Male Bonding covering Nirvana's 'Aneurysm.' That's all you need to know. Happy weekend people...
Showing posts with label Nirvana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nirvana. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2011
Monday, July 9, 2007
THE JESUS LIZARD/NIRVANA – PUSS/OH THE GUILT (TOUCH AND GO)
THE JESUS LIZARD/NIRVANA – PUSS/OH THE GUILT (TOUCH AND GO)
With hindsight this is quite probably the best/greatest split single and also quite possibly the beginning of the end for one of the bands.
This record was supposedly being arranged for release before Nevermind broke so when it came out it was almost as if it had been something of an afterthought for one of the bands and something of a sheepish first time appearance for the other.
It was always The Jesus Lizard track “Puss” that wiped the floor with the Nirvana off cut. In “Puss” you have perhaps one of the greatest 100 songs of all time possessing guitars so dense and solid but still fully under control it serves as a rare example of a real bulldozer of band playing/performing at the height of their powers. Later in the middle of the song and there is that drum break this was a moment that proved just painful when listened to through headphones late at night so that the parents would not overhear and become terrified of the frenzied horror brand of music their son was now listening to.
The whole way through David Yow’s vocals just sound truly insane exhibiting the eloquence of a man on an extensive criminal rampage. “Give me something to stop the bleeding” – is one of the great opening lines of any record, just what the fuck is he singing about? As you delve further into the words of the piece, of the coherent moments you are able to pick out the chorus of “get her out of the truck” only serves to further confirm that something horrific is going down on this scene and in this man’s mind. Of all those metal bands that had their lyrics analysed and disembowelled never once did I ever hear anything like this in a song. As Yow’s vocals are split between headphones it feels and sounds as if there is a devil sat on each shoulder. There’s something very damaged about this band.
As you pick yourself up off the floor and head to the Nirvana you have to concede that you are being met with something of an anticlimax. Here was the biggest band in the world being taken apart by people sharper and weirder than themselves, this was a giant killing.
The Nirvana “Oh, The Guilt” was almost a demo. Famously recorded during the same session at the “great” “lost” Nirvana “You Know You’re Right” the sad reality was even though it wasn’t a bad song it didn’t sound like a band that was on fire and did bear more than a passing resemblance to another song called “Curmudgeon” that had appeared on the b-side of “Lithium”. This was not why Nirvana had sold millions of records or why we loved them, they had no changed the face of music with material like this.
Upon release there was a frenzied buzz about this record and the limited edition nature of the quantities. On the week of release me and two friends skived off school and headed up to Colchester on the train to purchase the record from a shop called World Class that also specialised in an amazing line of live bootlegs while behind the counter Ben the owner would bob to rave and jungle music with a scary coolness and menace. The night before the video for “Puss” had played on 120 Minutes on MTV and there truly was a real buzz surrounding this release. With the "be quick or it will be gone" mentality/nature of the release I was actually heard aloud debating whether it might even make number in the charts.
In the end it reached eleven in the UK charts making it one of the major new release entries that week and producing the now infamous brief clip of The Jesus Lizard’s video on Top Of The Pops. It felt like the victory was ours.
Needless to say the single dropped like a turd out of the charts the following week and suddenly it was almost as if it had never happened. For months, almost years later CD single copies of the record remained available at inflated prices, especially in April 1994.
With amazing cover art from Malcolm Bucknall and the painting “Old Indian And White Poodle” that perfectly compliments the music held within, this is/was a single in a league of its own.
How green was our fucking valley?
Thesaurus moment: comet.
The Jesus Lizard
Nirvana
With hindsight this is quite probably the best/greatest split single and also quite possibly the beginning of the end for one of the bands.
This record was supposedly being arranged for release before Nevermind broke so when it came out it was almost as if it had been something of an afterthought for one of the bands and something of a sheepish first time appearance for the other.
