The Nirvana Thingy
 

Honestly, I never liked the music of Nirvana in any way.
Even before I started listening to SY, i already knew and hated Nirvana!
Once, as a 15 year-old teenager, I bought myself a Nirvana best-of CD and an album by The Smashing Pumpkins at the same time.
And while I felt myself more and more falling in love with the pumpkins-album (it was Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness, i think) i disliked the Nirvana Cd with each more listening. The songs bored me, I couldn't see any ideas or emotions behind them and i didn't like that the band always succeeded in returning to the same chorus in EVERY damned song.
For me Nirvana was (and still is) the worst 90s rockband.
When I stumbled over Sonic Youth years later (and red about their relationship with Nirvana) I tried to give them another chance and bought myself the critically acclaimed Nevermind.
It was a single torture...I forced myself to listen to it 4 times (i really tried to get in some kind of "flow"), but it just felt uninspired and like 12 times "Smells like teenspirit".
I sold it someone at ebay later on.
Yes, i am a big fan of (classic) independent/experimental rock, and I love to listen to bands like Smashing pumpkins, anathema, porcupine tree, jane's addiction, TDB....
But I never ever really got the point of the hype around Nirvana.
Of course, it's a question of personal taste, but what's so magic about Nirvanas boring MTV-pophits???

Seminal bands thread on the right just down the corridor. Ask reception if you have any problems finding it.

mmm
that's radical
i understand
they were mighty powerful and crazy
i don't ever listen to them anymore, but still
great band
inspired shitloads of other
i'm not sure about the same chorus thing u're claiming.

Have u listened to "In utero"? It's way more varied in that it's true that Nevermind was monolithic in its own way.
I really like both.

nobody HAS TO love Nirvana

They might be a little overrated if u ask me

nirvana were great but the other bands you mentioned are all shit (aside from porcupine tree, who are OK)

at the first time i listened to nevermind i was hooked, same goes with mtv unplugged and in utero.. however eventually they got old on me. now i feel like i've had enough of nirvana for the rest of my life..

btw i think incesticide has their best songs, so maybe you should try that one.

You've clearly never heard Red Hot Chilli Peppers then.

*lol* of course i heard Red hot chilli peppers and they are anoying, but Nirvana are much worse, i think!

That's radical aswell, i tried to mention well-known bands, and by the way: Porcupine tree are pretty great (even tough there best times were in mid 90s).

God help you if you think that Nirvana are worse than Red Hot Chilli Shite.

Kidding, if you don't like them you don like them, it's not like you have to force yourself to appreciate their music. If you do that you'll end up mad or on a wheelchair.

I really liked Nirvana a lot when I was younger and occasionally listen to them now. There was too much hype over them and they just imploded but they still were better than Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day etc.

just curious, which one is the best for you?

he he:D

You guys will hate me for this but (for personal memories) I'm traped between classic Smashing Pumpkins (from 1987-2000, not that reunion Zeitgeist shit, which I definitly hate) and SY of course...but SY are no "classic 90s rockband", but genious all-around talents.

Wow, you sound like me some time in the 90's. Stole my brother's Nevermind and Melon Collie. If it wasn't for In Bloom, I probably never would have cared for Nirvana and Melon Collie also was hit or miss on some songs. But then eventually I got into Radiohead and, after that, Dinosaur Jr.

Radiohead were amazing...
And i care more about the more unknown but emotional Pumpkins songs (like Ruby, In my body or Soot and Stars) those pop hits (33, Perfect & bullet with butterfly wings) never really got me, they're kind of flat and boring

I'm going to jump in here.

Yes, it was hit and miss- that album shouldn't have been a double album by any means. I like the concept of it, having an album for day and an album for night, and the whole victorian-romantic art and symbolism, but I think the achilles heel is the sheer number of dud tunes.

Don't forget "Lily (My One And Only)", "Tales Of A Scorched Earth" and "To Forgive" though, they are some classic songs regardless of how much Billy Corgan had to do with them.

