Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was 27 years old when he ended his life in his Seattle home on April 5, 1994 – leaving this earth perhaps the most iconic cultural figure of his time. As Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross emphasized, ‘He isn’t the last star in rock ’n’ roll, but he is the last true Rock Star that we’ve had to date who earned Icon status. He existed in a period that is now lost to history, when a rock artist could be played on all formats of radio, when rock was the dominant musical form.’
The tragic story of Nirvana’s rise and fall, and grunge’s parallel emergence from underground cult to worldwide phenomenon, have been duly told and retold over the years. This article instead looks closely at the musical building blocks that set the foundation for Nirvana, illuminated by 15 selected albums, in an attempt to grasp the essence of their subsequent sound – and thus get a little closer to explaining their unlikely success.
As Cobain himself said, ‘I think we sound like The Knack and the Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath.’ An assessment not without accuracy or charm.
Nirvana leaned against the obvious persuasions of hardcore and hard rock, but this was interspersed with a broad and more commercially friendly side that appealed far beyond the inner clique. Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman put it this way, ‘Part of what was so captivating about Nirvana’s music was not so much its stunning originality, but its remarkable fusion of so many different strands of influence.’
Kurt Cobain was very open to the music he liked and took inspiration from, and shared passing lists of Nirvana’s favorite bands, albums, and songs. Such was the case in this famous paper in which Kurt scribbled down Nirvana’s Top 50 favorite albums – a list that has led many fans to increase the volume of the album collection.
These were not necessarily Cobain’s favorites, but rather 15 bands and albums that are co-responsible for laying the musical groundwork for Nirvana – and by extension, for the development of the alternative rock into the ’90s.
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Black Sabbath:
Black Sabbath (1970)
Black Sabbath were the foundation for what would become heavy metal, and, naturally enough, their debut album is one of rock’s dark mastodons. The rainy intro opens the gates to a post-industrial wasteland in 1970 Birmingham, with a resonance that carried itself to the ears of a couple of boy ears on the west coast 10-15 years later.
Black Sabbath‘s leaden sound spawned many bastard children over the years, not least of which includes Nirvana’s debut album. Bleach plods though the same muddy tracks – which would help define grunge in the late 1980s.
Iggy & The Stooges:
Raw Power (1973)
Iggy Pop was one of Cobain’s role models, with similarities in both music and attitude. Iggy was a demon on the stage, writhing on the floor, rolling around in broken glass; he was as an out of control force of ‘raw power’, destructive drug use and uncontainable energy. Cobain absorbed this persona into Nirvana, not least in their early gigs where anarchy and chaos were prevailing forces. Musically, of course, proto-punk machinery from Detroit also had an obvious effect on Nirvana. The Stooges – and Raw Power especially – are punk rock required reading.
Kiss:
Destroyer (1976)
There’s an obvious superficial distance between the cynical, flannel-clad Seattle rockers’, and pyrotechnically-aided arena rock of four men dressed like superheroes. Yet Kiss was an integral part of growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, and they offered a sense of escapism to the misfit youth of the time. Like it or not, Nirvana has roots elementary school scribbles of Starchild. They recorded a cover of ”Do You Love Me” off of Destroyer, which also includes “Detroit Rock City” – later paraphrased as “Sub Pop Rock City” by Soundgarden. And as fate would have it, on a December’s day in 2013, Kiss and Nirvana were both inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Sex Pistols:
Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols (1977)
With their first and only album, Sex Pistols sent shock waves into the establishment, catapulting punk into a mass movement that shaped culture and opened up opportunities for a new generation of artists in its wake – a similar effect to what Nirvana would repeat 15 years later. Could it be a coincidence that Nevermind and Never Mind the Bollocks… made their greatest mark not by shaping musical trends but in shaking the music industry and the cultural establishment? Both mark the boiling over point of an underground phenomenon – the beginning of a new era where the boundaries between alternative and mainstream became more porous. A game-changing work of its time and a killer plate of punk rock to boot.
Cheap Trick:
Cheap Trick (1977)
‘I’ll be the first to admit that we’re the ’90s version of Cheap Trick or the Knack’ stated Kurt Cobain in his liner notes for the compilation album Incesticide. Cheap Trick had a penchant for British pop invasion (think The Kinks) which they used as the foundation for their fusion of power pop and hard rock, with a dash of punk. Their eponymous debut is chopped a bit rougher than their later more radio friendly sound. If you’re wondering whether Cobain was referencing the same Knack that produced the one hit wonder, “My Sharona”, you’d be right. In the Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven Kurt meets up with a friend in 1988: ‘There’s this great record that I’ve discovered that you HAVE to hear. Kurt pulled out Get the Knack. Romero thought Kurt was being sarcastic, and inquired, ‘Are you serious?’ ‘You’ve got to listen to this – it’s an awesome pop album,’ was Kurt’s deadpan reply.’
