Being the year of Sub Pop Records 20th anniversary a lot of press is coming out surrounding the label that launched Nirvana, and as a result, Seattle into the international spotlight.

Blender Magazine, (of all places), has put up a pretty cool piece on the label, with quotes from some of the main people involved in the scene, including founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathon Poneman. They also have a pretty big image gallery with photos of the bands with their Fender Mustangs, beer and flannel, performing live.

Its definitely worth checking out if you’re into Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney or even newer bands on the label like The Shins and The Postal Service as well.

Sub Pop: Oral History @ Blender.com

“Universal Music Enterprises (UME) says there are no plans to release Jimi Hendrix archival material as part of a recent agreement with Wolfgang’s Vault to sell vintage live performance downloads on the latter Web site.

As reported last week, Universal entered into an agreement with Wolfgang’s Vault that gives UME the opportunity to release certain live recordings by UMG artists. The master tapes originated from the archives of late concert promoter Bill Graham and were purchased in 2003 by Wolfgang’s Vault.”

This is unfortunate as Wolfgang’s Vault has access to hundreds if not thousands of legendary live recordings, ranging all the way from the 60’s up to the mid-to-late 90’s. Artists such as Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and many more have all played Bill Graham events and therefore have a large amount of material in the vault. Hopefully Universal Music can work out an agreement as these recordings, I am sure, are quite interesting and historical.

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One of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, Edinburgh Scotlands The Vaselines have reunited. It seems that the recent trend of bands reuniting will never end. I wonder if bands will now form just to break up and then reunite soon after to get more press.

Anyway, The Vaselines were covered by Nirvana 3 times. Most famously on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged CD/TV Show and on, (Nirvana’s collection of b-sides/covers) “Incesticide” album.

The band will play Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary concert/party in Seattle. Maybe they’ll tour, I would definitely catch one of their shows if they did.

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As a fan of Nirvana, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and many other prominent musical artists, I often wonder what their music would sound like if it was played with different instruments. These bands are so classic that I’ve listened to their records so many times because they are just that good, but sometimes its nice to get a fresh perspective on the music.

One thing that I’m sure fans of these bands have seen when you’re shopping for CDs is these String Quartet Tributes. I’ve recently been listening to a few, particularly Nirvana’s Nevermind album reworked by the Section String Quartet. I must say, some of the songs sound really cool with all strings. You can hear, even more so, a lot of the genius in the melodies. It’s definitely something thats given me a fresh perspective on a lot of the songs, all of which I’ve been listening to since I was 10 or 11 years old.

I’ve looked into it further, and a label called Vitamin Records releases these. They have a pretty large number of different bands and albums…

Vitamin Records

Today would’ve been Kurt Cobain’s 41st birthday…hard to believe. I remember being in 5th grade, in 1992 and hearing/seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video on MTV and being totally effected by it. I got the Nevermind album shortly thereafter, and still love it to this day. I think a lot of people remember when they first heard that song, as well as when they heard about his death as well. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana was what basically got me wanting to play guitar in general so I wanted to post here about it.

Also, I haven’t had a chance yet to go back and play that 70’s Stratocaster at Guitar Centers Vintage room, but I will definitely get around to it sometime this week. I also want to play some vintage Jaguars and Les Pauls just for fun. I can’t afford all of them so I might as well…

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