Nineteen years ago today fans around the world got news Nirvana's Kurt Cobain had taken his own life in his Seattle home. As the years have passed, fans, peers, and friends of the musician and his pioneering grunge band have paid their respects by covering the band's material. Here now, from Patti Smith to Charles Bradley, are the most unique Nirvana covers by other.
Every May, there's no shortage of mawkishly sentimental songs to play on Mother's Day, but a month later, there are comparatively few Father's Day equivalents. Sure, there are some treacly tracks like Bob Carlisle's 1997 adult-contempo hit "Butterfly Kisses," but fatherhood is more often than not invoked in pop music as a discomfiting sexual metaphor (see "Big Poppa," "Father Figure," and the countless songs that feature the phrase "who's your daddy?"). 
The best and most enduring songs about fatherhood tend to explore darker and more complex themes, or depict imperfect or absent dads, rather than provide sunny theme songs: "Cat's In The Cradle," "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone," even Everclear's "Father of Mine." This Sunday will be the third Father's Day I've celebrated since becoming one myself; I have a good relationship with my father and am deeply devoted to my son. But I'd rather listen to the songs on this Spotify playlist, and others that explore the complexities and unpredictable gray areas in the bond (or lack thereof) between a man and his son or daughter, than hear goddamn "Butterfly Kisses" again.
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If you don't think Butch Vig's almost singlehandedly invented two decades of alternative rock as we know it, just look at his resumé: Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, AFI. That's without mentioning his membership in the still-cool Garbage or the fact he produced a little generational totem called Nevermind. From grunge to "electronica" to emo, he's probably building someone's entire adolescence from scratch as we speak. He free-associated for Village Voice about some of his biggest hits, underrated discoveries and Garbage's own new album Not Your Kind of People, which drops this week. 
Garbage.
David Yow—the beer-swilling, crowd-surfing, lunging, occasionally dick-waving, shirtless, human sweat-mop frontman of post-punk iconoclasts the Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid—is quite the congenial dude, despite the juicy belches meted out in my ear as he threw back a couple of cold ones while on the phone from Los Angeles.
Niles J. Fuller Scratch Acid in 1984.
During our conversation, Yow doled out props to his ex-Jesus Lizard mates (the influential Chicago minimalist noise-punks are now officially done) and even owned up to crying before their first reunion show; he also praised Nirvana, buddy Henry Owings of Chunklet fame, and Sarah Lipstate of Brooklyn's dreamy drone heroes Noveller.
The aspiring actor admitted he'd rather be delving into his art and film rather than terrorizing audiences onstage. It wasn't all wine and roses with Yow, though. Vitriol-laced moments were reserved for Jim Kimball (ex-drummer for the JL on their final album, 1998's Blue), and Mudhoney and Soundgarden apparently once made his shit list.
Sound of the City caught Yow before he jetted off to Austin to prepare for yet another reunion tour—this time with Scratch Acid, the Texas noise-rock skuzz band he started in the mid-eighties with guitarist Brett Bradford, future JL bassist David Wm. Sims and drummer Rey Washam.
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Yesterday 60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney announced that he would be retiring from his weekly segment of wondering about the annoying things in life. Here is a clip from Beavis And Butt-Head where the two imminently returning couch potatoes do their best "Mickey" Rooney impersonations over "Funk Dat," the safe-for-TV Rooney tribute track by the Baltimore MC Sagat. It's funny! Certainly it's funnier than the comments Rooney made after the death of Kurt Cobain, which Rooney said attracted more than 10,000 letters from "young people" because they boiled down to "Cobain? Never heard of him. What an idiot." It's almost like his segment was a prototype for really lousy blogs!
Above, the reggae singer Little Roy takes on the A and B sides of Nirvana's "Sliver"/"Dive" single, which is almost 21 years old as of this writing. Both covers are surprisingly enjoyable to listen to—raise your hand if your first reaction when hearing the phrase "reggae Nirvana cover" is the mental image of being trapped in a lousy college-town bar on open-mic night—but "Dive" is particularly revelatory, with Roy's wail matching Kurt Cobain's strangled wail quite effectively. The songs are available digitally now, and Ark Recordings is putting them out on a 7-inch later this month. [Hat tip to Jimmy A and Line Out.]
Having spent the last two weeks poring through Pazz & Jop 2010, I've learned everything from the two albums most statistically similar to a bootleg compilation of early Bob Seger (those would be Flockaveli and Ke$ha's Animal/Cannibal combo) to the number of writers who ended their comments with an ironic "Get off my lawn!" (surprisingly, only two). As fun as those pieces of information might be, the most significant statistic this year remains the record-setting margin by which Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won the albums poll.
Not quite
In 1971's inaugural P&J, Who's Next topped Sticky Fingers 540 points to 332, a margin of victory that would not be overcome until 1987, when Prince's Sign 'o' the Times accumulated 1.63 times as many votes as Bruce's second-place Tunnel of Love. That record survived the '80s, but the last two decades have seen it broken again and again. Below are the six most decisive victories in P&J history, charting each year's top 3, sorted by total points and, in parentheses, total mentions. (Thanks, of course, to Robert Christgau's P&J database.)
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The last time we saw Spencer Elden, the chubby swimming baby on Nirvana's unforgettable Nevermind cover, he was the 14-year-old side-hatted skater boy above talking about his unwitting role in musical history. Now he's all grown up and living in Los Angeles, where he is working for OBEY. This is not a figure of speech: Shepard Fairey is the Nirvana Baby's boss. Now we're first in line to drum up the backlash to the Fairey backlash: not only is hating on the nation's First Artist so 2002, but dude is, by all accounts, a really good human who helped bridged the gap from REVS to Twist. That said, the fact that the baby chasing the dollar bill on the iconic symbol of '90s "alternative" culture now works for Shepard Fairey, who embodies the 21st-century commodification of underground culture, is, well, rich.
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With the Lights Out, you'll recall, is the luxe box set they put out in 2004, but never mind that now. Here's four discs' worth (plus a set of BBC sessions) of Nirvana rarities/live tracks/demos/etc. that are a) apparently better quality and b) free. The pitch:
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