Nirvana's Nevermind came out on September 24, 1991. Can you believe that 20 years has already passed???
Nirvana is one of our favorite bands of all time and Nevermind was one of the first tapes (yes cassette tapes!) we ever purchased. We were just barely teenagers at the time. Not only did this album open up the doors to a whole 'nother world of music for us, it even changed the way we dressed and how we felt about the world around us. This just happened to be the time when we were changing from innocent little kids to angst ridden teenagers. Good times!
Below are five videos that show Nevermind producer Butch Vig breaking down songs from this amazing album. Very interesting to watch! It puts these songs into a whole new light...
Last night Michael J. Fox was on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and he unveiled a pair of Nike Air Mags which Marty McFly wore in "Back to the Future II".
As you may have noticed, we haven't posted many videos from the end of the 90s, particularly '97, '98, and '99. There is, however, a show that deserves recognition from the sunset years of the 90s. That show is Blind Date, hosted by the one and only Roger Lodge (aka Rodge Lodge and Rodger Lodger).
In the show, cameras follow around couples on blind dates while commentary in the form of funny subtitles, wacky animations, and cooky "thought bubbles" was added by the show's producers.
2 extremely annoying people
Poor guy couldn't work his magic
This guy gets trashed, makes a fool of himself, and goes home alone
NOTE: We know that the majority of the show didn't even take place in the 90s. BUT one year DID take place in the 90s and that was the year 1999. Who knows? Maybe Blind Date prepared us for the craziness of the post-9/11 2000s (or at least the annoying pop-up ads that you witness in some of the videos above)
Nickelodeon was definitely our most watched TV channel when we were kids. There were so many amazing shows that there are just too many to name! One show that comes to mind is Kids Court.
Kids Court is a show where a studio audience filled with kids watches two kids discuss real life grievances that were mailed in by real life kids. When the two sides are done representing their cases, the studio audience then yells and screams like wild animals trying to be the loudest. The "Judge-o-meter" would measure the decibels of the screaming and whichever side was loudest wins the case! The show ends with host Paul Provenza going around the child audience asking the kids to say what is unfair. If something was unfair they'd yell "UNFAIR!!!!!!!!". The show even had two courtroom sketch artists. We always thought they had the coolest job in the world!!!
Kids Court ran for four years from 1985 to 1989. Below is a full episode, which is in 2 parts. Enjoy the stroll down memory lane and the extremely funny looking 80s kids!
Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian died this morning at the age of 83 in Detroit. He had been hospitalized since last month with pneumonia and kidney problems.
Jack Kevorkian was famous for helping about 130 people die during the 1990s. He was eventually found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10–25 years in prison. He was released early for good behavior and only served 8 years.
Below is the "60 Minutes" video that got him in trouble. It originally aired on November 22, 1998.
And here is another "60 Minutes" video that aired May 19, 1996. Kevorkian is interviewed by Andy Rooney and Andy does a pretty good job of getting in Jack's head. Interesting character!
Dave Grohl is DEFINITELY drunk AND stoned in this clip from "1991: The Year Punk Broke". And so is Krist Novoselic. And you can bet that Kurt Cobain is right around the corner, equally fucked up...
26 years ago today, the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb on a house in West Philadelphia, killing most of the occupants inside. Living in the house were members of the MOVE Organization, a Philadelphia-based black liberation group. In the end, 11 people were killed (including 6 children) and 65 houses were destroyed. This video above pretty much sums it all up. So sad....
The band Sublime somehow made a mistake with the lyrics when they wrote the song "April 29, 1992 (Miami)". It's a song about the LA Riots, which started on April 29, 1992, but (for whatever reason) they mistakenly say "April 26, 1992" in the lyrics. Great song anyway! Above is a video of the song along with clips from this hectic time period.
We recorded this on April 8, 1995 from "MTV News: The Week in Rock". They did a segment on how people were feeling one year after Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain killed himself.
They interviewed people such as David Fricke (Music Editor of Rolling Stone), Matthew Sweet, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Joe Sib from Wax, and some Nirvana fans in Seattle, New York, and Memphis.
