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September 19, 2006

Nevermind Turns 15

Wow, it seems like only yesterday we were all listening to Bleach (wink) with no clue the band's next album would inspire a generation and change the landscape of popular music. In this week's cover story, NME asks what Kurt would be up to now if he was alive, a question we often wonder (moreso about John Lennon, but still).

Would Nirvana still be together?
Would Kurt turn Hollywood? Hip-hop? Happy?
What year would he and Courtney have gotten divorced?

Posted at 1:20 PM
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54 Comments

Wow! It seems like yesterday that Nevermind turned 10 yo

Posted by: sarah at 09/19/06 1:40 PM  | Reply
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He'd probably be an actor, I think he was looking into that before, you know. He was also wanting to start a country western band with Michael Stipe if my memory serves me correctly.

Posted by: zach at 09/19/06 1:42 PM  | Reply
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I wanna know what happened to the Nevermind baby? Where is that kid these days?

Posted by: JC3D at 09/19/06 1:46 PM  | Reply
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I wanna know what happened to the Nevermind baby? Where is that kid these days?

Posted by: JC3D at 09/19/06 1:48 PM  | Reply
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Hey -- *I* listened to Bleach before Nevermind! No snickering, please!

Posted by: Isaac B2 at 09/19/06 1:57 PM  | Reply
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Hey -- *I* listened to Bleach before Nevermind! No snickering, please!

Posted by: Isaac B2 at 09/19/06 1:59 PM  | Reply
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Whatever it is, he'd be explaining the bass parts to Tommy Stinson.

Posted by: David at 09/19/06 2:01 PM  | Reply
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Begin hate posts now... but this is probably the most over rated record of the last 20 years.

Posted by: jojoba at 09/19/06 2:28 PM  | Reply
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Grunge Star Super Nova

Posted by: N at 09/19/06 2:30 PM  | Reply
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I can't say enough good things about this album... but as far as the hate posts are going to go: it's not really about how great the album is, it's about how much influence it had... and boy did it... I don't know WHERE I would be without this album...

Posted by: Patch at 09/19/06 2:32 PM  | Reply
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you'd all be nowhere without the melvins or the pixies so shove it

Posted by: jimm at 09/19/06 2:34 PM  | Reply
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I'm already nowhere! Thanks for nothing, Melvins and Pixies!

Posted by: tk. at 09/19/06 2:41 PM  | Reply
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"Begin hate posts now... but this is probably the most over rated record of the last 20 years."

So predictable

Posted by: N at 09/19/06 2:43 PM  | Reply
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I vaguely remember reading at the end of Come as You Are that Cobain was getting more interested into more electronic sounds. Perhaps he would have been writing dance-punk songs in '95.

Posted by: Mo! at 09/19/06 3:03 PM  | Reply
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I vaguely remember reading towards the end of Come as You Are that Cobain was getting more interested in electronic sounds. Perhaps he would have been writing dance-punk songs in 1995.

Posted by: Mo! at 09/19/06 3:05 PM  | Reply
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Kurt would the singer for Audioslave.

Posted by: Matt at 09/19/06 3:08 PM  | Reply
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just curious, why would anyone consider this album so overrated?

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neural Milk Hotel, now that is an overrated album.

Posted by: seamus at 09/19/06 3:19 PM  | Reply
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Right place, right time.

Posted by: ChrisG at 09/19/06 3:26 PM  | Reply
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If Kurt were alive today, he'd be on-and-off the junk and contemplating suicide.

Posted by: Tony G at 09/19/06 3:32 PM  | Reply
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I would have bought him circa 97/98.

Posted by: Bill Gates at 09/19/06 3:35 PM  | Reply
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right place at the right time is what nirvana were. there were a handful of other bands doing what nirvana were doing, but BETTER.

Posted by: frankie at 09/19/06 3:52 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:55 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 6th... Moot point

Posted by: Dave at 09/19/06 3:56 PM  | Reply
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right place at the right time is what nirvana were. there were a handful of other bands doing what nirvana were doing, but BETTER.

Posted by: frankie at 09/19/06 4:00 PM  | Reply
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When you post something on the Beatles do you put it under the "Yuko, Oh No!" permalink?

Courtney Love has her own link? Amateurs. This site knows about as much about music as porn does about love.

