_______________________________________________________________ The Internet Nirvana Fan Club Newsletter - # 20 - June 02, 1999 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ________________ - Introduction - ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Welcome to the 20th Internet Nirvana Fan Club Newsletter. It has now been exactly one year since the first Nirvana Fan Club newsletter was published - on June 2, 1998. Since then 20 news- letters have been written and the number of subscribers is almost 10.000. Further, where the first couple of newsletters were just 5 KB each, the latest newsletters have been about 20-30 KB each. Not much news in this newsletter about Nirvana, but quite a few stories with a little non-Nirvana related stuff. If I were to put only Nirvana related news and stories in every newsletter then they would not be very long, I'm sure! I have a few interesting things to mention though, such as my interview with Mr. Charles R. Cross and some other things. So, lean back and enjoy the ride! ________________ - Site Updates - ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ A little while ago I had the pleasure of doing an interview with none other than Charles R. Cross. You may not know the name right off the top of your head, but he is an important figure in the Seattle music scene. Since 1987 he has been the editor of the Se- attle-based music magazine "The Rocket" and last year he and Jim Berkenstadt wrote a book about Nirvana's "Nevermind" al- bum. Previously, Cross have written books on Led Zeppelin and the Boss himself – Bruce Springsteen. Charles is currently work- ing on an extensive Kurt Cobain biography. I think the interview went very well and he clears up a few things about Nirvana - if you would like to read it, just head on over to the following URL. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/cross/index.html ] The popular "Nirvana Top 50" recently closed, due to bandwidth reasons, so therefore I have removed the possibility of voting for NFC on there. Which is a shame, really, since the site had been at the number one spot constantly over a couple of weeks prior to the Top 50 closing down. It is possible that we will join another Top something arrangement later on. Special thanks to everyone who voted for The Internet Nirvana Fan Club on the Top 50! I have, FINALLY, added some extra sound clips to the Sound Gallery. I don't believe I've added anything new to this gallery since Hole released "Celebrity Skin." Apart from a clip of the song "Old Age." Well, the new songs are not spectacular but I'm sure some of you will enjoy them. I have added Real Audio files of Nirvana's brief "More than a feeling" cover, of the "My best friend's girl" cover. Also, a clip of the popular "You've Got No Right", "tourette's" and the Scott Litt remix of "Pennyroyal Tea" was added. More stuff will be added at a later time to the gallery. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/sounds.htm ] Something that's been annoying me greatly lately is the fact that people keep e-mailing me, saying that the pictures don't work. Hell, they do work! The thing is that I just moved them to a dif- ferent server, thus are they not located at nirvanaclub.com any- more. Most of them at least. People with old browsers, or old pages stored in their cache, may experience 404 not found errors though, as they are not opening the latest update of the picture gallery files. So, to avoid these 404 not found errors and actually see the pictures, please upgrade to a new version of Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Be sure to hit the "Refresh" or "Re- load" button if you get a 404 error at a given page – for example with one of the picture galleries. I believe there is an obscure op- tion in Internet Explorer, which stores old (outdated) html files from a website and doesn't actually retrieve the latest update of the file, when the page is visited. Disable this option if you have it on. I believe the option is called "Check for newer versions of stored pages". Make sure you check the "Automatically" box un- der this option. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/pics.htm ] The NFC FAQ was updated with one extra question/answer. This one answers the common question: why I have ad banners on the site. Fortunately most people have adjusted to this and several people are helping the site by clicking the banner daily. But for those who still require an explanation as to why I have these ban- ners up, head on over to the FAQ and a rather detailed answer will be at your disposal. Again, THANK YOU for clicking the sponsor banners. I appreciate it. Now enough about this financial stuff. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/nfc_faq.htm ] I was looking at the file I have online with the transcript of Court- ney's eulogy to Kurt from April 10th, 1994 where she is reading his suicide note. It turns out that the transcript I had online was full of errors and very incomplete. So I fixed it and added the missing parts. Now, there are still a few minor errors left in it, but it should be far better than previously. The "funny" thing is that I haven't touched this file since I put it online sometime in 1996. I think I downloaded it in 1995 where I was stunned that a scan of his suicide note could actually be found on the Internet. So, read this transcript if you have the emotional surplus it requires. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/facts/clnote.htm ] The list of all Nirvana songs was updated. Some confusion sur- rounding the unknown song performed at the end of 01/23/88 should be cleared up now. Besides that, a few extra titles were added, and a bit more info on the existing ones. Thanks to the contributors. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/text/songs.txt ] I just added lyrics to a couple of extra songs, including the lyrics to the obscure Smack cover "Run Rabbit Run" which Nirvana covered at their 12/21/88 Hoquiam, WA performance. Thanks to Anssi for this one. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/lyrics/ ] The Bootleg Forum was updated. Actually it was butchered a bit. I removed some of the files in it as they were too outdated and I do not want The Internet Nirvana Fan Club to turn into a bootleg ha- ven. I'm also gonna cut down on trading myself and I will pri- marily be looking into unsurfaced shows now. Remember to visit this bootleg forum if you need more info on a certain bootleg or live recording. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/bootz/ ] The First NFC Competition has ended! The three lucky winners are Sean Kelleher, Lars Fogde and Alex Huth. They should have received their prizes by the time you read this. The prizes I gave away in the first competition were a rare Heart-Shaped Box promo CD, the double LP-set "Seattle Sound, Sounds Great" and a CD-R of the bootleg "Outcesticide V." The next competition is online now and the prizes for this one are as follows. First prize: the great Nirvana book "Teen Spirit" by Chuck Crisafulli. Second prize: a limited edition Nirvana interview CD where the actual CD is shaped as Kurt Cobain. The third prize is the same as last time: a CD-R of the bootleg "Outcesticide V." 862 people entered the first competition, and I'm sure even more will enter the second. If you want to enter, simply visit the NFC Competition page. Special thanks to Esprit for providing most of the prizes for the competi- tions. NFC Competitions - [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/contest/ ] For some reason a ton of people have submitted info to my "Movies & Shows somehow related to Nirvana!" section. I don't know if this particular section was mentioned on CNN or some- thing. But what I do know is that at least 30 people have submit- ted information to this section over the past couple of weeks. Thank you! The file is quite large now and I never thought it would grow so much back when I got inspired to start this section, when watching the lovely Drew Barrymore in "Boys on the side". As mentioned in the section, this movie features a scene where a large "Bleach" poster is shown in the background. Also, it's actu- ally amazing how many movies and shows feature Nirvana in some way. Even if it's just with a poster in the background. In fact one of my favorite shows, The X-Files, have had something Nir- vana related in several episodes. Most obvious with the episode "Pusher" from season three where Dave Grohl has a cameo ap- pearance. Remember to e-mail me if you can add more informa- tion to this section. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/facts/movapp.htm ] Jeff who runs the Krist Novoselic dedication website has found a guy with a recording of the complete 10/31/91 video. However, the trader is only giving out the Nirvana show in return for a rare concert video of "The Clash." A hoarded video would be ideal, as it must be a rare one that this fellow doesn't have already. So, if you happen to own a really rare video by "The Clash" or know where to get one please mail Jeff at webmaster@novoselic.com - - and he may be able to surface this much wanted 10/31/91 Seattle, WA Nirvana video! [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/text/103191.txt ] As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we were mentioned in the popular magazine "Hit Parader". Well, The Internet Nirvana Fan Club is mentioned in the JUNE issue and not the May issue as I had been told. Apparently, though, this June issue came out in the middle of March or something! Americans love to release their magazines a couple of months before the date/month that is actu- ally listed on the cover :) I haven't received my copy of this June issue yet, but it should be on the way, so I can verify that the site is actually mentioned here. I'll keep you posted. Hit Parader is not the only magazine who has