Fans Mourn Grunge Rock Icon Kurt Cobain 25 Years After Death

SEATTLE (AP) — On the 25th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, dozens of people are leaving flowers, candles, and written messages at a Seattle park near the house where the music icon killed himself.

Cobain’s band, Nirvana, rose to global fame amid the city’s grunge rock years of the early 1990s. The frontman died April 5, 1994, in his home in a wealthy neighborhood near Lake Washington.

Fans trekked Friday to nearby Viretta Park, leaving memorials on benches. Flowers mixed with handwritten phrases like “thank you for your art” and “find your place.”

In an essay on the Crosscut news website, Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross wrote that few Seattle musicians “have been as tied to Seattle in the mind of the popular zeitgeist as Kurt Cobain.”

source: usa.inquirer.net

Nirvana, Kiss among new members of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

WASHINGTON — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced Monday that Nirvana, Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt will be inducted next year.

The Cleveland, Ohio institution also said Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967, will be inducted for Lifetime Achievement.

So will Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, the hall of fame said, saying he propelled the Stones to “worldwide stardom and crafted their bad boy image so well it became both their brand and burden.”

Oldham “helped shepherd a run of landmark recordings that continues to bear influence a half-century later.”

Another honoree is The E Street Band, which Bruce Springstreen formed in 1973. It helped “establish Springsteen’s legendary reputation as one of the greatest performers in the history of rock and roll.”

Springsteen himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

The rule for eligibility to join the Hall of Fame as a performer, composer or musician is to have released a record at least 25 years prior to the year of induction and “have demonstrated unquestionable musical excellence,” in the words of the Hall of Fame.

Nirvana, led by the late Kurt Cobain and whose first single “Love Buzz” came out in 1988, is getting in in their first year of eligibility. “That’s really no surprise to me,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Joel Peresman told Rolling Stone magazine.

Cobain, who struggled with substance abuse, committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 27.

The induction ceremony will be held in April of next year in Brooklyn, New York.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Mom selling Kurt Cobain’s childhood home in Washington

ABERDEEN, Washington — This month marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s final studio album, and fans aren’t just able to buy a new “super deluxe” box set to celebrate the occasion. They can also buy the childhood home of late frontman Kurt Cobain, complete with his mattress.


Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, is putting the tired, 1.5-story bungalow two hours southwest of Seattle on the market this week.

To help sell it, the family is offering a glimpse into the early life of its tortured and talented son through photos shot at the house, including one of a chocolate-frosted birthday cake for Kurt and a shot of a teenage Cobain smiling, guitar in hand, in his messy room.

The home, last assessed at less than $67,000, is being listed for $500,000. It’s a short walk from a riverfront park dedicated to Cobain’s memory, and the family said it would welcome a partnership to make the home into a museum. His room still has the stencil-like band names — Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin — he reportedly put on the walls, as well as the holes he put in them.

“We’ve decided to sell the home to create a legacy for Kurt, and yes, there are some mixed feelings since we have all loved the home and it carries so many great memories,” Cobain’s sister, Kim Cobain, said in an emailed statement. “But our family has moved on from Washington, and (we) feel it’s time to let go of the home.”





The house, a 1923 structure with dingy carpeting, water-stained wooden shingles on some interior walls, and a recent coat of yellow paint, is on East 1st Street in Aberdeen, a gritty and struggling former timber town at the mouth of the Chehalis River near the southwest Washington coast.

Cobain’s parents bought it in 1969, when Kurt was 2. He lived there until they separated when he was 9, and again with his mom during his later teen years.

The heroin-addicted Cobain committed suicide in Seattle in 1994, at age 27, after a meteoric career that popularized the Pacific Northwest’s heavy, muddy “grunge” rock. The last of Nirvana’s three studio albums, “In Utero,” came out in September 1993, and Universal Music Group has released a re-mastered version and a “super deluxe” box set.

Cobain described his early childhood in Aberdeen as happy. As author Charles R. Cross noted in his Cobain biography, “Heavier Than Heaven,” he would ride his bike around the small yard and pound on a set of Mickey Mouse drums his parents bought him.

