Kurt Cobain Band: name, history of creation

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 12:35

Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the rock band Nirvana. Cobain is remembered as one of the most iconic and influential rock musicians in the history of alternative music.

He founded Nirvana in 1987 with Chris Novoselic. Within two years, the band became an integral part of the growing grunge scene in Seattle. In 1991, the release of Nirvana's hit Smells Like Teen Spirit marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in popular rock music from the dominant genres of the 1980s towards grunge and alternative rock. The music media eventually named Cobain as a member of Generation X.

Biography

Kurt Cobain was born to Donald and Wendy Cobain on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington. For the first 6 months after the birth of their son, the family lived in the village of Hokiam, Washington, before finally moving to Aberdeen. From an early age, Cobain was fond of music. His life changed in 1975 when he was 9 years old. At this time, his parents are getting divorced, and this event, as laterdeclared the musician, had a profound effect on his life. Kurt's mother noted that his personality changed dramatically and Cobain became more withdrawn. In a 1993 interview, Cobain said:

I remember feeling ashamed for some reason. I was ashamed of my parents.

After a year with his mother after his divorce, Cobain moved in with his father in Montesano, Washington. But after a few years, his youthful rebelliousness reached such a peak that he became embroiled in strife between friends and family. At school, Cobain had little interest in sports. At his father's insistence, he joined the junior wrestling team. And although Kurt was successful in sports, he hated doing them.

Cobain was friends with one of the students at his school who was gay, as a result of which he was sometimes bullied by other students. This friendship led some to believe that he himself was gay. In one of his personal journals, Cobain wrote: "I'm not gay, although I would like to piss off homophobes." In the middle of 10th grade, Cobain moved back to live with his mother in Aberdeen. However, 2 weeks before his scheduled graduation, he dropped out of high school after realizing that he did not have enough credits to graduate. Kurt's mother gave Kurt a choice: either get a job or leave.

About a week later, Cobain found his clothes and other items packed in boxes. Exiled from his mother's home, he spent the night at friends' houses and sometimes made his way to his mother's basement. In late 1986, Cobain moved into the first house in which he becamelive alone. He paid for the apartment while working in a coastal resort 30 km from Aberdeen. At the same time, he often traveled to Olympia, Washington to watch rock shows.

Musical influences

Cobain was a devoted fan of early alternative rock bands. His interest in the underground began when Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins allowed him to borrow a cassette of songs from punk bands such as Black Flag, Flipper and Millions of Dead Cops. He often referred to them in interviews, giving more weight to bands that influenced him than to his own music.

Future Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain also highlighted the influence of the Pixies and noted that his song Smells Like Teen Spirit bears some resemblance to their sound. Cobain told Melody Maker in 1992 that hearing Surfer Rosa first convinced him to abandon Black Flag-influenced songwriting in favor of writing songs like Iggy Pop and Aerosmith, which appeared on Nevermind.

The Beatles were an early and important musical influence on Cobain. He expressed a special love for John Lennon, whom he called his idol. Cobain once said that he wrote the song "About a Girl" after listening to "Meet the Beatles" for 3 hours.

Nirvana's early style was also influenced by major 1970s rock bands including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Kiss and Neil Young. In the early days, Nirvana regularly played cover versions of these bands.

Before Nirvana

Not all fans of the musician know which group Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of before the creation"Nirvana". In 1985, 18-year-old Kurt Cobain, who had just dropped out of school, formed the band Fecal Matter with drummer Greg Hokanson and future Melvins drummer Dale Crover, who played bass. This group has never been anything serious. They only recorded one 4 track demo called Illiteracy Will Prevail.

A collection of 13 "absolutely abrasive" punk songs full of noise and instrumental riff tracks, there is debate over the title of each song. However, it is known that the last full song written before the band broke up is an early version of Downer from Nirvana's first Bleach album.