It was always The Jesus Lizard track “Puss” that wiped the floor with the Nirvana off cut. In “Puss” you have perhaps one of the greatest 100 songs of all time possessing guitars so dense and solid but still fully under control it serves as a rare example of a real bulldozer of band playing/performing at the height of their powers. Later in the middle of the song and there is that drum break this was a moment that proved just painful when listened to through headphones late at night so that the parents would not overhear and become terrified of the frenzied horror brand of music their son was now listening to.
The whole way through David Yow’s vocals just sound truly insane exhibiting the eloquence of a man on an extensive criminal rampage. “Give me something to stop the bleeding” – is one of the great opening lines of any record, just what the fuck is he singing about? As you delve further into the words of the piece, of the coherent moments you are able to pick out the chorus of “get her out of the truck” only serves to further confirm that something horrific is going down on this scene and in this man’s mind. Of all those metal bands that had their lyrics analysed and disembowelled never once did I ever hear anything like this in a song. As Yow’s vocals are split between headphones it feels and sounds as if there is a devil sat on each shoulder. There’s something very damaged about this band.
As you pick yourself up off the floor and head to the Nirvana you have to concede that you are being met with something of an anticlimax. Here was the biggest band in the world being taken apart by people sharper and weirder than themselves, this was a giant killing.
The Nirvana “Oh, The Guilt” was almost a demo. Famously recorded during the same session at the “great” “lost” Nirvana “You Know You’re Right” the sad reality was even though it wasn’t a bad song it didn’t sound like a band that was on fire and did bear more than a passing resemblance to another song called “Curmudgeon” that had appeared on the b-side of “Lithium”. This was not why Nirvana had sold millions of records or why we loved them, they had no changed the face of music with material like this.
Upon release there was a frenzied buzz about this record and the limited edition nature of the quantities. On the week of release me and two friends skived off school and headed up to Colchester on the train to purchase the record from a shop called World Class that also specialised in an amazing line of live bootlegs while behind the counter Ben the owner would bob to rave and jungle music with a scary coolness and menace. The night before the video for “Puss” had played on 120 Minutes on MTV and there truly was a real buzz surrounding this release. With the "be quick or it will be gone" mentality/nature of the release I was actually heard aloud debating whether it might even make number in the charts.
In the end it reached eleven in the UK charts making it one of the major new release entries that week and producing the now infamous brief clip of The Jesus Lizard’s video on Top Of The Pops. It felt like the victory was ours.
Needless to say the single dropped like a turd out of the charts the following week and suddenly it was almost as if it had never happened. For months, almost years later CD single copies of the record remained available at inflated prices, especially in April 1994.
With amazing cover art from Malcolm Bucknall and the painting “Old Indian And White Poodle” that perfectly compliments the music held within, this is/was a single in a league of its own.
How green was our fucking valley?
Thesaurus moment: comet.
The Jesus Lizard
Nirvana
Sunday, June 10, 2007
NIRVANA – IN BLOOM (GEFFEN)
NIRVANA – IN BLOOM (GEFFEN)
As Geffen released Incesticide just before Christmas 1992 it always felt a strangely timed decision to release “In Bloom” as a single, perhaps/probably as one last throw of the dice at milking the remnants of Nevermind. In many ways with its different version on Sub Pop, complete with music video, it was always destined to be a single.
Situated on Nevermind as the second track following “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “In Bloom” always sounded like the catchy little brother the “real” songs of the album, which probably gave it subtle might. The guitars are thick and dense, the drums are incendiary as it resembles the song that was most likely aped by Helmet on Meantime. It also features a chorus parents would recognise without acknowledging or realising the sentiments.
This is a classic example of a song with a meaning slipping beneath the mainstream radar. When Kurt Cobain sings “know not what it means” he is not alone. The common interpretation is that it is a royal dig at oversexed jocks and their intimidating ways, almost serving as a national anthem to the disenfranchised kids being bullied at school.
The CD comes coupled with live b-sides of “Sliver” and “Polly”, not the greatest examples or versions of the songs performed live. The release of this single coincided with the re-promotion of the “Sliver” single by Sub Pop (itself to coincide with the release of Incesticide) so the inclusion of the song here was perhaps a gesture by Geffen aimed at discouraging some from purchasing the original Sub Pop version.
