-->
Yes, my fellow connoisseurs of all things heavy, today is the day you’ve been waiting for: NIRVANA DAY! As you all well know, November 3rd sees the release of several Nirvana and Nirvana-related releases. For those of you who haven’t already created your NIRVANA DAY CHECKLIST, here’s a handy cheat sheet of the day’s releases:
Honestly, I was never that excited about Them Crooked Vultures, for the simple reason that supergroups are anticlimactic nine out of ten times (and the fact that Queens of the Stone Age haven’t made a record I’ve wanted to listen to more than once since Songs for the Deaf didn’t help). Still, I was open to giving the band a shot.
Then I heard their first single, “New Fang.”
When Gary Suarez described this band’s music as “seriously generic and geriatric classic rock,” he wasn’t kidding.
Reader CB Mather e-mailed me over the weekend to assert that Alice in Chains’ new song, “Your Decision,” is “an obvious rip-off” of Nirvana’s “Polly.” Now, since I absolutely loved AIC’s new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, and really, really dig the song “Your Decision,” I immediately decided to investigate…
…and there are some undeniable similarities between the songs. The vocal lines are different and the choruses are not really similar at all, but the chord progression during the verse is… well… it’s not identical, but I can see a relationship there. I don’t know if I’d call it “an obvious rip-off,” but only the most die-hard AIC fan who can’t live with the thought of anyone saying anything even mildly insulting to the band would deny the similitude of the two songs.
Here they are side-by-side. I tend to think this is just one of those times when a song kinda-sorta sounds like another song, but the fact that they’re both Seattle bands from the same era makes the connection that much more relevant.
NIRVANA PERFORMING “POLLY” ON UNPLUGGED
ALICE IN CHAINS PERFORMING “YOUR DECISION” ON JIMMY KIMMEL
I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.
In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.
He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?
So as it turns out, Courtney Love is – no shock here – a fucking liar. Despite her protests to the contrary, not only did only did Love sign off on the use of a Kurt Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5, but she cashed the nice, fat check she was given for the use of said avatar. Nice.
The Great Kat was/is (does anyone still care about her?) more coherent than Ms. Love, but no less aggressively nuts. I was never a fan, but for those of you who were/are, I have but one question: why?
-AR
Thanks to Shane Gillis for the video.
The Intarwebs have been buzzing and seething over the inclusion of Kurt Cobain as a playable character in Activision’s popular Guitar Hero video game, his digitized ghost forever doomed to perform Bon Jovi songs at the whim of teenage boys. Most rational people assumed that this perceived offense against the deceased grunge rocker was the fault of his widow Courtney Love, who would have had to sign off the creation of this virtual atrocity. When called out on this via Twitter, by British music journo and former Cobain family friend Everett True, the unflaggingly graceful Love took the usual high road and launched into an inscrutable six hour tweet seizure railing against, among other things, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
Anyone with a fucking brain in his skull (NO PUN INTENDED!) should immediately question the notion that Grohl has any control over Cobain’s likeness. Logically, that responsibility would rest with the executor of Cobain’s estate. But of course, we’re talkin’ about COURTNEY FUCKING LOVE here, so logic goes out the window from the start. Fortunately, Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic have formulated a much more coherent response to the growing outrage expressed by Nirvana’s sanctimonious fans, most of whom have grown up to be the type of corporate sellouts that Cobain so obviously disdained.
We’ve all been cringing at Courtney Love’s latest desecration of her dead husband for a quick buck. Thankfully, the Hole frontwoman and executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate isn’t standing in the way of an absolutely awesome reissue of Bleach, Nirvana’s classic grunge/sludge debut. First released twenty years ago on Sub Pop, the album has been remastered for the label under the direction of bassist Krist Novoselic and original producer Jack Endino.
Even if Kurt Cobain didn’t mind being used as an avatar in Guitar Hero 5, I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t want to be used to sing Bon Jovi or Bush – even if it’s only virtual. Isn’t Bon Jovi exactly the kind of band that went against everything Cobain stood for? And Bush… that’s exactly the kind of god-awful shit-fuck wanna-be grunge band that Cobain accidentally inspired, and I’m sure either hated (if he was aware of them before his death) or would have hated (if he wasn’t aware of them before his death).
I’m not even that big a Cobain fan – but you just know that he’d be pissed at Courtney for letting them do this. What a crock.
