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Another hometown hero of sorts for us Seattleites. Actually, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic were from Aberdeen/Hoquiam, where I spent a bunch of time working on my book about hate crimes, Death on the Fourth of July. A more bleak upbringing I could not really imagine, except maybe in Forks. Anyway, this is another cover, this time of a great David Bowie song from the era when Bowie was a great songwriter.

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(Flop in 1993 - Sony was clueless)

Another fine example of a band, after years of struggling, gets signed to a major label who releases their album to weak initial sales and then dumps them like a bad habit a few months later.

Sound familiar? It's what major labels do, especially the past twenty or so years when it stopped being about music and artists and cultivating talent in favor of profit-and-loss statements and bottom lines.

Flop were a combination punk/pop/grunge band that came out of the Seattle area in the early 90s. They had a good local following and a few singles and eps put out by indie labels.

Since Seattle became something of a mecca for all things grunge (with the astounding success of Nirvana) in the early 90s, every major label sent A&R people to scour the streets, clubs and rehearsal rooms in search of the next Kurt Cobain.

Sony found Flop and signed them for their 550 imprint and teamed them with Martin Rushent to co-produce. The results became their second album Whenever You're Ready, a turbo-charged package of 17 cuts of which this track Woolworth is one of them.

It's a great album - loud, fast and out of control. Like a lot of albums should be, but sadly aren't.

Unfortunately, after the Sony debacle there was a personnel change and they recorded one more album for another indie label before calling it quits.

It does however beg the question that if Sony/Epic were an actual record company, would they still have gotten the same fate?

One never knows.

Sonic Youth's new album The Eternal, their sixteenth, came out yesterday. Here's the leadoff track, "Sacred Trickster", from Later... With Jools Holland last month.

Sonic Youth were one of the very first of the indie bands of the 1980s to jump to a major label. DGC signed the band hoping that they would act as a magnet for more credible acts to the label; they attracted a small band from Seattle called Nirvana shortly after. The Eternal marks Sonic Youth's return to the indies -- it's out on the hugely successful Matador Records.

Despite the fact that Flipper are, well, not for everyone is one way to put it, they were an incredibly special and innovative band. People do tend to have strong opinions about them though, mine running to the extremely positive.

The San Francisco band never really intended on having people like them very much (and they certainly succeeded at having quite a few people hate them), but ultimately they were the first punk band to be slow and dirgelike, providing the raw, harsh ingredients that Mudhoney, Nirvana and Sonic Youth would later refine into something more palatable. It's clear when listening to and watching early footage of the band, long before the death of lead singer Will Shatter, that they had no intention of being any part of rock history.

Either way, they are, and their lack of self-awareness just makes them sound ten times better. Generic Flipper, the album which features this song and the classic 'Sex Bomb' is one of the only records of the era that still takes a listener by surprise when hearing it for the first time. Though there's a tough exterior on songs like "Way of the World", there's a stark and pure flavor underneath.

Update: Flipper are releasing a new studio album called Love and a live album called Fight on Tuesday, May 19th. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic handles the low end and co-writing on both.

Alice in Chains, the Seattle grunge mainstay who actually broke big before Nirvana or their other peers, will be releasing their first album since 1995. It's also their first new music since the passing of lead singer Layne Staley from a heroin overdose in 2002. The band reformed with new singer William DuVall in 2005 and toured with Velvet Revolver in the summer of 2007.

The LA Times stopped in to catch the final days of their recording with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Rush, Superdrag) and found the band in good spirits.

Will the first grunge band to break be the last one standing? The new album is slated for a September release by Virgin/EMI -- we'll find out then.

Green Day's new album 21st Century Breakdown is a three part concept album supposedly even more haughty than the last one. This means it's either going to be really fantastic or grandiose rock and roll gasbaggery. The first single, 'Know Your Enemy', thankfully pushes the odds toward the former.

The album follows a young couple through their trials in the modern world through three parts: "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints," and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades." Like Zen Arcade if the protagonist had a girlfriend? And cost more that $3200 to record? Maybe.

It's Green Day's first with producer Butch Vig, who helmed little albums like Nirvana's Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, as well as lesser known gems like Freedy Johnston's This Perfect World and L7's Bricks are Heavy. There's no discernable grunge stamp on 'Know Your Enemy' that I can hear, but Breakdown will most certainly go beyond Green Day's traditional format on display here.

21st Century Breakdown comes out May 15th.

Note: Sorry about the ad. WB kills all YouTubes.

Taking the cue from Gordon ... It was 15 years ago tomorrow that I rode my bike past Kurt Cobain's house and knew there was something wrong from all the police cars outside. On my way home that night, the crowds had already gathered.

"Dumb" was always one of my favorite Nirvana songs, especially because I could see someone from Aberdeen writing it.

I don't think there is much to add that hasn't been written or spoken about in the past fifteen years regarding Kurt Cobain. It doesn't seem that long ago - almost yesterday. The shock and loss are endless, and the "might've beens" and "could've beens" will stretch as far as the eye will ever see.

So, it's just the moment here, the event. The shock in the voice and the awkward forming of words, bringing news to the stunned.

The reports here are all from April 8th, the day the body was discovered. It had been determined that the actual suicide took place on April 5th.

Pick either day, the sadness is the same.

And I've read some dumb things this year.

Yeah, I'll dignify this with a link, because it could use some dignity. David Marchese at SPIN's piece, "5 Bands Kurt Cobain Would Love", published on Cobain's would-be 42nd birthday, would be totally righteous if it were called "5 Bands David Marchese Thinks Are Authentic" -- or "5 Bands Most People Who Still Like Guitars and Have Their Ear to the Indie-Rock Ground Think Are Authentic" for that matter, but to say somehow that Cobain would've championed these bands because he liked CCR and the Vaselines? Give me a break. He liked Jawbreaker too, but you don't see me saying he'd love Fall Out Boy, despite the obvious influence.

Anyways, rock pundits clearly have been watching too much "Abraham Lincoln would've ___" on cable news, and need to stop getting ideas.