mentioned us lately. Also the Dutch magazine OOR mentioned The Internet Nirvana Fan Club in their March 1999 issue. Special thanks to Joost Ber- enbroek for sending me this one and telling me about it. Remem- ber to let me know if you happen to see the website getting men- tioned in a magazine, on TV or some other place in the media. The 9th poll: "Should the remaining members of Nirvana get back together with a new lead singer?" is over. The results of it are: Yes – 282 votes (19%) Maybe – 129 votes (8%) No – 1111 votes (73%) So obviously most people don't fancy Nirvana getting back to- gether with a replacement for Kurt Cobain. I must agree on that one. The next poll: "Do you collect Nirvana bootlegs?" is up now. I recently added another WinAMP skin to the "Nirvana For Your Computer" section. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/compstuff.htm ] I just decided that it was about time to get a new banner with the website title for the main page. So I asked the webmaster of "The Skratch Pad Network" if he wanted to make one since he is good with graphics. He did, and the result can be seen on the top of the main page. While I think the new banner is pretty good, he men- tioned that he would possibly make a new, better one, later on. Special thanks to "MidVicious" of www.skratchpad.com for ma- king the banner! [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/pics/nirvmain.gif ] Brian, who has been a supporter of nirvanaclub.com for a while, is apparently working on a "Nirvana Club Dedication Page"! This will be a website, as the name indicates, that pays tribute to my- self and The Internet Nirvana Fan Club. While I never thought something like this would happen, I am certainly happy that Brian took this initiative. He expects the site to be finished sometime in June. Thanks for the support. [ http://aerozeppelin.hypermart.net/ ] I just added a couple of extra scans of book covers to the picture gallery of the same name. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/pics.htm ] Last week I had a lot of technical trouble with the WWWBoard. What I wanted to do was introduce user registration, so only those who had registered would be able to post new messages. The in- tention of this was to put a halt to all the Spam that has, unfortu- nately, been hitting the board for many months now. However, I only got the new registration and access restriction script to work partly, so the new idea was dropped again. Also it didn't seem to be very popular among the existing users. Sooner or later, it's pos- sible that I will add it again, or something similar to it, to get rid of all the Spam. [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/wwwboard/ ] Speaking of technical trouble, my host has scheduled a system maintenance for Saturday June 5th. This could mean that the web- site will be down for a couple of hours during this day. The main- tenance should result in a better and faster server though :) If you are looking to get your own domain, and virtual webhost- ing, I strongly recommend using Prohosting who I've been with for over 18 months now. [ http://www.prohosting.com/ ] ________________ - Nirvana News - ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ The popular Nirvana website "The Happening" run by Rob Holmes is closing down. At least Rob has chosen not to run it anymore; "I no longer have the time nor the desire to update this page anymore." So at the time of writing he is planning to hand it over to someone else who'd want to maintain it. This particular website is mostly known for the Nirvana "Live Performance Guide" which is the best source for information on past Nirvana shows. [ http://members.xoom.com/smiburho/ ] Someone E-mailed me with information about his local radio sta- tion's countdown of the "Hottest 500 Rock Songs of All Time." Nirvana had six songs in the countdown; "Lithium" as #280, "In Bloom" as #140, "Heart-Shaped Box" as #75, "Come As You Are" on place #52, "All Apologies" (?) on place #42 and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on place #30. Oddly, this song is usually num- ber one, or at least in the top ten, at such countdowns. For exam- ple almost every time the media has done various Top 100 or Top 200 countdowns, this Nirvana track has been number one almost every time. Even before Kurt died, in late 1993, MTV Europe had a Top 200 Videos of all time countdown where SLTS was also #1. Apparently a movie, about the April 10 1994 candlelight vigil in Seattle, was made last year. " The vigil is an independent feature film about a group of young people who drive from Lethbridge, Alberta to Seattle for Kurt Cobain's vigil. The film had its world premiere at the 1998 Vancouver International Film Festival. As the trip progresses and they begin picking up hitchhikers, the journey takes on a deeper significance as long buried feelings sur- face. The film's focus is on these young fans whose only common thread is their