Image Credit: Dave Hogan/Getty Images; Solarpix/PR Photos
Sex fiends looking to get lucky on a first date could do worse than to head to Britain and loudly announce their fondness for Metallica and Nirvana.
That is the conclusion to be drawn from a new poll conducted by U.K. music and dating website tastebuds.fm. The site asked users “how far they’d likely go” on a first date and then collated the information to find out band’s fans were the most, and least, likely to go “all the way.”
Yesterday, legions of rock fans remembered the seventeenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death with a spin of Nevermind or a viewing of “Heart Shaped Box.”
Jared Leto decided to do it another way:
Image Credit: Terry McGinnis/WireImage.com
Seventeen years ago today, Kurt Cobain took his life. Even though it’s been nearly two decades, it’s still difficult to know what to say about something like this. Attempting to tease meaning out of the tragedy of his suicide or philosophizing about the burden of genius ultimately seems empty.
Instead, let’s focus on the reason so many people love and commemorate Cobain: his music. Entertainment Weekly has been around since 1990, which means that aside from Nirvana’s Sub Pop debut, Bleach, we have archived contemporary reviews of all their albums. Here was what we had to say about the major releases from the nineties’ most revered, beloved, and imitated band.
On Nevermind
“The problem with current college-radio rock is that most so-called alternative bands desperately want to sound normal. On their collar-grabbing second album, and their first for a major label, the Seattle trio Nirvana never entertain that notion.”
“Nirvana may not stand a chance of selling anywhere near as many records as Guns N’ Roses, but don’t tell Cobain; you never know how he’ll react.” —David Browne, Oct. 25, 1991 [NOTE: You might actually be surprised-slash-disappointed to learn that statement still holds true—worldwide, Guns N' Roses have sold more records than Nirvana. Also, this write-up originally ran far below a review Kid 'N Play's long-forgotten Face the Nation album.] READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images; James Crump/WireImage.com Record 20924935
Is there anything Courtney Love can do to shock us anymore? Apparently, yes: A new book claims that the grunge rock widow wanted to snort up some of her deceased husband’s ashes back in 1994. Well, that’s one way to be together for eternity.
Music journalist Neil Strauss alleges in his just-released collection of rock interviews that he was with the Hole singer in her L.A. home shortly after Cobain’s suicide when “she leaped off her bed and suddenly said, ‘Say hi to Kurt,’” proceeding to pull out the Nirvana frontman’s cremated remains.
Here we are now, YouTube, entertain us! I was browsing my Twitter feed this morning when I stumbled upon this gem: Go Home Productions posted a mix of two fantastic (understatement) artists who might be gone, but will not be forgotten any time soon: Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a then-13-year-old Michael Jackson’s “Rockin’ Robin.”
And now, thanks to the wonder of technology, we can enjoy BOTH songs at the same time. Color me excited. Watch the video after the jump. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: PRN/PR Photos; Everett CollectionAn item in the New York Daily News’ Rush & Malloy gossip column positing that Courtney Love was ready to sell her 75% stake in the Nirvana song catalogue to global investment firm Oaktree Capital—complete with a quote from an “insider” stating that “Courtney thinks [it] comes with too many memories … It’s haunted”—spread like interweb head lice yesterday, far and wide.
But no one, it seems, called Love’s reps to see if there was any credence to the story, and it turns out, there isn’t. There’s “nothing to it,” her publicist told EW in a succinctly worded, pronoun-free statement. “Not a clue [how the rumor started]. Never even heard of that company Rush & Molloy reference.”
Nevertheless, this is hardly the first time Love’s ownership of late husband Kurt Cobain’s estate has made the news; in 2001, she fought surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic over the then-unreleased track “You Know You’re Right”; and in 2006, sold 25% of her share of the band’s publishing rights to Larry Mestal, a former Virgin Records executive, for $50 million. Last fall, Unsanctioned use of Cobain’s avatar in a 2009 Guitar Hero release actually united Love with longtime foes Grohl and Novoselic temporarily; both vehemently opposed it in public statements (although only Love, as sole executor of her husband’s estate, threatened a lawsuit against Guitar Hero parent company Activision).
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Ex Panic! at the Disco members Young Veins, ‘Everyone But You’: An EW exclusive stream
Russell Brand talks about his ‘Grey’s Anatomy’-name checking, NSFW ‘Get Him to the Greek’ song
Taylor Hanson on performing live with Conan O’Brien: ‘He’s got chops!’
