Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
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-When I Hear My Name -Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground -Blue Orchid -Passive Manipulation -Red Rain -Death Letter -My Doorbell -Hotel Yorba -Same Boy You've Always Known -Lovesick -Little Ghost -We're Going to Be Friends -The Hardest Button to Button -Black Math -The Nurse -I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself
Encore: -Ball and Biscuit -Seven Nation Army -Screwdriver
Post by Longtime and Frequent Poster on May 2, 2011 17:37:24 GMT -5
As far as seminal grunge bands from the late 80's/early 90's, they're miles ahead of basically everyone but Pearl Jam. It's mind-boggling to me how much radio play bands like Alice in Chains still get in 2011.
Overall I think they're probably a little overrated, probably because Cobain died in his musical prime.
You know, in my 4 years on this board, I don't remember seeing a Nirvana thread, ever.
I won't lie, when I was in middle school grunge started getting tiring to me... Nirvana was big when I was in elementary school, and I had a middle/high school sister at the time, so I heard Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and the other commercial grunge acts, alot. I always liked Nirvana, but never really loved them.
Honestly, when I started appreciating music more as a kid, I got into AIC quicker, but later (I'll say, like 7 or 8 years ago) got a greater appreciation for it. I love Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero, but don't really listen to them too much. I really like it, for sure.
To dissect it from my pov, instrumentally it wasn't much to write home about, but the general songwriting was among the best of any mainstream rock act of the 90s. Totally monumental and classic, but I can understand one thinking they're overrated or irrelevant, though I don't agree.
As for them not being really hip right now, well, music influence is in waves... right now, it could be early 1900s folk and ironically primitive electronica, but tomorrow it could be Delta blues with a krautrock edge. Nirvana won't be forgotten or under appreciated for a long time, I don't think.
Well for whatever reason, when I was in high school (99-02) the grunge thing was still really big, and EVERYONE loved Nirvana.. I mean everyone. At first, I didn't mind their music... I wasn't a fan by any stretch, but I would listen to it if it came on the radio. But eventually, I heard their music so much that I grew to dislike them.
I don't 'dislike' them any more, but I really don't see what everyone sees in their music (Except 'You Know You're Right', I really like that song). Grunge was dying, and Kurt knew it, and I think that had alot to do with his suicide.
All that said, I prefer Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains to Nirvana.
Never cared much fer Nirvana. Don't hate 'em, but I do think they're overrated mostly due to Kurt Cobain's death. But then I haven't listened to a whole album from Nirvana (if ever) in over 10 years.
^Well, if you've never listened to a whole Nirvana album... there are only 3 of them. To me, "Bleach" is great (****), "Nevermind" is a crucial classic (****1/2), and "In Utero" is amazing with the help of Big Black's Steve Albini (****1/2).
I'm gonna have to agree with Dan'Roo on this one. They are overrated. But I'll give them credit on Nevermind, it is a tremendous album that I still listen to from time to time. In Utero is a horrible album though, i literally find it difficult to listen to. And Bleach, nothing special. And for them to give them so much credit on ONE album is unfair to everyone else in the Seattle scene. Like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. On their Unplugged album, the song Lake of Fire he had a guy from the Meat Puppets play. Another grunge group that had influence (albeit more of an indie influence) on the scene. I feel that because Cobain died at his prime, music journalists put too much emphasis on Nirvana for the whole grudge movement in Seattle.
Listen to "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden. That song to me embodies the grunge movement better than anything out there.
Grunge was dying, and Kurt knew it, and I think that had alot to do with his suicide.
There is some truth to this. I recommend watching the documentary "Kurt Cobain About a Son". Saw this on the Sundance channel. It is a fantastic movie about a man not alot of people knew personally. He was very distant but had an impressive intellect and emotional intelligence.
I am a child of the 90's (gasp). I don't play favorites in any category, but I've always had a very pure love and appreciation for them. Granted, I do have to leave it alone for months at a time, sometimes (much like anything else I really dig).
Were they pioneers? No. Was Kurt the "god" of grunge? No. But as mentioned above, good song writing is good song writing. Kurt embodied the soul of the era, in my opinion.
Incesticide and Bleach get the heaviest rotations these days.
i was in in middle school/high school when the whole "grunge" thing was happening. nirvana wasn't my favorite then and they're still not. i don't know why i just never connected with them near as much as i did with other bands of that era. pearl jam, soundgarden, aic, even stp and true grunge like the melvins. i like all of nirvana's albums but like i said in the comment that started this thread "i like nirvana but out of all of the bands from that time i have the desire to listen to them the least". i listen to them very rarely and it's been that way for a long time.
Post by Mista Don't Play on May 2, 2011 23:01:44 GMT -5
It is easy to say Nirvana is overrated in 2011. But I don't think any of us are old enough to remember the impact on the music scene they are credited in "starting." Sure there are plenty of other grunge bands that, depending on personal tastes, may be better, but they have been praised for their involvement in the movement for about 20 years now, and thats for good reason.