-AR
[via Topless Robot]
If you’re famous, one of the biggest problems with being dead is that you lose all control over how your “estate” (read: family that needs money) uses abuses your legacy. Case in point: Kurt Cobain is apparently going to be in Guitar Hero 5.
Now, I’m not one of these people who has a problem with Guitar Hero or rhythm games in general – I find them entertaining, and I’m not an alarmist who thinks they mean kids are gonna stop learning to play real instruments.
But I feel like Cobain is definitely the kind of stick-up-his-ass dude who would have a problem with Guitar Hero. Still, Francis Bean gotta eat Courtney Love gotta shoot up, so there’s Kurt in all his pixelated glory.
I’m shocked that Dimebag hasn’t been included in a rhythm game yet. I’d wager that his estate is working on that right about now.
-AR
It should come as no surprise that we’re all pretty excited about Shrinebuilder here. And how could we not? It’s a fucking indie metal supergroup featuring Scott “Wino” Weinrich (Saint Vitus, The Obssessed), Scott Kelly (Neurosis, Tribes of Neurot), Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om, Asbestosdeath), and Dale Crover (Melvins, Altamont, Nirvana). Without hearing a single note–since the band has yet to release a single song–it is pretty much understood that its forthcoming self-titled debut shall destroy us all. I firmly belief that these men are the long promised Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Hopefully the particularly nasty bits in the Book of Revelation will take place after I get a chance to see the band play live. As of now, three Shrinebuilder shows have been announced, two on November 14 at The Empty Bottle in Chicago (one early, one late) and a third on November 15 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City.
-GS
[Gary Suarez watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]
Presenting “Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up,” by Germany’s excellent monikered DJ Morgoth.
Believe it or not, I found out about about this from a tweet from ex-NINer Danny Lohner.
-AR
When I first heard that Courtney Love was going to release her long-delayed solo record under the Hole name, I considered it “a huge fuck you to co-founder Eric Erlandson.” Though the argument has been made that the influence and involvement of Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan may have had more to do with the band’s successes than the work of its official membership, I wondered how it was even permissible for her to utilize the name. Surely there had to be legal hurdles to be dealt with that couldn’t be dismissed without consent from former members. (I mean, Axl Rose effectively destroyed Guns N’ Roses by compelling his bandmates to relinquish all rights to the name.) So I’ve been waiting for Erlandson or someone from Hole’s management to comment on Love’s unilateral decision to shamelessly cash-in on the Hole brand. Well, at last, he has:
Furthermore, guitarist Erlandson insists a contract Love signed with him in 2002 bans her from using the name Hole for any future ventures, unless he’s involved. He tells Spin magazine, “We have a contract. She signed a contract with me when we decided to break up the band, which was like 2002 or something, so I really don’t have comment on it except that I know my part in that band. The way I look at it, there is no Hole without me. To put it blunt. Just on a business level… Somebody told me (about Love’s plans) and it just sounds like something… it just sounds like the usual. I love her a lot and I wish her the best, and I’m open to discussions regarding the real Hole, and if she has a solo album together, I think that’s great. I think she should finish it and put it out and do that.”
Of course, Love has responded to this seemingly sound logic with her usual grace, tact, and impeccable grammar… via Twitter.
Click to read more…
Metal Hammer reports that Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones (those are the dudes from Queens of the Stone Age / Kyuss, Foo FIghters / Nirvana and Led fucking Zeppelin respectively, for the uninitiated or just plain retarded), in what would be the second extremely boner-worthy collaboration involving Josh Homme to surface in the past month.
Grohl is kinda-sorta getting his childhood/ongoing wet-dream of playing drums for Zep, kinda sorta. The man can pretty much do no wrong in my book, whatwith Probot, playing with Mastodon, a million other side projects, and of course the continued quality output of Foo Fighters. A collabo with Josh Homme makes perfect sense given his stoner/metal background, and JPJ is just the icing on the cake! Gonna be some deep, stoney shit.
-VN
I have a beef with Krist Novoselic. Though he doesn’t know that I exist, I’ve written about him on my No Yoko No blog a couple of times. Nearly all of the music Novoselic has put out since his time with Nirvana I could pretty much do without, as he’s distanced himself from anything even remotely rocking. Of course, his membership in a reunited Flipper beginning in 2006 gave me hope that I’d once again hear something worthwhile from one of the first bassists that inspired me to pick up the instrument. Sadly, he left the seminal punk group holding the bag just prior to a U.S. tour this past Fall, forcing the band to cancel the dates on account of the short notice. In that band’s own words, Novoselic “has decided that touring is not something he wants to do, at this time.”
