Nirvana
Dave Grohl Admits He Was ‘Ripping Off’ Disco Drummers While Recording Nevermind
Dave Grohl and his mom’s unscripted reality series From Cradle to Stage has given us a lot of insight into famous musicians and their mothers, but during an interview with Pharrell Williams, Grohl dropped a bombshell that will forever change how you listen to Nirvana’s Nevermind. After refuting Pharrell’s comment that he’s a great drummer (“I’m the most basic fucking drummer”), Grohl unleashed the secret that he ripped off disco drummers while recording his parts on the iconic 1991 album. “If you listen to Nevermind… I pulled so much stuff from the Gap Band and Cameo and [Chic’s] Tony Thompson on every one of those songs,” he admitted. “all that… that’s old disco!” The revelation not only blew Pharrell’s mind (and probably yours too), but he also couldn’t believe he didn’t hear t...
Dave Grohl Says He Lifted Drumming Techniques From Early Disco Pioneers During Nirvana Years
Foo Fighters surprised the music world last week after revealing they were working on covering several Bee Gees hits under a new disco alias they’re calling the Dee Gees. As the dust continues to settle, frontman Dave Grohl—who spent four years as the drummer for legendary rock band Nirvana—has added some additional context to the forthcoming music, revealing that he derived inspiration from disco since the early days of his career. As NME notes, Grohl’s illuminating comments came in a new interview with Pharrell Williams. “I can’t read music. I couldn’t then, and I still can’t now. All I wanted to do was be in a line of drummers all playing drums,” Grohl said. “If you listen to Nevermind, the Nirvana record, I pulled so much stuff from The Gap Band, and ...
Dave Grohl Recalls Nirvana’s Low Expectations for Nevermind
As Nevermind approaches its 30th anniversary, Dave Grohl looks back to when the now-iconic LP came out, admitting that Nirvana had fairly low expectations for the album’s success. They certainly didn’t expect it to become one of the most seminal albums in rock and roll history. In an interview with Uncut, friends, family, and fellow musicians told Nirvana’s members that Nevermind was going to be “fucking huge,” Grohl tells Uncut. “Donita [Sparks] from L7 came by and said we were going to be fucking huge. My old friend Barrett Jones, who I had grown up with in Virginia, who was a musician and a producer himself, heard ‘Lithium’ and said we were going to be fucking huge. He thought ‘Lithium’ should be the first single.” Attempting a balance of appreciation and denial, Grohl thought, “‘W...
Kurt Cobain Self-Portrait Caricature Sold for $281,250 at Music Icons Auction
A caricature drawing of Kurt Cobain, done by the icon himself, brought in $281,250 at Julien’s Auctions Music Icons sale. The sale price was 28 times the original estimate. The drawing, done in black felt pen on TNT Music Centre in Singapore stationery, depicts Cobain playing the guitar and is signed “Kurdt Kobain Rock Star.” Handwritten on the right, the singer/songwriter penned, “I don’t know how to play and I don’t give a hoot!” The auction pulled in nearly $5 million over the three-day sale, thanks to including instruments, memorabilia, wardrobe and personal property owned and used by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Elton John, Cher, Lady Gaga, Tom Petty, Tupac Shakur, and others. CREDIT: Courtesy of Julien’s Auctions Other Nirvana items f...
Nirvana’s Surviving Members Are Still Making ‘Really Cool’ Music Together, Dave Grohl Says
Though they’ve unofficially jammed before (something Krist Novoselic told us when we last spoke with him), Dave Grohl revealed to Howard Stern that not only does he get together with former Nirvana members Novoselic and Pat Smear to do that, they actually record “really cool” new music. “Krist Novoselic is a pilot, he flies his own plane… he lives up in the Pacific Northwest and whenever he comes down to Los Angeles, you know, we always love to see each other and we’ll have dinner,” Grohl told Stern. If you’re hoping to hear anything new from the musicians who once performed with Kurt Cobain in Nirvana, however, don’t get your hopes up, Grohl said. “And you know if we’re in a studio, we’ll record them. So we’ve recorded some stuff that’s really cool. But we’ve never done anything with it… ...
Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan on Gish Influencing Pearl Jam and Nirvana
Billy Corgan is only too happy to talk about the influence the Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish LP — 30 years old this year — had on the burgeoning alt-rock scene. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Corgan said, “I remember having a conversation with Eddie Vedder when we were on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He told me how much of an influence Gish was on their first record.” Others, too, were fans of the Chicago foursome, Corgan said. “Through the years, I’ve talked to many, many people who really pointed to Gish as the game-changer in their mind about how to approach guitar and how to record.” Gish, produced by Butch Vig and Corgan in 1990-1991, “had a lot to do with how Nevermind was recorded,” Corgan says. Vig produced that album for Nirvana, also in 1990-1991. ...
