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Earlier than his demise in 1994, Kurt Cobain wrote up an inventory of his high 50 favourite albums of all time. KEXP’s podcast The Cobain 50 dives into a special album from the checklist for every episode.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the demise of a legend Kurt Cobain, the singer and guitarist of the pioneering rock band Nirvana. Based mostly out of a small city in Washington state, they’re stated to have introduced punk to the mainstream. Earlier than his demise by suicide in 1994, Cobain wrote up an inventory of his high 50 favourite albums of all time, and it contains artists you would possibly already be conversant in just like the Beatles and David Bowie and Aerosmith, in addition to some deep cuts like The Vaselines and Beat Occurring.
To rejoice Cobain’s legacy, member station KEXP in Seattle is producing a podcast referred to as The Cobain 50. Every week, the present takes a deep dive into a special album on the checklist and its influence on Cobain as a musician. This is a style from Episode 3, by which KEXP’s Dusty Henry guides us by way of the gritty sound of the Pixies’ 1988 album “Surfer Rosa.”
(SOUNDBITE OF NIRVANA’S “VERY APE”)
DUSTY HENRY, BYLINE: Frenzied guitars, an unmistakable manic voice, catchy hooks lathered in distortion, dynamics that jumped from quiet to loud to quiet once more. Sure, in fact I am speaking concerning the Pixies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BONE MACHINE”)
PIXIES: (Singing) It is a tune for Carol.
HENRY: Coming off of “Come On Pilgrim,” the Pixies have been desirous to get again into the studio. Their label, 4AD, advisable they work with a brand new producer this time round, a man by the title of Steve Albini. Lately, Albini has a popularity as one of the crucial prolific and influential producers of underground music. He is produced over 1,500 albums, starting from Songs: Ohia and PJ Harvey to Joanna Newsom and Slint.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLINT’S “NAN DING”)
HENRY: Again when he met the Pixies, although, he’d solely simply begun producing data, working with acts like Urge Overkill and Blatant Dissent. In 1987, Albini may need been greatest identified for his position because the chief of the band Huge Black.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KEROSENE”)
BIG BLACK: (Singing) Kerosene round, set me on fireplace.
HENRY: Albini first met the Pixies at a cocktail party simply weeks after “Come On Pilgrim” was launched. They hit it off so properly that all of them headed to the studio the very subsequent day. Albini performed an important position within the careers of each the Pixies and Nirvana. He additionally goes by a really strict code of ethics. He can be paid a payment and never gather royalties, a follow frequent in most business offers. In a letter he later despatched to Nirvana, he wrote, I want to be paid like a plumber. I do the job and also you pay me what it is value.
Within the practicalities of recording, Albini prefers to document the band in the identical room, taking part in along with minimal overdubs. It is a huge a part of what makes “Surfer Rosa” sound the best way that it does.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BREAK MY BODY (2007 REMASTER)”)
PIXIES: (Singing) Break my physique. Maintain my bones. Maintain my bones. Break my physique. Maintain my bones. Maintain my bones.
HENRY: Albini’s mission is to seize the band as true as attainable to how they sound within the room. It is his perception that, quote, “99% of the sound of a document needs to be established whereas the essential take is recorded.” In different phrases, help the band. Get out of the best way. And let the musicians categorical themselves. “Surfer Rosa” is the right complement to the band’s songwriting that veers in the direction of macabre imagery of damaged bones, bone machines and sexual deviancy. It is the Pixies’ first masterpiece and positively not their final.
And once I say masterpiece, by the best way, I do not imply that it is pristine. The truth is, what makes “Surfer Rosa” so good is its uncooked nature. It is the purpose once we see the band actually coining the patented loud, quiet, loud dynamics. Simply take a hearken to the Kim Deal-led single, “Gigantic.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GIGANTIC”)
PIXIES: (Singing) Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Let’s have a ball. Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Let’s have a ball. Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Hey, Paul. Let’s have a ball. Gigantic. Gigantic. Gigantic. An enormous, huge love.
HENRY: It is a easy thought. Play your verse extra subdued, extra restrained, then explode on the refrain. This distinction has an enormous impact. It makes the excessive moments really feel particularly large and powerfully emotive, and vice versa is a robust impact going from these large choruses again down right into a quieter verse. That is undoubtedly one of many strategies that Nirvana lifted in their very own songwriting.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HEART-SHAPED BOX”)
NIRVANA: (Singing) I want I might eat your most cancers whenever you flip black. Hey. Wait. I obtained a brand new criticism. Perpetually in debt to your priceless recommendation. Hey. Wait.
