Kurt's whining about Guns N' Roses, and his steadfast refusal to believe that anyone could like both bands, is an excellent capsule of just what a fraudulent prick he was. He even went so far as to say that there were rival groups of GNR and Nirvana fans at high schools, with the poor little Nirvana fans being picked on. All this from a guy who stole a chord progression from a Boston song.
In Utero's great, though.
― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, 28 June 2007 05:48 (seventeen years ago) link
a fucking sweet ass boston song, though.
― funny farm, Thursday, 28 June 2007 06:06 (seventeen years ago) link
One of those bands that is an overall "dud" with the exception of a song or two.
― Cunga, Thursday, 28 June 2007 06:28 (seventeen years ago) link
rival groups of GNR and Nirvana fans at high schools, with the poor little Nirvana fans being picked on.
I never saw that quote but the Nirvana and Gn'R fans at my school were either cool with each other or one and the same...it was the Pantera fans that were bullies.
― marmotwolof, Thursday, 28 June 2007 06:30 (seventeen years ago) link
"I never saw that quote but the Nirvana and Gn'R fans at my school were either cool with each other or one and the same...it was the Pantera fans that were bullies."
I'm sure it was just something that Kurt desperately wanted to believe -- cool Nirvana fans vs. thuggish GNR fans.
"a fucking sweet ass boston song, though."
Indeed.
― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:44 (seventeen years ago) link
Boston>>>>>>>>Nirvana
― leavethecapital, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:13 (seventeen years ago) link
guys I'm pretty sure I've ranted on ILM before about how the SLTS chord progression is not the "More Than a Feeling" chord progression. Even Kurt Cobain disagrees with me, but they're not the same. (The rhythms are kinda similar though)
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link
"More Than a Feeling" = I - IV - vi - V "Smells Like Teen Spirit" = I - IV - bIII - bVI
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link
So their at least both Roman.
― humansuit, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:22 (seventeen years ago) link
they're
yeah
and SLTS is in a minor key, MTAF in major
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:23 (seventeen years ago) link
I call bullshit, and the first Boston album is one of my all-time favorites ferreal.
― kenan, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:23 (seventeen years ago) link
no, the tonic is major in SLTS but they use the borrowed chords (bIII and bVI)
x-post
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:24 (seventeen years ago) link
o rly? he uses power chords, it's hard to tell.
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:25 (seventeen years ago) link
Can we not pretend that Smells Like Teen Spirit is a Boston rip off.
― humansuit, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:26 (seventeen years ago) link
play it on a guitar with a minor tonic chord and it will sound very wrong, curtis.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:26 (seventeen years ago) link
"Siamese Dream" is a Boston rip-off way more than Nirvana ever thought about being
― kenan, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:28 (seventeen years ago) link
I think that's because he doesn't play a third at all, he plays a power chord, and adding a minor third to a power chord is more noticeable than adding a major third
xpost
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:29 (seventeen years ago) link
but I'm not gonna argue with you, I don't want to turn this thread into that sort of thing!
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link
The baffled king composing hallelujah? x
― humansuit, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link
hahahaha where's Glodberg when you need him
― marmotwolof, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:32 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm not that desperate!!
― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:33 (seventeen years ago) link
ok, i just listened to part of it and i think you're right! if you're going to play the third, the major third does work way better, though. the melody is all minor diatonic, though, so it's probably justifiable to say it's in a minor key. still, i can't help hearing that tonic chord as being major like, you know, the tonic chord in "Iron Man" and stuff.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link
I was listening to an old c90 compilation of Redd Kross single, b-sides etc and for the umpteenth time wondering why their big marketing push in the UK was spearheaded by probably their worst song - "Trance". Today it finally dawned on me that some joker at the record company probably noted the similar riff as "Teen Spirit" and figured that was going to make them famous. Result: Redd Kross sink like a stone, which is kinda sad as they would have made wonderful stars.
― everything, Friday, 29 June 2007 00:46 (seventeen years ago) link
kenan
I'm not denying that Nirvana are classic. I just like that first Boston album better than anything Nirvana did. As far as proper Nirvana releases go, I've always liked In Utero better than Nevermind.
Nirvana borrowed more from the Pixies than Boston.
― leavethecapital, Friday, 29 June 2007 01:07 (seventeen years ago) link
well, i relent, because the Nirvana vs Boston thing seemed rooted in music theory, not casual listening. So I can't argue about that. I think Nirvana is a great, great band, better than Boston for sure, but that first Boston album is a-fucking-mazing.
But the sentiments in the lyrics are kind of almost the same. Kurt was just more pissed about it.
I understand about indecision But I dont care if I get behind People livin in competition All I want is to have my peace of mind
― kenan, Friday, 29 June 2007 01:27 (seventeen years ago) link
But how else to compare than to listen? I don't relent, but I think we can all agree that Pixies / Sonic / Muses was the blueprint for Nirvana more than Boston, yes.
― humansuit, Friday, 29 June 2007 02:14 (seventeen years ago) link
"Teen Spirit" is no more a rip off of "MTAF" than it is of The Pixies' "U-Mass." That is to say, it's neither.
― billstevejim, Friday, 29 June 2007 03:54 (seventeen years ago) link
Once Naked For Nirvana, Now A Teen Spirit
― C. Grisso/McCain, Thursday, 24 July 2008 22:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Destroy. Search Boston though.
― Bill Magill, Friday, 25 July 2008 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
So people just revive this thread and make the same two posts, huh?
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 25 July 2008 14:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Lather, rinse, repeat.