With its blatantly phallic cover this record is as nasty as its artwork.
Thesaurus moment: belated.
Nirvana
Geffen
As Geffen released Incesticide just before Christmas 1992 it always felt a strangely timed decision to release “In Bloom” as a single, perhaps/probably as one last throw of the dice at milking the remnants of Nevermind. In many ways with its different version on Sub Pop, complete with music video, it was always destined to be a single.
Situated on Nevermind as the second track following “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “In Bloom” always sounded like the catchy little brother the “real” songs of the album, which probably gave it subtle might. The guitars are thick and dense, the drums are incendiary as it resembles the song that was most likely aped by Helmet on Meantime. It also features a chorus parents would recognise without acknowledging or realising the sentiments.
This is a classic example of a song with a meaning slipping beneath the mainstream radar. When Kurt Cobain sings “know not what it means” he is not alone. The common interpretation is that it is a royal dig at oversexed jocks and their intimidating ways, almost serving as a national anthem to the disenfranchised kids being bullied at school.
The CD comes coupled with live b-sides of “Sliver” and “Polly”, not the greatest examples or versions of the songs performed live. The release of this single coincided with the re-promotion of the “Sliver” single by Sub Pop (itself to coincide with the release of Incesticide) so the inclusion of the song here was perhaps a gesture by Geffen aimed at discouraging some from purchasing the original Sub Pop version.
With its blatantly phallic cover this record is as nasty as its artwork.
Thesaurus moment: belated.
Nirvana
Geffen
Friday, June 8, 2007
NIRVANA - NEVERMIND (DGC)
NIRVANA – NEVERMIND (DGC)
In many ways this was Year Zero for modern music but unfortunately by the end of the nineties all the good work that this bolt to the industry had done felt unravelled. Many would argue that the good work was undone many years before that. Others would question whether the impact was all that positive, if everything about the underground breaking into the mainstream was real in the first place. How much of the “breaking” of Nirvana (in both respects) was genuine and how much of it was PR hype? Were they just flavour of the month or were they with this record the real deal?
With the benefit of hindsight and seventeen plus years (fast heading towards twenty) I will concede that my passion for Nirvana was somewhat naïve and blinded but at the same time any band and record that opened my eyes to underground/alternative rock music and shaped my record collection (and thus my moods and opinions) is a very important thing. Very rarely was a band handed such a platform with which open the floodgates. Of course this was not down to them alone but they certainly assisted it.
To my ears the album still very much holds up but to the later generations (Generation Y) they have found themselves suckered into either the notion of Nirvana only having three songs or that the fucking imbeciles that followed, such as Bush, is what the band and its sound were about. Somehow over the years the band went from being an indie band to a metal and such perception has served as a detriment.
I always thought the strength of the album was the power of the non-singles tracks. The couplet of “Drain You” and “On A Plain” are two of the catchiest songs in the Nirvana cannon and the pace of “Lounge Act” is an exhilarating ride.
Obviously all the singles were killer, with “Come As You Are” and its Killing Joke “borrow” being the stand out of the four now with its bassline sounding so unique until you finally hear “Eighties”, as which point you hear the original as being only a pale imitation.
Bookending the record with “Polly” and “Something In The Way” I always thought was a mistake; even though the songs possessed powerful meanings they were death to the pace of the record. Thank god for “Endless Nameless” turning up after “Something In The Way” to blow away the curmudgeon.
Many say the Butch Vig production was too slick, too pop, too sell out but when needed it was there, it enhanced the greater pop moments even if it did trim and smooth the record’s jagged edges (Butch Vig is no Steve Albini). For years now there have been different versions of these songs circulating as demos, session tracks and live versions and always the strength of the songwriting has been what has shone through.
When I tell people that Nirvana are the most important band we will see in our generation they always scoff but at the end of the day I am right and they are wrong. So with this being their most successful album by default this makes this the most important album of our generation. Is that correct?
Thesaurus moment: fundamental.