Anyways, in regards to Nirvana, I'd say Nevermind is their worst album and definitely the album I listened to least. In Utero is infinitely more interesting and is almost bursting at the seams with ideas. Try listening to it.

I've lend In utero from a friend some months ago...it feeld better than Nevermind, but still not very interesting.
I really shouldn't try to force myself to like them; I just want to get what's the point about them.
SY defintly deserved more to be hailed that much by everyone!!!!
But maybe they are to brilliant for the masses...

i pity radiohead and smashing pumpkins fans

what's interesting to me is your feeling that you have to like nirvana and think you have a problem for not liking.

while i like nirvana, i always thought they were ok, i remember watching the video for "come as you are" when i was like 9 and thinking it was a neat song, nothing more nothing less. i still remember when kurt died but it was like "ah, pity".

i like some of their songs ("drain you", "about a girl", "territorial pissings", etc.), i don't think they were that awesome.

they are historically important to the mainstream and underground scenes and probably the last time a single band launched a whole genre to the mainstream, represented it and also filled the archetype of the troubled rocker/disfunctional band/destructive couple in one.

i don't hate nirvana the band or even kurt cobain as much as their fans, the media and certain songs ("smells like teen spirit" and "rape me" chief among them).

not the worse band but not the best band either.

I pity more young people who are still worrying too much about Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr, Radiohead etc when there are so many younger good rock bands putting out records right now. It's not like you shouldn't listen and love the music of whatever band you decide to make your own, it's just that if I was that age I'd prefer to have some peers playing the sort of music I like in a way that I felt was cool and relevant to my present existence.

I would not waste my pity on them.

i've made this point several times ever since i joined here; thanks for expressing it in a very concise manner.

i like bleach a whole lot.

i was at that important record buying time when nirvana went bang.. in the non literal sense....

i was about 14 when i first heard daydream nation... loved it......changed my view on music period, i actually skipped the traditional irish way of growing up with metal and went straight to indie guitar swing.. anyhoo.. that was immediatly followed up by surfer rosa and probably something less excellent.... like bug or green mind....

shortly afterwards a mate gave me a copy of bleach, i thought it was ok, no more no less, actually negative creep i thought was genius (this is still the same opinion of this album i hold today) . i knew about nirvana through sy eternal ranting about them and by kurt wearing goo shirts etc, (another sidenote... i also got into dinosaur, sebadoh, jesus lizard and others by the fact a decent band wore their shirts on the pages of the then good melody maker)

when i first heard smells like teen spirit i was like meh, its good, catchy, a bit lame to be honest and then i saw it on top of the pops and i said, right.. gues what we are gonna be talking about for the next 10 years......

the next day in school, every iron madien,m ywangwie j malnmmtdstrufjldoh, rhandy rhoades, ozzy, whitesnake, napalm death, fan in the school suddenly liked nirvana... a week ago they said they were shite and all of a sudden they were hailed as the new kings of metal... i waas like "hold on a minute there mettallers... if you like this than listen to this and this and this and this and this and this and this.... nope, they needed their power chord fix and went back to lars i am a god in my own light ulrich and the metallitica boys..... i laughed at them...


anyway i digress...... i was there (to quote james murphy) when nirvana exploded internationally and they were fucking faboulous at the time.... in utero was their peak tho, their high point......

and now.. 17 years on from that experience whilst trying to study chemistry.... we are still talking about it..... important band !!!!!



pumpkins... they were first shite after i turned over to side 2 of gish, appalling band!

That's so weird 'cause I had pretty similar experience with Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.

Late night radio show put on a song by them that I liked so I taped it with all the other songs that I liked off the radio, then I bought the Gish album some time after and by the end of side A of that album I thought that it was shite and didn't want to have anything to do with it.

ahem...



and who could forget these assholes?

I used to be Nirvana crazed (anyone remember my Nirvana wall? ahah)

Now I never listen to them, although I still love them.

