Inevitably, though, it was Krist Novoselic’s guest appearance on the album which attracted most commentary. For snarky online commentators, the idea that Grohl would reunite three of the four men responsible for making Nevermind as the album’s 20th anniversary approached was opportunistic and conceited. For Grohl himself, however, the motivation was pure and straightforward: Novoselic and Vig are family. ‘I’d have to be pretty stupid to think it would go unnoticed!’ he acknowledged in 2010. ‘When we recorded with Butch last year I had so much fun just being in the studio with him again. We only recorded those two songs but it was the same feeling, it reminded me of making Nevermind in 1991 – not the music, just the experience of being with Butch. And we’d talked about making an album together again for years, we started talking about it in 2000 for the fourth record, his name always comes up whenever it’s time to make a record. And after recording those two songs I thought, “Okay, it’s time, it’s time to work with Butch.” And then I realised that it’s also going to be the 20th anniversary of Nevermind. So I can either keep that from letting me make a record with Butch, or just not pay attention to it, because the idea of making this album with Butch in this way and having Krist come down and play on it is all for the sake of not being afraid of that. Does that make any sense?
‘Ultimately what we’re doing here isn’t meant to recreate what happened 20 years ago, it’s more of a reminder that we’re here for the same reason, and we’ve all survived: we’re fathers and we have families and we still love making music the same as we did 20 years ago. I know that when the album comes out there will be a ton of unneeded pressure and a lot of the focus will be on the fact that Butch and I are working together again after 20 years and that Krist Novoselic is playing bass on one song, and I’m okay with that, it’s totally fine. I love our album, I think it’s great, but it’s a Foo Fighters record, it’s not a Nirvana record, and it’s important that people realise that I’m here to make a Foo Fighters record and not a Nirvana record. Krist and I are still great friends, we talk all the time and see each other a lot, and there’s no question that this year will be a big year for Krist and I because of that anniversary, but what we’re doing here isn’t about that.’
Wasting Light is no Nevermind, nor was it ever intended to be, but it shares with that album an unselfconscious, unabashed love of volume, noise and melody, and a simplicity of purpose which echoes with memories of jam sessions in a spartan Tacoma rehearsal room before life got complicated. Grohl isn’t looking to subvert rock ’n’ roll, but rather to celebrate it – for Jimmy, for Kurt, for every kid whose life has been changed by a seven-inch slice of black vinyl delivering three chords and the truth – and nowhere is this more evident than on album-closer ‘Walk’, an anthem so open-hearted and optimistic it risks tipping into mawkish sentimentality. As waves of guitar build and roar behind him, Grohl screams, ‘I never wanna die!’ over and over, a howl of exultation rooted in DC punk positivity and delivered with electrifying, undeniable conviction. Closing out an album which both consciously and unconsciously sets Dave Grohl’s whole life into context, it’s a sentiment that betrays the singer’s fervent belief that his future starts here.
In the same week that Wasting Light débuted atop the Billboard 200, a new exhibition opened at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Titled ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’, the interactive exhibition celebrates not only the music and history of Seattle’s most iconic grunge collective, but also traces – via oral histories delivered on film by underground icons such as Greg Ginn, Ian MacKaye, Steve Albini, Mike Watt, Keith Morris, Mark Arm and the B-52s’ Kate Pierson – the evolution and development of the American punk rock underground community. In display cases hewn from elm trees grown on Krist Novoselic’s farmland in rural Washington, more than 140,000 cultural artefacts related to popular music are on show: among them the black Fender Stratocaster smashed by Kurt Cobain during the recording of ‘Endless Nameless’ at Sound City during the Nevermind sessions; the T-shirt Cobain wore in the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video; one of Dave Grohl’s Tama drumkits; and Grohl’s handwritten set-list for Foo Fighters’ first Seattle club show at the Velvet Elvis, alongside thousands of flyers, photographs, ticket stubs and Krist Novoselic’s teenage record collection. It’s a fascinating, illuminating exhibition.
On the evening of 15 April 2011, the night before the exhibition opened to the public, Novoselic spoke in moving, emotional terms to an invited audience about the impact that this musical community had upon his own life, and the life of his closest friend, Kurt Cobain. He then paid tribute to old friends in Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, and thanked Dale Crover’s mother for putting up with the presence of the Cling-Ons at her home at 609 West Second Street. And he also gave a special shout-out to Dave Grohl.