love of music. " Sounds exiting, doesn't it? Well, it stars Damon Johnson, Donny Lucas, Trevor White and a few other obscure actors who all had cameo appearances in either The X-Files or Millenium (two shows mainly shot in Canada where this film stems from). While I have never heard about this movie before, the much-respected publication "Variety" called it 'origi- nal' in a review. Check it's official site. [ http://www.thevigil.com/ ] Rich Cracknell contacted the writer and director of "The Vigil" who could provide the following additional information: " I'm glad to know that there are so many people interested in seeing "The Vigil." We've had sell-out shows and enthusiastic audiences during its screenings at Film Festivals and it is exciting that word about the film is getting out to the people who would want to see it. "The Vigil" will definitely be available for you to see in the next year. " Special thanks to Rich for the extra info. The online record store CDNow has a unique offer for Nirvana fans these days. Namely an interview with Cobain, Novoselic and Chad Channing conducted in January 1990 at a restaurant in Cambridge, MA. " Cobain took time out from the Bleach tour to speak about the music industry and life on the road in an open and candid conversation with one of CDNOW's top freelance writers, respected journalist Bob Gulla. 'We are very excited to be able to offer our customers this exclusive interview,' says Jason Olim, President and CEO of CDNOW. The first part of the exclusive, previously unpublished Kurt Cobain/Nirvana interview will debut in the Alternative/Indie department at the new CDNOW store on Tuesday, May 18th. Part two will appear on Friday, May 28th. " So if you'd like to read this interview or get Real Audio clips from it, head on over to Cdnow's site. A direct link to their Alternative /Indie department can be found near the bottom of the main page of nirvanaclub.com. While this is very nice, you could wonder why they waited nine years to bring it out to the public :) Krist Novoselic – Nirvana bassist – turned 34 on May 16th, 1999. I recently obtained a recording of the newly surfaced semi- complete audio of Nirvana's February 9, 1994 Barcelona show. While the recording is in C quality I think it is listenable and a nice performance. I am still looking for the newly surfaced audio of the 11/07/89 Munich show, so if you have it please drop me a note. Someone must have this thirty-minute concert somewhere :) Lots of bands are covering Nirvana these days. This includes Ash who have released an EP called "Numbskull" featuring a cover of Nirvana's "Blew" and even a cover of a Mudhoney song. Thanks to Francis Fearon for this information. A full CD only with Nir- vana covers can be found at selected record stores. I believe it in- cludes Mother of Mary's "Territorial Pissings" cover and Flow's "Rape Me" cover among others. Another band who recently cov- ered Nirvana is Stereophonics, a British power-pop band. They did a cover of "Something in the way" for release as a B-side in the U.K. More specifically, the single is called "Pick a part that's new" and the Nirvana cover is track 3, of the second CD, of the two-part single. Thanks to "Nancy Boy" and thanks to SonicNet Music News of the World, the daily music news service http://www.sonicnet.com/ for this one. Krist Novoselic's film "L7: The Beauty Process" recently opened in Canadian cinemas. It should be showing at the Blinding Light Cinema in Vancouver, Canada. [ http://www.blindinglight.com/ ] I mentioned Rolling Stone's "Essential recordings of the 90's" ar- ticle in the last newsletter. Well, I should also add that a total of three Nirvana albums were included in this list of essential al- bums. They included "Nevermind", "In Utero" and "Unplugged In New York." I just got a copy of this issue myself and I can say it features a fairly nice Kurt Cobain article and it's obviously im- pressive that they consider three of Nirvana's albums to be essen- tial of this decade. Then again, they found 147 other records that they considered to be "essential" (the word kinda loses it meaning, eh?) of the nineties. [ http://www.rollingstone.com/ ] The 10-year anniversary re-release of "Bleach" has been some- what confirmed by Sub Pop Records. In regards to the release, Matt from the company said "Perhaps. Wait till the end of this year." Thanks to Brendan for asking them and sharing it with us. The magazine 'Entertainment Weekly' recently published their list of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Rock Music" on their web- site. As it turns out, Nirvana ranked 8 on this list. Specifically they picked the airing of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video on MTV as the 8th greatest moment in rock music history. "The im- pact was immediate. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' became the anthem of disaffected youth around the world. Pop metal melted down. Seattle and grunge were enshrined. Nirvana -- Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Dave Grohl -- became the biggest rock band in the world. " EW put The Beatles performance at the leg- endary Ed Sullivan show as number one, Chuck Berry as #2, Elvis as #3 and Bob Dylan as #4. What caught my eye is the fact that they ranked the 1969 Woodstock festival as #9! In other words, Entertainment Weekly believes Nirvana's breakthrough with "Smells like teen spirit" on MTV is a greater moment in rock history than the legendary Woodstock festival. Wow. To view the rest of the list, stop by Entertainment Weekly's website sometime. [ http://cgi.pathfinder.com/ew/fab400/music100/index.html ] Yet another Nirvana domain has opened. I remember visiting this URL a while back, but the owner claims it was recently created. Anyway, if you'd like to check this new Nirvana domain out, head on over to – [ http://www.nirvanasite.com/ ] The US Television channel "Comedy Central" will again be airing the episodes of "Saturday night live" with Nirvana. Episode # 742 with Nirvana and Rob Morrow will re-air on Friday, June 11 1999 - and episode # 808 with Nirvana and Charles Barkley will re-air on Saturday, June 19 1999 at 9 AM. [ http://www.comedycentral.com ] A recent issue of the Australian magazine "Juice" was dedicated to Kurt, providing lots of information about him and Nirvana, and it also contained nine rare posters of the band. Thanks to Luke for this information. ______________ - Misc. News - ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Bruce from the Weathermen, an online music store, wanted to grant the subscribers of this NFC newsletter a special offer: Hello this is Weathermen Music, The first and largest Nirvana marketplace on the Internet with a special offer for members of Nirvana Club. At http://www.theweathermen.com/bleached - you will find a huge assortment of Nirvana shirts, videos, CD's and other goodies. We carry some out of print Nirvana shirts, included the dead smiley face and vestibule shirt long shirt. If you mention this note, you can purchase ANY nirvana shirt or video on the web page including the out of print long sleeve shirts for $12.99! Check it out. We also have some Hole shirts, Foo Fighters, Nir- vana specialty caps and about 2,500 other bands. Our main page is at www.theweathermen.com and we offer the fastest and best service on the net, since we were the very first music store since 1991. Please mention this blurb when ordering, and thanks! Cris Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets was jailed on drug charges in late April. He has been charged with two counts of drug para- phernalia possession, which are violations of probation for earlier possession arrests. In 1994, The Meat Puppets worked with Nir- vana at their MTV Unplugged session, joining them to play two Meat Puppet covers. Kurt Cobain was a big fan of The Meat Pup- pets. News courtesy of SonicNet Music News of the World, the daily music news service - http://www.sonicnet.com/ Courtney Love recently talked to MTV a bit about her daughter Frances Bean. "Courtney Love likes to cheer on daughter Frances Bean at soccer games, especially when Frances scores the winning goal. As the proud mom told MTV News' John Norris, Frances has the best qualities of both her mother and her father, Kurt Co- bain." Courtney said further to MTV news: "When she went swimming in the gene pool, she picked the best from both, she did!" cheered Courtney. "She got some good stuff, and she's really strong and lean. She's really into Sporty Spice too ... She was go- ing to a birthday party and I said, 'Frances, would you like to wear a dress to the birthday party?' She's like, 'jeans and T-shirt,' and I was like... 'Sporty!'" – Courtesy of MTV News, May 7 1999. Now that we're speaking of Courtney, her band Hole are appar- ently going on tour with the Lilith Fair festival now where they dropped out of the last tour with Marilyn Manson as reported in the last newsletter. " If Courtney Love is telling the truth -- ad- mittedly a stretch -- then Hole may be joining the Lilith Fair for a string of August dates. The outspoken singer told The Boston Globe on Friday (May 14) that her band is doing at least five dates on the tour. While Love said her band would be playing five dates 'for sure,' she may have spoken too soon. A Lilith Fair spokesper- son acknowledged that an offer has been extended to the band to play some dates in August, but no agreement has yet been reached. " News courtesy of Allstar and CDNow, Inc. May 17. The latest update to the Lilith Fair and Hole deal was presented by MTV news on May 28 1999. "After weeks of speculation, Hole has confirmed to MTV News that it has agreed to jump on board this summer's Lilith Fair for a pair of shows in the Midwest. Courtney Love and company will join Lilith on August 10 in Co- lumbus, Ohio and on August 11 in Cincinnati, where the band is scheduled to play the main