I went through a big Nirvana stage around the turn of the century while in middle school. I haven't listened to them in, at least, 10 years but I can't deny how awesome some of their songs were/are. I wouldn't say they are my favorite band from the grunge era, but I probably couldn't pick a favorite either.
My list would mirror Bishop's. But there are some days I would put Unplugged first.
Yeah, I meant that. I didn't mean it was the only contributing factor in his suicide... Depression, Bi Polar Disorder, and riding the H Train for a few years were all much larger factors. But he even mentions it in his suicide note.
Second paragraph of his suicide note:
"I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guity beyond words about these things."
He, at one point, had a passion for making music. Proof can be found in the quality of his work. And as grunge music lost appeal to the general public, it also lost appeal to him.
Grunge was dying, and Kurt knew it, and I think that had alot to do with his suicide.
There is some truth to this. I recommend watching the documentary "Kurt Cobain About a Son". Saw this on the Sundance channel. It is a fantastic movie about a man not alot of people knew personally. He was very distant but had an impressive intellect and emotional intelligence.
I thought you were saying the decline of the grunge movement was a direct corrolation to why he decided to end his life to which I would disagree.
But yes, depression and drugs was a huge part. All that seems to come from a sense of isolation to the world and the suffering artist mentality he had. That is just a boullabaise of bad news. If you have any interest in Cobain, I recommend the movie Jhammett. It's a tremendous watch and really makes you think whether he should or shouldn't have been the voice of a generation.
I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guity beyond words about these things.
Probably had nothing to do with his mental issues. Probably due was to the lack of creativity in the grunge scene.
And as grunge music lost appeal to the general public, it also lost appeal to him.
If anything, I'd say the exact opposite. Grunge music certainly wasn't losing any appeal to the general public in 1994. I think most people would attribute his disgust at just how popular his music was, and something that caused him a lot of internal unrest.
He set out to be the cult music hero, like all of his idols in the early alternative scene, but instead became a pop star. He felt like he was everything he hated in music, and the antithesis of his own music.
Also, I enjoy Nirvana. I don't listen to them a lot, and out of that scene, I might enjoy Soundgarden the most, but I definitely respect Nirvana, and enjoy everything they put out. One of the most talented bands of my lifetime.
Nirvana was a bit before my time - I had just turned 7 when Kurt died - but they were a huge influence on me between the ages of 11-17 or so. I still listen to them a decent amount, but a lot of it is more for nostalgia reasons these days. I will agree that they had a profound effect in shaping the direction of the music industry at that time by stripping away all the overproduced bull-Leno pop sounds that dominated the radio at the time, and just rocking the fuck out... so kudos to them for that. It reminds me a lot of how The White Stripes, The Strokes and some others did the same thing around 2001/2002, when commercial music had been dominated by bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn.
By the way, my eldest brother got to see Nirvana once, at a club in New York... in 1989, with maybe 30 other people there tops.
I liked Nirvana for their originality, but never their musicality. Of course, that was their M.O. In the early '90s Metallica ruled my CD collection, Nirvana had a place in the back somewhere.
I see a lot of people like Bleach, but IMO, you have to be a Nirvana fan to really dig that album.
"Teen spirit" dropped my junior year of high school. I remember at the time being kind of alarmed at the tags being put on Kurt Cobain, "voice of a generation", "John Lennon of Gen X", etc., because he seemed to embody such an incredibily weary, defeated persona. There was always a quality of hopelessness in his work that in the end reflected upon serious clinical depression he was having. And then when he died that entire decade, and my generation, just got kind of swallowed up as the mopey, downer, navel-gazing Generation that couldn't get out of its own way--a kind of death of idealism thing which I thought was total B.S. and still do.
In a way Cobain's life arc can be juxtaposed to Dylan's. After Dylan got saddled with the label "voice of a generation" he rejected it by going electric, discovered that his classic mid-60s albums were only perpetuating and deepening his mystical, guru-like persona, and then suddenly he has a terrible motorcycle accident that has long been rumored to have been a suicide attempt (no way of knowing for sure). And when he comes back he has completely reinvented himself, puts out country albums, changes his singing style completely, and sheds the label completely once and for all (well, maybe not completely, but it doesn't fit quite the way it did say around 1966). To this day if you see him live he frustrates your expectations--plays electric piano rather than guitar, reinterprets his songs, doesn't play his early folk numbers, all so that he can remain vital to himself.
Kurt could never conceive of a way out of the box the media made for him. I really think had he lived and matured the early stuff might have been relegated to the back burner of his legacy. The songs are quality, don't get me wrong, but they seem to hit the same note: Vectorless Malaise. His only trenchant critique was that capitalist society makes a mockery of all authentic underground movements by capturing and exploting them for material gain. But that is a really old story that has been told over and over again.
I really wish he could have found a way out like Dylan did and then maybe "Nirvana=90s" wouldn't be such an ironclad association.