Buzz interview

[joelk]

And the Internet makes it worse by constantly pushing the lore and the empty image of Nirvana's corpse at whatever given interval or imagined anniversary timer to remind us to slurp up the cud of young memories.

[Bigval]

Because Nirvana is still big business. I was never much of a fan but even Nirvana tribute bands do well. A Spanish Nirvana tribute band called The Buzz Lovers are doing an Australian tour in May and their show in my city at a venue, Melvins themselves couldn't sell out in 2017, is sold out. Another Nirvana tribute band from Florida called Nirvanna (seriously) played a sold out show here last year so are touring here again in July. A third one called Nirvana Tribute from the UK toured here a few years ago too.

Nostalgia is king and Nirvana are still huge. Seeing teenagers wearing Nirvana t-shirts blows my mind.

[))))((((]

Personally i never let the nostalgia bother me. The same goes for any old, popular rock act be it Beatles, Sabbath, Floyd, Zeppelin etc. I don't let the hype or adulation affect my enjoyment of the actual music or what they meant at the time. Yes every now and then i see some teen in a Nirvana hoodie with the yellow smiley face on it but then maybe once a year or so i go on another Nirvana binge and every damn time i remember how fucking great they were and how much i still love them.

[joelk]

See to me overexposure--and that includes coverage or content that rides off the original art's back in addition to endless staging of said art--tends to cheapen a collective value that I do find important.

I'm not saying I don't like Nirvana because it's been left too long under a heat lamp. I'm saying that said overexposure tends to highlight the shitty tubing and wires keeping the thing itself on life support.

They're good songs, but the reason they still resonate in large part is the culture's insistence that we believe it's great and important and timeless and whatever and that's simply just not true.

If they didn't keep trying to tell me the Nirvana tall tales and just let the music breathe, I'd be less inclined to bitch.

[Dumpster D]

"The Buzz Lovers"

Obviously not at all a reference to a BUZZ MELVIN...right? RIGHT???

We're talking about 'Love Buzz' As In 'can you feel my love Buzz'

Hey, Did Kurt love Buzz?

I mean, we all Love Buzzo.

Come on! Who doesn't love Buzz?

[Dumpster D]

the Nirvana tall tales

Do you remember a time when there were lots of Avid nirvana fans who knew all the Bootlegs and Demos and live stuff, and all the cool stories and Trivia that no one knows or talks about anymore, that went along initially with the original Nirvana lore?

Now the name 'NIRVANA' Is just like any other name brand commodity with no culture connection intact?

[Bigval]

"The Buzz Lovers"

Obviously not at all a reference to a BUZZ MELVIN...right? RIGHT???

I doubt it they don't play any Melvins songs probably more to do with buzzing guitars. It's an odd name as most tribute bands make it obvious who they're taking off The Black Charade, Antarctic Monkeys, The Mersey Beatles etc but as they're playing Nevermind in full plus other songs afterwards their promo pic is a recreation of a Nevermind era photo.

https://www.thegov.com.au/gigs/the-buzz-lovers-nirvana-tribute-spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhaaRXEyCDY&t=177s

Actually they do sound good, what I remember of Nirvana anyway.

[Bigval]

I mean it's nuts there is a popular Linkin Park tribute band from Portugal called Hybrid Theory who toured here the last two years straight both times selling out that same venue, 700 peeps, they're coming out here again this November and are now playing a 1,800 head venue.

[amazonAMAZON]

I'm a Nirvana fanboy still. Kurt and the band were so important to me growing up. It's inseparable - the music, the lyrics, the interviews, the narrative, the legacy.

I am glad that places like Reddit exist because there are new kids discovering Nirvana today. I am glad that there are resources like livenirvana.com where all the information about the recordings is collected and annotated. If those weren't maintained then it would probably take a few lifetimes for independent fans to try to track down things, especially fool's errands based on rumors.

Some of the fandom is a bit toxic at times. There's some gatekeeping. But I think that's just the internet now.

There are recordings in the vault that really should have been released by now. But they're not many and probably nothing will be as impactful as the With the Lights Out box set and "You Know You're Right". The Fecal Matter tape is out there. The Montage of Heck is out there. The '88 rehearsal and the Rio sessions are out there.

In terms of a steward, Krist is pretty awesome. He still hand-writes fan mail postcard responses and signs things. There's six excellent live shows that got remastered since COVID.

It's not like there's eighty different biopics in production. There's no hologram Kurt at Coachella. There's no AI Kurt being used on a Katy Perry single. They just keep the recorods and T-shirts in print and occasionally eke something out of the vault. I think Kurt would be pleased overall.

[Nizamark]

shouldn't they be called The Love Buzzers?

[))))((((]

It always interests me when guitarists talk about having so many riffs stored on their phones. Buzz says here he has 700 on his! Okay maybe they are not all good ones but sometimes i think why not just write a record where they cram as many riffs as they can from their backlog into an album. I don't know if that would make for great songs of course but it would be interesting. A challenge i could imagine Buzz would like - being that it is something different. A Melvins album with 700 riffs in it!!!

[))))((((]

Jump to 2:38 for Buzz!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fneP681QhGo

[the bloat]

sometimes i think why not just write a record where they cram as many riffs as they can from their backlog into an album. I don't know if that would make for great songs of course but it would be interesting.

Have you ever heard the pistachio medley by the Smashing Pumpkins? Check it out. I agree that this approach would be really cool for Melvins

[amazonAMAZON]

I'd be into that.

Or something like Mark's Riffology series.

Ozma sometimes feels that way. A menagerie of riff-based miniatures.

[))))((((]

An interesting one this. The interviewer is clearly a big fan with plenty of depth of knowledge. He asks some good questions and for once Buzz doesn't just phone his answers in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtn2MkBor8