stage along with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, The Pretenders, and Deborah Cox. Hole was set to play the Joint in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 1, while the Lilith Fair isn't slated to start until July 8 in Vancouver, British Colum- bia." This News is courtesy of MTV News, May 28 1999. More Courtney: She and her band Hole appeared on the best talk- show ever: The Late Show With David Letterman, May 20 1999. I haven't seen the show myself yet but I believe she talked with Dave for a while, and then Hole performed one song. Courtney shared a funny story with Dave; recently she met with vice presi- dent Al Gore who told her that he was a big fan of Hole. Then Courtney asked him to name a Hole song, and he couldn't :) The other guest on this particular show was Helen Hunt. I couldn't resist bringing a late show Top 10 list in the newsletter. In fact, to spice up these newsletters a bit, I'm gonna bring a Top 10 list, from a random David Letterman show, in every newsletter starting from this one. This new section is after Reidar's column. The Grateful Dead supports MP3 files of their music, just as they support bootlegs of their concerts. "The Grateful Dead, longtime supporters of tape trading, announced this week that they will al- low fans to make available MP3 files of the group's live concert appearances on the Internet. MP3 files, which offer near CD qual- ity sound in an easily downloaded format, have been a boom to music fans and a terror to the record industry. The band may be the first major-label act to officially allow the practice." Now this is certainly interesting. I just wish more bands, such as Nirvana, would share the same liberal views on tape trading and MP3 files! News courtesy of E! Online. May 15 1999. In the last couple of newsletters I've mentioned the March issue of Guitar World and I went into details with it, in newsletter #19, where I mentioned the lengthy Kurt tribute they featured in this particular issue. Anyway, it seems that not everyone was pleased with this particular issue or the cover with Kurt at least. One of these people is Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains who appar- ently sent in the following letter to Guitar World magazine: " First off, I'd like to thank your readers Jacob Toren and Allen Mass for their thoughts on our omission from your timeline and list of top albums of the Nineties ["Sounding Board," May '99]. Personally, I don't give a shit what a magazine thinks or doesn't think of my band or me. I don't write music for them--I create for myself, my love of music, and our fans, who have tirelessly sup- ported us through think and thin. Right on boys, give 'em hell. Secondly, I was disappointed, to say the least, in your choice of Kurt Cobain cover art in the March 1999 issue. I know you have to sell some magazines to pay the rent and eat, but I never thought you would stoop so low. I never cease to be amazed by our need to deify and worship a person. And how the moment he or she shows the first sign of human weakness and frailty, we swoop down like vultures to feed on the fallen, all the while on the look- out for the next meal. Kurt was brilliant and beautiful and, yes, flawed like us all. Why can't you just accept and enjoy what he gave us? My God, isn't it enough? Please leave the man's memory and his family be. " – Jerry Cantrell, Alice in Chains. My five cents to this discussion is that I completely disagree with Mr. Cantrell. If the above letter were directed to Rolling Stone for their May 13 issue, with Kurt on the cover, then I'd definitely agree. But the fact is that Guitar World had a very nice tribute to Kurt and Nirvana in their March issue. Not only was he put on the cover but several articles, interviews and pictures all with Kurt or Nirvana was included as well. They didn't just slap Kurt Cobain on the cover and called it a day. They actually did a comprehen- sive tribute to him, in my opinion, unlike what Rolling Stone did. And if you can't put him on a magazine cover to honor him, ex- actly five years after he died, then when can you? I don't think it's a sign of obsession to condone such a tribute towards Cobain. On the other hand, what could easily be interpreted as a sign of mak- ing a few extra dollars, is what Rolling Stone did with their May 13, 1999 issue. They slapped a nice picture of Kurt Cobain on the cover, wrote a tiny article on him and called it a day. Not to forget naming him "Artist of the decade" exactly as Guitar World did a few weeks earlier. So, my $0.05 is that AIC frontman should have sent that letter to Rolling Stone and certainly NOT Guitar World. Now I'll go on with some Foo Fighters news. Apparently, they are currently working on a new album, as they are not on tour at the moment. According to foofighters.net, about 19 songs are finished for the next album. So far only some of them have vocals though. The new album should thereby