As we noted in today’s Morning Music Notes, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide 18 years ago today, joining the Forever 27 club, with members Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, and since joined by Amy Winehouse. Nirvana were arguably one of the most popular band at the time, vying with Pearl Jam and other Seattle bands for alternative rock supremacy. As death so often does, Nirvana have reached legendary historical status because of Kurt’s death, giving Nirvana an elevated place in our hearts and minds.
Had Nirvana continued, who knows where they would be now? There are many questions that no one can accurately answer, but are fun to ponder. Would Nirvana have survived the edging out of alternative rock bands, or helped sustain the movement? Would Dave Grohl’s desire to write and sing songs make Nirvana a double threat, or drive the band apart? Would Dave Grohl have still formed Them Crooked Vultures, and be a guest drummer on as many albums as he has? Would the YouTube movement make Cobain more private and insular? Would Kurt and Courtney Love have stayed together, or more importantly, would they have starred in a reality show?! Would Nirvana drive itself into obscurity, making horrible album after horrible album, to the point where we don’t even care about them?!
Where would Nirvana have gone musically? As their excellent MTV Unplugged album shows, Kurt does have one hell of a voice, a severely understated strength of the band. Nirvana does have the odd “softer” song, but they aren’t the focal points of the albums. The guitar work in these songs is still distorted and dominating in the choruses. Would the band have mellowed out a bit, and changed directions? Surely they can’t make the same album over and over again, although Oasis (and sure, the Foo Fighters) made a decent career out of that. Would they dip into synths, like their 90s comrades the Smashing Pumpkins, which effectively ended their popularity (although Adore is a really good album!).
The obvious (and sad) thing is that we can only guess. Knowing what we know about Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, we can guess that Nirvana would’ve stayed relatively popular, with Dave Grohl getting some of his songs into the Nirvana fold. If one were to consider Nirvana a more popular Foo Fighters, and somewhat mimic their career arc (which was initially sustained by Nirvana-nostalgia, and maintained by Grohl’s songwriting skills), Nirvana would be one of the most popular bands in the world today. Whether the erratic Kurt Cobain would allow them to sustain these heights for 20 years is another story (which ended on April 5, 1994). R.I.P. Kurt Cobain.
Below is a Storify round up of some Twitter comments about Kurt Cobain, who is trending instead of Kurt on this day, and other comments you should check out.
Click to check out the Twitter Round Up of Kurt Cobain tribute, snarky comments, and other tweets below
Tag Archives: Kurt Cobain
Morning Music Notes – No Guns, No Food, No Cigarettes
Courtney Love Needs Money
Courtney Love, who has been in a 20 year downward spiral, must need some cash, right? After claims of squandering her fortune from husband Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana empire, Courtney Love has turned to commercials. She is now schilling electronic cigarettes from NJOY. She only has one line, and it includes an f-bomb, delivered with that Courtney Love attitude we all know about. The cigarettes produce a vapour and not smoke, so you can smoke them indoors, and be subject to endless complaints and questions that will make you want to smoke a real one outside instead. Check out the ad below.
Mike D Helps Hurricane Sandy Victims with Free Food Truck
There aren’t too many phrases better than the one “Free Food Truck”. Unfortunately, the phrase that precedes it is “Hurricane Sandy destroyed your city and you have no food.” To the rescue was none other than Beastie Boys’ Mike D (via Rolling Stone).
Mike D started a free food truck called Rockaway Plate Lunch. The service is still active, and has served 19,000 meals. Mike D noted that he and restauranteur Robert McKinley saw the destruction and decided to do something about it. “We saw right away all these people living without any power, without any businesses being open and therefore, no food. We saw the immediate need for warm food, but we didn’t have time to put together a long-term cohesive plan; we just had to react quickly. Rob comes from the hotel and restaurant business, and with myself, being involved in a couple of restaurants and just knowing all the friends in that world, we were able to draw on a bunch of these contacts and start bringing food out from restaurants in the city.”
I hope you like your sugar with coffee and cream. Check out a video below.
