ENTROPY

- SEATTLE AND THE

BIRTH OF GRUNGE

LORD OF THE FLIES

REVIEW !

- LEGENDARY

BANDS: THE

MELVINS

- KURT

COBAIN’S ART

July

2010

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SEATTLE:

‘’Seattle… is currently to the rock n’ roll

world what Bethlehem meant to Christianity’’

SPIN, 1996

Known as the Emerald city,

Seattle is the biggest one in the

state of Washington, with 617.334

inhabitants. It is also, the

birthplace of the legendary

musician Jimi Hendrix and the

famous coffee company Starbucks.

There are definitely lots of facts

about this interesting city, but

today we`re analysing its music

scene, and what it meant to rock

‘n’ roll’s development.

In the early 80’s, Seattle didn’t

attract that many musicians, in

fact, they only stopped by at San

Francisco, which was at that time

the hot spot. The city was crowded

with all types of wannabes,

including singers with fake

English accents. Glam metal bands

were in every direction, with

their big hairs and lots of

eyeliner, and all the lame punk

rockers used to hang out at the

First Avenue, next to the donut

shop.

There were about two clubs for

local bands to do their shows and

gigs, so they rented halls and did

the whole production by

themselves, from doing the tickets

to cleaning up the mess after the

shows. Nobody was really

interested in success, because

Seattle didn’t have much meaning

in the music scene; all the

New York.

Bands played because they loved it,

and there was a very familiar

environment among them.

The shows were everything but

controlled, lots of alcohol, stage

diving and chaos; this was what

attracted the most to foreign bands

like Scratch Acid, who were used to

very critical and boring crowds.

The music scene in general was

considered sometimes as dumb. Some of

the people who belonged to bands

admitted themselves as losers or high

school bullied freaks. They didn’t

care much about what people said, and

that was the fun part of it.

The birth of underground hype

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By the end of the 80’s,

people just started to

dislike glam metal bands;

they wanted real music and

not just pretty looking boys

and guitar solos. On the

contrary, the typical Seattle

bands were sometimes

qualified as inconsistent,

because none of the bands

followed a determined

structure in their gigs. The

singer could be crawling

through the floor and stage

diving, they weren’t

performing or entertaining,

they were just rocking.

There was a lot of ‘’do it

yourself spirit’’ going on,

bands recorded their albums

by themselves, they just

needed a microphone and some

magnetic tape (and maybe some

sound effects); plus you had

to make sure your parents

wouldn’t like your music.

It was notorious something new was

happening at that time in the

local music scene, but nobody

putted a label on it. Local music

was influenced by punk rock and

heavy metal, mixture which created

a noisy, absurd, chaotic heavy and

dirty sound. It was just rock ‘n’

Roll going back to its basics.

SUB POP Bruce Pavitt, a fan at that time,

had a fanzine with the name of Sub

Pop. He made his own cassette

compilations with the songs he

liked and shared them. His friend

Jonathan Poneman and him were fans

of the band Soundgarden, and they

were very interested in the idea

of starting a record label.

The bands at that time were all

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Recording with small

labels, and Sub Pop was an

alternative to it.

The 90´s had this indie

ethic that said you

shouldn’t be proud of being

famous or have hit records

on the radios. As big fans

of American pop music, Sub

Pop selected their bands,

starting a sort of

‘’underground hype’’ going

on in Seattle.

Everything started when

Jonathan and Bruce invited

an English journalist to

Seattle, and showed him the

current music scene. The

journalist wrote the story

in a famous newspaper in

England: that was when the

city was introduced to the

world as one of the most

important in the music

world at that time.

People started looking for

the characteristic Seattle

sound, which had a very

marked identity. Bands

started to get known and

suddenly got lots of

opportunities. Soon the

‘’Seattle sound’’ was way

more important than pop.

Time after the big

explosion, bands started to

regret and critique what

Sub Pop did in Seattle’s

music scene. Suddenly

everybody was looking for

the new Nirvana or the new

Pearl jam, making other

bands lose their true

identity. It was all about

selling bands as

‘’grunge’’, a term that by

the way the bands didn’t

invent.

Although some may consider

this as something negative,

we can’t deny that Seattle

was once one of the most

important places for music

in the world.

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KOEBA NE ‘ S ART

‘’My mother encouraged me a

lot to be artistic. It was

written in a contract at an

early age that I would be an

artist’’

Ever since Kurt D.

Cobain was a little boy, he

was very attracted by

drawing and painting.

His parents always

encouraged him to develop

his artistic side. For his

eighth birthday in February

1975 he received an easel

from his paternal

grandparents. Comic book

characters were his

inspiration in childhood.

Later he began with Disney

characters, such as Donald

Duck, although he quickly

changed to superheroes.

In fact, his parents always

thought Kurt’s future had to

do with and art involved

career. ’’It was my mom’s

big dream that Kurt and I

would end up at Disneyland,

both of us working there

with him drawing’’,

remembered his sister.

When he was in second grade,

Cobain’s artwork was chosen

to appear in the school’s

newspaper cover.

His bedroom walls soon became the

gallery for his art creations; he

was constantly adding drawings to

it.

He also showed abilities in

modelling with plasticine and

clay, making sculptures of aliens

or superheroes. When he visited

his paternal grandparents, he

helped his grandmother Iris to

recreate some of Norman

Rockwell’s paintings (she was a

big fan of him) by etching them

onto dried mushrooms with

toothpicks. In another occasion,

he built a dollhouse for his

grandmother with the help of his

grandfather.

