also Brain Mantia, Robin Fincke, Tommy Stinson).
I guess that's what $15M buys you: talent to play on your record, but not an ability to work well together - or songwriting talent.
Or maybe we're all wrong, and 50 years from now we'll realize how much Axl was ahead of his time and will be considered the Mozart of rock, you know, like supposedly the history books will be kind to W. Bush as the conservative Americans say.
There will always be those who dismiss them as another Bon Jovi-type hair metal band. But their sound was pretty far from that of Poison, Ratt, Mötley Crüe and the like... they had a rawness and a 'realer' rock sound that was closer to a mix of Zeppelin and Dead Boys, rather than a castrated and emasculated Aerosmith/Van Halen like the other bands that I would qualify as 'cock rock'.
Those who don't see the difference will say they didn't have any memorable songs apart from the hits, but it all depends what you want to listen to. As far as straightforward rock goes, Rocket Queen, My Michelle, Mr Brownstone, 14 Years and a few more are just as good as any Nirvana or Pixies or Stones song.
Also, I doubt anyone living outside the U.S. would really be that excited about that record, since only Americans are allowed their free Dr Pepper when the record gets released. But it's here, it's hyped, it cost a fortune - curiosity can bring a listen and that listen brings the inevitable conclusion that it wasn't worth the wait, for whoever actually was waiting.
It's been 14 years of silenceWho knew Izzy was such a visionary?
It's been 14 years of pain
It's been 14 years that have gone forever and I'll never have again
Friday, November 17, 2006
Video Of The Week: The Polyphonic Spree
Christian Bovine wanted to become a filmmaker and instead became an expert in new media. You win some, you win some.
One of his school projects at NYU was making a video for The Polyphonic Spree's cover of the Nirvana classic Lithium using sock puppets, which was so good the band let it become its de facto official video:
Of course, the Spree is Tim DeLaughter's post-Tripping Daisy project, one that was shut down after the overdose death of guitarist Wes Berggren. I wasn't a fan of TD - particularly its fucking-annoying I Got A Girl mega-hit - but I can see now that DeLaughter actually has a decent artistic vision and some level of skill.
One of his school projects at NYU was making a video for The Polyphonic Spree's cover of the Nirvana classic Lithium using sock puppets, which was so good the band let it become its de facto official video:
Of course, the Spree is Tim DeLaughter's post-Tripping Daisy project, one that was shut down after the overdose death of guitarist Wes Berggren. I wasn't a fan of TD - particularly its fucking-annoying I Got A Girl mega-hit - but I can see now that DeLaughter actually has a decent artistic vision and some level of skill.
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