donjunio

Pretazzo: obviously, the influences on grunge were countless, and it’s tiring just to think about listing them all, and Cobain, as we know, appreciated the Minutemen quite a lot. But there's a big difference between saying he was influenced by them and discussing, as Festwca does, "Grunge as the banalization and normalization of the fertile underground of 80s Los Angeles." When it comes to scenes, it was Boston that paved the way for Seattle. As for what happened after Nevermind, alas, that's history. All those highways that seemed to open up after his success ultimately turned out to be dead ends, and Cobain was the first to have the clarity to understand that.

Insipid and unbearable film, alongside "Top Gun," exemplifying regime American cinema, subservient to Reagan-era rhetoric against the evil Soviets, "the evil empire" par excellence (while at the time the CIA was funding Saddam and Bin Laden) and the glorification of the most banal and parasitic American way of life through a screenplay that, by comparison, makes the Vanzina brothers’ scripts shine with originality.

An objectively monumental film, even though the book is superior, and Scott's direction sometimes feels like a huge commercial. That Roy's monologue is "as famous as Hamlet's... actually, more." is unfortunately a mirror of our times.

Well, festival, the beauty is that everyone experiences it in their own way. Grunge as a banalization and homogenization of the fertile underground of the '80s in Los Angeles and surrounding areas? I really don't see how that connects: you can make that argument for Boston with Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies, or at most for Los Angeles with Jane's Addiction, and perhaps for Black Flag. As for the mood, I still think of it this way; maybe it's because of my tendency to give a lot of importance to lyrics: even Mudhoney had a fundamental discomfort (think of titles like "Touch Me I'm Sick" or "Here Comes Sickness," obviously expressed in their own way). Regarding the Sub Pop/Grunge discourse: in the '80s, all American alternative rock went through an irreplaceable phase; far from the sirens of showbiz, better music was made. Then, a unique scene developed in Seattle, with musicians helping each other out with a strong sense of community, and bands that were not so much endowed with greater inventiveness as with exceptional communicative power and expressiveness. When, finally, in 1991, the underground river reached the ocean, Seattle played the lion’s share thanks to those qualities, and fundamentally due to Cobain's talent, the right man in the right place.

Grunge is always a minefield because it’s a genre with broad boundaries that often spill over into other territories. Pretazzo made an intelligent introduction about the genre and the city to present the Fastbacks. I disagree with festwca on two points: 1) The Melvins are certainly not the quintessential grunge band. At the end of the 80s, while the North West scene was entering its crucial creative phase, Buzzo and Dale moved to San Francisco, just to be clear. Then, of course, when Cobain mentioned them as a primary influence, they were thrown into the pot as well. Undeniably, they influenced the scene – through "bleach" – for many reasons (like the hypnotic and slowed-down use of feedback, for instance), but their creative range extended beyond Grunge, on one side with the influence of Kiss, and on the other with noise-driven explorations. You are certainly right when you highlight their originality, though. 2) Regarding the mood of Seattle, while there was certainly fun to be had in that city, it wasn't just Mudhoney. Just read any lyrics by Nirvana, Alice in Chains, or Soundgarden to understand that the common thread among those bands was, more than stylistic, a sense of despair and alienation, with drugs often casting their sinister shadow over everything. Albums like "bleach" and "dirt" perfectly embody the description made by good old Pretazzo: with Nirvana there was a search for an escape in Cobain's desperate scream, while with Alice in Chains, oblivion was the only solution, “down in a hole”!

The album is magnificent, there's little to add. I don't agree when you call it the 'ultimate magnum opus of the Seattle movement.' It’s probably the emotional peak of that movement, both for the heartfelt tribute to a prime mover of the scene and for the fact that it was released just a few months before "Nevermind"; in short, it captures Seattle just months before the loss of innocence. However, there's little grunge in this album (especially when compared to what Cornell's parent band, Soundgarden, was doing); the sound is very much oriented towards the 70s (more reflective Led Zeppelin, mature Traffic in "Four Walled World," reminiscences of the Free in "Call Me a Dog"). An extraordinarily beautiful and evocative album, nonetheless.

I didn't say it's also what you claim, I just said that Cobain was quite "ambivalent" in his opinions, and it's not just one album he referred to as "the best of all time," it was just a curiosity, it certainly doesn't change the appreciation for that record.

I wasn't bored at all by Björk; I just didn't grasp the connection, that's all... Regarding the Cobain/Crimson discussion, good old Kurt often changed his mind. In a 1990 interview with Rockerilla, he said that his favorite album of all time was "Raw Power"!

What the alleged repressed homosexuality of Cobain has to do with this review is unclear. It is well known that Kurt had issues with his father and with the classic macho type that served as a role model in his adolescence (think of the lyrics in Mr. Moustache or Floyd the Barber). It is also well known that he was an anxious, insecure guy who probably thought he could find solace in a strong character like Courtney (who, by the way, was not the only woman in his life: Tracy Marander, to whom "About a Girl" is dedicated and who took the cover photo for "Bleach," was equally important), a way to soothe certain wounds and gain security in a "bourgeois" manner, with a family. At the end of "Stay Away," by the way, Kurt said, "God is gay, burn the flag," just as the line in "All Apologies" (a song where he pokes fun at himself) when he states, "What else should I say / everyone is gay," is certainly ironic.

Seattle before grunge unfortunately also had Queensryche hehe... anyway, I saw them too on the tour supporting Pearl Jam in 1996, but in Milan, and they were booed there as well... they were certainly an influence on Mudhoney, and the fact that Pearl Jam took them on tour testifies to how respected they were.