it's late and i should go to bed. but figured i'd post one more thing.

[symbioidlj]

i'm surprised that i've only seen one other friend post here about the 10 year anniversary of kurt's death.

what can one say?

i remember exactly the night that i first heard nirvana. i didn't have mtv. but i flicked on the radio, probably 106 "the rockin' apple" WAPL... And what did I hear, but that chunk chunk... and a snarling growl, from someone who had such a soul that was expressed right then and there. i was laying in bed that night, ready to go to sleep. i didn't know who it was at first, and then a few days later, i talked to my girlfriend on the phone, and she told me it was nirvana. she had seen them on mtv before i'd heard of them... i saw their performance on SNL...

and it signaled the birth of our generation. it was our call.

and in my mind, really... nirvana was the only "grunge" band. soundgarden was good, but comeon , they were metal. and alice in chains? glam rock with grunge vocals? peral jam? just sorta good ol' rock'n'roll.

but there we were. sure there were others before. i mean, faith no more had their break in what... '89? and there were the chili peppers, and janes addiction...

and we went, and we listened for those years, and we made music, and we hung out and cruised and got high and laughed and cried... some friends died...

i'm glad i experienced that.

i'm glad that kurt and the other people gave us that.

and i thought to myself just now: didn't layne staley from alice in chains die? i looked it up and yes he did. 2002, and ironically, the coroners, though they can't pinpoint when he died, believe it most likely occurred on........

april 5.

look out eddie. look out chris. the grunge death monsters comin' to get ya on that date, huh?

janes addiction. christ. what can you say about them?

i look at the music industry and just feel sick by it. i'm sure there will come along another force to revolutionize it and bring back a spark. were there any copycats out there during our time? all these original bands, but now i hear "linkin park" and "pod" and whatever, and to me it's all the same fucking shit... they all just sorta took that eddie vedder whine.

i dunno. it's just so fucking fake bullshit. but to the kids out there, they feel it, that's their music.

i'll stick to IDM and drum'n'bass and acid jazz and trip hop and hip hop and funk and whatever else, thank you very much.

Comments

[iiudian.livejournal.com]

I don't remember when I first heard Nirvana, but I remember where i was when I heard that Kurt had died. My fiance (at the time) and i were just cruising around when the news came on the radio. The first thought I had was for a friend of mine who was a HUGE fan. Kurt was the reason my friend *became* a musician. Mark said that when he heard the news, he played every Nirvana song he knew, then he locked the guitar tab in a box. I don't know if he ever opened it. He also drew a *HUGE* face/headshot of Kurt and hung it on the door of his dorm room. It stayed there for months and nobody fucked with it. i was really impressed.

As for me, i was saddened, but not as crushed as my friend. I liked the music and I still like all the soundalikes that came up in those days. Layne Staley's death was not a surprise, but that doesn't make it less sad.

[vesicular.livejournal.com]

I was going to email you yesterday about this, because the news coverage brought me back to our high school days. I remember where I was when I first heard Nirvana. I was on the school bus listening to the radio on my walkman. We had just passed Emerson and had hung a left to go pick up Alicia Anderson, and then Smells Like Teen Spirit came on the radio. At that point as you know, I mostly was listening to Bel Biv Devoe, that kind of shit. But that song just blew me away. I had never heard anything like it up to that point. It obviously changed my life (it changed all of ours). Hell, I *still* where flannel (tho I must admit I get a lot of hand-me-downs from dad cuz I'm cheap). It wasn't soon after that I found Helmet and my life was complete. But all the concerts, jam sessions, and people we met and hung out with...I often wonder if we would have done much of that if it wasn't for that whole scene.

I also remember the day he died. I remember you telling me about it. I think it was in art class (did we have art together senior year?). I remember you were a little more upset about it than I was, but it was still sad. If we hadn't already seen the Challenger blow up, or attended Holly's funeral, perhaps it would have affected me more. Mostly, I was sad to see the music go. For me, Kurt's death is a reminder of everything I had and everything that's happened since High School, and how much of a definining period of my life that was. And I think that's a good thing, regardless of the positives or negatives that happened back then.

But I agree w/ you on the music industry today. I was just thinking the same thing on the way to work, as I flipped through the stations, having been burnt out on the few CD's I had in my car. I heard some horrible song on the rock station out here. I wondered how any kid these days can listen to this and actually enjoy it, and how sad it is that this music will end up defining their generation. But, like you said, maybe they get something out of it, the same way our parents got something out of their music, yet couldn't understand ours. It's just unfortunate that kids today get pushed beer and lifestyle music over real talent or real substance. But that's what the kids in the 80's got and they turned out ok (or did they?).

[trisquareangle.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading this...

thanks for posting