Venerable Seattle label Sub Pop is two decades old this year, and the Seattle Times has run down its storied history of weathering various industry calamities (from alt-rock’s slow death to the record biz’s slow death) while also managing the deft feat of continuing to expand its aesthetic remit by signing less-than-commercial acts like noize boys Wolf Eyes and sludge punks Pissed Jeans, a luxury in a troubled era that’s perhaps made possible by the label’s ten best-selling albums of all time. While the following list will probably not come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the label’s last decade or so, it will probably make a few more labels wish they had signed Sam Beam or gotten a very public shout-out from a Scrubs cast member.
Courtney Love sold Universal Pictures the rights to Charles Cross’ Nirvana book Heavier Than Heaven and the Nirvana catalog as a package deal, so expect your favorite track by Kurt Cobain and Co. More »
Apparently in the olden days musicians made a living by exchanging their product for money. But, as you may have heard, this is an outdated model rooted in pure evil, so the music business is looking to change the way money gets thrown around, and leading the way is Primary Wave Publishing, which aims to buy up artists’ catalogs in order to stick your favorite songs in every last filthy corner of commercial media it can find.
Is a question posed by the NME as they run through “some of the strangest celebrity items to have been flogged online.”
If you have a sudden ’90s-nostalgia jones that can only be cured by the promise of a scripted show about that storied time, you may want to catch the season premiere of the CBS procedural Cold Case, which will delve deep into the Nirvana catalog for an episode that’s loosely based on the story of the West Memphis Three:
Coming to a TV near you (or your parents) this fall: “An episode of “Cold Case” will feature only Nirvana music.” Hooray, Courtney Love can nourish herself once again! More »
This morning, the Wall Street Journal introduced “Face The Music,” a new column with the not-at-all-bets-hedging mission statement of covering “music past and present.” The debut entry was all about how the Shins might be the next Nirvana–or then again, they might not. More »
We’re just hoping that the guy behind this clip gives the same treatment to “Smells Like Nirvana” soon, because who knows what sorts of jokes about cold cuts lurk in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s subconscious? NIRVANA – SMELLS LIKE TEENS SPIRIT BACKWARDS – REALLY SCARY! More »
We’re betting that some of our readers are taking this Halloween to unleash their inner members of Kiss and/or Nirvana, so to get you into the mood, here’s Nirvana’s unhinged version of Kiss’ “Do You Love Me?” More »