‘I love Dave,’ said Novoselic. ‘He released a new record this week … and it rocks. Dave’s out there, and he works hard, and he’s never lost focus. He’s carrying the flame …’
There’s a certain irony in Seattle’s music scene luminaries getting misty-eyed over the music of their youth – didn’t Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Eddie Vedder join forces with Mike Watt to decry such nostalgia as ‘someone else’s sentimentality’ – but then in visiting the Emerald City in 2011 one might wonder if grunge ever really left its streets. Some of the scene’s iconic venues may have disappeared – The Vogue is now a hair salon called Vain, the site of the OK Hotel is now home to chic waterfront apartments and art studios – but its key players continue to thrive: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Melvins all have gigs and tours lined up for the latter half of 2011. As Nevermind turns 20, punk rock kids in dirty Black Flag and Dead Kennedys T-shirts still gather noisily outside Starbucks on the corner of 4th and Pine Street, and the Crocodile Café and Central Tavern still play host to gangs of dissolute teens with bad attitudes, shitty equipment and dreams of escape. Quite what these youngsters made of 20-year-old Casey Abrams’s performance of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on manufactured pop talent show American Idol in March 2011 is anyone’s guess, but Kurt Cobain would doubtless have enjoyed the delicious mind-warping irony of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler saluting Abrams as ‘crazy’ for his take on grunge’s most iconoclastic anthem.
In December 2010 Dave Grohl indulged in a little grunge nostalgia of his own. On the day he was due to wrap the mixing of Wasting Light with Alan Moulder, Grohl booked Foo Fighters a surprise show at the tiny Paladino’s club in Tarzana, California to première songs from the album. He decided to invite Krist Novoselic along to play ‘Marigold’, the Pocketwatch track which became the B-side of Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box single, for a performance which would reunite the surviving members of Nirvana onstage for the first time since Foo Fighters’ Bumbershoot festival appearance in 1997.
The day before the show Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear got together in a Hollywood rehearsal room to run through the song. Once satisfied, Novoselic asked his two friends if they wanted to run through some ‘mouldy oldies’ for old time’s sake: he suggested they might tackle ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. And so, some sixteen years after he last played the song, Dave Grohl beat out the song’s iconic opening tattoo once more.
Halfway through the performance, the studio manager opened the rehearsal room door and watched in silence for a few moments.
‘That sounded pretty good,’ he said finally. ‘You guys should keep that.’
Grohl, Novoselic and Smear exchanged amused looks and burst out laughing. As the door of the room slammed shut again, Grohl picked up his drumsticks once more. As memories of days gone by rushed to his head, he composed himself and smiled. Then he looked at his friends, nodded and loudly counted in another song …
Sources
Quotations
All quotations are taken from the author’s interviews, except as noted below:
Chapter 1
‘It’s kinda funny for a while …’ Neil Kulkarni, ‘I Fucking Hated Hollywood’, Metal Hammer,
December 1999.
‘Porn stars become grocery clerks …’ Ben Mitchell, ‘A Life Less Ordinary’, Q, December 2005.
‘You and I are a lot alike …’ Andy Gray and Darcie Loreno, ‘Rocker Talks to Alley Painters’, Warren Tribune Chronicle, 2 August 2009.
‘Just because you’re born here …’ Sarah Poulton, ‘Music Is Art: Warren Celebrates a Music Superstar’, www.valley24.com, 25 July 2009.
‘Pretty much at other ends …’ Michael Azerrad, Come AsYou Are, Main Street Books, 1993.
‘You’re thinking “This can’t be the United States of America …”’ Charles Colson, ‘Nixon: A Presidency Revealed’, History Channel documentary, February 2007.
‘15 minutes from chicken farmers, and 15 minutes from the White House.’ Austin Scaggs, ‘On a Honor Roll’, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2005.
‘Of course it caused a lot of pain and it caused a lot of struggle …’ Tom Doyle, ‘I Wanted to Take Acid and Smash Stuff ’, Q, July 2007.
‘By the time I got a hold of the situation …’ Dave Everley, ‘I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker’, Kerrang!, 2 August 1997.