Posted by: Child of 90's at 09/19/06 4:08 PM  | Reply
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There is no point to wondering what Kurt would be doing... If Cobain didn't die on April 5th, he would have died on April 7th... Moot point

Posted by: Zack at 09/19/06 4:08 PM  | Reply
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wow...a country/western band with michael stipe???

i'd buy that album

Posted by: austin at 09/19/06 4:11 PM  | Reply
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ARg. I hate it when people say there were other bands doing what Nirvana was doing, only "better". I'm assuming you mean Big Black, Scratch Acid, Jesus Lizard and sundry pigfuck. What Nirvana did was marry that sound to huge pop hooks and production. He made the music inclusive, and even though some people will always hate him for that, no one can argue that another band did it "better".

Posted by: JF at 09/19/06 4:22 PM  | Reply
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I think it's pretty obvious what Kurt would be doing today. Did somebody say "Dancing with the Stars?"

Posted by: Davey at 09/19/06 4:22 PM  | Reply
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why was nirvana wildly popular while the pixies wallowed in relative obscurity? right place right time, thats why. thats all.

Posted by: anon at 09/19/06 4:35 PM  | Reply
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For the love of God, only click "post" once then wait a few seconds before you rush back to see your brilliant $0.02.

That said, who knows if Nirvana would've broken up? I'd like to think not, maybe the three could've branched out on thier own projects and come together every few years or something.

Posted by: Rina at 09/19/06 4:44 PM  | Reply
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Wrong. As much as I love the Pixies (and I do) they would never been as popular as Nirvana singing about alien babes and monkeys gone to heaven. They were and are cool club music, and that's fine. Kurt's thing was inclusive: he wrote about real feelings and the whole thing was wrapped in an appealling package, esp on Nevermind.

Posted by: JF at 09/19/06 5:07 PM  | Reply
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The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky was debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on September 20, 1882.

Has it really been 124 years?!

Wow, feels like just yesterday we were all wearing talcum-powdered wigs and plaid shirts.

Fuck me, the suprise march of time.

Since when has a fifteen year anniversary been a notable one?

Please post a blogging when Frances Bean turns legal. Til then, don't bother.

Thanks very much.

Posted by: Smarty Pants at 09/19/06 5:39 PM  | Reply
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All I can think of is that if Kurt hadn't shot himself, then Fred Durst wouldn't have that Cobain tattoo next to the Elvis one on his chest.
......Seriously, the man who wrote "Nookie" has a Kurt tattoo.

Posted by: chris at 09/19/06 5:40 PM  | Reply
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"i wish i could eat your cancer" yeah that sounds appealing and a real feeling...and heart shaped box was a single

Posted by: jimm at 09/19/06 5:41 PM  | Reply
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I always wonder more about what would have happened had they gotten Ablini to produce Nevermind with the major label support and the video. Obviously the record would have been even better -- and not seem dated now -- but would they still have hit it big? Still would be a good looking lead singer writing incredibly catchy songs to disenfranchised teens.

Posted by: Flem at 09/19/06 5:48 PM  | Reply
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Has it been that long since I listened to it?

Posted by: Philco Brothers at 09/19/06 7:20 PM  | Reply
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if he were alive today he'd be jocking Eddie Vedder because Vedder is the daddy!!!

Posted by: Citizen Dick at 09/19/06 7:25 PM  | Reply
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I've had this conversation a few times and I think he would probably have come out with one more Nirvana album, but it would've taken years and probably wouldn't come out until after the band had already broken up. I think Kurt would've retreated to his rural home outside Seattle and made all kinds of weird art and probably recorded a lot of great songs that would sound nothing like Nirvana; some stuff would probably be more dissonate Sonic Youth-like experimentation, and some would be more melodic a la R.E.M. I think he would probably have eventually come out of obscurity and produced some bands that would've become popular simply because of his connection.
There would've be talk of a Nirvana reunion for years, but Kurt would've always quashed these rumors saying he wants nothing to do with Dave Grohl, but that he might be open to the idea of him and Krist with Chad Channing (but alas, it would never happen). He might've released one more album recorded in his basement where he played all the instruments (a la Paul Westerberg's recent albums) and it would be critically panned until his death, after which it would be hailed as a masterpiece. Then several box sets of his amazing home-recordings would come out and that would be it.