be very close to a release, and Dave Grohl noted that he "loves" the new material and that "it's the best stuff the band has ever written." Further, the Foo's will most likely not do any more shows until their grand show at Woodstock 1999 (check a previous newsletter for more info on this). The news is courtesy of Brian Spekis, Ed Dame and The Foo Fighters Internet Archive. [ http://www.foofighters.net/ ] Generally I suggest checking the news section of that website if you are a fan of the Foo Fighters, as I can not keep up with their activities in this newsletter or on nirvanaclub.com. Which is also a Nirvana site, really, and not a Foo site as much as I enjoy their music too! But, if there is something-important happening with the Foo Fighters, I will of course mention it here as well. Speaking of The Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl recently made an ap- pearance on the Howard Stern show. He performed an acoustic version of "Everlong" during the show. Thanks to Robert and foofighers.net for this information. It's worth to mention that Courtney Love was on the Howard Stern show in September '98. If you enjoy Sony's Playstation and own a PC you may want to know that the Playstation emulator "Bleem!" was officially re- leased to the public on May 15th 1999. As far as I can tell, the emula- tion of the Playstation is very well done. To either buy the full version of this emulator or try out a demo, check out the official Bleem! Website – [ http://www.bleem.com/ ] I'm sure there are a few Star Wars fans on this list. So I couldn't help noticing the amazing record, Episode 1 of this movie, broke a few weeks back. The movie grossed $28.5 million in its opening day, a new one-day record in the US. [ http://www.starwars.com/ ] _______________ Reidar's Column ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Here is the latest article by Reidar. This one is about distributing music digitally, and about how the record labels are dealing with it. God Save the Record Labels The future of record labels lie in the hands of us, the people who purchase what the record labels decide to release on the market. Simply because of the fact that we are the ones, who decide what we want to buy, and the massive explosion of multimedia for every Average Joe, the record labels nearly wet their pants in fear of how the future will turn out. Let me put it straight: The record labels are at this point nothing but another part of the chain. They slow the release of a record down, and they earn money that the band should have earned, or the person who purchased the record should not have needed to pay. Why is this so? Record labels used to have a major position in the music industry. They chose the artist who would be allowed to put a record out, they decided how the record would sound like, and when the record would be out. Basically, they decided every- thing for the artist. Of course, the artist had his say, but if he dis- agreed with the record label's views, he was off the label and had to search for a new record label that might support his views. But not anymore. New systems for producing high-technology re- cordings and spreading these recordings have been developed and have been spread like the wind because of the massive success of such new technologies, like the Internet. Anyone who wants to, and has the money to do so, can now buy himself equipment to record his own music. Not even making CDs is unique for the re- cord labels anymore. This is what is scaring the record label ex- ecutives. Some record labels, like Sub Pop Records, support these new tendencies and the ever-popular MP3 format for spreading music. But the dinosaurs in this game, the old major labels, see the new progress as an enemy. And they know they will lose. It is all a matter of time. Where record labels used to decide what the public wanted to hear and what they would be able to hear, record labels do not decide anything anymore. The public gets the waves from other sources than the record labels, and if the record labels decide not to release the new record by an artist, there is several ways to get a hold of that record. This death-math between technology for everyone and the record labels started years ago. Back when Kurt was still alive, Nirvana thought about using new technology for releasing music. It is quite a paradox that the man they did so with, Jim Griffin, was also the man who shut down all pages that spread the music the way they intended to do at one point. [He didn't shut down sites, he merely sent a polite note to webmasters who had illegal full songs on their site, asking them to remove such files – NFC] Of course, the difference is that the latter was an illegal act by those publishing it. I do not know how the future will turn out for record labels. I do not look into the future and see a world without record labels and executives. They have grown into our lives, and they will stay