What more can be said about the influence Nirvana had on not only rock music, pop music, or pop culture in general? Their breakthrough success with 1991’s Nevermind changed the way the world looked at rock music just like The Beatles did 30 years before. During a time when it was hard to distinguish a Hard Rock group from a manufactured Boy Band, Nirvana came into the scene like a beacon of hope for the everyman. No longer did kids have to grow their hair out, and practice neo-classical, string tapping, flash on their guitar to be considered ‘cool’. Kurt Cobain showed the world that anyone could be a rock star. Care less about your wardrobe, and just bang out a few power chords on your inexpensive guitar and sing how you felt, even if it sounded like a dog in heat. Be yourself. That’s what Cobain did best. In fact, by now it’s a known fact that he hated his own success. These days hating on the mainstream, wreaks of hipster, but Cobain was the real deal. I’m sure he enjoyed being paid millions doing what he loved doing and all, but at the end of the day, he was disgusted by celebrity. Ironically enough, that leads us to where we are today.
After his death in early 1994, Cobain went from being the do-it-yourself, rock star for the everyman to being immortalized as some sort of ageless deity. His songs with Nirvana are still staples on corporate rock stations. His face plastered on T-shirts and posters. He has been everywhere and remains a popular commodity among the youth in this country. Go into any high school or mall and at any given time you will be met with teenage girls wearing Nirvana logo T-shirts, or the iconic Kurt-with-wings photo. The kids today don’t even really understand who Cobain was in the industry, I mean I was 11 years old when Cobain committed suicide, which propelled my curiosity about this larger than life entity even back then. These same teenage girls sporting Nirvana shirts now, probably couldn’t name all three of their studio albums, much less why Nirvana was so popular back then. Now Cobain is this strange mythological figure like some sort of punk rock Jesus, speaking out against conformity, standing up for the bullied, dying for your mainstream sins. He is a make-shift legend where every single off-cuff comment he made is now immortalized on memes, as a voice for those who don’t fit in with the popular kids.
The media has sucked every ounce of commerce out of the man after his death. Stickers, T-shirts, and posters were small potatoes, now his old personal belongings have been auctioned off for thousands of dollars, personal diaries along with his suicide note have been published in books available at every Barnes & Noble. Numerous box set special edition versions of Nirvana records, and of course unreleased demos. The obsession has gotten so deep that even conspiracy theories of his life and death have been the subject of theatrical documentaries as late as earlier this year with the likes of the unauthorized Soaked In Bleach and the authorized Montage Of Heck. Perhaps we are getting to the bottom of the proverbial scrap barrel though. The pseudo-soundtrack to one of those documentaries, has been released as sort of a Kurt Cobain solo record titled Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings.
First off, I have to say that I’m extremely thankful in some sense that Nirvana’s name wasn’t tagged along with this release. This is not a collection of demos the band was involved in. Actually, it’s not even a collection of demos as much as it’s a strange collection of noodling and experimentation. While working on the documentary Montage of Heck, director Brett Morgen, discovered a box full of home recordings Cobain did starting in the late 80s, while living with his then girlfriend Tracy Marander. Morgen listened to the tapes over and over before using a lot of the material in his film. The best (presumably) and the rest have been compiled to make up this album.
If you were expecting scratch takes of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or early versions of “Come As You Are,” you are going to be gravely disappointed. Instead of hearing a masterful song writing working on songs that will define a generation, we get bizarre five minute tracks of painfully out of tune guitar starting with one riff and floating out to sea with another by the time the track is finished. One track even features Cobain doing a Donal Duck impression. I hope that paints a picture of what you are getting yourself into by listening to this collection.
Not all of it is that bad though, there is an interesting 1940s-esque demo titled “The Happy Guitar” that shows that when focused, Cobain could work out a decent pop melody without coming off extremely pretentious. There’s also an unexpected Beatles cover “And I Love Her” with it’s almost haunting performance that makes me wish there is some sort of unreleased Nirvana recording of it somewhere. I will go as far as saying that the only thing listenable on this collection, are the early Nirvana demos like “Been A Son” or “Sappy.” It’s obvious that Cobain was an actual artist who’s wheels were always turning. Tracy Marander has went on record saying that when he lived with her, he would just sit and strum his guitar all day watching TV, making up all sorts of songs and stories constantly. But if one’s wheels are always turning, does that mean that everything they come up with should be considered genius? Or even heard for that matter? When the songs are actual songs, they are a pretty good indicator that he was onto something but there isn’t enough here to string an actual album together.
The question that keeps coming up when I listened to Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings is Why am I listening to this? This collection doesn’t give me any insight as to who Cobain was as an artist, or a person. The songs (if you want to call them that) are so dischord and ugly, that the only welcoming sound is the hiss of the cassette recording. I love Nirvana don’t get me wrong and I love hearing demos and previously unreleased recordings of bands and artists that I love, but this is not enjoyable at all. Which leads me to the worst part of this whole thing: What would Kurt say? Nirvana bassist and Cobain’s friend since childhood Kris Novoselic, has said in the past that Kurt’s biggest fear was humiliation. He hated the thought of ever being humiliated and that fear could very well be the driving force behind his hatred of being a household name. Being that none of these songs outside of Nirvana demos, saw the light of day before his death, how do you think he would have felt about the world hearing something from this collection, like the song about eating beans? Or a track of belching and fart noises? What are we supposed to take from this? If anything, this collection takes away from his legacy, maybe that’s the whole point? I guess that’s possible but if it were, this collection should be free, or better yet, not heard at all.
It’s time to let Kurt Cobain rest in peace. He gave us plenty of music to appreciate and listen to for years and owes us nothing. A collection like Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings doesn’t inspire me to dig out my Nirvana albums and mourn the loss of one of modern rock’s legends, it makes me feel like I’m going through a dead teenager’s underwear drawer, or reading their diary to a live studio audience of millions. It makes me feel, sad, dirty and depressed as if I’m hearing things that I’m not meant to hear. It’s true that line was crossed many years ago when Cobain’s toothpaste and Clearasil was sold on ebay, but buying Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings on special edition 180-gram vinyl, is basically playing Weekend At Bernies with Cobain’s corpse. No class, no respect. No thanks.
Rating: 1/5