The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: side_show on September 23, 2011, 07:03:32 pm
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It amazes me that Nevermind came out 20 years ago. (http://new.ca.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/89911/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-nirvanas-nevermind)
Me and the kid I was when that album came out have less and less in common as time goes by, but I can look back at the old me and understand why this album meant so much back in the day. I still remember where I was the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the radio. Fittingly, I was in the basement of my parent's house, alone, feeling pretty shitty about myself. Just for that alone, I think that album had its finger on the pulse of the times.
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I loved Nevermind, but mostly because it rocks like a mother fucker.
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I just got into Nevermind (and the rest of their stuff) in the last year or so because it rocks like a mother fucker.
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I would venture to say that anyone who doesn't like Nevermind is a soulless husk.
I still vividly remember the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. It must have been 2000 or 2001, and I was so completely blown away. The first band I remember loving that my parents completely hated. I slowly grew to love more and more of their stuff, and sought out their influences, leading me to where I am today. I read "Heavier than Heaven" 3 or 4 times in high school. I also own the guitar that Kurt had, I guess.
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I would venture to say that anyone who doesn't like Nevermind is a soulless husk.
Meh.
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I mean, it's a solid album. It rocks well and hard.
But it is mostly its placement in the zeitgeist that gives it its lasting power, more than the content. Five years earlier or later and it would be a moderate cult hit amoungst certain post-punk circles, which is what half of Cobain's mind wanted it to be anyway.
Honestly, if I could only own one Nirvana album, it'd be the Unplugged album.
They seemed to be finally starting to grow out of Cobain's obsession with fitting a certain definition of what is "authentic" music in his head and just... going out and rocking.
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I like Bleach.
Nevermind is Butch Vig's album. It's good, but still.
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I wrote this on my blog seven years ago. It still applies. (Apologies if I've posted this here before or otherwise am repeating myself.)
I was the music director at our college radio station; the main part of my job was to listen to incoming music and decide what to put out for airplay. We were having a little listening party in the station's recording studio on a weekend afternoon, me and two friends, and having heard of this band Nirvana, I popped in the four-song EP we had just received, with "Teen Spirit" and the next three tracks from the album. We were completely blown away. I looked at them and said "This is going to be bigger than you can imagine."
I was right. "Teen Spirit" was everywhere, even on Top 40 radio. When I was at a show during the CMJ convention in New York, folks mostly ignored the videos on the giant screen between bands--until "Teen Spirit" came on, then suddenly everyone shut up and watched. Every grunge band in Seattle got signed. Geffen Records sent me a Nirvana t-shirt and I wore it every chance I got. I saw Nirvana at Dobbs in Philly, and met Kris Novoselic after the show (actually, he mostly ignored me, but he did record a falsetto station ID into my micro-cassette recorder). I was thrilled, because music was going to be good again, not just in our little college-radio alternative enclave, but everywhere. Of course, it didn't last; thousands of copies of Mudhoney's Piece of Cake ended up in bargain bins at record stores across the country. Then Kurt shot himself.
A while back I saw an episode of VH1's "Behind the Music" on 1992, and I was taken aback at how much it affected me. That stuff meant something to me. I long for a time when I could not worry about the obscene housing market, the looming threat of evangelical Christianity as official religion, and the ever-widening chasm between the rich and poor. I wish music was the most important thing to me these days. Too much to ask.
Thanks, Kurt. And sorry.
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i dont know why nirvana was such a big deal to me. i didnt have a fraction of the cares that kurt had....
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Carlos, that is beautiful.
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i dont know why nirvana was such a big deal to me. i didnt have a fraction of the cares that kurt had....
Where as I had plenty of cares at the time. The thing is, things got very dark for me and there was a time when I very seriously considered suicide, then I fought through that depression, got help, fought through it some more, and find myself on the other side, a survivor. I understood the angst of the grunge era well, but it's a feeling I don't really have any nostalgia for. I'm glad I don't feel the way I felt back then. It was an awful time. It was awful to feel the way that album made me feel. The music was good and it spoke to the me I was back then. I'm not that girl anymore. If Kurt survived and recovered from depression and addiction, he wouldn't be that boy anymore either. I'm kind of sad that he didn't make it. As shitty as life gets, if you stick it out, there's beauty and joy to be found on the other side. Sometimes in the simplest things. Which reminds me, I owe you kids a post about socks...
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I thought Nirvana were OK, but I was caught in this world where my friends and my adopted culture were very much rooted in grunge, but I really preferred the sound of Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails and the Offspring. I guess it's a more aggressive sound, a little more...I dunno, it's not like Nirvana wasn't dark and angry, but the Offspring were louder about it. I never had this Hero Worship thing with Nirvana like a lot of people in high school in the early '90's did.
Plus, I'd been listening to Pearl Jam for a few years by the time Nirvana came around, and they seemed like they were trying to do the Eddie Vedder thing but without as much soul, which turned me off. And I still listened to a lot of stuff from my earlier childhood, a lot of hair bands and light metal, and was just getting into the really classic stuff from the '70's like Heart and Zeppelin.
Don't get me wrong, I had a copy of Heart Shaped Box and watched the videos on MTV like everyone else, I just never thought they were The Most Awesome Band Evar. Looking back, I guess that was the beginning of the end for me, in terms of being up-to-date with popular music.
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they seemed like they were trying to do the Eddie Vedder thing but without as much soul
I think my brain just broke.
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I think my brain just broke.
Ha ha ha... Canned.