This segment also includes clips from the vigil held on April 10, 1994 in Seattle and how "In Utero", "Nevermind", and "Unplugged in New York" were all currently on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart.
Kurt Loder talks about Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's "new" band The Foo Fighters and how, in the next few days, they'll be launching a debut tour in Tempe, AZ and opening up for Mike Watt. Loder also adds how Nirvana bassist Christ Novoselic still plays music but has yet to join a new band. It closes out with live footage of Nirvana playing "Lithium".
Luckily, we recorded more videos during the hours and days of this tragic event which we'll be posting soon.......
RIP Kurt
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Video Title: (April 8, 1995) Kurt Cobain's Suicide: One Year Later "MTV News: The Week in Rock"
Event: One Year Anniversary of Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain's suicide
Original Air Date: April 8, 1995
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Wow. How the hell has it been 17 years. Well, anyway.....
We recorded this gossip TV show "Extra" on April 8, 1995 since it had a segment on how Nirvana fans were feeling one year after Kurt Cobain committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
John Norris (who was with MTV when Kurt originally killed himself) was working as a correspondent with "Extra" and he takes us to a (yes you guessed it...to a Seattle coffeehouse) to see how people were coping one year after Kurt Cobain's death.
He spoke to 16-year-olds who seemed jaded. Weren't we all jaded in 1995?
John Norris also showed the park bench near Kurt Cobain's home which fans have turned into a memorial site. Have you been there yet?
At the end of the segment, Cobain's wife, Courtney Love is mentioned since she "put together the soundtrack" of 'Tank Girl' and was making her acting debut in 'Feeling Minnesota' (which is untrue since she was in 'Sid and Nancy' back in 1986).
"Extra" also mentioned how "Life after Kurt has been successful for his widow Courtney Love." Is that true???
More Kurt Cobain suicide era videos will be coming soon......
RIP Kurt
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Video Title: (April 8, 1995) Kurt Cobain's suicide: One Year Later "Extra"
Event: One Year Anniversary of Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain's suicide
Original Air Date: April 8, 1995
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We recorded this on April 18, 1994. It's from an old ABC news show called "Day One" and it was reporting on Kurt Cobain's suicide which happened 10 days earlier. Cobain, of course, was the frontman of Nirvana who ended his life with a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. His body was found on April 8, 1994.
They named the segment "Death of an Icon" and they actually did a pretty decent job on covering Kurt Cobain's life, death, and the days that followed. They interviewed a bunch of fans, critics, writers, and musicians during those sad days. And they kind of summed up who that generation was and how they were coping. Damn, I miss those days....
Luckily, we recorded more videos during the hours and days of this tragic event which we'll be posting soon.......
RIP Kurt
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Video Title: (April 18, 1994) Kurt Cobain's suicide "Death of an Icon" (ABC news segment)
Event: Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain's suicide
Original Air Date: April 18, 1994
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Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong was charged and arrested for 'Indecent Exposure' after a show at The Mecca in Milwaukee, WI on November 21, 1995 (other sites say it happened on 11/21/96 but they got the year wrong).
Here is a clip from "MTV News: The Week in Rock" in which Kurt Loder reports on the arrest. Billie Joe supposedly pulled his pants down and mooned the audience and the Milwaukee police arrested and charged him with Indecent Exposure after the show. He bailed out that night for $111 but forfeited that money when he didn't appear for a 9am appointment the next morning. Drummer Tre Cool is interviewed over the phone about the charge against Billie Joe and says that it only happened because the cops were upset that Green Day wouldn't hang out with them backstage.
Before the incident, MTV caught up with Green Day at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI on November 16, 1995. They were interviewed on topics such as if touring gets boring for them, how Billie Joe and Tre Cool are new fathers, playing bigger venues, Ticketmaster and Pearl Jam, the remainder of their Insomniac Tour and what they do on their days off.
So people out there. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of you at that 11/21/95 Green Day concert at The Mecca in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Please show yourselves and let us know if Billie Joe showed his ass or not. We're confused why this story has some sketchy details and wrong dates online...
