Kurt Cobain
Krist Novoselic is reviving a Nirvana favorite with his new band.
On Friday (June 21), the former Nirvana bassist appeared alongside his latest group The Bona Fide Band at Make Music Day in Aberdeen, Wash., the town where he and Kurt Cobain grew up and formed the iconic grunge band.
During Friday’s free performance, The Bona Fide Band — comprising Novoselic (bass), Screaming Trees’ Mark Pickerel (drums), Jillian Raye (vocals), Jennifer Johnson (vocals) and Kathy Moore (guitar) — performed a cover of Nirvana’s “Love Buzz,” which appears on the group’s 1989 debut album, Bleach.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“Love Buzz,” with its catchy opening bass line, was released by Sub Pop in 1988 as the first single from Bleach. The track was originally recorded by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue in 1969.
The Bona Fide Band, which is “playing mostly Giants in the Trees and 3rd Secret songs,” according to a website link shared through Nirvana’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, has a handful of live appearances lined up in Washington through late July, including stops in Seattle and Tacoma. The five-piece made its live debut at Easy Street Records in Seattle on Thursday (June 20).
Trending on Billboard
Giants in the Trees and 3rd Secret both featured Novoselic as a member. 3rd Secret was a supergroup consisting of Pearl Jam/Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil. The band released its self-titled debut in 2022.
Novoselic formed The Bona Fide Band in an effort to raise awareness for his new political party in Washington, the Cascade Party.
“It’s not just a run-of-the-mill party,” Novoselic told Seattle’s KOMO News. “We’re trying to do something different, we’re trying to be seminal, we’re trying to break ground. I’m also looking for something like that.”
The bassist, who serves as the party’s chair, says that in order to establish the Cascade Party, he needs to host conventions and run a presidential ticket. That’s where the Bona Fide Band’s live appearances come in.
“Need to get 1,000 valid signatures to qualify as a bona fide party, so these shows are actually political conventions, but there’s not going to be hardly any speeches from the stage,” Novoselic told KOMO. “We’re not going to go up there and clobber people with a bunch of rhetoric. Basically, please sign the petition if you want to see a new party in Washington State.”
He also hopes The Bona Fide’s shows will bring a sense of nostalgia to those in attendance.
“If it brings back memories and feelings for people, that’s the magic of music,” the musician said. “We’re not going to contaminate that with politics. We’re not going to make these political speeches.”
This year marked the 30th anniversary of Cobain’s death. The Nirvana frontman was found dead by suicide on April 8, 1994.
Watch Novoselic’s The Bona Fide Band cover Nirvana’s “Love Buzz” here.
Courtney Love was almost Fight Club‘s Marla Singer before the role eventually went to Helena Bonham Carter, but the “Hole” frontwoman revealed that a tense conversation with the 1999 film’s star Brad Pitt led to her losing the role.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
While joining Marc Maron for an interview on his WTF podcast, Love claimed that she “went nuclear” on Pitt after the actor director Gus Van Sant pitched a Kurt Cobain movie to her. “I wouldn’t let Brad play Kurt,” she said. “I went nuclear. I don’t do Faust. Who the f— do you think are?”
She added that she told Pitt, “I don’t know if I trust you and I don’t know that your movies are for profit. They’re really good social justice movies, but… if you don’t get me, you kind of don’t get Kurt, and I don’t feel like you do, Brad.”
Love, who married the Nirvana frontman in 1992 and was with him until his death at age 27 in 1994, revealed that after that conversation, she was fired from Fight Club. Pitt’s co-star Edward Norton, who was Love’s romantic partner at the time, was the one who told her the news. “He starts sobbing,” Love recalled. “And he was like, ‘I don’t have the power!’”
Van Sant went on to helm the Michael Pitt-starring Last Days, which was inspired by Cobain — but Love said the film wasn’t the one that was discussed in the fateful meeting.
-
Pages