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Originally Posted by atsonicpark
Care to explain this one to me? I'm not trying to argue with you, but what was "experimental" in In Utero? There are two Teen Spirit rewrites, a dumb noisey punk song (Tourette's), an awesome noisey punk song (Very Ape), a midtempo cruddy grunge rocker that goes absolutely nowhere (Heat-Shaped Box), and a Melvins ripoff (Milk It). The rest of the thing is pretty much Nirvana-by-numbers, except for Dumb and All Apologies, I guess, even though they're fairly straightforward. I know Kurt used non-standard tuning at times, I'm no Nirvana afficianado but is this the first time he did that (besides "Something in the Way")?
It's not a bad album, though.. Dave's "Scentless Apprentice" rules (despite Kurt saying it sounded like a boring grunge rocker, the structure is amazing, and the drumbeat; the two-guitar live version of this song is amazing); Milk It -- while being a re-write of Melvins' "It's Shoved" -- has those neat double guitar cleaned detuned tinkerings that almost remind me of something Fugazi would do... Radio Friendly Unit Shifter has some sickass noise... I think "Marigold" is their most experimental song and it's not even on the album...
Just curious.. where do you see them as going after this album, if they'd continued? Just lots of acoustic songs?
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Well, while most days I much prefer Bleach to In Utero, I do feel as if the band's influences are far
easier to pick out on that album. Melvins and Scratch Acid are written all over Bleach. Not a bad thing as he strongly identified with these bands and wanted to share an audience. Normal for most younger musicians.
W/ Nevermind, it's clear (to me...) that Kurt was
wanting something a little more radio-friendly, w/out a total disregard of artistic integrity. I think he ended up regretting that in some ways (note: I DO enjoy Nevermind). I also think shortly after that album Kurt was becoming forced to deal with real life adult issues of a sort he'd never had predicted. Becoming a father, dealing w/ all the negative literature regarding him being fit to be a father, a wife, a drug problem on the rise, everything else that has been mentioned many a time over. In Utero just sounds much more honest to me. A
new approach for the band. And while some of those earlier influences are still obvious, they aren't nearly as obvious. Not to me. Whenever I hear that album it just sounds as if the band was maturing a bit...still using some of the older concepts on their palette, but trying new things...getting a bit "noisier", a bit "heavier", and in some instances (heart shaped box, rape me, all apologies) a bit "prettier". The album goes into several different directions, many moods expressed.
I would by no means call it an "experimental album"...whatever that means...but it does sound as if the band was experimenting a bit more than they had in the past. I could be wrong, + maybe this is just what I choose to believe. I'm def one of those that fall under that Nick Cave "all music is experimental" school of thought. I mean, it takes a lot of experimentation even to blantantly rip off another band. Lot's of trial and error.
And yeah...again...the Melvins can be heard, but at the same time I can hear a lot of Black Flag in some of that early Melvins stuff (think: My War).
As far as what I think a future Nirvana might have done...who knows? It's something I (like many others who grew up with a strong admiration for the band) have spent countless hours considering. All I know is that Kurt mentioned an interest in doing two things toward the end there. 1) Something "noisy" like "Sonic Youth + Butthole Surfers" (he did specifically mention these two bands, + 2) He also mentioned going solo + in an acoustic direction. I think both would have happened, most likely.
Kurt's guitar playing (while intense and sometimes pretty) fell short a bit in the "multidimensional" department. His straight up noisier stuff (heard in the way of outros, that "priest they called him" record w/ Burroughs, etc, was thick + heavy in the way one could almost clamp their teeth into it, breaking them in the process. But whose to say that's what he would have done with "noisier"???
I have a feeling he would have thrived a bit more in the way of self-satisfaction + success w/ the solo/acoustic approach...but then again, who knows?
The real thing to consider for me now at the age of 27 is this:
We will never know what this individual would have been doing from the perspective of a middle aged man...followed by me closing the book on the whole subject.