Nirvana
DGC
In many ways this was Year Zero for modern music but unfortunately by the end of the nineties all the good work that this bolt to the industry had done felt unravelled. Many would argue that the good work was undone many years before that. Others would question whether the impact was all that positive, if everything about the underground breaking into the mainstream was real in the first place. How much of the “breaking” of Nirvana (in both respects) was genuine and how much of it was PR hype? Were they just flavour of the month or were they with this record the real deal?
With the benefit of hindsight and seventeen plus years (fast heading towards twenty) I will concede that my passion for Nirvana was somewhat naïve and blinded but at the same time any band and record that opened my eyes to underground/alternative rock music and shaped my record collection (and thus my moods and opinions) is a very important thing. Very rarely was a band handed such a platform with which open the floodgates. Of course this was not down to them alone but they certainly assisted it.
To my ears the album still very much holds up but to the later generations (Generation Y) they have found themselves suckered into either the notion of Nirvana only having three songs or that the fucking imbeciles that followed, such as Bush, is what the band and its sound were about. Somehow over the years the band went from being an indie band to a metal and such perception has served as a detriment.
I always thought the strength of the album was the power of the non-singles tracks. The couplet of “Drain You” and “On A Plain” are two of the catchiest songs in the Nirvana cannon and the pace of “Lounge Act” is an exhilarating ride.
Obviously all the singles were killer, with “Come As You Are” and its Killing Joke “borrow” being the stand out of the four now with its bassline sounding so unique until you finally hear “Eighties”, as which point you hear the original as being only a pale imitation.
Bookending the record with “Polly” and “Something In The Way” I always thought was a mistake; even though the songs possessed powerful meanings they were death to the pace of the record. Thank god for “Endless Nameless” turning up after “Something In The Way” to blow away the curmudgeon.
Many say the Butch Vig production was too slick, too pop, too sell out but when needed it was there, it enhanced the greater pop moments even if it did trim and smooth the record’s jagged edges (Butch Vig is no Steve Albini). For years now there have been different versions of these songs circulating as demos, session tracks and live versions and always the strength of the songwriting has been what has shone through.
When I tell people that Nirvana are the most important band we will see in our generation they always scoff but at the end of the day I am right and they are wrong. So with this being their most successful album by default this makes this the most important album of our generation. Is that correct?
Thesaurus moment: fundamental.
Nirvana
DGC
Monday, May 7, 2007
NIRVANA - INCESTICIDE (DGC)
NIRVANA – INCESTICIDE (DGC)
With hindsight this is a very well put together collection/compilation, especially when compared to the horrible mess that was the With The Lights Out boxset.
Considered by many to be something of a Christmas cash in upon release in 1992, with no follow up to Nevermind on the horizon, and indeed a lot of threat/worry of the band actually splitting up being rumoured/murmured, with a surprisingly large wealth of recorded tracks to choose from, this was something of an attempt to stem the tide of all the bootleggers releasing the unreleased tracks and win back some money otherwise going into the pockets of industrious music entrepreneurs. At the time Nirvana was hot.
The first time I heard of Incesticide was when John Peel played “Mexican Seafood” one Friday night when I casually came across his radio show waiting for The Word and other such moronic nineties Friday night TV shows (that actually were ten times superior to the current crop of subtly left propaganda). For a moment there I thought all of Peel’s radio shows sounded this good.
The cover artwork was always startling to me, too close to the cover of the Lithium single with Cobain indulging once more in his melted and charred doll fetish. Perhaps he should have been a chef in some capacity, especially in the light of being not only an expert in chargrilling babies but also cooking toxic substances.
My original copy of this was on cassette. It was a Christmas gift to me in 1992 and being a cassette it would often get chewed up in my yellow boombox. The warping of the intro of “Dive” was a sound both horrific and interesting to me.
There was some disappointment attached to the UK release of the record as it lacked the inflammatory liner notes that the weekly music papers reported so wildly. As a result of this when I went to America (Florida) the following May getting a copy of the US version of Incesticide was at the top of my retail agenda.