COME FORWARD!! YOU BILLIE JOE BUTT CHEEK LOOKERS WHO ARE HIDING IN THE ABYSS OF 2011+++ YOU MAY HAVE WIVES AND KIDS NOW. BUT WE MUST KNOW. DID BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG SHOW HIS ASS CHEEKS ON THE NIGHT IN QUESTION?
Probably, since he did it pretty often back then.
rad.
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Video Title: (November 1995) Green Day's Billie Joe arrested for indecent exposure
(MTV News: Week in Rock)
Segment: Billie Joe Armstrong arrested/Green Day on "MTV News: Week in Rock"
Original Air Date: late November 1995
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Here is an old interview with Silverchair from "MTV News: The Week in Rock" from March 1996. This segment aired when their debut album Frogstomp was just under a year old and singer Daniel Johns, bassist Chris Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies were only 16 years old. At the time, Silverchair was opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Kurt Loder sets up the segment and wonders if they're jaded yet. Topics include their fathers tagging along, how Daniel plans on wearing the same white shirt without washing it for the whole tour, Daniel being knocked out after diving into the audience and being hit in the head with a beer bottle (bloody images shown), playing on the marquee of Radio City Music Hall for MTV's 1995 Video Music Awards, how Frogstomp went top 10, opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (and watching Flea pull his pants down), how they need to catch up on schoolwork when they get back to Australia, why the new video for "Israel's Son" needed to be re-cut (which they didn't agree with), and how they'll resume their tour with the Chili Peppers on March 6th in Chicago.
This video shows live clips from Madison Square Garden in NYC (02/09/96), Santa Monica Pier in CA (09/17/95), and Radio City Music Hall in NYC (09/07/95).
Cool.
Rock on Silverchair.
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Video Title: (March 1996) early Silverchair interview "MTV News: Week in Rock"
Segment: Silverchair on "MTV News: Week in Rock"
Original Air Date: March 1996
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Here is an early interview with Dave Grohl on April 3, 1996 at the Much Music studio in Toronto, Canada. It was only days away from the two year anniversary of the day when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The Foo Fighters were barely a year old and the other band members at the time were bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate) plus second guitarist Pat Smear (The Germs, Nirvana).
Bill Welychka is interviewing Dave on a snowy afternoon with fans all throughout the studio and outside. It was just hours before the Foo Fighters would play a show at the Concert Hall in Toronto for their 1996 Spring Tour.
Topics discussed include parallels between lyrics from the Foo Fighters Self-Titled album and Kurt Cobain's suicide, how it hurts to talk about Kurt's death (Dave gets annoyed at Bill for asking), how Smells Like Teen Spirit was the anthem of the 90's, about possibly doing a Canadian Foo Fighters tour, and to stop throwing Mentos at them during concerts. He also answered questions from fans and received a bootleg Nirvana CD from one.
We believe there was more to this interview which unfortunately we missed when it originally aired on Much Music.
Stay tuned as we have many more rare videos during the "grunge years" that we'll be posting soon!!!
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Video Title: (April 3, 1996) early Dave Grohl interview on MuchMusic
Segment: Dave Grohl being interviewed on MuchMusic
Original Air Date: April 3, 1996
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Here is an interview with Courtney Love and Drew Barrymore that is from April 1996. It's from MTV's "Week In Rock" and Kurt Loder is the man setting it up.
They were at the "Primal Fear" movie premiere and the topics they discuss include: Not being blondes anymore, how they both love Edward Norton, how they each star in Woody Allen films "Everyone Says I Love You" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt"
One question. Who the hell is that giant standing next to Drew???
Here is an early interview with the Foo Fighters that is from March 1996. The band was barely a year old when this came out. It was soon after their performance on 01/20/96 in Manila, Philippines at the Folk Art Theater (this interview includes live clips from that performance).
Singer/guitarist Dave Grohl and bassist Nate Mendel are in a doctor's office being interviewed by MTV Asia Correspondent Preeti Sethi. They're answering questions while a doctor is examining Nate's injured arm.
Topics include: Craziness of Southeast Asia fans, shooting "Big Me" music video in Australia, recording a track for the X-Files soundtrack, Dave Grohl as an extra in an episode of the X-Files.
We have many, many more videos that we recorded during the "grunge years" so be sure to keep checking back.