Neil Young & Crazy Horse:
Rust Never Sleeps (1979)
‘It’s better to burn out than fade away.’ The stanza, taken from Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”, is the penultimate line of Kurt Cobain’s suicide not. Young would dedicate the entirety of his 1994 album Sleeps With Angels to Cobain. Like Iggy Pop, Young had been trying to contact Cobain shortly before he died. In Young’s autobiography, he writes: “I, coincidentally, had been trying two reach him through our offices to tell him That I thought he was great and he should do exactly what he thought he should do and fuck everybody else…” Neil Young was early to popularize the flannel shirt as the preferred rock uniform. The echo of his thundering guitar rang deep into the forests the northwest, earning him the title, ‘Grandfather Of Grunge.’
Young Marble Giants:
Colossal Youth (1980)
Minimalist and magical: Young Marble Giants’ first album from 1980 is a something of a forgotten masterpiece, and it has its natural place here as a representative of the British post-punk that Cobain felt most at home in. Far from the angry, snot-nosed punk image his stage persona let on, Cobain shared much of their introversion, as well as their self-destructiveness. Together with their Scottish counterparts, The Vaselines, these Welsh were among Cobain’s most relatable artists. In an interview with MTV Brazil in 1993 Kurt Cobain underlines that he was ‘heavily influenced by them’ – less in sound than in terms of ‘their emotions, the feeling, the sincerity and their fantastic songwriting.’
Flipper:
Album – Generic Flipper (1982)
Kurt Cobain could make a band cool by simply muttering their name in passing – as he did The Vaselines – or by sporting a concert T-shirt in public – as he did with his well-worn Flipper shirt. And glory to him for that – if there’s a band that deserves to be lifted out of obscurity, it’s Flipper. The San Francisco band’s epic debut from 1982 check’s every box in the rock handbook: rule breaking, destructive, infantile and reckless. Flipper slowly cranked their songs through a meat grinder, without fully knowing what would come out the other side. En route, they stumbled upon such punk anthems as “Sex Bomb” while blazing a magnificent trail to madness.
Black Flag:
My War (1984)
As pioneers of American underground rock into the ’80s, and originators of the California hardcore sound, Black Flag is obvious primary school curriculum for Nirvana. On their later album, My War, the band took punk into a slower, heavier and more militant territory. This had a clear effect on bands like Melvins and Nirvana. Black Flag frontman Greg Ginn started the SST label in 1978, which went on to become one of the most important publishers of the ’80s – and a role model for Sub Pop’s rise some years later.
Hüsker Dü:
New Day Rising (1985)
New Day Rising marks an important transition for the power trio of Hüsker Dü. Without losing their frenetic power and strength, here they write pop-flavored melodies that shine through the layers of treble fuzz, albeit not overpoweringly. With a little more polishing, New Day Rising could have been the Nevermind of the ’80s. As Krist Novoselic admitted, ‘Nirvana’s blend of pop, punk and metal was nothing new, Hüsker Dü did it before us.’ From the same circuit and time period, it is also worthy to mention the parallel developments by The Replacements, Butthole Surfers, and Meat Puppets – all of whom were significant fertilizers for the ripening of Nirvana.
Beat Happening:
Jamboree (1988)
Sub Pop rapidly grew into a multinational brand in the ’90s, but they initially came from a proud tradition of strong underground labels from the heyday of SST, Touch & Go – and K Records in nearby Olympia, Washington. K was formed in 1982 by Calvin Johnson, the frontman of Beat Happening. Lo-fi aesthetics dominated the label’s releases, casually produced by friends and acquaintances in the region, which helped chart course for the “alternative revolution” and the rise of indie rock as a mainstream phenomenon. Musically, there is a certain distance between the compact guitar rock of Nirvana and the more quirky indie pop of Beat Happenings, but the relationship can be illustrated by this quote from the band: ‘We are Beat Happening, and we do not do Nirvana covers. They do Beat Happening covers, so let’s get that straight.’
