Stupid and contagious?
On a recent episode of Coincidence Control Network, I reviewed Hit so Hard: The Life and Near Death of Patty Schemel. I viewed the flick at the Nashville Film Festival and this rock doc is just now starting to open in theaters. It tells the tale of the hard living drummer of Courtney Love’s band Hole.
One of the film’s draws is the footage that director P. David Ebersole assembled out of hours of Schemel’s own home movies from her Hole heyday. The scenes capture the chaos at the center of Hole’s life on the road and include a number of never-before-seen intimate appearances by Kurt Cobain.
After my report, Ken Eakins mentioned being interested in the story behind grunge more than he cared for the music itself at this late date. Pell and Matheny quickly agreed. I’m not sure how far these gentlemen are willing to go with this line of criticism, but, surely, they’d stop short of shrugging off Nirvana’s Nevermind? Surely we agree that Nevermind is imminently listenable 20 years later?
Of course, some grunge bands/albums now sound dated – and others sound rather bad – but I wouldn’t say either about any of Nirvana’s Grohl-era music. As my companera pointed out to me “It would be hard to find a teenager listening to Pearl Jam, but there are a lot who are still listening to Nirvana.” I would agree. And although Nirvana will never have a chance to prove that they had a long run of amazing music in them, I would say that kids today discover Cobain and Nirvana the same way they discover Zeppelin, the Stones, The Doors and The Beatles. For me, Nirvana is part of the canon and they deserve their place in it.
This BBC doc was made 10 years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide. In a sometimes scathing manner, it explores whether or not Nirvana’s music was really as great as it seemed to be in the early ’90′s.
What do you think?
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Comments
I know it sounds like a fake-alternative-opinion, but I’ve always loved In Utero most, and that’s the one that’s stuck with me. I’m not a huge fan of Butch Vig’s (is that how you spell it?) sickly production; that kills Nevermind a bit for me.
You and Mr. Monaghan are on the same page here. I love the songs, playing and singing enough on Nevermind to overlook the gloss, but In Utero is also my fave. And, to be fair, the Nirvana recordings were ultimately mixed by a producer named Andy Wallace who seems to be responsible for a lot of the polished sound. The Wiki entry on Nevermind has a good breakdown on the sessions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevermind#Recording_and_production
You ain’t beating me at shit.
I’m of a younger stock then you all (I’m 28- not far off from you old wize-end sages). To my generation, Nirvana was an excuse to do drugs and cut yourself in your room after mom and dad slept. Nirvana took punk rock and shoved it off in to this deep dark place where wanky suburbanite kids dwelled in all during their teenage years- and for that, I can’t stomach the shit anymore.
The documentary looks good though.
That’s not the Nirvana I grew up with. I grew up moshing to Territorial Pissings and dancing like a robot to Hairspray Queen.