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| From | DanAbnrml9@aol.com |
| Subject | Re: Nirvana |
| Date | Wed, 7 Apr 2004 10:45:01 EDT |
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I was 14 when Kurt Cobain killed himself, so I might have a slightly
different perspective...
I was a Nirvana fan, though they certainly weren't my favorite (my favorite
at the time, actually, was the Cars, something people made fun of me for when I
was in 8th grade). Like a lot of people here, I can remember when the news
came--I was actually up in Providence for the statewide geography bee, which of
course made it an exciting day for me. I also lost, which perhaps made it less
exciting. On the car ride home the radio stations were talking about Kurt's
suicide--and it's notable that the station we were listening to was a classic
rock station, not any sort of modern format station. I was very upset, though I
really didn't know why... though in retrospect it might be because he was the
first person in a band I liked from my generation (sort of) who had died so
young. Even now the ones who followed him (Brad Nowell, Shannon Hoon, etc) were
decidedly less talented and thus had less impact.
It's true that the *importance* of Nirvana probably superceded the actual
potency of their music, though I think that their output holds up quite well even
now. What, for me, was important--and there were many people who experienced
the same--was that they came as the commercial fruition of what had been going
on in the underground for the better part of the past 15 years. Some of you
are going to say "...but I was listening to The Replacements and Husker Du
already, way before Nirvana". Yes, you were. But I wasn't. And not many
14-year-olds in 1994 were, either. Until the "grunge era", I listened primarily to
classic rock radio because I was turned off by much of the modern music of the time
(though I am now interested in late 80s/early 90s top 40, strangely). I
assumed--falsely--that all good new music was on the radio, and that's an
assumption that many hold even today. That Nirvana et al came out of nowhere suddenly
and so much stuff came roaring behind them seemed like a true revelation--you
can rock without spandex and big hair! Kurt's rather heartfelt liner notes in
"Incesticide" also did well to establish that he was a regular guy like all of
us.
Nirvana's arrival forced me and many of my peers to seek out other stuff that
was out there, and I don't mean the basic commercial acts like Pearl Jam or
Alice in Chains. We dug out Superchunk, Fugazi, the Butthole Surfers, the
aforementioned 'Mats and Husker Du, and more, plus more current acts like the
Posies. We also went back and listened to old punk and new wave--My old Cars
fascination was suddenly not so un-hip. It wasn't about "grunge" specifically to us,
it was about a door being opened. And that door was never shut, not even when
alternative radio began to suck in the late 90s.
I'm not saying that Nirvana were the greatest rock band ever. They had a very
limited output, their breakthrough album ("Nevermind") was produced in a
bizarrely dated manner (the drums have that late '80s "warehouse" sound, the
guitars don't kick nearly enough... it sounds like Butch Vig was trying to make
them sound like a pop metal band), and their immediate influence was contorted
into something much less desirable (the abysmal Alice in Chains, one of my least
favorite bands of the '90s). But for many of us--and by us, I mean people of
my generation--they blew the doors wide open. Whether that honor belonged to
Husker Du or the Replacements or someone else is up for debate, but Nirvana was
the band that did it.
Also, to whoever said that the Posies were "ripped off" by the flannel kids..
um, dude, I think the reverse sort of happened. The Posies were wonderful and
all, don't get me wrong, but "Frosting On the Beater" pursued a decidedly
opportunistic direction that was clearly an attempt to capitalize on the success
what was going on in the Pacific Northwest at the time. That album sounded
very faux-grungy, and it was a bit forced considering the previous two Posies
discs didn't sound like that at all. And again, it was released in 1993. For a
band from that era and area who were sort of ripped off and not given enough
credit, check out any of the Beat Happening discs--including their last, "You
Turn Me On", which was released in 1992--well into grunge's reign. Kurt Cobain
was actually such a big fan that he got a K records tattoo on one of his arms.
--Jason
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