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Trying to but can't resist the urge to point out that Nirvana formed about 3 years before Pearl Jam did. Ten and Nevermind were recorded and released at basically the same time. Nirvana had already released a solid album around the same time Eddie Vedder was pumping gas and surfing and playing in some shitty band in San Diego. Sorry, at that time in my life nothing was more important to me than Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It's a thing for me.
I loved Nevermind and Ten, and in 91/92 I wouldn't have been able to pick a favorite. But while I think Alive is one of the greatest songs of the 90s, Nevermind still rocks like a motherfucker and Ten rocks more like a motherdryhumper.
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I gave you a can for calling Pearl Jam a dry hump.
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What miles said. I was actually more into Ten at the time it came out, but now when I listen to it, it sounds dated while Nevermind still has listenablity for me. When it comes to current Pearl Jam I'm mostly indifferent, except for Just Breathe, which I liked a bit and the Into the Wild soundtrack Vedder did a while back, which I quit liked.
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Plus, I'd been listening to Pearl Jam for a few years by the time Nirvana came around, and they seemed like they were trying to do the Eddie Vedder thing but without as much soul, which turned me off.
I just realized that probably you meant something like you were listening to Pearl Jam for a few years before you started listening to Nirvana, instead of Nirvana was riding Pearl Jam's coattails. Sorry for being a dick. I'm sensitive about being a dick when it comes to music because an ex-girlfriend called me a music snob, mostly because I hate Michael Franti I think, but yeah. The Kurt trying to do Eddie without soul comment still seems crazy though. Mostly because they are so different.
When it comes to current Pearl Jam I'm mostly indifferent, except for Just Breathe, which I liked a bit and the Into the Wild soundtrack Vedder did a while back, which I quit liked.
Exactly. I know people who still go wild over each Pearl Jam release, but to me they've done nothing worthwhile since Vitalogy (which may have aged the best out of all of their early stuff). I haven't been able to listen to an entire album since that one.
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...to me they've done nothing worthwhile since Vitalogy (which may have aged the best out of all of their early stuff). I haven't been able to listen to an entire album since that one.
Yield was a great album, but it's in the wrong order on the disc. If you reorder the tracks to match the order in the liner notes, the album is completely different and much better in my opinion. Other than that, I agree
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I just realized that probably you meant something like you were listening to Pearl Jam for a few years before you started listening to Nirvana, instead of Nirvana was riding Pearl Jam's coattails. Sorry for being a dick. I'm sensitive about being a dick when it comes to music because an ex-girlfriend called me a music snob, mostly because I hate Michael Franti I think, but yeah. The Kurt trying to do Eddie without soul comment still seems crazy though. Mostly because they are so different.
Nah, I'm not very clued in about music at all and actually didn't realize that Nirvana actually existed as a band before Pearl Jam did. The only thing I think you misconstrued is that I thought Kurt was trying to do Eddie, but what I meant was that the sound of the band seemed like it was reaching for the grittiness of PJ and falling ever short. Kurt and Eddie have really different vocal styles, no question. But it always seemed to me like PJ had a kind of raw sound, and Nirvana sounded a little more polished, but sort of by accident?
I don't even think *I* know what I'm trying to say any more. But I do agree that PJ sounds very dated now, which is fine with me because I really enjoy music that hearkens back to a very specific time. That's why I have been listening to a lot of bebop lately, it's so specific to its time that it kind of makes your mouth water.
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True, sounding dated is not necessarily a bad thing.
What's everyone's favorite Nirvana song? Mine is Aneurysm, hands down. The Hormoaning version, though (also, or originally the b-side on the SLTS single), not the one on Incesticide. My second favorite is probably Dive. Favorite song on NM, that's tough. Lately probably Lounge Act.
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Is it bad to say Heart-Shaped Box? Does that make me too mainstream?
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my favorite is the unplugged cover of "the man who sold the world".
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Tough call. Probably "Lithium."
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There are like three songs on Nevermind and they are all like the same song in my mind. They all three rock hard and come one right after the other. Let's see, Come as you Are, Lithium, and In Bloom.
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Is it bad to say Heart-Shaped Box? Does that make me too mainstream?
No. I didn't mean to make my selections sound esoteric. I was going to say there is no wrong answer, but there are probably a handful.
my favorite is the unplugged cover of "the man who sold the world".
But if you select a cover, you must also select an original.
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No. I didn't mean to make my selections sound esoteric. I was going to say there is no wrong answer, but there are probably a handful.
But if you select a cover, you must also select an original.
fiiiiine. all apologies
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I always preferred Stone Temple Pilots. (I kid.)
I was really more into PJ, but plenty into Nirvana. The only issue is that Ed is clearly a total douchebag. A guy at the record store way back when talked me into buying Bleach when it first came out and I had a little trouble getting into it. Of course, when Nevermind came out, that was plenty accessible.
I like "Polly", although it's really unpleasant.
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The only issue is that Ed is clearly a total douchebag.
Remember a little while ago when he was apologizing for rocking out back in the early days? Ha ha, what a tool.
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What he really should apologize for is for marrying a model. fuck*ng hypocrit. (http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/32826/)
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Eh, fuck it. No apologies. Less being a douche.
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This thread made me go listen to In Utero again. Even though it was the Bible on sound when it came out for me, in the last 10 years it had receded to the back of my memory and I tended to think of it as one of those things from the past that, were I to be exposed to them today, wouldn't seem really that special, but I'm here struck at how fuck*ng beautiful this album is again.
Also I can't pick just one, fuck it:
-Negative Creep
-Dive
-Mexican Seafood
-Dumb
(Ok, this list is useless, there's just too much of them.)