This week's mailbox was full. What follows are some of the usual compliments, a sampling of the mail regarding the controversial Kurt Cobain piece, and some information on the Nine Inch Nails review.
I really like Consumable - it's the only place I can get good tour schedules. Keep up the good work! - Mario L.
On Courtney Love and Hole...
Courtney is Courtney. She used to get enraged at every single Kurt question while he was alive, especially insinuations that he wrote her music, or questions about what it was like to be Kurt's wife.
Courtney had a killer tour lined up shortly before Kurt's death that would have blown Live Through This through the roof. Trouble is, her bassist decided that she really liked heroin and had a little too much.
We had Live Through This pegged as one of the best albums of the year when it came out - certainly a level above that achievable by L7 or Babes in Toyland. We made our minds up before Kurt died, and we listened to Courtney claim her band was better than Soundgarden or Pearl Jam.
Maybe you were just too wrapped up in Kurt to pay attention to what Courtney Love deserved. Maybe she gets a little more than she deserves, but if her first 2 albums are any preview of what's to come then she will long outlive any benefit her career has derived from the death of her husband. - Dave B.
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I can't quite believe you ran "Cashing in On Cobain" by Sean Eric McGill, which is neither good op-ed writing or even something I would put up with spouted by a drunken person at a bar.
I agree that it's a shame people are cashing in on KC's death.
Okay. So then why "I have no problem with someone wearing a Kurt Cobain t-shirt in memory of his music and his life. That's capitalism in action." Explain to me how this is somehow excusable because it's capitalism in action. I thought that's what McGill was complaining about -- "cashing in", capitalism in action.
No, what he really wants to do is trash Courtney for, whatever -- surviving, existing, being in band. It's somehow her fault that interviewers ask 5 out of 10 questions about Kurt.
I wasn't predisposed to like Courtney's record and believed for a long time the only reason anyone was listening to it was the sympathy vote. Finally forced to listen to it, I had to admit it was a pretty good record. Now, two months later, I have to admit Hole made a great record. It's not as if she recorded after Kurt killed himself to make a buck, you know. She had her own career.
No, what McGill is up to in hist rant is across-the-board woman bashing. Yoko was a leech, Courtney was a leech, they never had an interest or a talent outside their husband's careers, they don't deserve to have an interest or a career, and all either of them are or ever will be are Mrs. Kurt Cobain and Mrs. John Lennon.
I'm really curious: why did you see fit to run anything this incoherent and this offensive? - Linda F.
(ED Note: Courtney was on a ton of covers - those covers were prepared before Kurt killed himself. You had an interesting counter viewpoint until you mentioned Yoko Ono. She would never have been given a contract (OR a box set) if it wasn't for Lennon, and playing her music loud enough for others to hear is a violation of all wartime conventions.
On a side note, *Cynthia* Lennon has just released in the U.K. a cover of "Those Were The Days". Draw your own conclusions).
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Thank you for having the balls to run that Kurt Cobain article. I get sick seeing people fawn over Courtney Love as if she's got some talent. - James B.
On Nine Inch Nails...
Using big twenty dollar words in your review does not make it more interesting it makes as if you do not know what you are talking about. There is more going on at the time that you are listening to the music than just music itself. Once, you understand that, then, and only then, will what you are saying about Trent Reznor make sense. - K.M.M, Florida
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David I. and Cheryl B. note that the U.K. version of Further Down The Spiral does include remixes of "Ruiner" and "Heresy" (in David's words: two of the best mixes), as well as a live version of "Hurt" and another version of "Mr. Self Destruct".
Cheryl further comments that:
One personal observation: while it is true that many NIN listeners will buy every NIN remix EP without questioning its contents, we aren't mindlessly feeding a self-indulgent monster. Why should we waste our time questioning their quality before making a purchase? Historically, NIN remix EPs are known for being excellent, with a cover here and there and lots of imaginative and stylistically varied remixes by well-respected musicians.
Another personal observation: Several times in his review Mr. McGill mentions the small "number of different songs" on this or that NIN remix EP. Well... we ARE talking about remix EP's here, so why shouldn't there be multiple versions of any particular song? It might be more logical to view each remix as a different song, considering the fact that each has a new title and a new sound.
