«The Straight Life», canción del disco de 2002 de Mudhoney «Since We’ve Become Translucent» lanzado a través de Sub Pop Records. Vídeo por Emily Rieman.
The Straight Life from Mudhoney’s 2002 release Since We’ve Become Translucent on Sub Pop Records. Video by Emily Rieman.
Sacado de // From: http://www.frontdoor.com
La propiedad en Chicago de Iha de 4 habitaciones ha sido vendida por 545000 dólares, era la residencia donde él pasaba el tiempo mientras volaba de Chicago a Nueva York. Pagó 260,000$ en 1994 por la casa y la mantuvo incluso cuando se compró una mansión de 4,750 pies cuadrados en Wilmette por $1.05 milones en 1998, según dice The Tribune. Cuando se mudó a Brooklyn, puso la casa en venta y consiguió un cliente que se la compró por 1,16 millones en 2001 .Pero Iha no quería que su casa de Chicago se vendiese fácilmente. Hasta este verano, en junio, la casa se vendía por unos 625,000 dólares.
Esto ya son divagaciones mías, quizás sea para mantenerse completamente alejado de Billy Corgan y sus Smashing Pumpkins. Por todos es sabido que la relación entre ambos no es demasiado buena.
Iha’s 4-bedroom Edgewater property sold for $545,000, a residence he spent scant time in since blowing out of Chicago to New York. He paid $260,000 in 1994 for the American Foursquare home and kept it in tow even when he bought a 4,750-square-foot mansion in Wilmette for $1.05 million in 1998, reports the Tribune. When he moved to Brooklyn, he put the manse on the market and picked up a buyer in 2001 at $1.16 milllion. But Iha wouldn’t let go of the 1910, three-story Edgewater house. Until this summer: In June, he listed it for $625,000.
Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com/ (traducción) and http://www.digitalspy.co.uk
Muchos fans de Nirvana se rasgarían las vestiduras si los ex-miembros de la banda decidieran tocar temas del grupo en ausencia de Kurt Cobain. Los propios miembros vivos, Krist Novoselic y Dave Grohl, siempre se han mostrado muy cautelosos al respecto.
Sin embargo, el guitarrista Pat Smear, que pasó a ser miembro del grupo en su final, no vería problema en hacerlo si se presentaran ocasiones como la del pasado 12 de diciembre cuando tocaron con Paul McCartney.
¿Tocar canciones de Nirvana? Creo que es diferente para los chicos que para mi. Sé que Nirvana es algo extraño. Significa mucho para mucha gente. Personalmente no tendría problema con ello. Si, ¿por qué no tocaríamos canciones de Nirvana? Esa es mi actitud. Lo entiendo, sabes, pero no sé… Para mi es como, “¿Por qué no deberíamos?”
Preguntado por quien podría sustituir a Cobain, Smear asegura: “Nunca he pensado en quien podría hacerlo.”
Hablando con Digital Spy de su tiempo en Nirvana, el guitarrista asegura:
Nunca antes había estado de gira así que había muchos interrogantes para mi. Esa era la auténtica presión. Sabía que encajaría realmente bien con la música así que eso no me preocupó. También me encantaron los chicos.
Siempre se han hecho apuestas por hacia donde se habría dirigido el sonido de Nirvana y Smear tiene su opinión:
Sé hacia donde miraba él en ese momento. Creo que buscaba hacer lo opuesto a “In Utero”. No pulido pero suave. No sería como el ‘unplugged’ pero sin duda menos ruidoso. Creo que él, todo el mundo, se sacó de encima el material ruidoso, en serio. Tengo la sensación de que bandas con la misma gente, da igual lo diferente que crea la banda que es, los oyentes dicen, “Oh si, es otro disco de Nirvana”. Creo que las bandas siempre suenan a quienes son, a menos que hagan locuras estúpidas.
Smear joined up with surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic at a Foo Fighters show in 2010, and again – fronted by Paul McCartney – for concerts in December 2012 and July 2013.
