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Kurt Cobain
Listen: Vivian Girls, "Tell The World"
Listen: Fucked Up, "Twice Born"
Listen: Oxford Collapse, "The Birthday Wars"
Listen: Bon Iver, "Skinny Love"
Listen: Torche, "Amnesian"
5 Bands Kurt Cobain Would Love
The Nirvana frontman would be 42 today. SPIN's David Marchese picks five groups he'd champion, if he were still around.
By David Marchese 02.20.09 12:21 PM
Kurt Cobain
February 20 marks what would have been Kurt Cobain's 42nd birthday. He died almost fifteen years ago, on April 5, 1994.
Since the year 2000, Cobain's journals have been published, a Nirvana box set was released, Gus Van Sant made a movie about a very Cobainesque rock star, and Michael Azzerad released a documentary. And that's just the beginning.
It doesn't feel like he's been gone that long.
But at the same time, he always felt like a specter. When Nevermind was released, I was into baseball and WWF wrestling instead of angst-fuelled rock. I was only twelve when Cobain died. I'm pretty sure I didn't read a magazine article about Nirvana until after he was dead. All of which is to say that Cobain the person and Cobain the rock hero/walking tragedy/myth have long been intertwined in my head. It's hard enough to understand rock stars when they're alive. Good luck doing it when they're dead.
But one way we can get a line on the man is through the music he loved. Like so many of us music geeks, he compulsively wrote lists of his favorite bands, which ranged from the Pixies to N.W.A. to Aerosmith.
I work for a music magazine, which means that I have a stake in rock'n'roll myth-making. So below is my best guess of which current bands Cobain would get a kick out of. Let me know what you think.
1. Vivian Girls
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As "Smells Like Teen Spirit" showed, Cobain was a master of molding ragged punk energy into refined, highly melodic songwriting. The Vivian Girls, an all-girl trio from Brooklyn, do something similar, though with an even greater emphasis on skuzzy sonics. Also, Nirvana covered the Vaselines on their MTV Unplugged album. That Scottish outfit is an obvious antecedent of the Vivs' noisily charming indie-pop. |
2. Fucked Up
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As those who've seen their rowdy, clothing-optional live show know, Toronto hardcore hellions Fucked Up love getting in people's faces. But their music is more than just an aural raspberry. The psychedelic layers of overdubs on last year's The Chemistry of Common Living makes the album one you can zero into or zone out on. The band's blend of anti-social aggression and compositional ingenuity occupies an unnamed space between the polished Nevermind and its more confrontational follow-up, In Utero. |
3. Oxford Collapse
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This Sub Pop (Nirvana's first label) trio has a knack for working class guitar anthems firmly in the Credence Clearwater Revival tradition, though with a nervier, less bluesy edge. Cobain and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic played in a CCR cover band called the Sellouts. |
4. Bon Iver
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Leadbelly was a hero of Cobain's -- there's a spoken interlude on the Unplugged album where he tells a story about wanting to acquire a guitar that once belonged to the legendary folksinger. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon is, for my money, the strongest folkie around, a composer of beautifully melancholy music and gifted with a gorgeous, humble voice. His music is perfect accompaniment for the dark moods with which Cobain was, as we all know, intimately familiar. |
5. Torche
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Cobain was a metalhead. Nirvana covered Black Sabbath's "Hand of Doom," and the dude hung around with Pacific Northwest sludge masters the Melvins. Miami's Torche combines oozing riffs with intermittent melodic sunbeams in a manner that sounds like it could have been recorded any time between the early ‘70s and the grunge era. |
I think this is an interesting idea for an article! However I strongly disagree with all your choices. I'm 99% sure he would love deerhoof. I really think they are right up his alley in every way especially the album apple o or revielle , I know in my heart he would love it . I also think he would have liked Coalesce (revolution in listening or give them rope) rather than ****ed up. kurt would not like ****ed up! kurt didnt even really like hardcore , he thought it was too macho. he only dabbled in what some people would consider hardcore. ****ed up isn't the kind of hc he would like which is like more legit punk/rock/hardcore, ****ed up is more like bro-core or something he would never embrace. Also he probably would have embraced more avant garde /experimental artists in the genres of noise and/or jazz.. Theres no reason for him to like vivian girls because hes seen those type of bands when they first came out for real so why would he like a 20 year later retread? You mentioned the Vaselines , why listen to vivian girls when youve been listening to vaselines for 20 years? The only people who like re-treads are people who werent there to see the real thing! bon iver is fighting being james blunt /hes john mayer/jack johnson for pitchfork indie types theres not a chance in the world he would like bon iver!
the real question is would he embrace the future a la RADIOHEAD KID A and ANIMAL COLLECTIVE ?
I want to know what he would have made of them/ How his mind would have interpreted them. Would he have seen it as a culturally important step forward in rock music(being progressive) or would he have seen it as "prog rock" in the classic sense? Would he have therefore most likely not liked it considering he most likely hated progressive rock ? Theres so many question and no answers. I have such respect for Kurts musical tastes and opinions probably more than anyone i could think of.
It is kind of a stupid premise for an article, but that being said, everyone who decided to read it was on some level interested in the answer to the question. To add my two-cents worth, Id have to say Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura would have been two bands Kurt would have liked.
Not a terrible idea for an article, but pretty shallow reasoning for the picks.
Although a lot of his preferred bands were lo-fi punk or pop, Kurt had a soft spot for sublime, emotionally resonant music. I actually think he'd love Radiohead's stuff from 95-present, Elliot Smith, Antony & the Johnsons' "I Am a Bird Now," and Juana Molina. He'd also probably dig most of Liars' output, Stereolab, Burzum, Joanna Newsome's "Ys," Scott Walker's avant garde rebirth, Deerhoof, Animal Collective's first seven albums Xiu Xiu, and Clinic.
But who really knows? Maybe he'd give in to the likes of Miley Cyrus...
This is probably one of the stupidest articles I've ever seen in SPIN or any other music mag - to assume, even suggest, what modern day bands Kurt Cobain would "champion" is an insult to all Nirvana fans and to his legacy. Cobain's musical interests were diverse - from Lead Belly to The Stooges, The Clash to The Breeders; whoever came up with the idea for this article, and the editors who approved it - I have three words for you: "You Are Idiots."
Vivian Girls? Really?
I really think Kurt had better taste than any of the bands above.
Anthony Porter Lynch
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