When Krist Novoselic announced that he’d be performing at this Tuesday’s Nevermind tribute concert at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, some hoped for a reunion of the surviving members of Nirvana‘s 1991 lineup—but it was not to be (although PROMO ALERT thanks to VH1 Classic we will be premiering unseen 1991 concert film Nirvana: Live At The Paramount Friday, September 23 at 11PM ET/PT on VH1, VH1 Classic, and Palladia). But Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and producer Butch Vig did reunite recently, for at least the second time in the last year (the first was in the studio for the recording of “I Should Have Known” for Foo Fighters album Wasting Light), to talk to Jeff Weiss for Britain’s NME.

“My life was split in two by Nevermind,” Grohl tells the magazine, noting that he doesn’t remember the recording sessions or album release that well—and recalls plenty of time after its release but before it really broke: “In our own little world, things stayed the same for a while.” Of course, all three spend the interview alternately downplaying the content of the album as particularly revolutionary (chalking its success up to timing and pop sensibilities) and giving any credit for what might be special about Nevermind to the late Kurt Cobain. “You can’t forget what an artist Kurt Cobain was,” Novoselic insists. “He would draw, he would do sculpture, and he would write songs. He was really gifted.” (When later asked what would have happened if Cobain had not died, he only responds, “You can’t downplay what happened at the end, so that’s a really hard question to answer. It’s just too monumental.”)

Butch Vig, who would later form Garbage, mostly stays quiet (though if you’re interested in his comments on the album, check out the documentary Classic Albums: Nirvana: Nevermind, in which his extraordinarily obvious-in-retrospect observations about his production technique belie his real talent as a producer). Of course, there was little to add about the experience of recording because, as Vig reports here, “There was no drama.”
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“Rehab” singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment today. The cause has not yet been determined. For those who have followed her longstanding battle with depression, eating disorders and substance abuse (a constant source of fodder for tabloids), this sad news may not come as a huge surprise. In August of 2007, Amy came close to death after overdosing on a cocktail of heroin, ecstasy and cocaine – and later that year was found wondering barefoot outside in nothing but a bra and jeans. These incidents were preceded by Amy’s marriage in May of 2007 to Blake Fielder-Civil, who was quoted by a British tabloid as saying he introduced Amy to heroin and crack cocaine. Earlier that same year, Amy performed for VH1 Unplugged. Blake and Amy divorced in 2009.

The singer dominated the 2008 Grammys with five awards for Back to Black, her sophomore album, winning in the categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Known for her singular voice and unorthodox retro look (tattoos, extreme cat-eye makeup and beehive hairdo), Amy is said to have paved the way for artists who wouldn’t previously have fit into the mainstream. Lady Gaga, for one, famously told AOL: “Because of Amy, very strange girls like me go to prom with very good-looking guys. She’s a different kind of woman. I don’t believe that what I do is very digestible, and somehow Amy was the flu for pop music.” Regardless of whether this is true, Winehouse certainly seemed to pave the way for fellow British songbirds Adele and Duffy, both of whom share Amy’s ’60s soul vibe.

In June, YouTube videos surfaced of an intoxicated and discombobulated-looking Winehouse forgetting her own lyrics and getting booed off stage in the first stop of a European tour, which subsequently had to be canceled. Amy was reportedly working on a third album. She joins a long list of musicians who have died at 27. A phenomenon known as The 27 Club, Brian Jones, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain are among those who died at the same age. Let her legend begin.

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Today marks the seventeenth anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain. The music he and his bandmates in Nirvana created helped to catapult the indie rock underground of the 1980s into the public spotlight and forge a new rock mainstream, inspiring and influencing millions of listeners.

