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Grunge
More than a decade after his death, alienated, awkward, heavily eye-lined Kurt Cobain continues to sit front and center in the arena of popular culture, as the subject of books, music, fashion, gossip, and inspiration for major motion pictures and documentaries. Together with flannelsporting, music-obsessed communities emerging (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) from the chilly Pacific Northwest, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and Pearl Jam changed the scene with wild aggressive sounds and truly alternative records.
Author Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth)―who introduced Kurt Cobain t David Geffen (Geffen Records), a meeting that resulted in Nirvana’s first major debut, Nevermind, in September 1991, which by December was selling 400,000 copies a week―writes about the discovery of Seattle punk youth, the seminal bands that defined the movement, the exploitation of the subculture, and the backlash of grunge, as well as the death of his longtime collaborator and intimate Cobain.
Author Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth)―who introduced Kurt Cobain t David Geffen (Geffen Records), a meeting that resulted in Nirvana’s first major debut, Nevermind, in September 1991, which by December was selling 400,000 copies a week―writes about the discovery of Seattle punk youth, the seminal bands that defined the movement, the exploitation of the subculture, and the backlash of grunge, as well as the death of his longtime collaborator and intimate Cobain.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 20, 2009
Borrrrrrrrrring. And I still love Nirvana's music and even some of the Cobain mythology. All the recollections about the early 90s are painfully dull and repetitive to me at this point. I'd rather just watch a powerful performance of "Drain You" or something on YouTube than listen to people remind themselves about how Nirvana's popularity changed the pop-cultural landscape for the 80 zillionth time.
I was embarrassed to be holding this in the book store, but I reflexively pick up things with pictures of Cobain in them--he was a cutey pie.
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I was embarrassed to be holding this in the book store, but I reflexively pick up things with pictures of Cobain in them--he was a cutey pie.
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February 13, 2025Fin födelsedagspresent från pappa <3 råa & autentiska bilder som perfekt speglar grunge-eran
December 12, 2009
Nothing new or innovative here.
May 10, 2012
I am a big fan of Nirvana. I have been seeing this book in Google each time I search for Grunge Music / Kurt Cobain / Nirvana. One day, I was in a small books store that sells secondhand books, books by independent publishers, and the like. I was actually looking for "Heavier Than Heaven" then. They have it but it is too costly. It was sold at Php 3000+. It’s almost $70.00. It's expensive because it has the author's signature. Well, I don't really need the author's signature. All I want is the book itself. I just postponed buying it until I have enough money. So I just browsed the shelves of the store. Then I saw this "Grunge" book. It was being sold at the price of Php 150.00 (almost $3.00) only. It kinda looks old and 'worn-out'. I thought to myself "Why not? It's already cheap and besides, the title itself sounds interesting to me." As soon as I got home, I read the book. As I turn avery page, I feel more overwhelmed. The content and photos are not really "extraordinary" but being a big fan of the 90s era, the content and photos, for me, are very fascinating! It has a short history of how the music movement started and photos of great bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, and many more. It was actually a "Best Buy" for me. A book sold at a very low price with jam packed photos of great Grunge/Alternative/Noise bands. I just love this book.
December 13, 2021
Great photos. But seeing the same type of photos. Becomes very boring.
March 4, 2016
Not a bad book, albeit an awfully titled one, but I'd not have bought if I'd browsed it at the bookstore rather than ordering online. There's some interesting photography but the small format doesn't lend itself to Lavine's work, and it's overly focused on his early Seattle "street kids" work, which takes up too much of the book without offering a lot of variety. My favorite photog of this time is Charles Peterson, Sub Pop's go-to guy from the mid 80's to 90's, and his work and books are vastly better.
I got turned on to Lavine from his photos of bands I loved during the late 1980's - Swallow, The Fluid, Blood Circus, Mudhoney and his archetypical work for Sonic Youth on their epic "Daydream Nation" 2xLP. All that stuff is here, sadly in too small of a format to appreciate. There's a few I hadn't seen that were a nice surprise: U-Men, Meat Puppets, and a few others, but not enough to make this book a keeper rather than a glance-through curiosity.
The other focus of the book is Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, a topic which continues to oversaturate the music world 20+ years after his passing. Photos of a guy who hated to be photographed just seem odd and out-of-place, and none are ground-breaking or earth-shattering.
The long-winded forward, best skipped, is by the ever-present know-it-all of indie rock, Thurston Moore. He's in typical blathering form here, trying as usual to prove how cool, hip and connected he is with the whole scene, spouting half-truths, myths, and made up stuff as much as anything worthwhile, calling far too many of the bands "skum rock." Were he to be banned from ever writing again, the world would be a better place. Fortunately the book doesn't suffer by skipping straight to the pictures.
I got turned on to Lavine from his photos of bands I loved during the late 1980's - Swallow, The Fluid, Blood Circus, Mudhoney and his archetypical work for Sonic Youth on their epic "Daydream Nation" 2xLP. All that stuff is here, sadly in too small of a format to appreciate. There's a few I hadn't seen that were a nice surprise: U-Men, Meat Puppets, and a few others, but not enough to make this book a keeper rather than a glance-through curiosity.