Killdozer:
Twelve Point Buck (1989)
Madison, Wisconsin band Killdozer ruled the 1980s underground, along with acts like Butthole Surfers, Laughing Hyenas, and Scratch Acid (pre-Jesus Lizard). Their slow, sludgy punk-on-downers sound distinguished them as early predecessors to grunge, especially for the periphery scene outside of Seattle. The band became known for its original and unexpected cover songs – such as a throaty rendition Don McLean’s “American Pie” – a talent Cobain and Co. also became known for after the live recording, MTV Unplugged in New York. They worked repeatedly with technician Butch Vig in Madison’s Smart Studios. As a result of hearing Killdozer’s 1989 LP Twelve Point Buck, Nirvana hired Vig to work on In Utero. After Cobain’s death, Killdozer also record 1995’s God Hears Pleas of the Innocent with Steve Albini.
Dead Moon:
In The Graveyard (1988)
Barbarous garage rock has a long history in the Pacific Northwest, with bands such as The Kingsmen (“Louie Louie”) and The Sonics as key originators. Portland-band Dead Moon push forward this rich legacy and remind us that neither Nirvana, nor grunge as a whole, appeared from nowhere. Unlike Nirvana and the landslide that followed in their wake, the Dead Moon remained in the garage while the other left the scene in limousines. And there they still had it pretty good until dissolving in 2006.
Pixies:
Surfer Rosa (1988)
Telling the story behind “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Kurt Cobain confessed, ‘I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying two rip off the Pixies.’ And indeed, Nevermind shares countless similarities with Pixies, in song structure and, notably, in the powerful soft-loud dynamics that Nirvana would further perfect. Sound engineer and producer Steve Albini was commissioned to produce In Utero as a result of his signature work on Surfer Rosa.
Melvins:
Ozma (1989)
Seattle rock’s anomalous emergence came out nowhere, and in a matter of years the city’s musical profile transitioned from a loser-like sense of coolness to streamlined factory for mass culture. But one band never changed. Melvins were heavier, stickier and gloomier than all the others – and they were among Cobain’s biggest musical influences, especially noticeable on Bleach. Melvins would later serve as role models for an even heavier, slower and more somber drone rock formulated by bands like Earth and Sunn O))). Melvins have definitely left a heavy imprint in the rock history books, and their first two albums are authentic sludge rock at its best.
Bjørn Hammershaug
Originally published on read.tidal.com October 12, 2014.
With a constantly revolving line up, labels and experimenting in sound, The Dream Syndicate released a steady row of albums in the course of the ’80s. Their classic debut, The Days of Wine & Roses (1982), stands among the finest albums of the decade, while the blistering live album, Live At Raji’s (1989), captures their ferocious on-stage energy. The latter also turned out to be their swan song (though they reunited in 2012, with the possibility of new material on the way), paving the way for even more successful bands like Nirvana and Pixies without cashing in on the indie/guitar resurrection in the 1990s.
It’s probably not a surprise to those who know my music and my history, but a lot of jazz records. Out there albums like Albert Ayler’s later stuff, Ascension by John Coltrane, Dancing in Your Head by Ornette Coleman… These were all records I loved, and who taught me of improvisation. In the years before The Days of Wine & Roses, I’d practice my guitar not to The Yardbirds or “Stairway to Heaven,” but to free jazz. It made sense to me, to learn how to jam and improvise. So I would sit down with these freaky half-hour long jazz pieces and go at it.
I’d have to say Here Come the Miracles, I really like that for many reasons. I think it’s my best record; and I’m really satisfied with what I did on that one. It also came at a time in my life where I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I thought, I’m 40, I might be done or I might be out of ideas, or I might have nothing left to say. It came at the right time, where it showed me where I should go, and also that I could keep doing it. It revived everything, from the creative side to the career side. It was also the easiest record to make. There were no obstacles, no confusion, and everything was just obvious. Now that doesn’t happen every day. [laughs]
Butthole Surfers: Live PCCPEP
The Dream Syndicate: Live at Raji’s
Cosmic Psychos: Slave to the Crave
Dead Moon: Live Evil
Nomeansno: Live + Cuddly
Thin White Rope: The One That Got Away
Giant Sand: Backyard BBQ Broadcast
Magnolia Electric Co: Trials & Errors
Dette er den ganske så subjektive og forsøksvis 100% ærlige listen over mine 100 favorittfilmer gjennom tidene, der personlige parametere lett går foran etablerte klassikere. Dette er først og fremst filmer som har gjort et uutslettelig inntrykk et eller annet sted langs livsveien, filmer som med glede kan ses igjen – og i mange tilfeller filmer som helt sikkert har tapt seg en del siden den gang. Som med de fleste andre inntrykk og utrykk er de vi eksponeres for i den mest sårbare alderen, et eller annet sted i årene mellom 15 og 25, også de som sitter sterkest igjen.