Musically the album is a lot more solid than it is remembered for. The fifteen tracks tend to be the ones with the highest production values of the tracks available, not least the ones that were recorded at the BBC for various sessions for various DJs (John Peel AND Mark Goodier?).
The aforementioned “Mexican Seafood” is easily one of the highlights with its cute fuzzy pop hooks while in the process just about failing to reach the two-minute mark. The two Vaselines covers are so frighteningly similar but equally scarily catchy and instantly memorable and served as many people’s favourite numbers from the collection, people without any idea who The Vaselines were and probably still do not.
With “Aneurysm” already being a solid staple of the live set it provided the perfect album closer with which to send the album on a high note (it is notable that there is a distinct lack of acoustic meanders on the record). A ace up the sleeve was to be found in the proceeding tracks before the closer as the lumbering “Aero Zeppelin” and “Hairspray Queen” saw the band at their heaviest almost veering off into some kind of psychedelic direction while apparently indulging into rock clichés that were never too much for these tunes.
Compared to the studio records Incesticide really holds up strongly against the more famous Nirvana releases and towers head and shoulders above the boxset and the elements of dross that have spewed there from. This record still tops 99% of any guitar music released since.
Thesaurus moment: underdog
Nirvana
DGC
With hindsight this is a very well put together collection/compilation, especially when compared to the horrible mess that was the With The Lights Out boxset.
Considered by many to be something of a Christmas cash in upon release in 1992, with no follow up to Nevermind on the horizon, and indeed a lot of threat/worry of the band actually splitting up being rumoured/murmured, with a surprisingly large wealth of recorded tracks to choose from, this was something of an attempt to stem the tide of all the bootleggers releasing the unreleased tracks and win back some money otherwise going into the pockets of industrious music entrepreneurs. At the time Nirvana was hot.
The first time I heard of Incesticide was when John Peel played “Mexican Seafood” one Friday night when I casually came across his radio show waiting for The Word and other such moronic nineties Friday night TV shows (that actually were ten times superior to the current crop of subtly left propaganda). For a moment there I thought all of Peel’s radio shows sounded this good.
The cover artwork was always startling to me, too close to the cover of the Lithium single with Cobain indulging once more in his melted and charred doll fetish. Perhaps he should have been a chef in some capacity, especially in the light of being not only an expert in chargrilling babies but also cooking toxic substances.
My original copy of this was on cassette. It was a Christmas gift to me in 1992 and being a cassette it would often get chewed up in my yellow boombox. The warping of the intro of “Dive” was a sound both horrific and interesting to me.
There was some disappointment attached to the UK release of the record as it lacked the inflammatory liner notes that the weekly music papers reported so wildly. As a result of this when I went to America (Florida) the following May getting a copy of the US version of Incesticide was at the top of my retail agenda.
Musically the album is a lot more solid than it is remembered for. The fifteen tracks tend to be the ones with the highest production values of the tracks available, not least the ones that were recorded at the BBC for various sessions for various DJs (John Peel AND Mark Goodier?).
The aforementioned “Mexican Seafood” is easily one of the highlights with its cute fuzzy pop hooks while in the process just about failing to reach the two-minute mark. The two Vaselines covers are so frighteningly similar but equally scarily catchy and instantly memorable and served as many people’s favourite numbers from the collection, people without any idea who The Vaselines were and probably still do not.
With “Aneurysm” already being a solid staple of the live set it provided the perfect album closer with which to send the album on a high note (it is notable that there is a distinct lack of acoustic meanders on the record). A ace up the sleeve was to be found in the proceeding tracks before the closer as the lumbering “Aero Zeppelin” and “Hairspray Queen” saw the band at their heaviest almost veering off into some kind of psychedelic direction while apparently indulging into rock clichés that were never too much for these tunes.
Compared to the studio records Incesticide really holds up strongly against the more famous Nirvana releases and towers head and shoulders above the boxset and the elements of dross that have spewed there from. This record still tops 99% of any guitar music released since.
Thesaurus moment: underdog
Nirvana
DGC
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