After Kurt Cobain's first band Fecal Matter broke up and the Melvins began supporting their debut EP, Cobain continued to play Illiteracy Will Prevail. Krist Novoselic heard a few tracks that he really liked, he and Cobain decided to form a band. Thus, Nirvana was born.

Nirvana will later re-record two other Fecal Matter tracks: Anorexorcist and Spank Thru.

Nirvana

On his 14th birthday, Cobain's uncle offered him a choice of a guitar or a bicycle as a gift. Kurt chose the guitar. He started learning songs like AC/DC Back in Black and The Cars Girl's Best Best's Girl. He soon began working on his own songs. In high school, Cobain rarely met anyone he could jam with. While hanging out at the Melvins' training ground, he met Chris Novoselic, one of the punkrock. Novoselic's mother owned a hair salon, and Cobain and Novoselic sometimes practiced in the upstairs room.

During the first few years of playing together, Novoselic and Cobain changed drummers frequently. The band eventually accepted Chad Channing, with whom they recorded the album Bleach, released on Sub Pop Records in 1989. However, Cobain was unhappy with Channing's style, which led the group to look for a replacement, eventually settling on Dave Grohl. With him, Kurt Cobain's Nirvana band found their greatest success with their 1991 label debut Nevermind.

Cobain struggled to reconcile Nirvana's massive success with his underground roots. He also felt persecuted by the media, harboring resentment towards people who claimed to be fans of the group but who he felt completely missed the point that was put into the lyrics.

Nirvana changed rock music in just a few years, but in the beginning they were just another band deciding on lineup and name. Kurt Cobain's band name was chosen from a variety of options, including Stiff Woodies, Pen Cap Chew and Skid Row, before the Nirvana name was finalized.

Promising first album

After recording a series of demo songs in 1988, Nirvana signed a record deal with Seattle Sub Pop. A year later, the band released their first album, Bleach. Although it only sold around 35,000 copies, this album defined Cobain's penchant for angry songs about outsiders.people. Musically, the album was heavily influenced by early Black Sabbath, the heavy dirge rock of The Melvins and Mudhoney, and the hardcore of Black Flag and Minor Threat. Kurt also said that the band listened to Swiss extreme metallers Celtic Frost before recording the album.

New decade and new drummer

As the Kurt Cobain band entered the 90s, its popularity continued to rise. Around the same time, a major change took place at Nirvana: Channing left the band and was replaced by Dave Grohl, the former drummer for the punk band Scream. The Bleach album won the admiration of respected bands such as Sonic Youth, and the demos from subsequent sessions began to attract the attention of major labels. Signed to DGC, Nirvana recorded their next album, Nevermind.

Towards the mainstream

Released in September 1991, Nevermind was not a stunning breakthrough, but thanks to its first single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, the album reached the top of the charts by January 1992. At a time when pop and death metal were wildly popular, Nevermind signaled a cultural shift towards faster, more intense music, fueled by introspective, sometimes caustic lyrics.

Acoustic album

Toward the end of 1993, Kurt Cobain's rock band took part in MTV's hit Unplugged series, featuring bands performing acoustic versions of their songs. The program, later released as a standalone album, emphasized Cobain's darker take onlife through powerful, mournful versions of his songs. Intentionally or not, the MTV special soon proved prophetic as Cobain's life took a tragic turn.

Group discography

	Album name	Year of issue
1.	Bleach	1989
2.	Nevermind	1991
3.	Incesticide	1992
4.	In Utero	1993
5.	MTV Unplugged in New York (live)	1994
6.	From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (live)	1996
7.	Nirvana (great hits)	2002
8.	With the Lights Out	2004
9.	Sliver: The Best of the Box	2005

Kurat Cobain's personal life

Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's future wife, Courtney Love, first saw the musician perform in 1989 at a show in Portland, Oregon. They talked to each other for a bit after the show and Love fell in love withhim. According to journalist Everett True, the pair were officially introduced at an L7/Butthole Surfers concert in Los Angeles in May 1991. In the weeks that followed, after learning from Dave Grohl that her feelings for Cobain were mutual, Love began to pursue Cobain. After a few weeks of courtship in the fall of 1991, the two were regularly together. In addition to the emotional and physical attraction, the couple was reportedly linked to drug use.