Vince has gone into some detail in the past about the travails of dating a girl who isn’t into metal; I’ve kept my own struggles to educate the future ex-Mrs. Axl Rosenberg more private, but I do feel Vince’s pain.
Lucky for us, then, that Thrash Hits has pointed us towards this article at self-titledmag.com, which outlines a plan to get your non-metal gf to give into the dark side. Here’s an excerpt:
The Huffington Post is reporting that Courtney Love and The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke are secretly dating. I find that kinda funny, given that The Wrestler features a line about what a pussy Kurt Cobain was, and Rourke is a known accomplice of Axl Rose, who famously feuded with Love and Cobain back in the day.
But there’s nothing funny about the way Courtney Love’s face looks.
At this point I don’t think it’s news that Courtney Love is a mental case who’s in severe need of being flattened by a truck, but her latest stunt might really take the cake. In the new issue of Heeb magazine (which is a pretty funny publication, in case any of my fellow Jews aren’t aware of its existence), Love – who claims that she’s a) sober (uh-huh) and b) part Jewish (“I’m a Buddhist, but I do identify with Judaism in the sense that it’s in my bloodline,” she proclaims) – has this to say about the Chosen People:
The whole idea of a TV station called Music Television that doesn’t play music is completely ridiculous; nevertheless, this has been the reality of MTV pretty much since the late ‘90s. Forgive me if I’m slightly behind the times as I don’t have a TV, but apparently there’s a new channel called MTV Music (yes, folks, welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department: That’s “Music Television Music.”) that specializes in playing music videos. Is this not completely fucking ridiculous? [I realized post-publishing that this is solely a website, not a TV channel. Read on, as most of my points still stand. -Ed.]
Dear MTV: NEWSBREAK! It’s called YouTube, assholes! And it’s got just about every video ever, plus tons of live, unreleased and otherwise unofficial stuff you’d never air. The idea of a TV station being relevant to music in 2008 is about as good as the idea of traveling to California… by horse and buggy. You’re hopelessly out of date. Especially for metal. Deal with it.
Anyway… said new(ish) channel has launched an ad campaign that attempts to invoke ’80s and ‘90s nostalgia — in anyone that was alive and watched the original MTV when they still played videos — by bringing back the classic modified-MTV-logo theme retrofitted with band imagery sure to invoke just that nostalgia. This includes some of our favorite heavies, notably Metallica (above), as well as Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots, pictured after the jump.
I saw a pretty fantastic new movie last night called The Wrestler. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) and stars Mickey Rourke as an over the hill, down on his luck pro-wrestler looking to make amends with his estranged daughter (Marilyn Manson fucker Evan Rachel Wood) and kindle a romance with an over the hill, down on her luck stripper (Marisa Tomei).
ANWAY, the reason I mention it is this: there’s a great scene where Rourke and Tomei are in a bar, and Ratt’s “Round and Round” comes on the jukebox. This inspires a conversation about the two characters’ mutual love of 80’s hair metal and leads to Rourke uttering the line of dialog which serves as this article’s headline – a line of dialog which I found insanely funny and which, to my pleasant surprise, a few thousand other people did, too.
So with all due respect to “that pussy Cobain,” here Ratt performing “Round and Round” in 1984, when they were at the height of their powers. If this don’t start your week right, nuthin’ will.
The Wrestler will be in theaters in the U.S. on December 19. I highly recommend it.
-AR
So that grunge-themed episode of The Simpsons aired over the weekend, and even though some of the early/mid 90s jokes were a little too cloying (When Homer and Marge divy up their stuff after deciding to break-up, Homer tells Marge “You take the Microsoft stock, I’ll take the Enron stock.” Rim-shot!), the show’s parody of grunge was dead-on. For anyone who missed it, below find Home Simpson’s grunge band, Sadgasm, doing shockingly good parodies of Nirvana (soft verse, screamed chorus) and – ugh – Bush.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/-ulsq4a2SCg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eh3wl3F0kvU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
-AR
Advertisements:
