So let’s call this a “soft-opening” for this blog.  I wanted to make my first entry today, even though this website isn’t quite ready, because it was around this time twenty years ago that I became more active in seeking out music that I truly loved instead of what everyone else was listening to.  It was around this time that I stopped listening to safe music like Paula Abdul and started listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and REM.

Twenty years ago on April 5, 1994, my pre-teenage life was shaken when news of Kurt Cobain’s death hit the air.  None of my celebrity heroes had ever died before.  My friends seemed more distressed than I was but I played my tape copy of In Utero until it wore down.  It could have been the 12 year old girl hormones but I remember crying uncontrollably in my room.  I remember when I found out, the morning DJs on 98 KUPD (Dave Pratt) announced it as I was getting ready for school.  What a crappy day.  In typical adolescent fashion, no one at my school understood.   But no one at my school really did understand, everyone listened to rap or R&B and Tupac and Selena’s death were still in the future.

It wasn’t long after Kurt died that I started getting into indie pop music.  REM, Beck, Sonic Youth, and Hole all made permanent homes in my heart.  My summers in Cleveland were spent watching MTV with my cousin and learning about bands I had never heard of because radio in Phoenix was all oldies, hard rock, or rap (and still is) and we didn’t have cable.  The internet was still a baby and we wouldn’t dream of downloading full songs over dial up internet because you’d miss too many phone calls.  Despite having a huge 90’s grunge scene, Phoenix was and mostly still is, a place devoid of music with hand claps and female vocals (much love to Uber Alice and Chula though).

To celebrate Kurt Cobain and the twenty years of music he inspired for me, I’m taking a hint from KEXP and giving you a few of my favorite songs inspired or related to Kurt Cobain.

Imperial Teen is one of my favorites.  The song “You’re One” takes the lyrics “peace and love and empathy” from the last line in Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter.

I guess this is a pretty obvious choice.  REM’s song Let Me In was written and dedicated to Kurt Cobain.

Courtney’s song written about her crush and insecurities of dating Kurt Cobain; “I thought that he didn’t like me and that he liked this total poser idiot girl, so I wrote this song about him”.

Kathleen Hanna wrote “Kurt smells like teen spirit” on Kurt’s wall and then “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was born.

My older brother was visiting when I was about fourteen, he gave me my first Pixies album Sufer Rosa.  Eighteen years later, I still have it and play it frequently.

Calvin Johnson of The Halo Benders founded K Records, Kurt had the logo tattooed on his arm.  This is one of my favorite Halo Benders songs.

What I wouldn’t give to be involved in the Olympia scene in the late 80’s early 90’s.  Here is The Go Team featuring Kurt Cobain, you might recognize the guitar.

“People of the universe!” 1991 The Year Punk Broke was a documentary about the Sonic Youth/Nirvana world tour.  As a teenager, I watched and studied this video frequently and wanted my own teenage riot.