Someone Spent $14,145 on 6 Strands of Kurt Cobain’s Hair
In the category of “gross stories we kind of hoped we’d never have to think of again,” Kurt Cobain’s hair that was recently put up for auction has officially sold for more than $14,000. If you split hairs, each singular one went for a total of $2,357.50. The winning bid of $14,145 in “The Amazing Music Auction (Vol. I)” secured the six strands of hair that were cut by the Nirvana frontman’s friend, Tessa Osbourne, while in Birmingham, England on the Bleach tour in October 1989. Presumably, the buyer was either a bit of a stalker-ish super fan who needed to own an actual piece of the rock legend or a mad scientist/witch/warlock bent on reanimating the corpse of grunge with Cobain’s DNA. Either way, it’s probably for the best if none of us ever finds out what becomes of t...
You Can Buy Six Strands of Kurt Cobain’s Hair at a Music Auction If You’re Into That Sort of Thing
If you’re a rich person who’s been wondering when you’d finally be able to show off your wealth by purchasing locks of Kurt Cobain’s hair, well, you’re a creep. That said, apparently, you’re a lucky creep. As of today, six locks of the Nirvana legend’s hair will be available as (hopefully) the weirdest lot in Iconic Auctions’ “The Amazing Music Auction (Vol. I).” The auction begins tonight (May 6) at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET and concludes on May 15. Now look, there are plenty of other perfectly reasonable items for people to blow too much money on, including all sorts of signed stuff from the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other rockers and rappers mainstream enough to end up on an auction site. Hell, there are even some less crazy Nirvana options, like one of Cobain’s personal amps and a Stratocas...
Iconic Nirvana Songs to Receive House and Techno Makeovers on Upcoming Cover Album
While Nirvana may have never imagined their music being played amidst CO2 cannons and rave lasers, that’s all about to change with an upcoming cover project produced by Jonathan Hay, Cain McKnight and 41X. Out June 4th via R.U.S.H. Music, Come as You Are: Nirvana Reimagined as House Techno will feature electronic reworks of 12 of the band’s most iconic tracks. To pay homage to the Nirvana’s fabled frontman, Kurt Cobain, a portion of the project’s proceeds are designated for initiatives supporting suicide prevention, mental health and the LGBTQ+ community, of which Cobain was an outspoken ally. Kurt Cobain performing with Nirvana at Reading Festival in 1991. Ed Sirrs/Camera Press/Redux A cover of “Something In The Way” with Daniel...
Silence Is Golden
In 1959, University of Detroit staffers slipped three silent 45s into the student union jukebox, designed to allow the purchase of peace and quiet during Bobby Darin and Paul Anka barrages. The blanks soon became so popular that needle-burn replaced their hush with the sound of bacon cooking, leading Student Council President Mike McCann to promise undergrads “replacement 45s of ‘stereophonic silence,’ which are twice as silent as monaural disks.” Months later, to protest Elvis’ powers of teen arousal, Pennsylvania’s conservative Reading Eagle News announced the world’s first Silent Record Week, “a tribute to silent jukeboxes” that squares across the world still celebrate every January. Upon catching wind of the Eagle’s nothing-fest, McCann publicly committed his university’s 65-strong cho...
Nirvana’s Bleach to Be Reissued as Limited-Edition Blue Cassette
After the success of Tapehead City’s Love Buzz Red reissue of Nirvana’s Bleach, the cassette purveyor has announced another limited-edition reprint. The Blew edition (pressed on a cobalt blue tape) commemorates the album’s opening track and will be limited to 1,989 copies, in honor of its release date. The Tapehead City description of the release reads as follows: “Bleach” was the debut album from Nirvana released on June 15, 1989, by Sub Pop records. “Blew” was the first song on the album and one of the few songs Nirvana would continue to play on tour. “Blew” was also the 2nd to last song Nirvana ever played at their final show March 1st 1994. The Bleach version of “Blew” was accidentally recorded one step lower than the band had intended, which contributed ...
Melvins’ Buzz Osbourne Recalls the Night Kurt Cobain Went to Jail for Vandalism
Before Kurt Cobain became a household name thanks to Nirvana, he was a teenage prankster in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. (Stars, they’re just like us?) Melvins frontman Buzz Osbourne remembers the night in May 1986 that he and pal Cobain, 19, “were out spray painting graffiti all over town” — antics that eventually landed one of them in jail. Telling the tale during Melvins’ Divine Monkeyshines: Valentine’s Day Special streaming event according to Ultimate Classic Rock, Osborne recalls Cobain getting busted and going to jail, while Osborne and their other compadre, former Melvins drummer Matt Dillard, got away. “We walked around the corner of this bank and all of a sudden there’s cops, a bunch of cops everywhere,” Osborne remembered. “And we just take off running in...
