04.05.94

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain.

The day the news broke, an old friend from high school called me in the afternoon. "Kurt Cobain shot himself!" he shouted into the phone. "Is he dead?" was my gut response, it seems like a moronic thing to say now, but you definitely don't want to believe something like that when you first hear it. In turn, I called several other friends to commiserrate and share memories. Later that evening, I had to take my little brother out and I still remember running a red light, not even paying attention to my surroundings.

I wanted to make a great Nirvana sampler, or maybe a collection of Nirvana covers. After looking at Rhapsody's current collection, this proved to be a challenge. Instead, this playlist includes bands that were either influences on Kurt's music, bands that helped them along in the Seattle scene, or ones that he admired. My source material was several interviews with the band culled from NIRVANA! (an unofficial site). The playlist concludes with Nirvana's cover of "Love Buzz" by Shocking Blue, the song that convinced Sub Pop records to sign them.

Kurt Cobain's Influences