The supergroup played new song ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ and, at July’s show on McCartney’s tour, a selection of Beatles songs, but – aside from the Grohl-penned ‘Marigold’, released on the ‘Heart Shaped Box’ single – have not performed any Nirvana material.
«Playing Nirvana songs?» Smear told Digital Spy. «I think that’s different for those guys than it is for me.
«I know Nirvana’s a strange thing. It means a lot of things to a lot of people. I personally wouldn’t have a problem with it.
«Yeah, why the f**k wouldn’t we play Nirvana songs?! That’s my attitude. I get it, y’know, but I don’t know… for me it’s like, ‘Why wouldn’t we?’
«It was one of those crazy things. It was fun, it was amazing. It’s great to play with those guys again – always. We’ve done it enough times now that it kind of feels comfortable.»
Of who else could ever front the trio other than the ex-Beatle, Smear said: «I’ve never thought about who else could do it.
«It was one of those things that just happened. I can imagine the three of us hanging out together, somewhere, with something or jamming.
«So I don’t really know. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t. There’s no-one in particular that I’ve thought of or thought about.»
After Nirvana’s disintegration following Kurt Cobain’s death in April 1994, Smear reunited with Dave Grohl in Foo Fighters.
He left the group in 1997 but returned in 2006 as a touring player and rejoined the band fully for 2011’s Wasting Light.
Asked about first joining Nirvana in 1993, Smear said: «It was different! It was a lot different than I was used to, but I got comfortable with it really fast.
«I’d never even been on tour before, so there were a lot of unknowns for me. That was the real pressure.
«I knew I’d fit really well with the music so I wasn’t worried about that. I really liked the guys too.»
Of where the band might have gone musically had Cobain not died, Smear said: «I know where he was looking to go at that time.
«I think that he was looking to do the opposite of In Utero. Not polished, but soft.»
Asked if that meant music more like the MTV Unplugged recording, he replied: «Not that far but definitely less noise. I think he got, everybody got, their noisy stuff out of their system, really.»
He added: «I just feel like bands with the same people, no matter how different the band themselves thinks it is, the listeners go, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s another Nirvana record’.
«I think that bands always sound like who they are, unless they do crazy, stupid s**t.»
Asked why Nirvana are still so highly regarded nearly two decades after their demise, Smear said: «Because Nirvana was better! Seriously. There’s also something to be said for bands that weren’t long enough to start doing crap.
«That doesn’t necessarily always happen – I certainly don’t think the Foo Fighters have been there yet! But you just never know.
It was a really good band that made really good records, and all that’s left of them is really great stuff.»
Of the legacy of Nirvana’s final studio album In Utero, he added: «I don’t know. It’s a really good record
«I think if anything, it said you could make a pretty great record without polishing it up too much. Maybe that’s the legacy.»
Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com (traducción) and http://www.irishtimes.com
Mark Lanegan anda promocionando la publicación de su disco de covers “Imitations”, en el que versiona a gente como Frank Sinatra, Nick Cave, Nancy Sinatra o Chelsea Wolfe, y que publicará el 17 de septiembre.
Solo quería hacer un disco que tuviera la misma sensación que muchos de esos discos que oía cuando yo era más joven, esos estilos de pop sesentero.
Sorprende que se atreva con el cover de una artista actual como es Chelsea Wolfe:
Es una artista que está por explotar. Creo que es realmente fantástica y está a punto de convertirse en muy conocida. Es maravillosa.
Otro cover es uno de un tema de su amigo Greg Dulli:
Esa era una canción que Greg grabó primero para un disco de Twilight singers y luego no la metió en el disco. En los 90 me dio un CD del tema y me dijo, “Creo que la canción estaría genial si tu cantaras” y pensé lo mismo.
Incluso se atreve con el francés con un cover de Gérard Manset (“Elégie Funèbre”):
He sido fan de Manset desde hace mucho tiempo. Estoy obsesionado con sus discos. Y la gente se puso en contacto conmigo y preguntaron si quería hacer una versión de esa canción para su nuevo disco – tiene sesenta y pico años.
Esa canción en particular fue realmente divertida porque era complicado para mi cantar en francés. Pero todas las canciones del disco las he elegido porque me encanta y pensé que sería divertido cantarlas. Y lo fueron.
En cuanto al título del disco explica al Irish Times que “uno de mis poetas favoritos era de Massachusetts llamado Robert Lowell. Escribió un libro llamado “Imitations” que eran sus versiones de poemas oscuros conocidos. Así que cogí el título de ahí.”
¿Y no le ha entrado morriña viendo como muchos de sus contemporáneos han decidido volver (Alice In Chains, Soundgarden) de hacer lo mismo con Screaming Trees?
No, no creo que eso vaya a pasar. No estoy interesado. Me emocioné cuando Afghan Whigs se volvieron a juntar. Soundgarden son buenos amigos míos. Entiendo porqué lo han querido hacer. Es su música, es su banda. Tienen derecho a hacerlo. Pero no es algo que tenga interés en hacer con Screaming Trees.
El vocalista visitará España en noviembre (Avilés, Barcelona y Madrid).
On the album, you revisit many of the country and pop records you heard as a kid growing up in Washington State . . .
“I just wanted to make a record that had the same feeling that a lot of those records had that I heard when I was younger, those Sixties pop styles.”
Did recording these songs bring back that feeling?
Well, I don’t know about that. But I did use a lot of the same guys that I made my last covers record with [1999’s I’ll Take Care of You], and I did it in the same studio. And some of these guys I hadn’t worked with in 12, 13 years, so I recaptured a lot of the feeling that I had the last time around, a lot of laughs, and conversations that started 15 years ago just continued on. So it was a good time.
Imitations is a modest title for the album – was that deliberate?
Yes. One of my very favourite poets was a Massachusetts poet named Robert Lowell. And he wrote a book called Imitations, which was his versions of well-known and obscure poems. So I sorta lifted the title from that.
Doing three songs by Andy Williams – brave or foolish?
Yeah, well, I guess Andy Williams would be considered by some to be schmaltzy, but to me he’s one of the greatest singers of all time. Just absolutely amazing. And if anyone doesn’t believe me, just YouTube him. He’s just one of a kind.
You cover a father and daughter – Frank Sinatra’s Pretty Colours and Nancy Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice, a great lost Bond theme . . .
Ironically, the first time I heard the song was when Australian punk band The Scientists did it as the b-side of a single in the early 1980s. Pretty Colours came off one of Frank Sinatra’s 70s records, Cycles, which was a great record.
The album opens with Flatlands, by new artist, Chelsea Wolfe . . .
She’s a current artist who is about to explode. I think she’s really really fantastic, and she’s on the cusp of becoming very well known. She’s awesome.
You also tackle Deepest Shade, by your friend and fellow Gutter Twin, Greg Dulli . . .
That was a song that Greg first recorded for a Twilight Singers record, and then didn’t put it on the record. In the 1990s he gave me a CD of the song, and said, I think this song would be great with you singing it, and I thought so too.
He’s back on the road with Afghan Whigs, and Soundgarden have reformed. Is a Screaming Trees reunion on the cards?
No, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Not interested. I was excited when the Afghan Whigs got back together. Soundgarden are good friends of mine. I totally get why they’d want to do it. It’s their music, it’s their band. It’s their right to do it. But it’s not something I’m interested in doing with Screaming Trees.
Your folky cover of Mack the Knife is so different to the swing band version we’re all familiar with . . .
Well, I pretty much copied my version note for note from a Dave Van Ronk version. Big fan of Dave Van Ronk, and the way he did that song, I thought, wow, there’s a sadness and a darkness to that song.
You do a song in French – Elégie Funèbre by Gérard Manset. Pourquoi?
I’ve been a big fan of Manset for a long time. I’m sort of obsessed with his records. And his people got a hold of me and asked me if I wanted to do a version of that song for his new record – he’s in his late 60s.
That song in particular was real fun, because it was so oddball for me to be singing in French. But all the songs on the record I chose because I loved them, and I thought it would be fun to sing them. And they were.