Posted by: Stephen at 09/19/06 7:56 PM  | Reply
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The last half sounds like E.S.

Posted by: JayFlyer at 09/19/06 8:45 PM  | Reply
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...I should also that had it not been even the Pixies, it could have been Dinosaur jr or Jane's Addiction.

Nirvana... the band young people feel cool for saying they like them, and the band old people feel cool for saying they hate them.


Posted by: ChrisG at 09/19/06 11:57 PM  | Reply
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*right place right time*

Sure, just as anything popular (or rather anything not to your pretentious liking) is only so because of chance, coincidence and/or pure and unadulterated luck.

Give me a break. Were the Beatles only popular because they were in the right place at the right time?

Posted by: Brian Faust at 09/20/06 8:21 AM  | Reply
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Hollywood, maybe not, but he was indeed talking about getting into acting. Heck, maybe he'd have played the lead part in the new upcoming film adaptation of "Perfume" (novel that the song "Scentless Apprentice was written about). Klostermann wrote a great piece in Spin's Cobain tribute issue in 2004 during the 10th anniversary of his death that was both entertaining and insightful and kept true to the spirit of the man himself. In addition he'd discussed starting his own record label ("Dental Records)as well as collaborating with Stipe. As far as the record itself, I'd really enjoy seeing reissue with the original Butch Vig mixes of the songs along with the old ones (Kurt always said he hated how the album sounded mainly because of the remixing by Andy Wallace, even though he mixed Slayer's record and the Butch Vig songs sound basically the same only a bit more "raw"). DGC'd make a killing from advertising it as "The Way Kurt Wanted It" or something along those lines, thinking in a purely commercial sense.

Posted by: Evan at 09/20/06 11:22 AM  | Reply
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Fred Durst's Elvis tattoo talking to his Kurt tatoo: "Man, what'd we do to deserve this?"

Kurt tatoo- "Beats me. Got any dope?"

Posted by: Evan at 09/20/06 11:28 AM  | Reply
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tk., you rule.

Posted by: matt at 09/20/06 12:37 PM  | Reply
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Are we all forgetting a little something called "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? I'm not talking about the song as a bazillion-selling record, I'm talking about the very first time you heard that song, and how it sounded. I was just out of high school heading to my first year of college. We were driving around and it came on the long-missed REV 105 radio station. We couldn't believe how awesome it was, how powerful, how cathartic. It is hard to remember what that was like, because after the band became big (AFTER my friends and I saw them for $5 at First Avenue, ha) we heard our floor mates playing the song over and over and over again. Same with the radio. And MTV. And everyone everywhere. Most of us have suffered extreme burn out of that song.

But I'm just saying, think back to when you first heard it.

And then think to when you first heard the whole record, and you learned that Teen Spirit was by far the only good song on the record - it was just the one that started it off. The rest of the record was just sparkling with awesome guitar pop goodness.

I'm just sayin', the band was something special. (In Utero in some ways even surpasses Nevermind).

Posted by: don at 09/20/06 2:06 PM  | Reply
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Kurt was offered the drug dealer part in pulp fiction. Loved Eric Stoltz, but Cobain would have been great. He didn't do it because it was too close to home and he didn't want to be labeled as a druggie. QT basically said he wrote the character and his pierced girlfriend as loosely based on Kurt and Courtney love. So yeah, Hollywood would be calling him if he had lived.

Posted by: bobbo at 12/20/06 12:05 AM  | Reply
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Kurt was offered the drug dealer part in pulp fiction. Loved Eric Stoltz, but Cobain would have been great. He didn't do it because it was too close to home and he didn't want to be labeled as a druggie. QT basically said he wrote the character and his pierced girlfriend as loosely based on Kurt and Courtney love. So yeah, Hollywood would be calling him if he had lived.

Posted by: bobbo at 12/20/06 12:06 AM  | Reply
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Kurt was offered the drug dealer part in pulp fiction. Loved Eric Stoltz, but Cobain would have been great. He didn't do it because it was too close to home and he didn't want to be labeled as a druggie. QT basically said he wrote the character and his pierced girlfriend as loosely based on Kurt and Courtney love. So yeah, Hollywood would be calling him if he had lived.

Posted by: bobbo at 12/20/06 12:06 AM  | Reply
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