'Something In the Way' (unplugged)
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Even at their most subdued, Nirvana performed with a haunting ferocity. The closer to Nevermind remains one of my favorites of their songs.
Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - 'Polly'
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Two of my favorite songwriters collide in this gorgeous and mildly unsettling cover.
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Isolated
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Apparently over the past week, Smells Like Teen Spirit has become nearly virally popular on the internet. A clip was posted on YouTube of Kurt Cobain singing Smells Like Teen Spirit with his vocals isolated, truly showcasing his singing range and style. The music clip is allowing many Nirvana fans to hear Kurt's vocals and Smells Like Teen Spirit in a way that they have never previously heard it before. What many people seem to like about this version the most is that it is unaccompanied, so you can focus purely on what Kurt's vocals were able to offer to the track overall.
Ironically, this clip was posted two years ago and didn't even receive the amount of attention that it is receiving now. The clip was posted on another site last week which started the process of it gaining so much attention. There are many other additional YouTube videos which have Kurt's vocals isolated just like this so that listeners can experience their favorite songs in a new way and appreciate Kurt's talent as a singer.
After giving the clip a listen, what do you think? Naturally, Kurt's vocals are very impressive -- and it stands as a reminder of what real singing when compared to a current music industry that is addicted to auto-tune and overly-edited tracks. The clip is pretty much a reminder of what real vocal talent sounds like, even though the world will never have another voice as equal to Kurt's on the music scene again. Would you prefer this version of Smells Like Teen Spirit to the original?
How The Beatles Influenced Nirvana
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Dave Grohl has recently started talking about the influence that The Beatles had on Nirvana. In a recent interview, he was talking about how much The Beatles had actually influenced him and Kurt Cobain while they were working on music.
In an interview with Access Hollywood, Grohl is quoted as saying "When I was young, that's how I learned to play music - I had a guitar and a Beatles songbook. I would listen to the records and play along. Of course, it didn't sound like The Beatles, but it got me to understand song structure and melody and harmony and arrangement."
As the interview progressed, he also said, "I never had a teacher, I just had these Beatles records. Even in Nirvana, The Beatles were such a huge influence. Kurt loved The Beatles because it was just so simple. Well, it seemed simple, they sound easy to play, but you know what? They're hard."
It's actually very interesting to consider what Dave has mentioned about Nirvana being influenced by The Beatles. Considering some of the way that Nirvana's songs are composed, in theory, you can see where there are Beatles influences. The guitar work in the background, as well as some of the harmonies and arrangements are good reflections of how The Beatles impacted some of the sound associated with Nirvana, even though the styles were greatly different. Likewise, it also showcases how these more complex elements of songs, such as arrangements and structure, were implemented and mastered by Nirvana by their repeated practice.
Dave Grohl And Butch Vig Interview
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Due to the six nominations that The Foo Fighters have received for the Grammys, Dave Grohl and Butch Vig were recently interviewed together by HollywoodReporter.com. In the interview, the two talk about a lot of things, such as the elements of making music and how the modern process really differs in comparison to the methods that were used in the 90s. This is especially noted since The Foo Fighters recently made an analog album with Butch Vig in the same format that was used decades ago. As the interview progresses, there is a lot of focus on Nirvana and some reflection on the recording experience during the band's prime.
Perhaps one of the most notable moments in the interview is Grohl states that working with Vig on Nevermind eclipses anything else that could be created. He also explains that because of that experience, he would tend to think about everything that happened and how it affected his decision of whether or not to work with Vig again. However, he also mentions that they are good friends and that it was time for a collaboration, especially considering that around 20 years have passed since their last album together.
Additionally, towards the end of the interview, there's also a short discussion about Grohl singing the background vocals on Nevermind and whether or not it was an indication that he could be a lead singer in his own band. Vig and Grohl then proceed to talk about how easy it is to be in a band these days, how the quality of music has changed, and artists that they enjoy -- such as Adele.
Nirvana Bassist Shares His Opinion Of Miley Cyrus Cover
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In the past year, the popular Disney singer Miley Cyrus covered the Nirvana classic Smells Like Teen Spirit. Obviously, the cover was controversial amongst Nirvana fans in consideration of the grunge legacy that Nirvana created from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. Of all the musicians with an honor to cover a Nirvana song, it does not seem that Miley Cyrus would come to mind. However, a fan had a chance to ask the former bassist of Nirvana, Krist Novoslic, what he thought of Miley's cover of the song via twitter.
