When LUNO’S Dan and Jen asked me if I’d be interested in contributing to their ‘Vinyl of the Month’ blog pieces, I knew right away what the first record I reviewed would be. “I wanna do ‘Nevermind’ first”, I said to Jen.

Having just marked its 25th anniversary, the release of Nirvana’s sophomore album “Nevermind” is now looked back upon as an unexpected culturally seismic event; almost singlehandedly credited with not only ushering in the grunge era but also smothering the excesses of the hair metal age under Kurt Cobain’s anguished wails. Filled with cynicism, angst, and a tense dichotomy of pop sensibility and punk anarchy, ‘Nevermind’ turned Nirvana into almost overnight superstars. And as I approach my 38th birthday, my introduction to the album remains the single most profound introductory experience with a band I’ve ever had.

In January of 1992, I was a precociously intelligent, emotionally raw, twelve-year old kid living in a ‘group home’ in Redlands, CA. Not only was I small for my age, I was also a year ahead grade-wise of my age group, which made me the smallest 8th grader at Moore Jr. High. I had recently run away from an extremely abusive foster home and was placed in this special home for boys with behavioral problems and was having considerable difficulty navigating both the institutional rigors of the home and the increasingly chaotic psychic waters of my burgeoning adolescence. Fights and violent outbursts were a regular occurrence. I was administered a seemingly endless cocktail of pharmaceuticals to help me keep my emotions in check. I was bewildered by what I saw as a surefire exercise in futility on the part of the adults charged with my care: that they’d taken a bunch of kids from extremely volatile backgrounds and lumped them together under one roof with underpaid and unqualified staff members to tend to them and then when the inevitable behavioral conflicts emerged, treated those kids as though there were something intrinsically wrong with them for behaving that way and responding by stuffing them psychoactive drugs, largely against their will. Looking back now, I see a correlation between my 12-year old self’s condemnation of the powers that were in charge of my upbringing and the kind of ‘I’m not crazy, the world is’ mindset that it fostered, and the society-at-large shunning cynicism of Nirvana.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Nirvana’s “Nevermind” had been released late the previous year and was quickly accumulating a critical mass of both artistic and commercial success. Walking to school one day, a friend of mine approached me on the street excitedly and said I just had to listen to this new band. He threw his headphones over my head and pulled out an ‘L.A. Guns’ cassette tape. I knew of L.A. Guns and didn’t like them at all. I started to protest but he quickly re-assured me. “I taped over it,” he said, “this is a new band, they’re called ‘Nirvana.’. What I heard immediately astounded me. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before from music. I had grown up on Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, and Kool and the Gang from my foster parents, and from the older boys in my neighborhoods I’d been fed a steady diet of N.W.A., Too Short, and 2 Live Crew. My only real introduction to rock of any kind had been Guns ‘n Roses and I felt no connection to it at all. My connection to the music on ‘Nevermind’ was immediate and beyond a comprehension I could elucidate at the time. Long before I would understand most of the underlying social themes of the arrangement choices and Kurt’s lyrics, I simply FELT connected. The scratching guitar, violently pulsating drums, and Kurt’s feral wail were sonic representations of my psyche’s confusion and angst. It was like after years of being unable to explain to anyone the turbulent rhythms that were torturing your brainwaves, some stranger came along and not only validated your complaints but gave your symptoms names.

Listening to “Nevermind” all these years later on the LUNO console–two whiskey’s deep and a third swirling in my glass–several things stand out to me about the album. First, the ferocity, vitality, and immediacy is not dimmed after all these years (and the LUNO console delivers that shit in spades) yet it still also retains a good deal of unexpected enigma, both in the arrangements and the bleak opacity of some of Cobain’s lyricism.

The second thing was just how much Dave Grohl’s drumming shapes this album. Much has been written over the years about Cobain’s artful vacillations between hard/soft/hard tones in both his writing and delivery, but Grohl’s drumming proved equally adept at maneuvering between those lines and he structured his approach to suit each song, alternately unleashing hell or pulling back when necessary. The wild brutality of the percussion on songs like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and ‘Breed’ makes it easy to overlook the appropriate restraint on songs like ‘Something in the Way’ and especially ‘Come As You Are’, in which the drums allow that incredibly catchy bass line to serve as the emotional core for most of the song before really coming alive just before the bridge. Then there are moments when the drums dominate and propel the whole song, as in ‘Territorial Pissings’, in which Grohl enters with machine gun ferocity and provides a violent, psychic surge for two thirds of the song’s run time before pulling back a little to provide a deceptively soft cradle for Cobain’s dire, ironic warning: ‘Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you.’ It’s pulse quickening in a way that is almost cinematic in its build and payoff, like a Hitchockian thriller. I remember reading a review somewhere years ago that said that Grohl ‘beat the drums like they owed him money’. It’s a vivid and memorable description but it doesn’t capture the artistry veiled beneath the rage. To me his drumming conjures up images of the shy, quietly sturdy kid who gets picked on by the school bully and proceeds to knock him out with a series of expertly delivered combo punches. Only afterwards do you find out he’s been training to box for year and years.