Courtney Love was unpopular with some Nirvana fans. Her harshest critics said she was simply using Kurt as a vehicle to get famous. Some compared Cobain to John Lennon, while Courtney was equated with Yoko Ono.

In a 1992 article for Vanity Fair, Courtney Love admitted to using heroin without knowing she was already pregnant. She later claimed that Vanity Fair misquoted her. The couple found themselves harassed by tabloid journalists after the article was published.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children's Affairs sued the Cobains, alleging drug use made them unfit to be parents. The judge ordered the two-week-old Frances Bean Cobain to be removed from custody and handed over to Courtney's sister, Jamie. Kurt and Kourtney then received custody a few weeks later, but they had to take drug tests and see a social worker regularly. After months of legal wrangling, the couple ended up with full custody of their daughter.

Drug addiction

Cobain used heroin intermittently for several years, and by the end of 1990 it had developed into a full-blown addiction. He claimed he was "determined to get into the habit" as a way of self-medicating his ailing stomach.

Heroin use eventually began to affect the group's success. Kurt Cobain once passed out during a photo shoot. Over the years, Cobain's addiction has only worsened. The first attempt at rehabilitation came in early 1992, shortly after he and Love discovered they were going to be parents. Immediately after he left rehab, Nirvana went on an Australian tour with Cobain, who looked pale and haggard, suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Shortly after returning home, Cobain began using heroin again.

Before speaking at the New Music seminar in New York in July 1993, Cobain suffered a heroin overdose. Instead of calling an ambulance, Love injected Cobain with illegally purchased naloxone to knock him out of his unconsciousness. Cobain continued to perform with the band without giving the audience any reason to think anything out of the ordinary was going on.

Last weeks and death

On March 1, 1994, Cobain, who was in Munich, Germany, was diagnosed with bronchitis and a severe form of laryngitis. And already on March 2, Kurt flies to Rome for treatment, and the next day his wife joined him. The next morning, Courtney woke up to find that Cobain had been usingRohypnol, washed down with champagne. The musician was immediately taken to the hospital, where he spent the rest of the day unconscious. After 5 days, he returned to Seattle.

April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in a spare room above the garage at his Lake Washington home by Veca Electric employee Gary Smith. A suicide note was also found nearby under an overturned flower pot.

April 10, a public farewell to the musician was held in a park in Seattle Center, which was attended by about 7,000 people. Near the end of the farewell, Love arrived at the park and distributed some of Cobain's clothes to those who were still left. Cobain's body was cremated.

Legacy

In 2005, a sign was erected in Aberdeen, Washington saying Welcome to Aberdeen. Come as you are ("Welcome to Aberdeen. Come as you are") in honor of the name of one of the songs of the Kurt Cobain band. The badge was paid for and created by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee, a non-profit organization formed in May 2004.

The bench in Viretta Park has also become a de facto monument to Cobain. Since the musician has no grave, many Nirvana fans visit Viretta Park near Cobain's former home in Lake Washington to pay their respects. On the anniversary of his death, fans of the band that Kurt Cobain sang in gather in the park to honor his memory. The lead singer of Nirvana is often remembered as one of the most iconic rock musicians in the history of alternative music.

Although Nirvana disbanded shortly after the death of its leader,the band's legacy lives on to this day, and its biggest hits are still a staple of rock radio. Subsequently, Grohl, Novoselic, and Cobain's widow Courtney Love (of Hole) released live albums and compilations, including a greatest hits compilation and a box set of rare tracks. Since the breakup of Nirvana, Novoselic has performed in several bands, with Grohl focusing his energy on his own band Foo Fighters.