Novoslic was quoted as saying, "Yes I approve of Miley Cyrus covering Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Miley fans have this quote from Novoslic posted everywhere on the internet. The answer seems a bit shocking. Although it is good for Disney fans that he approves of this cover, I'm not sure what some of the Nirvana fans think about it. It is a kind answer to give for such a young singer, but at the same time, everyone knows that the Cyrus version of Smells Like Teen Spirit is not comparable to the original by Nirvana. Of course, one good factor by Miley covering the song is that now maybe younger music fans will hear the song and become curious about what it sounds like as performed by the original band - so it could be a great way to introduce a younger audience to Nirvana and how they were able to transform the music scene.
Have you heard the Miley Cyrus cover of the song? What do you think of it?
Nirvana Trance Re-Mix?
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Stranger Things Have Happened
You may never have taken the time to wonder what “Smells Like Teen Spirit” would sound like as a trance song- I know I haven't!- but here it is, as re-mixed by DJ Gemini from Osaka, Japan. I am honestly not up on all of the factions and sub-factions in the convoluted world of electronic dance music, but DJ Gemini describes his own work as “progressive psychedelic trance.” As a DJ, it seems he spends most of his performance time as the DJ for various dance parties in Osaka's “psy-trance” music scene.
I don't have anything against electronic music. One of my favorite bands is VNV Nation, and I also enjoy other future-pop and EBM bands like Wulfsheim and Covenant. Still, I would generally describe myself as a purist when it comes to my punk rock (and related genres), so I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. It didn't end up seeming like the blasphemy I thought it would!
It's certainly a different take on what Cobain was going for, but it still retains a lot of the energy and sheer noise of the original while taking it off in a different direction as well. I don't dance myself, but I could see a lot of my old friends from the goth/industrial music night loving this. In the name of keeping an open mind and giving different ideas a chance, why not try it out- you might be pleasantly surprised.
First Nirvana Video
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Everyone Has To Start Somewhere
Once upon a time, I used to sing in a punk band. We would get gigs in community centers or at dive bars in Tampa at 2 AM on a Tuesday. Often, the sound would be so poorly mixed that my vocals couldn't be heard at all over the guitar and drums. Sometimes there would be fewer people in the audience than in the band.
This video- said to be the earliest known footage of Nirvana performing live- shows that even when they were just starting out, things were never as bad for them as for my long-forgotten punk band. The fact that they were immensely more talented musicians than we were probably had something to do with that.
In any case, even if they never had to suffer the indignity of performing for two or three sleeping ex-convicts at 2am, they did still have to do the struggling new band thing. They still had to play for tiny little crowds who had probably never heard of them, at whatever community center would let them perform.
It's nice, in some odd way, to see that not every immensely successful act springs fully-formed and freshly-scrubbed from the forehead of whatever Satanic music industry guy with an MBA cooked them up after a round of focus groups.
As this video shows, great bands are sometimes out there, working away and doing what they do- whether they ever get discovered or not. For every Nirvana that does eventually get discovered, how many equally talented bands do not?
"Breed" Cover
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Titus Andronicus
Now this is how to do a cover. I've only heard a few tracks by New Jersey punk band Titus Andronicus, but this cover of “Breed” by Nirvana just might make a fan out of me. According to the band itself, their influences include Pulp and Neutral Milk Hotel, but I have heard exactly one song by Pulp and nothing whatsoever by Neutral Milk Hotel, so that really doesn't tell me much- you can make of it what you will.
What I like about this cover is that it pulls off the one and only (yet so difficult) trick of all great punk rock. The thing is, anybody can just mash a few chords together and play them loud and fast. If that was all there was to punk rock, its detractors really would be right about it, because there is no intrinsic aesthetic value to playing bad music loudly.
Punk is really a lot more than this, and the reason is that great punk bands from the Ramones to Nirvana all have the ineffable ability to channel some kind of awesome intensity through those simple song structures. They can take a few chords and turn them into a stack of dynamite. They can take a song that a beginning guitarist could play and play it in such a way that it becomes a thrilling manifestation of the basic essence of rock n roll. It's never possible to put your finger on exactly how they do it. That's what the Sex Pistols did, it's what Black Flag did, and it's what Nirvana did. It's also what Titus Andronicus does with this cover of “Breed.”
'Breed' Live in Amsterdam
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From 1991, here's the dudes doing the raw, unhinged number 'Breed' off of Nevermind.