Without Nirvana I wouldn't be who I am today (it sounds lame, but it's true)

same here. without nirvana or green day's dookie i probably wouldn't have gotten into punk rock. through green day is where i first heard the name black flag and through nirvana is where i first heard the raincoats.

nirvana is a nice gateway band, thats about it. i mean, i got into them when i was prolly 8 yrs old, and just by reading kurt's interviews youre then gonna discover names like the wipers, the melvins, flipper, the meat pupets, black flag, sonic youth, scratch acid, half japanese, big black, flipper, the butthole surfers, husker du, the minutemen, daniel johnston, and others. every fucking one of those bands are now some of my favorites, so nirvana is an important part of my musical growth regardless of what i think of their records now. the thought of never hearing generic album, youth of america, double nickels on the dime, evol, greatest gift, damaged, sing no evil, and locust abortion technician is something id rather not have.

They remain my MOST guilty pleasure.

worse than blind melon? With their one ok song and then a bunch of steaming piles of shit?

And In Utero is a masterpeice.

i think everyone has one band or artist that they just dont get. with me its neil young. i just think he has acheived his legend status by being mediocre for thirty years.
i wouldnt worry that you dont get nirvana. i mean i thought they were ace but viva la difference he?
lets all go outside and get girlfriends

Exactly! They got me out of my punk rock rut.

you should feel very bad about yrself. have you seen the Happening?

I've never liked Nevermind because too many of the songs are over-familiar from MTV; and when I first bought it, even the ones that I hadn't heard before, on the second-half of the album, seemed familiar because the song-writing is so predictable - you can guess when the chorus will come in, and what the chorus will be like, and when a noisy bit will come in, just before it happens, which makes you think you've heard it before or it's a rip off of an older song even if it isn't (same thing with Oasis). Endless, Nameless, the hidden track, is great though.

I love In Utero and Incesticide. I don't think you can judge Nirvana until you've heard those.

you don't like them?
i don't care.

[quote=batreleaser]nirvana is a nice gateway band, thats about it.




Sorry?

bleach and incesticide are good albums, if nothing special.

I think Nirvana were an important band but not great, though they had great moments (the drum beat in "Scentless Apprentice" for example -- that's GREAT!). I think they were funny and misunderstood. And yeah I think people often feel like they "have to" like them.

"Aneurysm" really is a perfect song though.

All in all, a good band, but their music doesn't really hold up well after all these years and I'm not sure why they're still being discussed so FEVERISHLY 14 years after they ended... but yeah they were good.

I've always thought that Nirvana were a band at odds with Kurt Cobain's own tastes. Nothing to do with their success, but they always came across as a bit too chest-beating musically to sit easily with a lot of the bands he championed. I always thought they should've sounded more like The Pastels. Saying that, I tend to think lots of bands should sound more like The Pastels.

Interesting you should say that, I can completely see that. "In Utero" in particular feels forced. While I HATE this song, I think "All Apologies" (and "Dumb" which isn't too bad).. I think those are the songs he wanted to make. At the same time, I don't think he was talented enough to actually write songs like that, which is why those songs are good ideas but kind of boring and don't do anything in the long run.

I think he was expected to do these hit-potential kind of songs which are also on "In Utero" a bit ("Rape Me" -- which is pretty catchy for being so ridiculous, basically a rewrite of Teen Spirit... also see "Pennyroyal Tea")...

I think he felt he HAD TO write these noisey, pissed-off songs to appeal to his old fans who were worried he'd sold out...

Basically, I think he was just a really conflicted person in many ways. Read that book "Heavier than Heaven", it talks about him fucking turtles with pencils and how he'd do heroin and sit in his piss and shit for days. People worship this man....?!

I don't really want to just talk about Kurt, but it's almost impossible to talk about Nirvana without mentioning Kurt. I think Krist had some good basslines and there were some good drum beats. I dunno. "Marigold" was a really good song.

Pauly's rant on here is pretty funny, haha.

Regarding Pumpkins: I don't know why they got brought up, but I always liked "Zero".