Confusion is kjeks
Dette er en hyllest til noen av anti-legendene i musikkhistorien. Enkelte har særegne og lite konvensjonelle musikalske uttrykk, noen har tragiske livshistorier som har overskygget deres karrierer og atter andre oversette eller glemte talent. Et gjennomgående begrep for de fleste av disse kan være ’Outsider music’, lansert på 1990-tallet av skribent og musikk-historiker Irwin Chusid. Han har viet store deler av sitt liv til å arbeide med musikk på utsiden av normen, definert av ham selv som ’crackpot and visionary music, where all trails lead essentially one place: over the edge.’ Her er over 20 artister som aldri gikk hovedveien, men som beriket (og beriker) musikkhistorien i langt større grad enn deres manglende kommersielle appell skulle tilsi
Hasil ’The Wild Man’ Adkins kom fra fjellsidene i West-Virginia, og startet med musikk på 50-tallet etter å ha hørt Hank Williams på radio. Han gikk ut fra at Hank spilte alle instrumentene selv, og Hasil startet dermed sitt ’one-man band’ som ble hans varemerke gjennom hele karrieren. Takket være entusiastene i Norton Records ble han til sin store overraskelse gjenoppdaget av et ’større’ publikum på 1980-tallet. Billy Miller i Norton minnes flere utrolige episoder med Adkins, mange samlet i høyt anbefalte Incredibly Strange Music vol. 1, som denne fra en opptreden på en klubb i New York: The ceiling fan was whirling around, making a creaky sound, and without missing a lick he reached down, pulled out a gun and shot it down – it was interfering with the song. Norton utga bl.a. samlealbumet Out To Hunch (1986) der vi finner signaturlåta ”She Said”. Hasil Adkins døde i 2005.
The Viking Of Sixth Avenue: Avantgarde-musikeren Moondog – født Louis Hardin – ble først kjent som et landemerke på Manhattan. Fra slutten av 1940-tallet til midten av 70-årene inntok den blinde og skjeggete mannen hver dag Avenue of the Americas for å framføre sin musikk og poesi. Kledd i en hjemmelaget drakt, iført sandaler og vikinghjelm var han utvilsomt litt av et syn på gata. Han kom seg etter hvert over til Tyskland og rakk der å få anerkjennelse som komponist og dirigent. Han ble også respektert i hjemlandet i sine senere år, og hadde en viss innflytelse blant moderne komponister og minimalister som Philip Glass og Steve Reich. Moondog var dessuten instrumentbygger, og stod bak harper han navnga Oo, Ooo-ya-tsu og Hüs (etter vårt eget ’hus’, hans interesse for norrøn kultur var stor). Moondog døde i 1999, 83 år gammel.
Roky Erickson er en levende legende innen garasjerock/psykedelia – men også han med et trøblete liv som i stor grad har overskygget hans artistliv, og som gir ham en plass også på denne lista. Han slo gjennom med Texas-bandet 13th Floor Elevators i 1966 og låta ”You’re Gonna Miss Me”. Ericksons flørt med narkotika førte ham til et mentalsykehus (han sa seg utilregnelig for å unngå fengselsstraff etter at han ble tatt for en joint), der han ble erklært schizofren og utsatt for omfattende elektrosjokk-behandling i løpet av sine tre år bak sykehusveggene. Livet til Erickson – både som menneske og artist – ble lagt i ruiner, og han endte opp som en kulthelt blant de få mens han selv måtte klare seg på en spinkel trygd. Fra begynnelsen av 90-tallet ble han gradvis gjenoppdaget av en ny generasjon musikere og fans, og han fikk dessuten etterlengtet god behandling for første gang i sitt liv. I dag er han tilbake som en aktet og anerkjent musiker, dog noe redusert i adferden.
Syd Barrett stod bak et av historiens aller største band, men forsvant etter hvert inn i et mer tåkete landskap enn den som førte til stjernene. Hans oppførsel innad i Pink Floyd, trigget av ekstensiv bruk av LSD, ble etter såpass merkelig at han måtte forlate bandet etter deres første album.
Musiker og tegner Daniel Johnston er en kulthelt blant både fans og ikke minst mange musikere som har trykket hans personlige, naivistiske poplåter til sitt bryst. Han startet sine hjemme-innspillinger på slutten av 70-tallet, og har holdt det gående mer eller mindre jevnt og trutt siden. Johnston har strevet hele livet med sine mentale problemer, men har også skapt en karriere som har hatt ganske så stor innflytelse, ikke minst innen indie/lo-fi. Han ble et nasjonalt fenomen da MTV fanget ham opp i 1985 (det var på den tiden MTV gjorde slikt), men mange ble nok først oppmerksomme på hans talent med den prisbelønnede og vellagde dokumentaren The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005).