The other focus of the book is Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, a topic which continues to oversaturate the music world 20+ years after his passing. Photos of a guy who hated to be photographed just seem odd and out-of-place, and none are ground-breaking or earth-shattering.
The long-winded forward, best skipped, is by the ever-present know-it-all of indie rock, Thurston Moore. He's in typical blathering form here, trying as usual to prove how cool, hip and connected he is with the whole scene, spouting half-truths, myths, and made up stuff as much as anything worthwhile, calling far too many of the bands "skum rock." Were he to be banned from ever writing again, the world would be a better place. Fortunately the book doesn't suffer by skipping straight to the pictures.
January 7, 2022
“Grunge”, così come la prima parte della carriera di Michael Lavine, è diviso sostanzialmente in due:
-la prima parte riguarda foto scattate nel 1983 ai punk di Olympia e Seattle. Ma anche ai Mod e alle altre frange della controcultura hardcore di quegli anni. Foto bellissime, piene di vita e di giovinezza. Risalgono all’epoca in cui in fotografo studiava al college ad Olympia.
-la seconda parte riguarda la carriera di Lavine come fotografo dei gruppi alternative americani negli anni ’90. Le foto sono scattate a New York, città in cui si era trasferito nel 1985. Abbiamo quindi tutti i grossi nomi della Sub Pop, della scena di Seattle (con cui Lavine era rimasto in contatto) e della scena newyorchese: Soundgarden, Buffalo Tom, Tad, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Boss Hog, Babes In Toyland, White Zombie, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Royal Trux e moltissimi altri. Anche qui scatti in bianco e nero ma in un contesto estremamente diverso: lo studio, non la strada. Ugualmente belle ma meno interessanti perché per me non una completa novità.
Quasi 150 pagine di immagini validissime, una bella prefazione di Thurston Moore ma anche una critica all’unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta: il titolo. “Grunge” è un titolo fuorviante, forse paraculo (un po’ come la foto di Cobain in copertina, una scelta di comodo e di marketing). Ok, richiama molte cose e il significato è anche spiegato nella prefazione. Ma è fuorviante ma devo comunque ammettere che si tratta sostanzialmente di un dettaglio che non sminuisce il resto.
-la prima parte riguarda foto scattate nel 1983 ai punk di Olympia e Seattle. Ma anche ai Mod e alle altre frange della controcultura hardcore di quegli anni. Foto bellissime, piene di vita e di giovinezza. Risalgono all’epoca in cui in fotografo studiava al college ad Olympia.
-la seconda parte riguarda la carriera di Lavine come fotografo dei gruppi alternative americani negli anni ’90. Le foto sono scattate a New York, città in cui si era trasferito nel 1985. Abbiamo quindi tutti i grossi nomi della Sub Pop, della scena di Seattle (con cui Lavine era rimasto in contatto) e della scena newyorchese: Soundgarden, Buffalo Tom, Tad, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Boss Hog, Babes In Toyland, White Zombie, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Royal Trux e moltissimi altri. Anche qui scatti in bianco e nero ma in un contesto estremamente diverso: lo studio, non la strada. Ugualmente belle ma meno interessanti perché per me non una completa novità.
Quasi 150 pagine di immagini validissime, una bella prefazione di Thurston Moore ma anche una critica all’unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta: il titolo. “Grunge” è un titolo fuorviante, forse paraculo (un po’ come la foto di Cobain in copertina, una scelta di comodo e di marketing). Ok, richiama molte cose e il significato è anche spiegato nella prefazione. Ma è fuorviante ma devo comunque ammettere che si tratta sostanzialmente di un dettaglio che non sminuisce il resto.
October 3, 2011
I got this as a Christmas gift and I love it. The time of grunge was a wonderful space and the trip down memory lane actually made me cry. The photographs capture the fashion, temperament, and a spirit that I think is long gone now. This book should definitely be a part of anyone's collection who knows what I mean when I say "heart shaped box," ever wore ripped jeans with thermals underneath, and felt a hole in their heart when Kurt Cobain passed away.
December 23, 2009
Grunge is a great collectors item for anyone entranced by the Pacific north-west American music scene of the 1980s and 1990s. Text introducing the book, written by Thurtson Moore, a veteran of the scene and photographs by Michael Lavine, the most notorious photographer of the grunge period make this book a great pleasure to look through.
June 7, 2017
A short text by Thurston Moore but well-written in a musician/non-writer sort of way. The real appeal of this book is Lavine's photos of the 1980's punk scene in Seattle and his pictures of the bands to come out of it later in the 80's and then on into the 90's.
January 27, 2010
Thurston Moore's introduction was lame but I really like photos of people and these ones are well done even if you don't like the grunge scene. It did make me feel a bit uncool though.
December 25, 2012
Interesting collection of pictures from the Grunge period.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews