Wednesday, April 07, 2004

In honor of your last post there, Brian, I am listening to a collection of Nirvana songs. Although, I have always stopped at Nirvana songs, if they popped up on a radio station scan, I never was a big fan. I remember when Smells Like Teen Spirit was suddenly all over the TV and I can recall the extreme difference between that and all the silly heavy metal nonsense that it eventually killed off. Thing was, I always thought that the look of the band in that video was just as over the top and silly and poserish as the heavy metal crap. So, I just kind of ignored it, accepting that it was now a part of the soudtrack in the background of my life, but not giving it much thought.

Then the MTV Unplugged thing happened and it was on non-stop. They crossed the border of Alternative to Album Oriented to Office Rock - they were accepted everywhere and I was way burned out. I appreciated their videos, though. They had some great videos. The music, I thought, was fine. Better than most of the stuff in the mainstream - but a lot of it just sounded like all the garage rock influenced by the Replacements that my friends and I would play. Nothing groundbreaking, except that it was suddenly in the mainstream.

I liked their hits for the most part, nice and catchy, and I liked Cobain's voice. It was natural and real sounding - but still, I never heard anything earth-shattering or new. Their bass-propelled verses and screaming choruses always just reminded me of the Pixies.

Looking back, though, I appreciate them much more. I don't ever listen to Nirvana, except for right now as inspiration and, like I said, occasionally on the radio, but I admire them more than I did. I think a lot of that has to do with the shoving-it-down-your-throat media blitz that you mentioned.

I vaguely remember when Cobain died. I don't recall it affecting me in any significant way. I remember being much more struck by the death of John Candy. That might sound ridiculous, but it's true. Still, I wonder what Kurt would be doing these days if he stuck around (besides hiding from Courtney). I wonder if he would still be making good music or what.

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