‘To me that was just the best sound …’ Anon, ‘I Saw the Light’, NME, 1999.
‘To this day [it’s] still one of the most amazing songs …’ Anon, ‘Songs in the Key of Life’, NME, 1999.
‘I had a chair that was next to my bed …’ Ken Micallef, ‘Returning to His Roots’, Modern Drummer, June 2004.
‘They always said the same thing …’ Dave Everley, ‘I was a teenage punk rocker”, Kerrang!, 2 August 1997.
‘Those guitars! Two strings! How cool! *…’ Anon, ‘Rebellious Jukebox’, Melody Maker, 1997.
Chapter 2
‘The term “punk” is bandied about an awful lot these days …’ Mick Houghton, ‘White Punks on Coke’, Let It Rock, December 1975
‘This band hates you …’ Charles M. Young, ‘Rock Is Sick and Living in London’, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977.
‘Kids destroyed schools …’ Charles M. Young, ‘Rock Is Sick and Living In London’, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
‘I’m working Monday through Friday …’ Paul Rachman and Steve Blush, American Hardcore, Sony Pictures, 2006.
‘I stood there and thought “I could do this … ”’ Paul Connolley, ‘Rock Warriors’, The Times, November 2002.
‘I talked to the singer and I jumped on someone’s head …’ Stevie Chick, ‘Everyone Has Their Dark Side’, MOJO, May 2005.
‘It took me about a year before I finally found it …’ Stevie Chick, ‘Everyone Has Their Dark Side’, MOJO, May 2005.
‘Ian’s the only one who ever did the punk thing right …’ Brendan Mullen, ‘This Band Could Be His Life’, L.A.Weekly, 10 March 2005.
‘They were detonating every song …’ Don Letts, Punk:Attitude, Freemantle Media, 2005.
‘There was no music scene in Washington …’ Peter Hepburn, ‘Ian MacKaye’, www.cokemachineglow.com, 2 October 2004.
‘Bad Brains influenced us incredibly …’ Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins, Dance of Days:Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital, Soft Skull Press, 2001.
‘HR was the energizer …’ Nardwuar, ‘Narwuar vs Ian of Fugazi’, www.nardwuar.com, 7 July 2001.
‘From the very beginning of the label we were told …’ Peter Hepburn, ‘Ian MacKaye’, www.cokemachineglow.com, 2 October 2004.
‘We like to play out of town …’ Al Flipside, ‘Black Flag’, Flipside, December 1980.
‘We think everybody should be subjected to us …’ John Kezdy, ‘Black Flag’, The Coolest Retard, 1981.
‘There’s more impact in playing for people …’ Steve Stiph, ‘Black Flag’, Outcry, 1980.
‘In the middle of the show, I took a knife …’ Henry Rollins, Get in the Van, 2.13.61, 1994.
‘Punk rock has more asshole …’ Vic Bondi, ‘Vic, Ian and Dave’, maximumrocknroll, September 1983.
‘I have some really great practice tapes …’ Nardwuar, ‘Narwuar vs Ian of Fugazi’, www.nardwuar.com, 7 July 2001.
‘It’s sad, all those little kids that were on skateboards …’ Bill Bartell, ‘Black Market Baby’, Flipside, August 1984.
Chapter 3
‘But nobody else blew me away as much as Bad Brains …’ Anon, ‘The 100 Greatest Albums You’ve Never Heard’, NME, 28 December 2010.
‘It was a time when hardcore bands were these skinny white guys …’ Anon, ‘The Greatest Gig I Ever Saw’, Melody Maker, 1999.
‘For me, punk rock was an escape …’ Anon, ‘Page + Plant + Grohl’, Raygun, 1998.
‘There was some Nirvana book that glorified my parents’ divorce …’ Ben Mitchell, ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ Q, November 2005.
‘Imagine the lectures I’d get if I fucked up …’ Paul Connolly, ‘Rock Warriors’, The Times, November 2002.
‘He thought that unless you practised for six hours a day …’ Paul Connolly, ‘Rock Warriors’, The Times, November 2002.
‘We all decided that this is it, Revolution Summer …’ Al Quint, ‘Fugazi’, Suburban Voice, 1990 (Issue 29).