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Morning Music Notes – Cut Macca Some Slacka
Hurricane Sandy Concerts Blows Everyone Away….is an Example of an Inappropriate Headline
The rumours were true –
I am the world’s greatest loverwe got to see a “Nirvana reunion” with Paul McCartney subbing in for Kurt Cobain. After tweeting letters all day and forcing fans to spell, the Foo Fighters front man finally revealed what they were spelling and what it meant. They played a new song called Cut Me Some Slack, which is going to appear as a proper studio track on the Sound City – Real to Reel documentary that Dave Grohl has been working on for some time. So no Beatles tune, no Nirvana tune.The track is a heavier track than what Paul typically plays, and has a bluesy, uptempo feel to it. You have to love how happy Pat Smear seems to be during the entire song. And bassist Paul plays a guitar – how about that. Paul also throws down when he’s down the song, emphatically saying “Oh yeah?!” Check it out below.
What are Courtney Love’s thoughts on the matter? She’s not happy according to TMZ. But why the fuck should she care? It’s not like they played Nirvana tracks.
Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Pat Smear – Cut Me Some Slack
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Morning Music Notes – The End to First World Problems
Kurt Cobain: The Documentary
A few weeks ago, we posted a story about Kurt Cobain: The Musical, which widow Courtney Love denied. We now have confirmation that
Courtney Love is insanea Kurt Cobain documentary is in the works, and will be out in 2014 (via Rolling Stone).The movie is being made by Brett Morgen, who said “Courtney [Love] is the one that brought me into this. We’ve been trying to find the right time to put this film together and the time is now.”
Morgen added, “Kurt was not only an amazing songwriter and musician, he was an incredible artist and filmmaker. So we are going to do the movie sort of like a third-person autobiography – [as] if Kurt was around and making a film about his life.”
Maybe he IS around – as a zombie! Those movies never go out of style.
Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West to Play Hurricane Sandy Benefit
I’m sure everyone remembers the benefit after Hurricane Katrina, where Kanye West uttered the now famous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” line. Now that Kanye West is playing a benefit for Hurricane Sandy, will Kanye say “Barack Obama doesn’t care about black people”? It would be sort of awesome if he did. Or if Mike Myers could return the favour and say that “Barack Obama doesn’t care about white people.”
The Hurricane Sandy benefit will take place 12/12/12 at Madison Square Gardens, and will feature Paul McCartney (who can’t get enough of NYC), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kanye West, Roger Waters, the Who, Alicia Keys,
parent of the yearBon Jovi, and Billy Joel. Wow. Insert insensitive “I wish my city would get hit by a hurricane” comment.Proceeds go to the Robin Hood fund, which is a poor (pun sort of intended) name for a charity, and it’s copyright, isn’t it?
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Morning Music Notes – Kurt Cobain: The Musical
Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace Album Out in January?
Radiohead fan(atical) site, At Ease, reported over the weekend that Atoms for Peace are going to release their debut album in January. No proof was offered with the report, which noted the album will be called AMOK, will have 9 tracks, and will be out January 28, 2013. However, further work done by nerds on the Internet reveal that the tracklisting showed up briefly on the XL Recordings website on the weekend, as did the release date, which is still active. Good job, geeks!
Some screengrabs of the tracklisting were posted, and you can see the 9 tracks of the Thom Yorke / Flea / Nigel Godrich / Joey Waronker band below. I’ll be running around the house with excitement until the release day.
Tracklisting for Atoms for Peace – AMOK
1. Before Your Very Eyes…
2. Default
3. Ingenue
4. Dropped
5. Unless
6. Stuck Together Pieces
7. Judge, Jury and Executioner
8. Reverse Running
9. Amok
Kurt Cobain Musical Will Never Happen
Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has denied claims that a Broadway musical based on the Nirvana singer’s life is being made (via NME). In October, Sam Lufti (of Britney Spears trial infamy) said that he is managing Courtney Love and working with her on a project about Kurt. Who do you trust? History says, um, neither.
Last month, it was revealed that a sitcom is being made called Smells Like Teen Spirit. It seems Love needs the money more than we think.
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Morning Music Notes – Drink 65% Beer While Smashing Nirvana’s Bass
Own a Piece of Music Video History – Buy the Bass from Smells Like Teen Spirit Video
In the Nirvana video for Smells Like Teen Spirit, Kurt Cobain goes a little crazy and smashes the bass belonging to Krist Novoselic. Now the famed bass is up for auction as part of the entertainment memorabilia sale in November at Christie’s in London (via NME). The bass is expected to go for between £15,000 and £25,000. But guys, it doesn’t even work!
