Nirvana (Band)

10 Other Musicians Who Should Have Said "Blow Me"

The line between rock star and cranky toddler can be a fine one; deny them their candy and you've got tears welling up and naughty words being shrieked at ear-bursting decibels. Every once in a blue moon, though, a rational thought will pipe up from said rock star, and it deserves a little bit of no ... More >>

Happy Birthday Kurt Cobain: Where Would He Be Today?

Last year on this date in honor of what would have been late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's 45th birthday, I wrote a blog supposing where the grunge icon would have been in 2012. It got a lot of traction and people loved and hated it. Imagining him as a dubstep DJ was really for grins and shock valu ... More >>

Music That Will Officially Be Old In 2013

One of my favorite pastimes is reminding my friends how old we are all getting, partly because I am cruel, and probably because even I am astounded that actor Steve Guttenberg is now three years older than Wilford Brimley was when they filmed Cocoon together in 1985. We can all think of things tha ... More >>

Reader's Poll: The Best 40 Albums of 1992

As we close out our 1992 week here on Rocks Off -- part nostalgia trip, part making you all feel old -- we look at the best albums of that year. The rock-music world was still on a Nirvana high, and the fruits of Cali hip-hop were ripening, with widely praised and consumed albums from Dr. Dre and Ic ... More >>

Dinosaur Jr.

MTV's Best Year: The Top 5 Videos of 1992

In 1992, the recording industry was riding high. The compact disc had become a major success, with music lovers purchasing new albums and old releases in astonishing numbers despite the format's comparatively steep price tags. And the music-video juggernaut known as MTV was helping major labels to b ... More >>

Dust Off Your Flannel

Does the looming '90s revival presage a Nirvana-style breakthrough?

Comment of the Day: Would Life In Paul Ryan's America Be Scary?

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

You Got Served: The Top 10 Legal Battles In Rock History

Ten years ago last week, one of the most vicious legal battles in rock history took another ugly turn. Ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl found themselves in King County Superior Court over a dispute with Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, over the band's considerable royalti ... More >>

Readers Poll: Who Is the Most Overrated Artist in Rock History?

The concept of "overrated" and "underrated" has always confused me. There are groups that are critically lauded, yet got little commercial love, like The Band. And then there are groups that were almost universally reviled by critics, like Journey, who consistently managed to sell out shows, sell mi ... More >>

Readers Poll: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Vs. "Welcome To The Jungle"

Sometimes the hardest questions to ask are also the most fun, at least when it comes to pop music, because you end up managing to illicit the most angry and passionate responses. Which is exactly what happened when we pit two bands and their most damaged fist-pumping anthems against one another. N ... More >>

MTV Unplugged's 10 Strangest Moments

Those of you fond of criticizing the lack of music on MTV, take note: The network's venerable Unplugged series returns on Sunday with a performance by British indie-poppers Florence and the Machine. It'll be the first of eight shows planned for this year, with The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley alrea ... More >>

Kurt Cobain At 45: Where Would He Be In 2012?

​Had he not died in April 1994 by his own hand -- or sinister forces working for Courtney Love (insert maniacal laugh) -- Kurt Cobain would have turned 45 years old today. The rock icon killed himself at the age of 27, leaving behind not only a daughter to fend for herself against the wiles of ... More >>

Before We Cared: 10 Bit Players Who Became Superstars

On this day in 1965, British songstress Petula Clark reached number one on the charts with "Downtown," a pop classic with an unforgettable hook that has become a mainstay of oldies radio, film soundtracks and TV advertisements in the years since. The song even served as a plot point in an episode o ... More >>

R&Grunge: Four Grunge Covers We'd Like To See (& One Actual One)

The '80s and '90s will never die as long as young artists continue to keep their influencers alive in song. When news broke earlier this week that D'Angelo of all people have decided to cover Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", it marked one of the few times that R&B, a genre which now sadly revolves ar ... More >>

Tumblrin' Dice: Clipart Covers Hurt Your Eyeballs

"Dazed and Confused" indeed...​Today I discovered Clipart Covers, a Tumblr site dedicated to remaking classic album covers with just clipart and comic sans, turning them into nightmarish, though amusing, affairs. Random urban-looking folks and what looks like a Wii avatar make up the cover of ... More >>

Cover Story: Uncle Charlie Is Houston's Poster Boy

​Uncle Charlie isn't just a Houston legend. Ask anyone in the poster-art scene the world over, and they'll know his work. Charlie Hardwick, the subject of this week's cover story, designs posters advertising some of the biggest names in music - from Wilco to Green Day to The Decemberists. But ... More >>

Last Night: The Meat Puppets At Fitzgerald's

The Meat Puppets Fitzgerald's October 2, 2011 Last night was a special night in Houston, and for a couple of reasons: First, we felt our first taste of autumn, with temperatures dipping into the low 60s; more importantly, in this instance, was the city's opportunity to see veteran hard-rockers and ... More >>

G N' R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year

Oh, this will be a fun induction ceremony...​This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns 'N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Bl ... More >>

