Nirvana/Steve Albini pranked Eddie Vedder
Spiritual_Chaos
Posts: 30,874
in The Porch
https://youtu.be/HeEEm-r2hXEI remember Albini saying they tricked Gene Simmons into believing that he was speaking to Kurt, when he was in fact speaking with Albini. But this was a new tidbit to me.
"Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
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Their is nothing wrong with that but you don't get accuse anyone of selling out or being corporate if you do that.
Also I don't think Nirvana had any say in Never Mind being released in conjunction with Sub Pop. It was part of the deal. Sub Pop let them go to a major label because it would inject a ton of cash into their company.
He was very competitive.
Hadn't the two camps agreed to not have anything to do with the Time piece? I mean that was what Eddie was furious about. That he was put on there anyways even with both PJ and Nirvana agreeing on not having antthing to do with it?
I would start by saying things were a lot different 30 years ago with indie vs major along with the term "sellout" , even punk bands say now how silly it was to label a band like Green Day in 1994 as sellouts whom had no punk credit , 30 years later they admit it was so dumb to think that way but being a teenager in the early 90's this was for sure a thing.
As mentioned before Nirvana had toured for years before becoming successful , PJ rose to fame pretty quick even they admit that and wish they had paid their dues so to say.
Mother Love Bone really has nothing to do with it.
Sort of like saying Janes Addiction only got popular due to Psy Com ( Perry F old band )
That said I don't give a shit as I loved both bands in the 90's but again if you were not a teen or older you may not remember the way it was.
My 18 year old niece finds it fascinating that bands used to get shit for being on TV commercials.
If anything Nirvana's success blew that paradigm up, making it OK for Indie to be mainstream. Thus making this behavior from Kurt and Albini so cringey now.
Both bands signed on the dotted line for the hundred million dollar companies. Both bands made videos/KROQ interviews/countless MTV appearances/VMA Awards/ etc.
Neither band was shunning fame. Both could have very easily stayed on Sub Pop or signed with SST or Twin Tone.
That and Steve Albini loves to switch between acting like working with Nirvana was a pain in the ass and so below him to other times acting like they were buddies.
Farley: I actually wanted to put both Pearl Jam and Nirvana on the cover. I think I gave a thought to putting Smashing Pumpkins on there, too. But Time had a tradition of going with one person. Back then, part of the power of Time was synthesizing the cultural moment and reducing it to a single face. I wanted the face to be Nirvana, but their handlers had played a little bit coy as to whether they would talk to me or not. I sort of got the feeling they were drawing things out so I wouldn’t put Pearl Jam on the cover.
Again not arguing any points just saying how fans of indie music looked at "selling out" in the 90' , totally different times now I have nothing but love for both bands. Again I am guilty of growing up in that era and being outraged when bands signed to major labels. As an adult it is just foolish to thing about "how dare you try to make money off your music and how dare anyone charge more than 7 dollars for a show.
Being a teen in the early 90's god I was such a shit.
Also, that Target stuff was over 10 years ago.
“The perception at the time was that Pearl Jam was a sellout major label band and Nirvana was the band that came up through punk rock—which was a crazy myth, but that’s the way things were. Jeff was in a hardcore band, he had a fanzine, he was more involved in the punk rock and hardcore scene than Kurt Cobain ever was. And Stone and Jeff were in Green River, which was on Sub Pop. The roots are just as deep.”
Two of the original five PJ members had modest ties to a major label. It’s not like Mother Love Bone had set the world on fire. The notion that PJ was pieced together by industry executives like some kind of pop group is just pure fiction. The topic is silly, but Steve Albini has always irritated me. I wish I hadn’t even watched the clip.