They're going to be doing stories on that Spencer Elden guy until he's dead.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 July 2008 14:41 (fifteen years ago) link
Nirvana and Boston are both awesome. Boston is awesome music for rides at the state fair. Nirvana is awesome music to smoke cigarettes outside the mall to.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 25 July 2008 14:44 (fifteen years ago) link
him, the bee girl from the Blind Melon video and the girl from the Violent Femmes s/t album cover should form a band
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 July 2008 14:55 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.recordexchange.com.au/lists/cds/images/1720f.jpg
― wanko ergo sum, Friday, 25 July 2008 15:04 (fifteen years ago) link
For some reason this thread reminds me of Kundera's shpiel about the value of "lightness". My introduction to Nirvana, apart from the odd song here and there, was really through the odds & sods collection Incesticide, which was peppered with gimmicky songs that aped Aerosmith, the Pistols, Beefheart, and the Vaselines. It was kind of a jokey collection, but IIRC it ended with the visceral thump of Aneurysm, which left you with a sense of the band's power.
Two things struck me about the band at the time: first, that at their core most of their songs contained melodies that would not be out of place in a preschool sing-along; second, that there was something very satisfying about the texture of the vocals and the guitars, it was like the sound of an ancient sea-floor being dredged, and there was something purgative about it, like when Chihiro unplugs the stink spirit in Spirited Away. But that dredging of the psyche was delivered, as I said, in that slapdash curatorial style that was Incesticide, with its way of quoting diverse influences. So the ultimate effect was one of lightness: the band didn't make overbearing claims on your psyche. That changed at some point, of course, and changed definitively with Kurt's death. The music and the band accrued too much weight at that point, which made the band really hard to listen to, for many people, because that weight was overbearing, suffocating, it didn't allow the traces of lightness within the music (whether it's the kindergarten melodies or the skewed humor) to breathe. The whole thing collapses under that weight, and I find that only Bleach somehow escapes that fate, maybe its brand of pre-fame heaviness (which sounds unselfconscious) is innoculated against this suffocation somehow, I'm not sure.
― collardio gelatinous, Friday, 25 July 2008 15:49 (fifteen years ago) link
OK, where are these kids?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Gentlemen.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/SmashingPumpkins-SiameseDream.jpghttp://getsomenoise.com/albumimages/52_Alice%20In%20Chains_Jar%20of%20Flies.jpg
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahah, the Pumpkins actually put out a bulletin asking people if they knew where they were/who they were!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Here's a few more (including the Violent Femmes girl):
http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1567095&pid=2561378
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.gittermangallery.com/publish/worksimages/1465web_LG.jpg Priscilla, 1969 by Joseph Szabo
The girl in the photo is a mystery and will ever remain so. One day as I was photographing at Jones Beach I saw "Priscilla" in front of me and my immediate reaction was to make a photo(s) before the moment changed. I took a few photos, looked down to rewind the film, and put in another roll. When I looked up she was gone! ...but I had the photo and it is my most sought after image.
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:27 (fifteen years ago) link
That Violent Femmes girl looks pretty young for being, what, at least 32 now?
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Boston is awesome music for rides at the state fair. Nirvana is awesome music to smoke cigarettes outside the mall to.
This depends on what year it was the first time you smoked a cigarette outside the mall, and what music was playing at the state fair when your parents used to take you there.
― J0hn D., Friday, 25 July 2008 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link
xp I forgot to link the actual news story accompanying the photos. She's 28 now.
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Bee Girl's MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/35345566
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:47 (fifteen years ago) link
i thought this was the Nirvana thread not the google people on album covers thread
― Mr. Que, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
You thought wrong, jerkface.
― jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
xxxp: I don't think the Boston thing is subjective. I've heard that shit time and time again. The Nirvana/mall/cigarettes thing is wholly tainted by nostalgia.
What does Nirvana make you wanna do J0hn?
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
lol
― Mr. Que, Friday, 25 July 2008 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
It's hard for me to talk or even think straight about Nirvana at this point. There's too much garbage in the way. The music is too fully digested -- for want of an even half-decent word -- both in me and in the world around me. By which I mean not only that it's been too thoroughly disassembled in search of meaning, but also too piled up with secondary crap, weird expectations and judgements and counter-judgements. I can't just hear it, anymore. This became true within months of Nevermind's release. Everything after that only intensified the alienation. Whenever I listen to Nirvana or even let them enter my mind, I get to feeling like I'm in a particularly horrible shopping mall. And all I want to do is leave.
But the other day, I was riding around in with a friend of mine, and he was playing that Australian "Hard to Believe" Kiss covers comp. Only thing I remembered from it was God of Thunder, by the Melvins (which rules, of course). I knew Nirvana had something on it, too, but couldn't remember what. Turns out it's "Do You Love Me", and while it's half a pisstake, it's at least half phenomenal. The shitty recording gives the guitar & rhythm section this high-school cover band quality, half muscle-shirt 70s Camaro rock, half snot-nose punk. And that's what Nirvana were always about, but it suddenly made sense to me. I could hear the music as music, without all the bullshit baggage. When Curt's tossed-off vocals rose to a ragged shriek on the chorus (like they always do), I got chills. For a minute there, I remembered what it was like to hear Bleach for the first time, and I half understood what every high-school kid in America must have heard in Smells Like Teen Spirit. I'm not saying that the Kiss cover is particularly great, cuz it isn't, but somehow it hit me the right way at the right time.
Fucking classic.
― contenderizer, Friday, 25 July 2008 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
contenderizer so OTM. I'm not sure why I even own any Nirvana anymore. I guess Bleach might be fun to listen to now and again.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 25 July 2008 17:32 (fifteen years ago) link