Drain You: The 10 Most Expensive Nirvana Items On eBay

​Today officially marks 20 years, yes two decades, since Nirvana's Nevermind hit stores and started a whole new movement in music, er, well at least brought one further above ground. The past month the music world has been awash in articles and blogs about Nevermind, with the three living arch ... More >>

Frances Bean Cobain's Sexy Shoot Reminds Us, Once Again, That We Are Old

Photos from hedislimane.com unless otherwise indicatedLittle Frances Bean, all grown up, tatted-up, and smoking cigarettes.​There's a line from Knocked Up I think of often these days, when the doorman of a swanky nightclub tells big sister Debbie, "I can't let you in 'cause you're old as fuck. ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Music Videos Of All Time

​It's hard to fathom a time before music videos, and it's even sadder to remember when channels like MTV and VH1 were wall-to-wall music videos. In between there was a golden age, when with every clip that you watched could spark a revolution in you, or at least change your fashion sense. It's ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Bands Of The '90s

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

Lost '90s Songs Houston's The Zone Should Play

​A few weekends back, Craig's Hlist spent his whole weekend driving around town running errands listening to 106.9 The Zone, Houston's newest "alternative gold" radio station. In those 48 hours, our entire adolescence flew into our ears, reminding us of most every good and bad moment, at least ... More >>

Dead People We Wish We'd Seen

​Regrets, sang Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Sid Vicious, I've had a few. (Or, for Sid, a feee-yooouuu.) So have we all. But if you review concerts for a living, there's nothing worse than someone you like dying before you get the chance to see them live. So for this week's Round Table, Rocks Off ... More >>

Everything in Between

No Age makes punk palatable.

Today's High Schoolers Shrugging Off New Music

​During this part of the year, your humble narrator treks from school to schools selling contest music to bands and orchestras. It's a good gig, and it enables us to get a good gander at what the next generation of musicians look like. However, after several years of doing it, we started noti ... More >>

What Is Classic Rock Today?

​What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That's how we know classic rock: Big riffs, big voices, in ... More >>

Last Night: Deer Tick At The Bronze Peacock

Photos by Jason Wolter​Deer Tick House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room) October 13, 2010 What makes a Deer Tick? Equal parts The Band, Nirvana, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy and a heap of firewater. It's hard to describe Deer Tick to people who haven't heard them, but those are the best terms we c ... More >>

Early Man

Happy Anniversary, Nirvana's Nevermind

​This past Friday, a significant musical anniversary came and went with barely a peep. It was only 19 years to the day the last album to cause a legitimate sea change in popular music - both the industry and the art - was released. Rocks Off knows that was a few days ago, but hey, we had a bus ... More >>

Wham! Nu-Metal Band Gets What It Deserves

​ In 1992, Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic pulled one of the great rock and roll blunders ever at the MTV Music Video Awards when he brained himself with his bass. Novoselic was fond of tossing his bass high in the air and catching it, and only dropped it once... in front of the whole countr ... More >>

Five Memorable Artist-Audience Altercations

Chris GrayWilco's Jeff Tweedy in a much better mood, March 2008There may be a very good reason Van Morrison said practically nothing from the stage Saturday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Judging from the plentiful comments here, here and over at the Chronicle's review, it would have ... More >>

Aftermath: Houston Radio Friendly Unit Shifters Bid Nirvana's Kurt Cobain Happy 43rd

Photos by Jay Rascoe​This past Saturday would have been Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's 43rd birthday, and to celebrate, a band of some of Houston's best indie and hardcore cats got together to throw down a set of covers at Big Star Bar in the Heights, billing themselves as Danneurysm. Opening wit ... More >>

Pierced Arrows

Melvins

Friday Night Noise: Satin Hooks and Newagehillbilly

​Satin Hooks "Trinity School Road": Houston's Satin Hooks are a noise-punk band in the same sense that Liar-era Jesus Lizard and Incesticide/Bleach-era Nirvana once were: torture-slurred, aggrevied vocals, gunk-gummed stop-and-start guitars that wanna beat you bloody while sneaking an earworm melo ... More >>

The '90s Continue Unabated At House Of Blues, Homeslice!

Seriously, what's with the House of Blues downtown toying around with all our '90s modern rock nostalgia as of late? In the past eight months or so since the HOB has opened, the folks on Caroline have booked almost every quasi-major alt-rock band of the last decade, that has not died of an overdos ... More >>

Stove Blow

Locals lean on video games for instrumental inspiration

Nirvana Indian Restaurant

Brit expats looking for a "phal" need search no farther than Nirvana

Shock Treatment

Starburst

The Velvet Melvin

Cobain in Clubland

Recollections of Nirvana's three Houston shows

Too high. Period.

Curt Kirkwood, now living in Austin, is still a Meat Puppet. His brother Cris is a missing-in-action junkie.

Hot Plate

Rotation

Rotation

Hole on Halloween

Japanese Catnip

Osaka's Shonen Knife cuts a pretty slice of alternative pop

The Pop Moment

Astral Dejection The Shonen Knife/Breeders/Nirvana tour blows through Houston's hall of shame