HENRY: “Surfer Rosa” won’t have been a business smash, nevertheless it thrilled indie rock followers throughout the globe. This album grew to become a guiding gentle for artists with equally legendary careers. Kurt was clearly a religious fan, proudly owning as much as the truth that his songwriting was indebted to the Pixies. Nirvana had already cemented themselves as icons with their instantaneous basic sophomore album “Nevermind” in 1991. When it got here to comply with it up, the band went in a special path. Whereas Butch Vig’s clear and polished manufacturing of “Nevermind” made them superstars, they craved a extra rawer sound, in order that they approached the producer of “Surfer Rosa,” the exact same Steve Albini. This is Nirvana’s Chris Novoselic and Dave Grohl speaking concerning the affect of “Surfer Rosa” with Conan O’Brien in 2023.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRIS NOVOSELIC: It will need to have been like 1989, 1990. And we have been cruising on this van. And I believe we have been listening to “Surfer Rosa.” After which Kurt was sitting there within the chair, and he raises his finger and makes a decree. And he goes, this shall be our snare sound.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVE GROHL: We had all the time listened to data that Steve had made. I keep in mind once I first moved in with Kurt, I believe he solely had like 4 data. It was like – He had a Mark Lanegan document. There was “Surfer Rosa.” There was The Breeders’ “Pod” and The Jesus Lizard document. And that was simply the sound that we felt most that we beloved.
HENRY: It is onerous to emphasize how radical of a transfer this was for Nirvana on the time. After the success of “Nevermind,” Nirvana shortly grew to become the largest band on the earth, and but they employed a producer who in contrast himself to a plumber. Nirvana knew precisely what they have been doing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SERVE THE SERVANTS”)
NIRVANA: (Singing) Teenage angst has paid off properly. Now I am bored and outdated.
HENRY: You hear the spirit of “Surfer Rosa” straight away on Nirvana’s final document, “In Utero.” With Albini’s steering, the band carried out the identical studio practices that the Pixies used when making their document. “In Utero” combines the rawness of “Bleach” with the songcraft of “Nevermind.” In my view, it is the totally realized model of Nirvana’s sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TOURETTE’S”)
NIRVANA: (Singing) Mayday, every single day, my day. Might’ve had a coronary heart assault, my coronary heart. We do not know something, my coronary heart. All of us need one thing truthful, my coronary heart. Hey.
HENRY: Kurt by no means hid his love of the Pixies. He overtly stated that Nirvana was greater than indebted to the Pixies, together with on their breakthrough hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT”)
NIRVANA: (Singing) With the lights out, it is much less harmful. Right here we at the moment are. Entertain us.
HENRY: In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stones’ David Fricke, Kurt stated, quote, “I used to be principally attempting to tear off the Pixies. After I heard the Pixies for the primary time, I linked with that band so closely. I ought to have been in that band or not less than in a Pixies cowl band.” In Michael Azerrad’s Nirvana biography, “Come As You Are,” the band overtly frightened concerning the tune, saying, this actually sounds just like the Pixies. Persons are actually going to nail us for this.
Quick-forward to 2013. Frank Black of The Pixies lastly gave his tackle the problem. His sarcastic response is, quote, “being authentic, influencing Nirvana so they might rip off a tune. I am going to admit it. If Kurt fessed as much as it, f*** it. I am going to agree with it. You ripped us off.”
(SOUNDBITE OF PIXIES’ “TONY’S THEME (2007 REMASTER)”)
HENRY: With “Surfer Rosa,” the Pixies created the template for a brand new wave of mutilation in punk and indie rock. Nirvana took that gritty sound to the lots, and the whole sphere of rock music basically modified the world over. With out the Pixies, there won’t have been Nirvana, not less than not in the best way that we all know them. For KEXP, I am Dusty Henry.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TONY’S THEME (2007 REMASTER)”)
PIXIES: (Singing) It isn’t my superhero title, Tony. It is referred to as “Tony’s Theme.”
DETROW: That was an excerpt from KEXP’s weekly podcast sequence The Cobain 50. The station additionally produces a Spanish-language companion to the present, El Cancionero de Kurt, which explores the influence of Nirvana in South America and vice versa. You may study extra at kepx.org (ph). And you’ll find each of these podcasts on the NPR app or wherever you hearken to podcasts.
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