Yet another attempt to make money off the death of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana: NIRVANA 1988-1993, a photographic retrospective, opened November 24 in London to coincide with the publication of a new book of photos taken by Melody Maker photographers Steve Gullick and Stephen Sweet and New Music Monthly's Martyn Goodacre. The book is titled Nirvana: Winterlong, and features snapshots from the band's 1989 performance at the London Astoria and the Reading Festival in 1991. Also included are some candid hotel shots from 1990, in which a cranky Kurt is flippin' the bird. Opening night of the exhibit was attended by several stylish rock stars, including dishy Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal from Placebo, who browsed over the photographs -- priced upward of 420 British pounds a piece.
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On a related-by-marriage note, after much speculation, former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur has been hired to replace departed Smashing Pumpkin bassist D'Arcy Wretzky -- at least for the Chicago supergroup's forthcoming European tour.
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"Ron from Death Cab for Cutie" may not exist in real life, but Ben from Death Cab for Cutie gave the guy some stage time anyway when he debuted his side project -- All Time Quarterback -- dressed in a T-shirt emblazoned with the name "Ron." Though the Crocodile's advertisements had the credit wrong for the DCFC singer's inventive, Elephant 6-ish splash-out, plenty of local scenesters, including the fresh-faced Loudermilk, showed up for last week's event.
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Back to Hole: Let's hope that wasn't really Courtney Love so many people claim to have spotted sweeping up and down Broadway Friday afternoon. Several shoppers swear she was checking out the faux hipster lifestyle offered at Urban Outfitters in the Broadway Market, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this somewhat pathetic. Broadway, for cryin' out loud. "She looked like she had boils on her face!" exclaimed one of the spies.
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I SPY opened last Friday night in the old Weathered Wall/Circa space under the Monorail. How's it look? Pretty much the same as it did when it was Circa, except with the added twinkle of sparkling booze bottles (a third-floor restaurant will open soon). How's the crowd? I'll have to give it another try, as the opening night's headliner was Marshall Crenshaw, and his fans... well, let's just say there were a lot of visiting-for-the-holiday, parents-of-students who found themselves something to do on Friday night.
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Good job to the anti-WTO-ers who organized last Friday's benefit at the Breakroom. The "special guests" were supposed to be D.O.A., but that fell through. Then it was going to be Christdriver, but that didn't work out, either. In the end the "special guests" turned out to be our own Severna Park, who, when I walked in at 11:30 p.m., were playing to a packed house of 10. The next night, Jello Biafra held court at the Breakroom, as recent Who openers C Average played to an only slightly larger crowd.
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Finally, you can file this under "Guess they aren't going to be the next New American Shame after all": Cherry Hill High has broken up.