‘Glee’ Exclusive: Susan Boyle to play the McKinley High lunch lady?
Russell Brand talks about his ‘Grey’s Anatomy’-name checking, NSFW ‘Get Him to the Greek’ song
Robyn stalks ex boyfriend in ‘Dancing On My Own’ video: Watch here
The Dave Grohl-Josh Homme-John Paul Jones supergroup Them Crooked Vultures has just unleashed the band’s debut single “New Fang,” which you can hear below. And “unleashed” seems the right word for this crunchily rocking number which, Homme’s vocals aside, sounds like something Jones’ former band Led Zeppelin could have recorded for Physical Graffiti, and then misplaced down the back of the studio couch.
Do you agree? And are you excited about the Vultures’ debut album, which arrives November 17?
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
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Metallica assists in search for missing fan
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Paloma Faith: Don’t cry “Amy Winehouse rip-off!” just because she’s awesome
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November 3 marks the first official release of Nirvana’s legendary performance at the UK’s Reading Festival in 1992, riding shotgun on the Nirvana release bandwagon, as their proto-grunge debut Bleach is reissued the same day with a slew of live material from an early, messy show in Portland.
If you’re a Cobain addict, you’ve probably caught clips of the ’92 Reading concert before—it’s the one where Kurt came onstage in a wheelchair at first—but never has the much-bootlegged footage looked so crisp.
Obviously it’s cleaner looking (and sounding), but this DVD offers a ton of new camera angles to what’s been previously seen of Live at Reading, bringing you closer to the onstage guitar shredding in a way that the often-constricted fan footage never did.
To whet your appetite, take a look at Nirvana’s performance of “Blew” at the ’92 festival below, where they invited some guy named Tony onstage to sloppily dance to their performance. Yes, this video is secondhand-quality stuff: you have to wait until November 3 to see how much better it gets.
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Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ turns 20; goth, how time flies
Elliott Smith, 1969-2003: Gone six years today
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iTunes Original sessions available now
Ben Gibbard acts! Watch the Death Cab for Cutie frontman earn his SAG card
This evening, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic released an official statement in response to the open use of a Kurt Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5, in which the late grunge icon can be made to perform any song by any artist in the GH catalog.
Said the pair: “We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.
While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.
It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”
Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has already threatened to sue the parent company Activision; she tweeted today: “wait til you see what MY lovely lawyer has cooked up, i never ever signed off on this … btw we get NO money for this, travesty, Frances gets NO money for the rape.” Activision responded: “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”
Watch the pixelated Cobain, in his trademark fuzzy green cardigan, perform snippets of Public Enemy and Billy Idol below before busting into songs that are the antithesis of his sound — namely, Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name,” Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and Bush’s “Comedown” — and tell us if you agree. Is it blasphemous, or all in good fun?
More from EW’s Music Mix:‘
No Beatles, but Norah Jones plays new song ‘Young Blood’ at Apple event
Guilty Pleasures, Round Three: Follow all the matchups here!
True Blood’’s Alexander Skarsgard: TV vampire, sexy Swede… guest DJ?
‘The Beatles: Rock Band’ is out today: Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos gives us the scoop on working with Sir Paul and NOT being given hell by Yoko
Here’s a piece of news that should warm the hearts of grunge heads from Seattle to the South Pole: Nirvana’s storied set at 1992′s Reading Festival is finally getting an official release. Fans and critics have been talking for the last 17 years about just how unbelievably awesome that Reading performance was, capturing Nirvana’s raw power at the height of their post-Nevermind fame. The tracklist includes nearly all of that breakthrough album, plus three early In Utero previews (“All Apologies,” “Dumb,” “tourette’s”) as well as a few older tracks and covers. Nirvana Live at Reading hits shelves Nov. 3 in DVD, CD, and CD/DVD form. For a much grainier bootleg version of what you’ll be getting, check out Nirvana playing “Lithium” at Reading after the jump.
But that’s not all! That very same day, Nov. 3, will see the release of Foo Fighters Greatest Hits, summing up the 15-year career of the rock machine that rose from Nirvana’s ashes. Along with Foo classics like “Learn to Fly,” “Everlong,” “My Hero,” and more, the hits set will also include two brand-new tunes, “Wheels” and “Word Forward.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that both will feature killer riffs of one sort or another.
Long story short, Dave Grohl is in for a big royalty check this Thanksgiving. Which of these two projects are you looking forward to the most?
