Nirvana

It’s now Horse Feathers’ duty to completely drain you

Friday, August 20th, 2010 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Is Nirvana one of most oft-covered bands of the past two decades? I know I’ve unleashed my version of “Polly” at every party I’ve been to since 1994. But that’s me.

Portland’s Horse Feathers actually bring something new to their interpretation of “Drain You.” The song—which they performed recently at the Doug Fir—will appear on Horse Feathers’ forthcoming 7-inch. I’m still holding out for an acoustic version of “Milk It.”

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Can you feel my love buzz?

Monday, September 14th, 2009 | musiX | 5 Comments

Of all Kurdt Kobain’s issues—the self-loathing, the heroin addiction … those unhealthy obsessions with Frances Farmer and The Vaselines—the thing that perplexes me most to this day is how he ended up with Courtney Love.

I bring this up in light of Love’s most recent attempt (and certainly not the last) to make a buck off her deceased husband’s name in what is probably the last thing Kobain would ever want to be associated with—a video game. Guitar Hero 5 was just released, and with it a digitized version of Kobain sporting his ratty cardigan and Daniel Johnston T-shirt performing two of Nirvana’s hits “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium.” Creepy enough. But you can also toggle Kobain’s likeness (whose face sort of resembles a young Stephen Baldwin) to strike B-Boy poses along to Public Enemy’s “Bring The Noise,” or perform (guitarless) songs by Bon Jovi, Billy Idol and—of all bands—Bush. Geez, might as well throw him into a pair of assless chaps while performing a Guns N’ Roses song (Maybe “One In a Million”?). Of course, Love is now denying she gave the game’s publisher Activision permission to use Kobain’s image and is threatening to sue. Kobain, meanwhile, is looking at all of this probably wondering, “What the fuck was I thinking?”

But I’m here to talk about happy things. Sub Pop is set to release a remastered reissue of Nirvana’s Bleach—you know, their first record … most people don’t own it. It’s been 20 years (to put it into perspective, Bleach came out the same year Milli Vanilli released Girl You Know It’s True). I am We are old.

If In Utero is Nirvana’s best album, Bleach is the most compelling and raw, taking the extremes of punk rock, pop and even metal (double-bass on “School” and “Scoff”!). It’s a rather unsettling and ugly record where melodies miraculously emerge from beneath an unruly tangle of riffs and feedback. Kobain’s vocals are more often slurred than sung, and lyrically he was at his most esoteric (even for him) and wrote a lot of the lyrics the day before recording. With Jack Endino manning the board, the album’s 13 songs were recorded over the course of 30 hours for about 600 bucks.

The Sub Pop reissue, which was overseen by Endino and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, will be released Nov. 3. The first run will come on white vinyl (like the original) and will include an unreleased live recording from 1990 of a performance at Portland’s Pine Street Theatre.

It’s interesting to think that when Bleach was released on June 15, 1989, the members of Nirvana were just a bunch of young punks in their early-20s probably wondering if the band would even make it three years—let alone change the world. Am I naive to think I will never see the day when Kurdt Kobain’s face is plastered on a lunchbox, or “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle” appears in a Chevy commercial? At least I can sleep soundly knowing that Love, in fact, has got everything to do with it.

“Blew” - Nirvana

“Love Buzz” - Nirvana

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The Vaselines enter The Days of Lore

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | interviewZ, musiX, pdX | 5 Comments

Like many, my introduction to The Vaselines came via Nirvana’s Incesticide record in 1992. “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun” were cheery pop songs that sounded a little less Nirvana-like than the rest of the album. Of course, Nirvana would later cover “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” for its Unplugged album and, as with the brothers Meat (who incidentally have a new record out May 12), The Vaselines were soon on everybody’s cool-and-hip radar.

The Vaselines weren’t even a band by that point. Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee (for whom Cobain would name his daughter after) broke up—personally and professionally—in 1989, only three years after they formed. The band have only a pair of EPs and one full-length—Dum-Dum—released a few months before they called it a day. Ever since Mr. Cobain professed his undying love for the Scotland duo’s jangly garage pop, The Vaselines have maintained indie-rock cult status, and in 1992 Sub Pop re-released The Vaselines’ first two EPs and Dum-Dum as The Way of The Vaselines.

On May 5 Sub Pop re-released the re-release with a much more grandiose title Enter The Vaselines. And with that Kelly and McKee will also play a few U.S. dates, including one here in Portland at the Doug Fir on Wednesday, May 13. The show, no doubt, will be packed. Gee, imagine a world where Kurt Cobain didn’t endorse bands. Who could blame him? The Vaselines are everything I like about music: Sweet, catchy, naughty, ramshackle, strange, beautiful.