But Cobain, who never found an effective way to cope with that spotlight, would likely prefer to be remembered as a person, not as an icon of sadness, forever moping over his guitar on the set of Unplugged:

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The good news? The new line of Kurt Cobain-inspired Converse sneakers is the first time the late singer’s estate has ever collaborated with a brand. Considering Cobain’s choice of footwear, it’s an appropriate one. The bad news? It’s not in the best of taste. The Nirvana front man was — very famously, in case you’ve forgotten — discovered dead while wearing a pair of Converse sneakers. At the time, the image of Cobain’s splayed feet came to represent the end not only of the singer, but also an era in American music and culture. Now that we fetishize these momentos and totems of rock ‘n’ roll become increasingly untethered from their original contexts (have you been to a Hard Rock Cafe lately?), not to mention musicians who use their celebrity as an opportunity to diversify into different fields to both hedge against their inevitable irrelevance and maximize their media exposure (where are the Kanye West sneakers, we’d like to know), such partnerships are absolutely run-of-the-mill. Thing is, you’d have to be a pretty depressing kid to own a pair of these suckers, we think. And if you’re an adult, clearly there’s a problem. For reference, see Jason Bateman’s character in Juno.

[Via Nirvana Club]

In unbelievable news for anyone who’s ever asked for early-warning fraud protection on their credit cards, identity thieves managed to steal Kurt Cobain‘s social security number and have purchased a $3.2 million New Jersey mansion in his name. The trouble is that Cobain has been dead since 1994, and even when he was alive, he wasn’t the biggest fan of buying stuff. According to Courtney Love, the criminals have also registered 188 credit cards in her name, and have made off with around $69 million from the couple and their daughter’s trust fund. Love writes on her MySpace page: “I find this whole thing so offensive because until Kurts social security number was checked noone took it seriously, but hey here is the Experian with 188 visas on it, thats not Bi Polar, that is reality .” We’re on Love’s side here, and are a little shocked that the use of Cobain’s name didn’t raise any red flags over at the credit reporting agencies. Maybe they were sleeping on the job? Maybe they were just asleep? That would help explain how Janis Joplin recently purchased a chain of fried chicken restaurants, and that Jimi Hendrix-owned cruise-line we keep hearing about.

Ever since the widow Love sold off 25% of Kurt Cobain‘s catalog and licensed his image for use by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (yes, seriously, such a thing exists), the sadly deceased Nirvana frontman has been popping up in all sorts of places. For example, as pictured here, you can now buy the Kurt Cobain lunchbox, which holds all manner of tasteful suicide sandwiches and needle-drop soups. Kurt has also been memorialized as an action figure and in a key chain that doubles up as a liquor flask, in a move that we suspect was motivated by suits at megacorporations who were wondering if they could get Kurt to kill himself twice. This follows on the heels of Cobain’s image being used in a Doc Marten’s ad, which officially has turned us off British combat boots, like, forever.

Courtney Love isn’t an equal opportunity employer. Turns out if you resemble her deceased husband Kurt Cobain, you have a good chance at being in her new band. In a blog post on her website, Courtney admitted to hiring on a touring guitarist solely based on looks: "I’ll admit it, I really hired him because he looks like Kurt…He didn’t kill me, but he swore if I gave him a week he’d learn everything. He’s blonde and soooooooo beautiful and his guitar playing is great." Love’s keeping tight-lipped about her long overdue return, but did allude to a secret show in London on her 43rd birthday, as well as shows later this summer in L.A.

Dead rock stars shilling shoes? That’s the idea behind Saatchi & Saatchi’s U.K. campaign, which features Kurt Cobain, Joey Ramone, Sid Vicious and Joe Strummer as they might appear in the afterlife, wearing Docs (Kurt had a preference for Converse One-Stars, but hey!, Photoshop is amazing). Said the campaign’s writer, Andrew Petch: “We wanted to communicate that Dr. Martens boots are ‘made to last, and we discovered that these idolized musicians wore them. Showing them still wearing their Docs in heaven dramatized the boots’ durability perfectly. And, as images, they feel very iconic." Wondering how such a thing is possible? The images are legally cleared for use in the U.K. Courtney Love‘s not too pleased about it. Her rep told People that she "did not, and would not, approve of such a use of Kurt’s name and likeness." She did, however, license Cobain’s music to CSI: Miami. People in glass houses and all that. See the rest of the campaign after the jump.

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