But back to that bass line on ‘Come As You Are’. The third thing that dawned on me from my LUNO experience with ‘Nevermind’ is that I cannot think of a single more instantly recognizable-and completely isolated- bass line intro in all of popular music than Novoselic’s on ‘Come As You Are’. Think about it. When one thinks of the most instantly recognizable bass line intros, there’s a handful of true standouts: The Temptations’ ‘My Girl’, Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’, Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and their Bowie collab ‘Under Pressure’, Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’, the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’, and Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ all come to mind but every one of those has some other musical accompaniment to its bass line intro. ‘Come As You Are’ opens with bass and bass only, and it is unmistakable and instantly recognizable. The only song I can think of that comes close is the Pixies’ ‘Debaser’ (which also seems like a spiritual forbear and probably influence on Novoselic’s bass line) but the Pixies song simply doesn’t have the cultural cache or reach of ‘Come As You Are.’ Recently, not long after I’d begun working on this article, Dave Grohl came into the restaurant where I was bartending and I shared that realization with him. He also couldn’t think of another isolated bass intro that matched ‘Come As You Are’ but did offer the interesting tidbit that on their previous album ‘Bleach’. Nirvana actually began the entire album with an isolated bass intro, on the track ‘Blew’. He was then quick to praise Novoselic, saying that he felt that Krist’s work was probably often overlooked because his great ability was to take the sometimes difficult trajectories of what Kurt had written and be able fit the bass line inside them in a way that helped give them structure but didn’t necessarily stand out, much like Ringo’s drum work for the Beatles.

That got me to thinking about Novoselic. If it’s possible to be unheralded when you’re one-third of a group that created a certified twice diamond album which came to define a generation’s angst and which Rolling Stone named the 17th greatest album of all time, then Krist Novoselic is pretty unheralded. While Cobain entered the tragic pantheon of rock gods too soon gone and Grohl went on to become one of the most successful and richest musicians of the last two decades, Novoselic, though continuing to continue various musical endeavors, became more entrenched in political activism and faded from the spotlight.

Cobain’s suicide in 1994 ensured that the trio of himself, Grohl, and Novoselic, would release only two full studio albums, “Nevermind” and its follow up “In Utero”.

25 years after its release, “Nevermind” is still the moving, maddening, sometimes infuriating and sometimes rapturous experience it was to that twelve year old kid walking down the sidewalk with wounded eyes and a storm throbbing in his head, wondering if there was anyone out there who could give a name to that aching.

The post FEBRUARY: Vinyl of the Month – Nirvana “Nevermind” appeared first on Luno.

Did you grow up with a record player/console in your house, did your family listen to much music? 

I was an 80s baby so I grew up with cassette tapes mostly. For my 3rd birthday all I wanted was a pink tape player and a Bon Jovi tape. I can’t help but think that this moment was where my love of music and quirky design came in. As far as the music in my family, my dad was a huge Zeppelin, Van Halen, Lou Reed fan so those are some of my earliest musical memories. My mom loved people like Queen, Bowie, Skynard, and Aerosmith. However, I think my the person who had the biggest impact on my musical taste was my older brother, Jason, who sparked my love for a lot of weird alternative and indie bands. He taught me about The Pixies & Frank Black, Nirvana, all of Steve Albini’s projects, My Bloody Valentine, Magnetic Fields (Stephin Merritt), Jesus & Mary Chain and so many more that I could go on about this question alone for 10 pages! Also, I’m from Texas and have a lot of family members who play country music so there was a lot of Willie Nelson and classic country music happening during family festivities!

FUN FACT: I one time got hired for a job assisting a famous Japanese rock star because I told him that my favorite music was Nirvana and Garth Brooks. He hired me on the spot because he thought it was so ridiculous!

What was the first vinyl record LP that you purchased?