Eugene Kelly took some time to talk to TDoL about the upcoming tour and his first encounter with his biggest fan.

TDoL: When you formed The Vaselines in 1986, how did you think it would end up?
Eugene Kelly: We just wanted to write songs and play gigs. We were lucky that we released a single soon after we’d formed, but we didn’t have any plans. It was one day at a time and we were both at college so it wasn’t a full-time job being in The Vaselines.

Is it strange performing songs you wrote over 20 years ago, considering the fact that The Vaselines could have just as easily ended up long-gone and forgotten?
We could’ve been dead and gone and no one would’ve missed us if it wasn’t for Nirvana then Sub Pop introducing us to a new audience. It’s not strange to play these songs after 20 years at all. They feel new and fresh to us. We didn’t perform many of them live 20 years ago as we split soon after the Dum-Dum album was released.

Kurt Cobain asked you to reform in 1990 to perform with Nirvana in Edinburgh. It was obviously before Nirvana broke. What made you decide to do it?
I was interested in meeting these guys from far over the ocean who seemed to be fans of ours. It was a positive thing in my life at a time when—post-split, post-break up, post-college—I didn’t have much to be cheery about.

How did Kurt react to meeting you two?
We were introduced and chatted before the show; he seemed very shy and introverted.

You’ve both been involved in projects post-Vaselines. Does The Vaselines still satisfy a musical part of you that hasn’t been tapped into since?
I’ve played mostly folk-based acoustic music for the last few years and played solo shows, so playing electric guitar again is fantastic. I’ve missed making a racket.

What are you most looking forward to with the tour?
Simply getting to go to places that The Vaselines haven’t been before and seeing who is waiting to see us play. I can’t wait.

“Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam” - The Vaselines

“Sex Sux (Amen)” - The Vaselines

“Molly’s Lips” - Nirvana

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Happy New Year

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

No reason … except that I wanted to. Happy New Year Season.

Nirvana, “Seasons In the Sun”

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Do you love these?

Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | musiX, politiX | 1 Comment

I was a little testy the other day. Politics does that to me, which is why I don’t discuss it at length … and why I’m changing the subject back to rock ‘n’ roll and youth …

When I was 5 or 6 I received a 45 of Gene Simmons‘ “Radioactive” (B-side, “See You In Your Dreams”) from his 1978 solo record. I played it as often as I could on my parents’ hi-fi—you know, one of those stereos with a record player and an 8-track inside of what looked like a piece of furniture—until it was a crackling mess. I owned three T-shirts, KISS trading cards, posters, pajamas … and I wrote a letter to Santa asking for a Gene Simmons doll. I also liked Barry Manilow … but that’s another story.

I essentially grew up liking KISS in varying degrees—losing interest at times, defending them to no avail at others, and buying their records no matter how crappy they were. KISS hasn’t been good since 1976, save for Dynasty, (Music From) The Elder and Creatures of the Night … maybe Asylum for the production … sorry, still with me? And I will to this day defend them against those who don’t know any better, and I still insist that anyone who likes rock ‘n’ roll should own copies of Destroyer, Alive! and Hotter Than Hell.

KISS still isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are still touring sans Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, instead playing with a career studio musician and the guy who used to fetch Gene’s coffee. Now they’ve released an album of re-recorded classics. KISS fans will eat it up … err, lick it up. It’s like television—who do you blame, the networks producing the awful shows, or the millions of people who watch them every week?

I recently listened to Jigoku Retsuden, which is available only in Japan and the Interwebs and was recorded with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer. It definitely sounds better than some of those old tinny recordings, but it’s rather soulless and is no doubt another scheme to make a yen or ni.

But I want to know which version rocks harder, not from the standpoint of a bleeding-heart KISS dweeb, but from an objective, thinking, slightly uninterested person. I’ve taken “Do You Love Me” from 1976’s Destroyer, and I’m running it against the 2008 version. I’m also throwing in the Ralph Nader of rock if you will: a version Nirvana recorded in 1990 (it appeared on the rare tribute album Hard To Believe which also features covers from bands like Skin Yard, Smelly Tongues and the Hard-Ons).

It’s a warm-up vote before the big one on Nov. 4. Listen and e-mail your votes to mark@thedaysoflore.com. I’ll announce the winner Mon., Nov. 3 … it might be the most important pre-election election of your life.

“Do You Love Me” - KISS, 1976

“Do You Love Me - Nirvana, 1990

“Do You Love Me” - KISS 7.0, 2008

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