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-

In high school, the only class

Kurt attended was art. He would

skip school all morning and

then come back for art period;

it was the only place where he

found recognition and self-

respect.

In 1985, Kurt’s art teacher,

Bob Hunter, convinced him to

participate in the Regional

High School Art Show. His

chosen painting, a landscape,

remained in the finalists and

entered a statewide contest.

Unfortunately he lost, but he

still got a certificate.

According to his art teacher,

Kurt was gifted with a great

capacity of drawing;

accompanied with an active

imagination. His primary

stylistic techniques were

realism or caricature, but his

theme choice was always

extravagant. In one

opportunity, his assignment was

to show an object evolving over

time; taking the assignment

literally he drew a sperm cell

turning into an embryo.

Another of his favourite art

muses were aliens, long-limbed

extraterrestrial creatures. Later

he started incorporating

collages.

At the age of 15 he figured out

he could start a cartoonist

career. His art teacher suggested

it could be possible to attend

art school if he applied himself.

The problem was his other grades;

they were very low for college,

even for art school. His friends

started to tease him, awarding

himself the nickname ‘’Kurt slow-

brain’’.

Long before Kurt Cobain was known

for his music, everybody in Grays

Harbour knew him as ‘’ the kid

who painted the band kiss on one

side of The Melvin’s van (the

Mel-Van)’’.

Art and music were Kurt’s all-

time passions. He gave up his

cartoonist plans to find out his

life’s path: music.

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BOOK REVIEW OF THE

MONTH : LORD OF THE

FLIES

Lord of the Flies

is a book written by

William Golding in 1954.

Located in the midst of a

nuclear war after World

War 2, several English

boys between 6 and 12

years old are stranded on

a desert island.

This is an incredible book,

compelling from start to

finish, Golding’s carefully

calculated technique is

dazzling and lures the

reader into the world of

these English boys and their

hardships and struggles to

survive on the island. With

descriptions that will give

you goosebumps and a chill

up your spine, William

Golding’s main objective is

not to tell a story, but to

use that story to convey a

message. Golding is in fact,

trying to show us the true

nature of human beings,

placing rich boys from a

posh, private school in

England on a lonely deserted

island without much hope for

rescue and little by little

stripping the rationality

and order that had been

ingrained since they were

little into them. Golding

uses many many different

symbolisms and references in

the book, each and every

thing, event or person that

has been created by the

author has a purpose, a

task, a symbolic meaning.

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It takes human nature and

strips it down until only

primitive instincts are

left, the human being’s

most hidden, true, raw

personality comes out.

The main theme of the

book would be

civilization versus

savagery, and every

aspect of this

confrontation is

represented in a person

or object. Lord of the

Flies is much more than

meets the eye; you cannot

rush into this book and

expect to understand it.

This is a book that

must be read slowly,

methodically, profoundly

analyzing every part of

it because there is a

vast amount of

information that can be

extracted from it,

subtleties that William

Golding has cleverly

snuck into the book,

references and

symbolisms that without

proper care will be

overlooked. Lord of the

Flies is a incredible

book, with layers and

layers of complexity

which makes it all the

more extraordinary.

A classic of western

literature, we award it

5/5.

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LEGENDARY BANDS

THE MELVINS

The Melvins were

founded by Buzz Osbourne, Matt

Lukin, and Mike Dillard in the

early 1980’s. The three of them

lived in Montesano, Washington.

They started off playing Jimi

Hendrix and Cream covers. They then

started to play their songs

heavier, slower and dirtier than

anyone else at the time.

In 1986 they recorded their first

full length album: ‚Gluey Porch

Treatments‛ and in 1990 they

recorded another studio record

titled ‚Bullhead‛. This last album

had a heavier, more droning type of

sound. They then proceeded to tour

Europe.

When Nirvana’s ‚Nevermind‛ album

became a huge success, The Melvins

profited greatly by it, being

signed by Atlantic Records.

This is quite ironic, as Kurt Cobain,

the Nirvana singer and guitar player

once auditioned for a place as bass

player for The Melvins, but being so

nervous he forgot all the songs and

failed the audition miserably. The

Melvins first major release was in 1993

with their album ‚Houdini‛ which peaked

at number 29 on the Billboard Heatseeker

charts.

This band made only 2 more albums with

Atlantic Records, ‚Stoner Witch‛ in 1994

and ‚Stag‛ in 1996. The band was then

dropped by Atlantic Records for lack of

success in the mainstream and because

the Seattle Sound was losing popularity.

They’re active to the date, and are

still producing music and making

records.

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With Soundgarden, they are

considered to be one of the

fathers of ‚grunge‛. Kurt Cobain

himself was a huge fan of the

band and it provided a huge

influence on Nirvana’s music.

Cobain was on good terms with

the band and was in touch with

them until his death in 1994.

The song that we recommend you

listen to to have an idea of the

type of music The Melvins made

is: ‚Honey Bucket‛ from the 1993

album ‚Houdini‛.

The Melvins’ current lineup

is:

- Buzz Osbourne

- Dale Crover

- Jared Warren

- Coady Willis

The Melvins played incorporating

aspects of heavy metal and

hardcore punk, fusing them

together to make a genre in

which the lyrics and attitude

are reminiscent of punk, but

also involving a much slower

tempo and complex

instrumentation, hence the

reference to heavy metal.

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