I believe it was Queen “A Night at the Opera” for .99 at Goodwill.

Do you have a listening room in your house, what’s your current setup like?  

We have about 10 “listening rooms” at our house thanks to Dan. Every room in our house has a record player/audio system of some sort. Even our bathroom has some sort of hybrid tube amp contraption Dan set up. Our living room has a Soundburger / Mister Disc portable record player that comes through our surround sound. Our bedroom has a Barbie Disco suitcase style record player I got at Goodwill that we refurbished and it actually sounds fairly good all things considered. Our office has a U-Turn turntable that Dan uses to test out a lot of our new speakers and listen to when he’s working. Last but not least, we finally just brought home one of our KC27 consoles that lives in our dining room. It sits at the end of our 12 foot dining table so it’s the perfect entertainment and conversation piece. (We would have brought the EGB2 but it didn’t fit properly, that thing is a beast!) We even currently have it voice activated so you can yell at it to play stuff for you which is pretty fun after a few cocktails!

What did you do before you started LUNO?

I moved to Los Angeles from Texas in 2003 to go to acting school – isn’t that why everyone comes to LA?! After a year of that, I realized that it wasn’t for me and I really like being behind the scenes. My boyfriend at the time was in a band and his manager also managed The Killers so I started helping him out occasionally. Also, all of my friends that I had met when I moved out here were musicians. I wasn’t even really aware of the “the industry” side of things before moving to LA nor had I considered it a career option, but found it fascinating and it seemed like everything was pointing me in that direction. I enrolled in MI and studied music business and interned at Interscope Records. From there, I went on to do radio promotion, marketing for a startup music platform, promotion for live venue, assisting a famous rock star, and artist relations for a guitar company. I dabbled in a bit of everything on the marketing side of the industry and absolutely loved it. It’s still my dream to someday own a beautiful live venue that I can design and Dan can do sound – future LUNO Lounge idea!? Working on the live side of things was by far my favorite experience. Everyday was something different and it was never boring. I loved being able to create experiences that allowed people to have a good time, which is something we try to do with LUNO. After I got laid off from my last industry gig, I had decided that I didn’t want to work for anyone ever again – it was natural for me as I’m stubborn as hell and both of my parents are entrepreneurs so it is in my DNA. While I was working on a startup I’d wanted to do for a while called BandPass (similar to MoviePass but for music) and trying to figure out my plan, I started painting vintage furniture in my garage as a hobby. I ended up putting some of it on Craigslist for fun and it sold. So I did more, and it sold. BandPass soon took a backseat. People soon started asking me for custom pieces, then started asking me build stuff for them (WTF) so I just sort of figured it out by being extremely obsessive and persistent! It was a very organic process and nothing I ever intended to do, but I fell in love with the design process. I studied and stalked everyone I could who knew anything about it sometimes hanging out at paint stores for hours on end. Just a few years later, we now have 2 successful furniture lines and LUNO has allowed me to combine my love of music & design. We’re planning on launching new products at ICFF 2019 and talking about doing a design show in NY this October, as well.

It sounds like you’ve met a lot of celebrities in your work, any stories you can share?

I think it’s inevitable that living in Los Angeles, you’re going to meet and know celebrities especially when working in the entertainment industry. One that stands out in my mind is when I met Paul Stanley of KISS when I was working at Daisy Rock. It was Halloween and I had no idea he was coming by and I was wearing a Kurt Cobain costume, as I would. He was not in a costume. It was such a random experience and he was super nice! I also got to meet Shonen Knife, who I had been a fan of for a while. We ended up becoming friends and they sent Dan and I a wedding gift that we still have, a beautiful Sake Set! Meeting Davey Havok from AFI deserves an honorable mention too because he’s one of the nicest people on the planet.

If you could make a custom hifi console for anyone, who would it be, describe the style and design for us?

My original intention of doing a lot of the custom designs (such as Prince, Bowie, etc) was to make them for the artists, sadly they never came to fruition. I really love the design and customization process and the ability to make something so wild that totally reflects a specific person’s style. I’m currently obsessed with trying to make a Yeezy console for Kanye. Dan and I are HUGE Kanye fans and Kanye is also a huge interior design and furniture fan and I recently read that he’s opening up a Yeezy architecture branch so I think it’s in the realm of possibility?!

What speaks to you about mid-century modern style?

