The week in rock

Awhile back, rumors abounded that Courtney Love planned to sell a quarter stake of Nirvana’s back catalog to none other than Bono. Could there be a worse fate for anyone’s music? I think not. Luckily, however, this disaster was averted when a guy named Larry Mestel, of Primary Wave Music Publishing, stepped up to purchase the pricey chunk of the most famous grunge band’s output. But why would Love sell any piece of this humungous cash cow, you ask? "I took on a strategic partner, Larry Mestel, to help me co-manage the estate because it was overwhelming," Love revealed. "The affairs of Nirvana are so massive and so huge, and they’ve all fallen on my lap. I own almost all of [the publishing] and it proved to be too much for me. I needed a partner to take Kurt Cobain’s songs and bring them into the future and into the next generation. And this guy’s the guy to do it."

While I can’t say I feel sorry for her having to bear the tremendous burden of owning 99 percent of the rights to a hugely successful band she wasn’t even in. By the way, why don’t the other members of the actual band own them? It might at least keep Krist Novoselic from starting crappy bands like Eyes Adrift.

I can understand the need for a little help. Mestel elucidated his reasons for getting involved to Rolling Stone, besides the obvious one of making a shit-load of money. "The appeal to me is that Kurt was one of the most important songwriters of his time. Kurt was an incredible songwriter, and Courtney is an exceptionally talented person herself. So I felt the combination of Courtney’s creativity and the things I can add can really help in creating more value for these copyrights." So what exactly does a vague term like ‘creating value’ actually mean? Well, aside from the fact that you’re probably going to have to endure the opening riff to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in all kinds of horrible ads directed at you, gentle aging Gen-X readers, you’ll have the chance to purchase the first-ever, fully poseable Kurt Cobain action figure!

OK, I lied, the doll is not fully poseable and you can’t really play with it, but still, the thing is kind of cool. Featuring Kurt dressed in full ‘Teen Spirit’ garb and standing on a piece of high school gym, gazing angst-ily and defiantly into your eyes, the toy is sure to become something everyone will secretly kind of want, but never be able to gather up the balls to actually buy. It does come with a pretty nifty Competition Mustang guitar, which is definitely the best part of the slightly embarrassing figurine. Even so, it beats the hell out of some stupid Zakk Wylde action figure. So, come June, maybe you should hit up your local mall or wherever the hell they would sell this thing. Just make sure you have a good alibi for your mates so they don’t take the piss out of you for buying it. Like your grandma bought it for you. Or something.

If there’s one thing that I’m sick of hearing about, it’s the Arctic Monkeys. Maybe I should stop relying on the limey music press for news, but even so, it seems like this band just won’t stop getting name-checked. Why, even Jack White is calling them his favorite group and offering to do their around-the-house chores! (This really happened, folks. Honestly.) It seems, however, that Thom Yorke isn’t as enamored with them as the rest of his country, and has publicly attributed their mass popularity to the “retardation” of the music industry. "The fact that poor Arctic Monkeys are getting so much attention is purely based on the fact that the mainstream music business is such a bunch of fucking retards as far as I’m concerned."

The Radiohead singer had more trash to talk as well, also saying: "A good thing for new music would be more of the mainstream loosening up a bit and letting stuff through. Radio 1 won’t play anything fucking decent. You need to sort the radio out." Unsatisfied with even this vitriolic outburst, Yorke has also been badmouthing Tony Blair, refusing to even meet with the PM to discuss global warming. Hmm, the last time I wrote about this my inbox was flooded with threats and nasty comments and accusations that I caused all of the world’s problems. Seems like you can’t call global warming fake and talk a little trash about oversensitive environmentally oriented rock stars without people taking up arms against you. I guess a little hyperbole can get you a lot of bad blood.

But anyways, Yorke refused to meet with Blair even though he was asked to by charity Friends of the Earth. What, was Bono not available or something? "I got so stressed out and so freaked out about it," Yorke said. "Initially when it came up I tried to be pragmatic, but Blair has no environmental credentials as far as I’m concerned." He continued: "I came out of that whole period just thinking, I don’t want to get involved directly, it’s poison. I’ll just shout my mouth off from the sidelines." Because really, that’s what the environment needs, a bunch more hot air being pumped into the atmosphere.

