Go home. (Seriously, don’t try to listen while you’re still at work because it will either distract you or become background noise.) Find the earliest copy of Nevermind you still own – not the mp3s, unless it came out before you were born, but the actual CD or even the tape. Pour yourself a drink, or do whatever it is you do to calm down after putting in your 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week. Get out your headphones. Hopefully they’re nice ones, because the last thing you want is for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to sound tinny. Turn up the volume a few notches past what’s comfortable, press “play,” and get to the business of head banging. You will inevitably want to scream along. If there is anyone else at home who will complain about this, ask them politely to leave. Then: Enjoy. Regress. Angst. Revel. Mourn.
But, since there are still a few more hours left in the work day and we’re sure you’re already in the mood to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, and Nevermind, we’ve rounded up some of the best mementos the Internet has to offer, after the jump.
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This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s iconic album Nevermind, the same week that Pearl Jam celebrates its own two-decade milestone. Nirvana’s commemorations include Jon Stewart’s upcoming Q&A with the surviving members; musicians from Tokyo Police Club and Fucked up playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” 144 times in a row; and a four-CD Universal re-release consisting of numerous previously unreleased recordings, a DVD of live BBC recordings, and several B-sides. Among Pearl Jam’s goodies are the Cameron Crowe documentary Pearl Jam Twenty (now in theaters), a bunch of anniversary shows and reissues, and a new solo album of Eddie Vedder rocking out on a ukelele.
It’s clear that ’90s rock nostalgia is everywhere this year — so we don’t feel bad indulging in some of our own with a tribute to the era through one of its favorite media: the band poster. Below the jump, peruse a gallery plucked from the golden era of grunge.
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Close to 17 years ago, Kurt Cobain died. Conspiracy theories about his death abound — as they tend to do with people of note — but most agree it was Cobain’s own decision to end his life. Since today would have been his 44th birthday, we bring you 44 facts about the man who struggled with drug addiction, being misunderstood, and those record industry types willing to defang the music from Cobain’s Pacific Northwest for the sake of money, power, and instant, yet fleeting success.
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With images of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Smashing Pumpkins and text by Thurston Moore, Michael Lavine’s photo book is a grunge almanac.
As label photographer for Sub Pop Records in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Lavine spent as much time snapping the street scenes in Olympia and Seattle as the bands that made them famous. Grunge collects over 180 of his pictures, ranging from tattooed street-corner angels to the musical artists who would define a generation.
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