In one event that entered family lore, Cobain’s father, Don, trapped a rat in a garbage can in the garage. Don tried to spear it with a broomstick, but the rodent clambered up the handle, over Don’s shoulder to the ground and across Kurt’s toes to safety — prompting endless laughter from the 5-year-old.



But his parents’ divorce scarred him deeply. At one point, he scrawled “I hate Mom, I hate Dad” on his bedroom wall, Cross wrote.

“It’s a place where he had very fond memories, but it’s the house where his parents got divorced,” Cross said in an interview. “He couldn’t wait to get away, but it’s a place that helped shape who he became.”

The home was last lived in by a family friend four years ago. According to The Agency, the Beverly Hills, California-based luxury real estate firm marketing the property, it features the dining room table and hutch from when Cobain lived there. Cobain’s mattress is tucked away in a musty upstairs crawl space.

Cobain lived in about 20 houses in his life, Cross said, and this isn’t the first one offered for sale based on its connection to rock history.

In 2002, an Oregon couple bought a home in nearby Montesano for $42,500. When they learned that Cobain had lived there with his father from 11 to 15, they sold it for $210,000.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Kurt Cobain-Decorated Melvins Van For Sale

Before forming Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was a major fan of the Melvins, a then up-and-coming local band from Montesano, Washington, who equally enjoyed punk rock and heavy metal – and helped create "grunge" in the process. And to show his appreciation of the band, Cobain drew a "Kiss mural" (similar to the cover of Kiss' self-titled debut) on the side of the Melvins' van – and chauffeured the band to their shows. And now, the "Melvan" (which is a beat-up 1972 Dodge Sportsman Royal Van) is up for auction on eBay.

An eBay seller by the name of "taddoyal" is listing it, however, it is not the former singer/guitarist of the grunge band Tad (Tad Doyle) who is selling it, but rather a gentleman by the name of Ben Berg, who plays bass in the group Weird Beast. It turns out Berg has been in possession of the vehicle since around 1992. "When I turned 16, I got the van from Kay Lukin, who is Matt Lukin's mother [Matt was the Melvins' original bassist]. It was a gift mainly. You've got to understand, I was just this huge Melvins fan. They were like gods to me."

"When I found out that their old tour van was parked somewhere on the outskirts of Montesano, it was like a little pilgrimage for me, because I couldn't drive at the time. To actually go out and sit in this thing was like a wet dream. And Kay could see my enthusiasm and my pure awe over her son's old band. It had been sitting on their property for a few years. They didn't know what to do with it, so she made one of my dreams come true. That was my first car, dude!"

After Berg obtained the van, he discovered that it also had a connection to Nirvana. "I had no idea that Kurt was even affiliated with that van until well after it was in my possession. I was told that the Kiss mural was drawn by Kurt Cobain and it was done in Sharpie markers that he shoplifted. I was also told that he used to drive the Melvins around to their shows in the area."

Also, there is a chance that there is another Cobain-connection to the Melvan. "I think Kurt's name is carved somewhere in the van, as well. I don't know the exact location. I know that Krist Novoselic's name is carved in there. Dale Crover's name from the Melvins is carved in there."

And what about the mileage on the Melvan? "Oh god, it's off the chart. When the Melvins had it, they actually used it on their first US tour. They went all the way over to the East Coast in it. Buzz [Osborne] told me one time that somewhere on that tour; they woke up to Lukin trying to put out a fire in the engine. It hasn't been started for years. It can run – it needs to be totally gone through. It needs a major overhaul. But it can be done."

Lastly, what is Berg hoping to earn by auctioning the Melvan? "It's on eBay reserved at $150,000. If it's somebody with money right now that wants to contact me, I would let it go for like $135,000." Bidding is set to close on March 13th.

source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kurt-cobain-decorated-melvins-van-for-sale-20120306

Kurt Cobain

Nirvana was one of the bands that have made an indelible name in the music industry. True enough, the band's front man, Kurt Cobain, has since become one of the icons in the music industry.

Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 in the small town of Hoquaim, 140 kilometers southwest of Seattle. His mom was a cocktail waitress. His dad was an auto mechanic. Cobain soon moved to Aberdeen, a quiet and depressed logging town.

Cobain was very happy in his early childhood. All things started spiraling slowly downwards when his parents divorced. He was seven at the time. Cobain said that he never felt loved or secure after this incident. He became anti-social and increasingly difficult to deal with. He also said that this event fueled a lot of the anguish that are injected into Nirvana's music.

He was captivated by the Sex Pistols when he was eleven. It was then when he started listening to British bands. This included Joy Division and is said to be where Nirvana directly descends from. The rock star's iconoclastic attitude did not win him a lot of friends in high school. And he is sometimes picked on by the jocks. Cobain got even at them by spray painting the word, queer, on their trucks. In 1985, Cobain moved to Olympia. It was here when he started forming and reforming several bands. In 1986, Nirvana was born.

Nirvana was composed of Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. In 1988, Nirvana began playing in shows and started having demo tapes go around. 1989 was the year when they first recorded thir first album Bleach under the independent Seattle label, Sub-Pop.

Nirvana received a lot of recognition in Britain. In 1991, their contract was bout out by Geffen. They were the first non-mainstream band to sign under the mega label. They then released, Nevermind, an album of different, screaming, crunching songs with Smells Like Teen Spirit as the carrier single. This boosted Nirvana to the mainstream. The single is the band's most highly acclaimed and most popular song. Cobain wrote the lyrics of the song, using a seductive hook line to lure the listener in. the album sold 10 million copies and made 550 million US dollars in sales. Cobain said that none of them ever expected anything like what happened to them. It was quick to note that Cobain, a sickly and sensitive guy of 24 years old, was not going to cope well with the lifestyle that he is leading.

Cobain got hooked into heroin in the early 90's. He was quoted to say that it was as shield against the demands of touring and to stop his pains due to stomach ulcer and an irritated bowel. Even while on tour, Cobain continued to write as they were on tour.

There was also an incident when 2 men raped a girl while singing Polly, an anti-rape song that Cobain wrote. This got Cobain terribly distressed as he was worried that his songs were interpreted wrongly. He appealed to fans on notes in the Insecticide liner. But this proved to be ineffective. He was afraid that the band was attracting the wrong type of fans, the type that used to beat him up as a kid.

Courtney Love and Cobain married in February 1992 in Hawaii. Love was already pregnant then. Cobain was later on admitted to the hospital for heroin abuse. Shortly after, their daughter, Francis Bean Cobain was born.

The band released Utero in 1993. It gained the top spots on the music charts. This album was widely acclaimed by the press and also contained what was said to be Cobain's most passionate works. This contained the songs, All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box along with Scentless Apprentice.

In 1993, the band recorded an unplugged album with MTV. This was the last album that they will record before splitting up. On March 4, 1994, Cobain was rushed to the hospital for downing fifty prescription painkillers with champagne. It was officially called an accident and was not made public even to close friends and associates. Cobain entered a detox program after some convincing from his wife, friends and managers. But Cobain made an escape. On the 5th of April on the same year, Kurt Cobain ended it all.

His body was found by an electrician who was going to install a security system. He walked around the house and saw Cobain's body as he peered through the windows. He thought t was a mannequin until he saw a splotch of blood by Cobain's ear. Police found him with a shotgun still pointed at his chin. A suicide note was also found addressed to his wife and his daughter. He was 27 at the time.

Mystery still shrouds the death of Cobain. Some say he was murdered by his wife. Others say that it was clearly suicide. A motion for the re-opening of the case is what his loyal fans would like to happen. But it all depends if his wife would allow it.

Harvey Mosley started developing his passion for music at age of 10. He learned to play guitar songs at age of 13 and pursued his love for music since then. He owns now a music studio and inspires many students to learn to play guitar songs.

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