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Volume aaa, Number 7 |
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Achieving Nirvana
TED REINERT
ORIENT STAFF
The other week, I was hanging out with my ex-roommate, talking about music as usual. He said that Guns n' Roses was better than Nirvana. Without thinking, as some sort of twisted instinctual reaction, I kicked him square in the balls. Within seconds, I was apologizing profusely. I didn't mean to do it, but Nirvana means a lot to me.
I've come to the realization that Nirvana may be my all-time favorite band. I actually completely missed them when Kurt Cobain was alive and became aware of our generation's lost hero by the t-shirts kids wore before I started listening to music in 1996. For a while, too, I preferred Kurt's sometimes evil wife Courtney Love's band Hole to his own. Then I bought Nevermind.
Nevermind is Nirvana's first masterpiece. It's not the second-best album of all time, as claimed by nearly every list made in the past few years. But it's pretty damn good. You should all own it; its sequel In Utero, Kurt's sick, vicious reaction to the sudden fame; and MTV Unplugged in New York, the posthumous release of Kurt's most intimate performance. While In Utero (especially on tracks like "Scentless Apprentice," "Rape Me," and "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter") recorded a raw assault on the senses to build to some kind of catharsis, the boys of Nirvana had to strip away the noise for their MTV Unplugged session, and were left with the torn emotion in Kurt's voice and a guitar (and an accordion and some cellos).
Cobain is alive, and kicking, on all Nirvana's songs. His life, chronicled in Charles R. Cross's excellent biography Heavier Than Heaven last year, was never particularly stable, but was complete chaos during the 90s with the advent of fame and heroin addiction. Cobain didn't have that deep a musical background when he started Nirvana, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" wasn't the most original song of all time, Cobain even claimed he was ripping off the Pixies with it. But it had amazing grabbing power from the opening strums, an undeniable urgency. Nirvana was very lucky at the exact right time. The underground exploded and mainstream music suddenly had made its greatest change since maybe Elvis. A glorious period of "alternative rock" was started, and until 1998 or 1999, there were a lot of awesome bands in the mainstream. Then the current dark period descended as Fred Durst and Kid Rock became the new heroes of the nation's youth.
Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head in early April 1994; his body was found on April 8. The previous month he had purposely overdosed on tour in Italy and was furious at doctors for resuscitating him. In January, Cobain had showed up to the last of three scheduled recording days and the band cut his last song, "You Know You're Right." Love blocked the release of a planned Nirvana box set because she wanted to release the song, a potential hit single in her mind, on a single-disc greatest hits album, which could sell millions of copies. After years of squabbles between Love and Nirvana's surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Courtney got her way.
"You Know You're Right" is the reason to buy Nirvana, released Tuesday also containing 13 other "hits." The truth is that Courtney was right. Even if Nirvana doesn't sell millions, the song is atop Billboard's Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts and all over radio. Eight and a half years beyond the grave, Cobain blows everything else out of the water. The song is both spooky and totally catchy as Kurt sings the twistingly ironic line "things have never been so swell." The chorus is the word "pain," howled, repeated. It's incredible, and the only songs on the album that are better than it are "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "About A Girl."
Nirvana is a fun album. Most of the fans already own everything on it except "You Know You're Right" ("Pennyroyal Tea" is presented as in a remixed version to make it a little sweeter). This is designed for beginners. I would recommend Nevermind as a better starting point, personally. Go for the original.
Now that the prize rarity has been unearthed, the path is cleared for the box set. There are plenty of great tunes not found on Nirvana albums. You could wait for the set, or many of them are floating around online.
Kurt Cobain was the savior of rock and roll. Hell, he even looked like Jesus Christ. If you don't listen to Nirvana, you're missing something in your life. Dig in.