Mid Century Modern style evokes a nostalgic feeling. When we launched at ICFF almost every person that came into our booth (one of them being Terry Crews) immediately would smile and say “this brings back some memories.” This is the exact feeling we wanted to create and the Mid Century Grandma aesthetic brought that to the table.

If you could choose one record to describe yourself, what would it be and why?

Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ because damn near every song on that record is perfect and relatable.

“Think I’ll pack it in and buy a pick-up

Take it down to L.A.

Find a place to call my own

and try to fix up.

Start a brand new day”

Can you explain to someone what the experience of having one of your record consoles is like?

From someone who doesn’t know much about audio, I can say that they sound like being at a live concert. Dan is a phenomenal live sound engineer and really makes it feel like an immersive experience. We even had a customer once say as soon as we turned up the volume “Sounds like a concert!” – there is a video to prove it! In terms of the design, we tried to take a lot of aspects of the vintage players that we liked and clean them up a bit. I used Marshall Grill Cloth to really make it feel as authentic to the old stereo cabinets as possible. For our custom consoles, the sky’s the limit, you want me to wrap one in hundred dollar bills or add a mini-fridge – let’s do it! The funkier, the better! I’m up for the challenge.

What was your first concert, who did you see and what impression did that have on you?

The first concert I saw alone with friends was The Smashing Pumpkins Zero Tour in 97 or 98, I believe. I was hooked from that day forward. I remember going to the after party at a local club called Numbers hoping they would be there (they weren’t.) I’m still upset about that. Call me, Billy.

Can you tell us about the creative process of making one of your record consoles? Where do you take your inspiration from?

Typically it starts out with me seeing something I like and trying to incorporate it into one of our pieces somehow. No matter if our cabinet makers tell us it’s not possible, we always figure out a way! I’ll send my sketches to our designer and he’ll make them actually look good (and realistic) not like a 5 year old drew them. From there, my cabinet makers and I figure out what is and isn’t doable – the former always wins if I have anything to say about it! Dan spent a lot of time developing the audio components and sound quality of the consoles so we do have certain restrictions we’re working with but in terms of the cabinets & design aspect, we can get pretty funky (within reason) as long as the materials don’t affect or hinder the sound in any way. It’s a bit of trial and error when working on new designs. Most of my inspiration comes from pop culture, I would say, I’ve always been fascinated by it.

You’ve designed a lot of very unique custom hifi record consoles, can you tell us about a couple of your favorites?

My favorite to date by far is the new Limited Edition piece we just designed. I can’t get too much into it until we announce it but it’s stunning and was an extremely complicated process. It took multiple people with various skills to pull it off.  Besides that, I did a really cool Louis Vuitton piece that I’m in love with, and the Bowie was very interesting because the base had a welded constellation pattern which looked really amazing.

Can you tell us a little about what’s coming up for LUNO?

We have a new Limited Edition console coming up that we collaborated on with a famous artist so keep your eyes peeled for that! I’m extremely proud of the design, it was a long  process but the end result is phenomenal and some of the best work we’ve done. We also have a desktop/portable type console that we’ve been working on for a while that will be announced soon, as well as several cabinet designs sans equipment. We also collaborated with a whiskey company on multiple pieces that they’re using for a giveaway so you may have a chance to win one! Lastly, we’re in the process of moving our listening room aka “LUNO Lounge”, production facility, showroom, all under one roof so that’s really exciting! We’ll be able to hold inventory, have listening parties and all that cool stuff that’s been difficult to do so far.

I hear you’re also a musician, can you tell us a little about that and your current project?

I wouldn’t really call myself a “musician” per se. I learned to play bass for a band called Ghostel than Dan, I, and our friend Bryce had for a little while. It was super fun and our song “Buckley Get Your Gun” got a placement in the trailer of an Oscar nominated film called “Mustang” so that was pretty wild and got us a decent amount of attention. I’m not formally trained on any instruments and pretty much only know how to play our songs! I sort of made up my own tablature and Dan worked with me and taught me in a way that I understood.  It’s a really fun experience and I love the rush of being on stage and hope to do it again soon. The full album entitled 1414 was just released on Spotify. Currently, we’re so busy with LUNO and MVV that Dan and I write some songs here and there for fun and hope to turn those into a new project at some point in the future and release it on vinyl!

If you could give anyone a single piece of advice what would it be and why?

My dad always told me you gotta spend money to make money! So basically buy one of our damn consoles and it’ll make you rich!!!! No, but seriously, in the words of one of my favorite professors “Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.”

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