‘Revolution Summer is a revival …’ Anon, Flipside, 1985 (Issue 74).
‘The Do-It-Yourself element made everything more special …’ Ben Mitchell, unpublished extract from ‘My Brilliant Career’, Q, November 2007.
‘I was smoking all day long …’ Chris Marlowe, ‘I Haven’t Smoked a Joint in Six Years’, Metal Hammer, January 1996.
‘The first time I took acid …’ Ben Mitchell, unpublished extract from ‘A Life Less Ordinary’, Q, December 2005.
‘I’d never cracked a Bible in my life …’ Tom Doyle, ‘I Wanted to Take Acid and Smash Stuff!’, Q, July 2007.
‘To me, Zeppelin were spiritually inspirational …’ Dave Grohl, ‘Led Zeppelin: The Immortals’, Rolling Stone, 15 April 2004.
‘Led Zeppelin, and John Bonham’s drumming …’ Anon, ‘Sock It to ’Em JB!’, MOJO, 2005.
‘As a 17-year-old kid raised playing punk-rock drums …’ Anon, ‘Dave Grohl on Physical Graffiti’, Uncut, 2005.
‘Bonham played directly from the heart …’ Anon, ‘Sock It to ’Em JB!’, MOJO, 2005.
Chapter 4
‘Raised in a van by wolves …’ Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, Hodder & Stoughton, 2001.
‘The first time I saw them …’ Mitch Parker, ‘Scream’, maximumrocknroll, May 1983.
‘When I first saw them …’ Mitch Parker, ‘Scream’, maximumrocknroll, May 1983.
‘This is the album where Scream went from being …’ Anon, ‘Rebellious Jukebox’, Melody Maker, 1997.
‘The best set of the year, so far …’ Al Quint, ‘Live Shows’, Suburban Voice, Summer 1985.
‘I don’t think Hüsker Dü signing to a major label …’ Bob Mould, ‘What th’ Fuck!!!!’, maximumrocknroll, February 1986.
‘The freaks, the fags, the fat girls …’ Sean O’Hagan, ‘Michael Stipe: I Often Find Myself at a Loss for Words’, Observer, 6 March 2011.
‘They started out with the ambition …’ Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, Little, Brown & Co., 2001.
‘I said “Hallelujah. Go” …’ Donna St George, ‘For These Stars, Mom Rules’, Washington Post, 11 May 2008.
‘Even then, she knew me well enough …’ Donna St George, ‘For These Stars, Mom Rules’, Washington Post, 11 May 2008.
‘All parents want their kids to do brilliantly at school …’ Dirk Siepe, ‘Grohl Speaks’, Visions, September 2000.
‘The two of us were laughing so hysterically …’ Dan Silver, ‘Get in the Van’, Metal Hammer, 1998.
‘We were killing time between gigs …’ Anon, ‘Last Night a Record Changed My Life’, MOJO, 2004.
‘I always thought I knew the definition of heavy …’ Anon, ‘It Changed My Life’, Kerrang!, 2001.
‘He’d say, “That sounds too good … ”’ Pat Kearney, ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rumble’, The Stranger, 25 April 2002.
‘Though they don’t want you to k
now it …’ Robert Christgau, ‘Consumer Guide Reviews: Big Black’, www.robertchristgau.com.
‘It’s still essentially wilderness country up here …’ Martin Aston, ‘Freak Scene’, Nirvana and the Story of Grunge, 2005
‘I looked at those photos, and I immediately knew …’ Jason Crock, ‘Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman’, www.pitchfork.com, 7 July 2008.
‘Not only did we put an emphasis on design …’ Steve Wells, ‘Expresso Way to Your Skull’, NME, 18 July 1992.
‘Before Seattle I’d never been exposed to rock …’ Everett True, Nirvana: The True Story, Omnibus, 2006.
‘Basically, this is the real thing …’ Everett True, ‘Sub Pop, Seattle: Rock City’, Melody Maker, 18 March 1989.
Chapter 5
‘You have to understand, for me, Nirvana is more …’ Ed Power, ‘Into the Light’, Irish Independent, 8 April 2011.
‘You could just say, “Hey Kurt, sing this!” …’ Gillian G. Gaar, ‘Verse Chorus Verse: The Recording History of Nirvana’, Goldmine, 14 February 1997.
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