Word: nirvana
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Although Cobain has typically been portrayed by the media as a deeply committed musician who became swept up and ultimately overwhelmed by the accidental mass appeal of his art, the newest biography of the Nirvana frontman attempts to convince the reader otherwise. Heavier than Heaven (Hyperion, 381 pp., $24.95), by former Seattle music journalist Charles Cross, details the short and tumultuous life of a man who had always dreamed of being a Rock Star, drawing on evidence from over four years of research, 400 interviews and love letters and entries from Cobain’s private journals...
...shirts. In reality, Cobain re-invented and exaggerated many of his childhood memories, often crafting potential answers to interview questions in his journals. His music and lyrics were intensely personal and autiobiographical, always facing multiple revisions. And, in fact, Cobain was known to complain frequently when he felt that Nirvana was receiving inadequate exposure...
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana were to the Olympia indie-cum-grunge scene what Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols were to punk rock—what began as an esoteric musical offshoot of political turmoil (in the case of punk, economic and social turmoil in late-1970’s Britain; in the case of indie, rebellion against traditional gender roles in music and disdain towards the mass marketing of an art form) was deliberately sold as bandwagon rebellion. As Bart Simpson said while the Smashing Pumpkins played in front of him at Lollapalooza, “making teenagers depressed...
...When Nirvana's Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted shotgun blast in 1994 at age 27, it marked the end of a short life plagued by family troubles, heroin addiction and struggles with fame. His story certainly wasn't heavenly, but it was heavy, and Cross--a grunge sponge who conducted 400 interviews for this serious, substantial biography--lays it all out vividly. Extraordinary access to Cobain's unpublished journals helps the narrative move like the best Nirvana anthems: a slow build, some off-kilter rhythms, softly seductive passages followed by loud screams and a devastating finish. Smells like...
...listening to. Black assumes the voice of an array of comic characters on the album, from a sex-obsessed buffoon on "Kielbasa" to a lonely Don Juan rock star on "The Road" (the latter has been praised for its veracity by no less an expert than Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, who contributes drumming on the record.) He also manages to parody a swath of celebrated musicians by incorporating their stylistic trademarks into his songs: Joni Mitchell's upward swoop, the keening harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and, on an slow, instructional song whose title...