Et særegent syn; to meter høy, flagrende hår, en gedigen nese og flamboyant stil. Tiny Tim spilte ukulele og sang falsett, og fikk en stor hit på slutten av 60-tallet med ”Tip-Toe Through the Tulips”. Det ble hans eneste smak av særlig suksess, og han tilbrakte resten av sin karriere med å spille på småsteder og jobbe på sirkus. Han ble gjenoppdaget på slutten av 90-tallet, blant annet opptrådde han på Conan O’Brien, men døde av hjerteinfarkt i 1996. På scenen, mens han sang ”Tip-Toe Through the Tulips”.
Notorisk kjent for sitt tilbaketrukne og hemmelighetsfulle liv, denne musikkens svar på J.D Salinger eller Thomas Pynchon. Det vi vet om ham: Født Sterling Smith, bosatt i Houston, Texas og har utgitt noe sånt som 70 album med særegen folk/blues siden slutten av 70-tallet. Han har gitt to intervjuer i sitt liv. Fram til 2004 var han knapt noe mer enn en anonym postboks, men da kom dokumentaren Jandek On Corwood (ref hans plateselskap) og han begynte så smått med å turnere i mindre skala. Uten at vi vet så mye mer om gåtefulle Jandek av den grunn.
Svensk Elvis-imitator som ikke sang spesielt bra. Og som ikke behersket engelsk så godt. Og som ikke lignet noe særlig på Elvis. Og som mest av den grunn i noen år ble enormt populær kultfavoritt her i Skandinavia.
Sangerinne fra Langevåg som slo gjennom med et brak blant ironigenerasjonen midt på 90-tallet, da hun gjorde sin versjon av ”Hurra for deg…” Olga Marie Mikalsen debuterte i godt voksen alder, på slutten av 60-tallet, og framførte sin spesielle lyriske alt i noen av verdens store konsertsaler. Men for de fleste vil hun nok helst forbindes med en reklamefilm for Solo. Olga Marie uttalte at hun aldri øvde (’har man det, så har man det’), og skapte seg en karriere med akkurat det som utgangspunkt. Hun gikk bort i 2006, 91 år gammel.
I 1981 var David Greenberg ansatt som pleier ved Duplex Nursing Home i Boston, der han ved en anledning overhørte en pasient ved navn Jack Mudurian som påsto at han kunne synge like mange sanger som Frank Sinatra. Minst. Greenberg tok ham på ordet, brakte med seg en opptaker og trykket record. Mudurian klarte å synge 129 sanger sammenhengende i løpet av 47 minutter. Opptakene ble utgitt i 1996, og det er unødvendig å si at albumet ble en instant kultfavoritt.
Hvitt landskap, sol i sikte bak skyene: The White Birch slipper sitt andre album siden 1998. De har kommet en lang vei siden de ble dannet på tittelen til SubPop-bandet Codeines nydelige andreplate. Sammen med produsent Helge Sten har trioen fra Oslo gått både dypere og mer luftig til verks enn noensinne. Come Up For Air er resultatet av en prosess på tre år – en plate som allerede har rukket å bli godt lagt merke til på kontinentet.
– Det er viktig å ikke stresse eller være utålmodig for hva en låt trenger av en modningsprosess. Det dreier seg om å prøve og feile, og det er rett og slett tidkrevende å prøve ut mange forskjellige ting. Men når vi tar oss tid til å prøve ut ulike ideer, så bidrar det også til at vi løfter oss den nødvendige biten som vi krever av oss selv. Vi kan ikke slå oss til ro før vi har nådd det stadiet, sier han, og legger til: – Man må finne og ta essensen i ideen og dens enkle mekanismer.
Kobi er i disse dager aktuelle med utgivelsen Dronesyndrome (Silber). Bak dette artistnavnet står Kai Mikalsen. Han har i en årrekke vært sentral i landets mer eksperimentelle og musikalsk vidsynte musikksirkler, og har en lang rekke utgivelser bak seg. Noen stikkord: Origami, Sketch, Ka, Brugata og Looop. Jeg forsøker å nøste opp i noe av mannens virke og finne ut hva som skjuler seg bak disse mystiske begrepene.
Dronesyndrome frigjør seg fra rytme, melodi og standardharmonier, og hele platen lurker rundt mørke strømninger og svevende stemninger. Hva er egentlig den musikalske idéen til Kobi?
The Big Beast 