Novoselic purchased the bass from a pawn shop, knowing that the video called for it to get smashed up. Smart man. The auction will also see a 1958 high school yearbook that features a handwritten note by Bob Dylan. Amazingly, the message says to check out PeteHatesMusic in the future, and that he’s on drugs, so ignore anything he writes.
Miguel Teams Up with Beyonce – Also, Enter Our Miguel Contest!
Good news for fans of either of Beyonce and Miguel. The latter put up a picture on Instagram of him working with Beyonce. Miguel recently worked with Alicia Keys on his track, Where’s the Fun in Forever, and now has shifted his sights to Beyonce. It’s unclear whether it’s a Beyonce track, and where it’ll land, but it’ll probably be good.
In case you missed it yesterday, we’re having a contest for Canadian residents to win a copy of the excellent Miguel album, Kaleidoscope Dream. Click here to find out how to enter, and fill that void in your life that you didn’t know was missing.
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Morning Music Notes – Television Friendly Unit Shifter
Apple Rolls Out iPad Mini, New iPad 4, Fanboys Lose Their Shit
Yes, I know this happened yesterday, but there are other sites who can write more elegantly about it, so I figured I’d save it for the morning once everyone else has already done by dirty work. In case you didn’t hear, Apple announced a whack of new products yesterday. Of particular importance to most people and to music fans are the new iPad Mini and the iPad 4.
In case you haven’t figured it out, the iPad Mini is a smaller version of the iPad – it will be 7.9 inches. It weighs less than a pound, and is as thin as a pencil (that’s what she said). It’ll have most of the things the ‘regular’ iPad does, but in a more compacted, cheaper way. However, the prices aren’t quite as low as some people (read: me) hoped. At least the prices are the same in the U.S. as they are in Canada – finally, Canada doesn’t get totally screwed. The prices:
16GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi Only) – $329
32GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi Only) – $429
64GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi Only) – $529
16GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi + 3G/LTE) – $459
32GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi + 3G/LTE) – $559
64GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi + 3G/LTE) – $659
Let’s hope Santa is rich. At least the iPad Minis are amazingly light and won’t weigh him down. The pre-orders start on October 26, and it is available November 2. Check out a commercial to watch big brother and little brother iPads playing.
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Morning Music Notes: Neil Young’s autobiography could indeed be interesting.
Neil Young talks Kurt Cobain in autobiography:
Weaving Heavy Peace is Neil’s new autobiography, and it is on book shelves and most online retailers now. In it, he talks about being mentioned in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note, how he tried to reach out to the singer to help with his problems, and how the whole experience fucked with him (his words, not ours).
“When [Cobain] died and left that note, it struck a deep chord inside of me. It fucked with me.”
Li’l Wayne breaks Elvis Presley Record:
Weezy has now put 109 songs (!) on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart – breaking Elvis’ 45 year record.
Via Yahoo Music…
Continue reading →
Morning Music Notes – Pirate Bay Users Going Down with the Ship
If You Use The Pirate Bay, You Are Probably Being Watched – RUN!
Now that I’ve finished getting the latest season of Breaking Bad from the Pirate Bay, comes news about Pirate Bay downloaders being watched. Well, isn’t that great (and I’m kidding, lawyers! I was getting Vampire Diaries). A study in Birmingham, UK, suggests that users of torrent website, The Pirate Bay, have been monitored (via Digital Trends). The 3 year study found that IP addresses were being recorded on a massive scale by “copyright enforcement organisations, security companies, and even government research labs.”
The study also found that the tracking techniques aren’t 100% reliable – yet – so the chances of prosecution aren’t super high. But you should stop downloading Coexist by The xx and buy it on Monday.
Is James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem Producing the New Arcade Fire Album?
James Murphy has retired his LCD Soundsystem project and is free to do other things, like Bingo and Farmville. A few years ago, Murphy told Pitchfork that LCD took over his life, and he couldn’t do things such as produce for Arcade Fire or Spoon. But maybe he is producing for Arcade Fire now. Let’s put some words into his mouth:
In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Lowe asked “What can you tell us about what you’re doing? Can you talk about the AF record? Is that on the cards?”
Murphy slyly replied “No, no. That’s not something I can talk about yet. The Abercrombie & Fitch record,” (via Fuse).