Compiled by Nick BuonoMusic News

Awhile back, rumors abounded that Courtney Love planned to sell a quarter stake of Nirvana’s back catalog to none other than Bono. Could there be a worse fate for anyone’s music? I think not. Luckily, however, this disaster was averted when a guy named Larry Mestel, of Primary Wave Music Publishing, stepped up to purchase the pricey chunk of the most famous grunge band’s output. But why would Love sell any piece of this humungous cash cow, you ask? "I took on a strategic partner, Larry Mestel, to help me co-manage the estate because it was overwhelming," Love revealed. "The affairs of Nirvana are so massive and so huge, and they’ve all fallen on my lap. I own almost all of [the publishing] and it proved to be too much for me. I needed a partner to take Kurt Cobain’s songs and bring them into the future and into the next generation. And this guy’s the guy to do it."

While I can’t say I feel sorry for her having to bear the tremendous burden of owning 99 percent of the rights to a hugely successful band she wasn’t even in. By the way, why don’t the other members of the actual band own them? It might at least keep Krist Novoselic from starting crappy bands like Eyes Adrift.

I can understand the need for a little help. Mestel elucidated his reasons for getting involved to Rolling Stone, besides the obvious one of making a shit-load of money. "The appeal to me is that Kurt was one of the most important songwriters of his time. Kurt was an incredible songwriter, and Courtney is an exceptionally talented person herself. So I felt the combination of Courtney’s creativity and the things I can add can really help in creating more value for these copyrights." So what exactly does a vague term like ‘creating value’ actually mean? Well, aside from the fact that you’re probably going to have to endure the opening riff to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in all kinds of horrible ads directed at you, gentle aging Gen-X readers, you’ll have the chance to purchase the first-ever, fully poseable Kurt Cobain action figure!

OK, I lied, the doll is not fully poseable and you can’t really play with it, but still, the thing is kind of cool. Featuring Kurt dressed in full ‘Teen Spirit’ garb and standing on a piece of high school gym, gazing angst-ily and defiantly into your eyes, the toy is sure to become something everyone will secretly kind of want, but never be able to gather up the balls to actually buy. It does come with a pretty nifty Competition Mustang guitar, which is definitely the best part of the slightly embarrassing figurine. Even so, it beats the hell out of some stupid Zakk Wylde action figure. So, come June, maybe you should hit up your local mall or wherever the hell they would sell this thing. Just make sure you have a good alibi for your mates so they don’t take the piss out of you for buying it. Like your grandma bought it for you. Or something.

If there’s one thing that I’m sick of hearing about, it’s the Arctic Monkeys. Maybe I should stop relying on the limey music press for news, but even so, it seems like this band just won’t stop getting name-checked. Why, even Jack White is calling them his favorite group and offering to do their around-the-house chores! (This really happened, folks. Honestly.) It seems, however, that Thom Yorke isn’t as enamored with them as the rest of his country, and has publicly attributed their mass popularity to the “retardation” of the music industry. "The fact that poor Arctic Monkeys are getting so much attention is purely based on the fact that the mainstream music business is such a bunch of fucking retards as far as I’m concerned."

The Radiohead singer had more trash to talk as well, also saying: "A good thing for new music would be more of the mainstream loosening up a bit and letting stuff through. Radio 1 won’t play anything fucking decent. You need to sort the radio out." Unsatisfied with even this vitriolic outburst, Yorke has also been badmouthing Tony Blair, refusing to even meet with the PM to discuss global warming. Hmm, the last time I wrote about this my inbox was flooded with threats and nasty comments and accusations that I caused all of the world’s problems. Seems like you can’t call global warming fake and talk a little trash about oversensitive environmentally oriented rock stars without people taking up arms against you. I guess a little hyperbole can get you a lot of bad blood.

But anyways, Yorke refused to meet with Blair even though he was asked to by charity Friends of the Earth. What, was Bono not available or something? "I got so stressed out and so freaked out about it," Yorke said. "Initially when it came up I tried to be pragmatic, but Blair has no environmental credentials as far as I’m concerned." He continued: "I came out of that whole period just thinking, I don’t want to get involved directly, it’s poison. I’ll just shout my mouth off from the sidelines." Because really, that’s what the environment needs, a bunch more hot air being pumped into the atmosphere.