Earlier than his dying in 1994, Kurt Cobain wrote up a listing of his prime 50 favourite albums of all time. KEXP’s podcast The Cobain 50 dives into a distinct album from the record for every episode.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the dying of a legend Kurt Cobain, the singer and guitarist of the pioneering rock band Nirvana. Primarily based out of a small city in Washington state, they’re stated to have introduced punk to the mainstream. Earlier than his dying by suicide in 1994, Cobain wrote up a listing of his prime 50 favourite albums of all time, and it consists of artists you may 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 known as The Cobain 50. Every week, the present takes a deep dive into a distinct album on the record and its impression on Cobain as a musician. Here is a style from Episode 3, through 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, after all I am speaking in regards to 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, really helpful they work with a brand new producer this time round, a man by the identify of Steve Albini. Lately, Albini has a popularity as probably the most 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 information, 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 Massive Black.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KEROSENE”)
BIG BLACK: (Singing) Kerosene round, set me on hearth.
HENRY: Albini first met the Pixies at a cocktail party simply weeks after “Come On Pilgrim” was launched. They hit it off so effectively that all of them headed to the studio the very subsequent day. Albini performed a vital 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 observe 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 price.
Within the practicalities of recording, Albini prefers to report the band in the identical room, enjoying along with minimal overdubs. It is a large a part of what makes “Surfer Rosa” sound the way in which 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 potential to how they sound within the room. It is his perception that, quote, “99% of the sound of a report ought to be established whereas the fundamental take is recorded.” In different phrases, help the band. Get out of the way in which. 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 definitely not their final.
And after I say masterpiece, by the way in which, I do not imply that it is pristine. The truth is, what makes “Surfer Rosa” so sensible is its uncooked nature. It is the purpose once we see the band actually coining the patented loud, quiet, loud dynamics. Simply take a take heed 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, large 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 strong impact going from these huge 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 grievance. Without end in debt to your priceless recommendation. Hey. Wait.
HENRY: “Surfer Rosa” won’t have been a business smash, but it surely thrilled indie rock followers throughout the globe. This album turned a guiding mild 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 prompt basic sophomore album “Nevermind” in 1991. When it got here to comply with it up, the band went in a distinct route. Whereas Butch Vig’s clear and polished manufacturing of “Nevermind” made them superstars, they craved a extra rawer sound, so that they approached the producer of “Surfer Rosa,” the exact same Steve Albini. Here is Nirvana’s Chris Novoselic and Dave Grohl speaking in regards to 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 feel 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 at all times listened to information that Steve had made. I keep in mind after I first moved in with Kurt, I feel he solely had like 4 information. It was like – He had a Mark Lanegan report. There was “Surfer Rosa.” There was The Breeders’ “Pod” and The Jesus Lizard report. And that was simply the sound that we felt most that we cherished.
HENRY: It is arduous to emphasize how radical of a transfer this was for Nirvana on the time. After the success of “Nevermind,” Nirvana rapidly turned the most important band on this planet, 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 effectively. Now I am bored and previous.
HENRY: You hear the spirit of “Surfer Rosa” instantly on Nirvana’s final report, “In Utero.” With Albini’s steering, the band applied the identical studio practices that the Pixies used when making their report. “In Utero” combines the rawness of “Bleach” with the songcraft of “Nevermind.” For my part, it is the absolutely realized model of Nirvana’s sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TOURETTE’S”)
NIRVANA: (Singing) Mayday, on daily basis, 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 brazenly 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 are actually. Entertain us.
HENRY: In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stones’ David Fricke, Kurt stated, quote, “I used to be mainly attempting to tear off the Pixies. After I heard the Pixies for the primary time, I related with that band so closely. I ought to have been in that band or at the least in a Pixies cowl band.” In Michael Azerrad’s Nirvana biography, “Come As You Are,” the band brazenly nervous in regards to the tune, saying, this actually sounds just like the Pixies. Individuals 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 plenty, and all the sphere of rock music essentially modified internationally. With out the Pixies, there won’t have been Nirvana, at the least not in the way in which 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 identify, Tony. It is known as “Tony’s Theme.”
DETROW: That was an excerpt from KEXP’s weekly podcast collection The Cobain 50. The station additionally produces a Spanish-language companion to the present, El Cancionero de Kurt, which explores the impression of Nirvana in South America and vice versa. You may be taught extra at kepx.org (ph). And you could find each of these podcasts on the NPR app or wherever you take heed to podcasts.
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