there. But I see a world where record labels play a minor role in spreading music. At this moment, the world's biggest record labels unite to decide which format for spreading music on the Internet they will support. Of course, they have to do it right now so that the new format will be ready for the Christmas sale. Money, you know. Earning money, that is. Greedy bastards, you might want to say at this point. I hope they unite. And I hope they find a good system. But I know that no matter how good the system they find is, there will always be people brighter and with more computer knowledge than them. Someone will be able to crack it, and the record labels will lose, as everything they had in their own precious format will be available. Also to those who decide not to pay for the recordings. It is sad; that the record labels can not understand that some peo- ple do not want to pay money for one song on a single or an al- bum they hardly like. Record labels have, since the dawn of re- leasing music, earned money on cheap releases that rather stupid teenyboppers pay for. Never have they cared about those who love music. If they had, the price for, say a CD, would not be as high as it is now. I wish that the record labels lost their sovereignty - that new forces get to make a difference, and maybe change the stan- dards a little bit. There is nothing as good as a fresh, new impact. The dinosaur record labels have had their turn, now let someone else get a chance, also. We hope that you choke. Until next time – Reidar [ reidar@nirvanaclub.com ] Nirvana: Never Fade Away http://home.sol.no/~oeik/Nirvana/ Some more articles on this subject and a very comprehensive in- terview with above mentioned Jim Griffin [former Technical Di- rector at Geffen Records] can be found at the links listed below: [ http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/mag/9904/mp3.html ] Griffin interview [ http://www.mp3.com/news/173.html ] Griffin chat log [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/text/griffin.txt ] ________________ Late Show Top 10 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ The Top 10 list, from the Late Show with David Letterman, I picked for this newsletter is from the May 18 1999 show. This show's guest was the wonderful Keri Russell, best known from "Felicity" and "Malibu Shores." Funnily, before one of the com- mercial breaks – for this particular show – the Late Show band (led by Paul Shaffer) played the riff from the Foo Fighters song "Everlong." In fact they've played this riff on many occasions. Anyway here is the Top Ten: Top Ten Signs Your Prom Date Is A Loser 10. He makes you leave early, because the ice cream man wants the truck back. 9. So dazzled at the sight of the crepe paper streamers that he has to go lie down. 8. He won't shut up about how he was once Prime Minister of Israel. 7. His carnation is pinned somewhere very painful. 6. Boasts "My grandfather was buried in this tux." 5. After the cool kids dump bucket of pig's blood on him, he just sits and sulks, with no psychic powers at this disposal for revenge. 4. Your corsage is parsley from a Bennigan's baked potato. 3. When chaperones aren't looking, spikes the punch with more punch. 2. The principal says to him, "Dave, didn't you graduate 34 years ago?" 1. Three words: Darth Maul makeup The late show Top 10 lists are İ1999 CBS Worldwide Inc. and İ1999 Worldwide Pants, Incorporated. All rights reserved. That's all I have for this lengthy newsletter. It will probably be a while before I release new one. Thanks for listening :) __________________ - Practical Info - ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ * Subscribing Look at the this URL: http://www.nirvanaclub.com/ * Unsubscribing If you would like to unsubscribe from the list and get your E-mail address removed, send an e-mail to me at the address - list@nirvanaclub.com - and in the subject you put "Unsub your@emailaddress". Replace "your@emailaddress" with your correct e-mail address, then you will be removed from the list immediately. * Misc. info If you want to get the newsletter sent to a new address, send an e-mail to - list@nirvanaclub.com - and provide me with your old e-mail address and the new one you would like to use instead. Don't hit the reply button for these newsletters, because the address they are sent from is invalid. If you wish to e-mail me about the newsletter or anything else, email: webmaster@nirvanaclub.com Info [ http://www.nirvanaclub.com/newslet/disclaimer.txt ] * Copyright This newsletter was written by Rasmus Holmen and is İ1998-1999 The Internet Nirvana Fan Club. Complete re-production without permission from the author is not allowed. If you use something from this newsletter, please give me credit where credit is due. This newsletter is in no way affiliated with Nirvana and/or Geffen Records, Inc. The newsletters are 100% non-commercial. -------------------------------------------------------------