The operative word being yet. Or is it Abercrombie & Fitch?! Although I failed those deductive reasoning classes, I’m sure some PhD could conclude that he is in fact producing it. So we’ll run with that.
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Courtney Love Feels Like She Needs More Press, Accuses Dave Grohl of Hitting on Her Daughter, Dave Grohl Denies It
Here at PeteHatesMusic, we try to only report the facts, not rumours, speculation, and other stuff we sometimes make up as facts. The whole “Lana Del Rey is dating Axl Rose” garbage – not worthy of my typing (ignore the recent typing I did to defend the worth of my typing). So it’s with great hesitation that I report that Kurt Cobain’s crazy widow, Courtney Love, has accused former Nirvana bandmate and Foo Fighters frontman, Dave Grohl, of flirting with and hitting on Frances Bean, Kurt and Courtney’s 19 year old daughter (via Rolling Stone).
On her private Twitter account, @cbabymichelle, the headcase that is Courtney Love tweeted a series of, er, tweets about Dave Grohl’s “sexual obsession” with Kurt Cobain, claiming Grohl flirted and had his hands all over Frances Bean. She even goes as far as to say Grohl is carrying out this obsession by having a drummer in Foo Fighters (Taylor Hawkins) who resembles Kurt Cobain, and has him playing in the “submissive drummer position”. Is this the same “submissive drummer position” that Kurt had Dave in? Are you sure you aren’t sexually obsessed with the studly Dave Grohl?
Dave Grohl responded in a manner in which we pretty much expected – by
making a HILARIOUS video of the subjectissuing a statement: “Unfortunately Courtney is on another hateful Twitter rant. These new accusations are upsetting, offensive and absolutely untrue.” Sad when someone needs to issue a statement over crazy comments that someone makes over Twitter.Nirvana and Kurt Cobain: What Could’ve Been
As we noted in today’s Morning Music Notes, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide 18 years ago today, joining the Forever 27 club, with members Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, and since joined by Amy Winehouse. Nirvana were arguably one of the most popular band at the time, vying with Pearl Jam and other Seattle bands for alternative rock supremacy. As death so often does, Nirvana have reached legendary historical status because of Kurt’s death, giving Nirvana an elevated place in our hearts and minds.
Had Nirvana continued, who knows where they would be now? There are many questions that no one can accurately answer, but are fun to ponder. Would Nirvana have survived the edging out of alternative rock bands, or helped sustain the movement? Would Dave Grohl’s desire to write and sing songs make Nirvana a double threat, or drive the band apart? Would Dave Grohl have still formed Them Crooked Vultures, and be a guest drummer on as many albums as he has? Would the YouTube movement make Cobain more private and insular? Would Kurt and Courtney Love have stayed together, or more importantly, would they have starred in a reality show?! Would Nirvana drive itself into obscurity, making horrible album after horrible album, to the point where we don’t even care about them?!
Where would Nirvana have gone musically? As their excellent MTV Unplugged album shows, Kurt does have one hell of a voice, a severely understated strength of the band. Nirvana does have the odd “softer” song, but they aren’t the focal points of the albums. The guitar work in these songs is still distorted and dominating in the choruses. Would the band have mellowed out a bit, and changed directions? Surely they can’t make the same album over and over again, although Oasis (and sure, the Foo Fighters) made a decent career out of that. Would they dip into synths, like their 90s comrades the Smashing Pumpkins, which effectively ended their popularity (although Adore is a really good album!).
The obvious (and sad) thing is that we can only guess. Knowing what we know about Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, we can guess that Nirvana would’ve stayed relatively popular, with Dave Grohl getting some of his songs into the Nirvana fold. If one were to consider Nirvana a more popular Foo Fighters, and somewhat mimic their career arc (which was initially sustained by Nirvana-nostalgia, and maintained by Grohl’s songwriting skills), Nirvana would be one of the most popular bands in the world today. Whether the erratic Kurt Cobain would allow them to sustain these heights for 20 years is another story (which ended on April 5, 1994). R.I.P. Kurt Cobain.
Below is a Storify round up of some Twitter comments about Kurt Cobain, who is trending instead of Kurt on this day, and other comments you should check out.
Click to check out the Twitter Round Up of Kurt Cobain tribute, snarky comments, and other tweets below