Wow! The Buffalo Bills beat the NY Jets on Sunday! The planets must’ve been aligned just right. Good on them and all the Bills Nation fans! Saints and Chiefs look great, eh? Who’s your favorite team?….It was 20 years ago today (Nov 18th) Nirvana taped its appearance on MTV Unplugged, with the results being perhaps that program’s greatest segment and a live album considered by many to be among the top concert recordings in the history of rock. According to Yahoo! Music, the show came off without a hitch despite coming close to being a disaster or never even happening at all, due to frontman Kurt Cobain‘s arguments with MTV and his bandmates, as well as his worsening health and addiction problems. Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl were not getting along during the rehearsals, with Cobain continually asking Grohl to play his parts softer. Grohl recalled in 2006, “In rehearsal, we would do a song, and Kurt would turn to me and say, ‘Hey, do you think you could play it a little bit lighter?’ . . . So we’d do another take, and he’d turn around and go, ‘Could you bring it down just a little bit more?’ And we’d do another take, and he’d say, ‘You know what, just still, could you bring it down?’ And I was like, ‘Should I even f***ing be here?’” MTV apparently freaked out when the network learned that half the set was going to be obscure cover songs and that the band would not perform “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which it had not played live for nearly two years at that point. The MTV brass was not taken with the band’s selection of guests either. Producer Alex Coletti recalled, “They wanted to hear the ‘right names’ — Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos…But when I said ‘the Meat Puppets,’ it was kind of like, ‘Oh, great. They’re not doing any hits, and they’re inviting guests who don’t have any hits to come play. Perfect.’” Cobain told MTV the day before the show he was canceling the taping, but then relented. An MTV exec said, “He did it just to get us worked up. He enjoyed that power.” A dress rehearsal several hours before the taping went so badly, however, that MTV execs wondered if they should have let Cobain cancel after all. According to Cobain biographer Charles Cross, Cobain was also suffering from gastrointestinal problems and heroin withdrawal, and had been “vomiting bile and blood.” (Yuck, as I am eating my bialy.) Despite all the problems beforehand, the taping went off without a hitch — with Coletti later recalling, “With most Unpluggeds, we tend to run through the set, have a chat, and then do a few songs over again. But this was truly one take — every song, straight through, in one hour . . . this was really tight — something like 56 minutes from start to finish.” Bassist Krist Novoselic later said, “Doing MTV Unplugged was a lot of fun…It was a Nirvana triumph, but it’s also Nirvana Lite. But it was cool that we managed to pull it off..” Kurt Cobain was so nervous about the Unplugged taping, he asked people he knew — from MTV, his record label and his management — to sit in the front row. But he also did not want his wife Courtney Love or their infant daughter Frances Bean present at the session. Nirvana had done a previous all-electric taping for MTV in 1992, but Cobain was so unhappy with it, he only allowed the channel to air one song. Although it was supposed to be performed by the entire band, “Pennyroyal Tea” was performed solo by Cobain — a decision made on the spot during the actual taping. Cobain asked aloud, “Am I doing this by myself or what?” To which Dave Grohl answered, “Do it yourself.” MTV execs begged Cobain for one more song after finishing the set with a cover of Leadbelly‘s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” Producer Alex Coletti recalled, “Kurt finally said, ‘I can’t top that last song.’ And when he said that, I backed off. ‘Cause I knew he was right.” Five of the six cover songs performed during the taping mentioned death. Cobain died five months later, in April 1994. The album, MTV Unplugged In New York, was released in October 1994 and went on to sell nearly seven million copies in the U.S. Check out this segment of that historic program here. (Thanks Pulse of Radio) …Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron announced he’ll sit out the band’s 2014 tour dates due to his live commitments with his other group, Pearl Jam. In a statement posted at Soundgarden’s website on Friday (Nov 15th), Cameron wrote, “I will be taking 2014 off from Soundgarden touring due to prior commitments promoting Lightning Bolt with my brothers in Pearl Jam and the desire to have more time at home with my family. I am trying to balance the many twists and turns of my awesome music career. This is temporary.” Cameron added, “I am still an active member of Soundgarden. Chris, Ben, Kim and I are in the process of finding the perfect substitute for the upcoming Soundgarden dates in 2014.” He wants to be able to juggle his time between Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and his family life. Nice to be busy, eh?? (Thanks Pulse of Radio)….hardDrive Live Tour headliners Bullet For My Valentine will premiere a brand new song called “Raising Hell” today (Nov 18th) during BBC Radio One’s Rock Show.” Frontman Matt Tuck said on Twitter, “Words cannot express how excited I am for the world to hear #RaisingHell. We haven’t just raised the bar, we’ve sent it into f***ing orbit.” The song reportedly emerged from writing sessions for the band’s next album, which will follow up this year’s Temper Temper. Drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas told Billboard.com recently the Welsh act had “already started writing for the next album, which is completely different from Temper Temper.” The band wants to make a much more metal-sounding album this time around. Thomas said the new material was “definitely more of a step towards our first two records. We always like to keep changing our records and our sounds and stuff. I think you have to change, otherwise it gets boring for us and the fans get bored.” With three of its four previous albums all Top 15 on the Billboard album chart, we asked frontman Matt Tuck not long ago if the band felt any pressure to repeat that success: “The only pressure that we’ve had has just been pressure from ourselves to just write the best songs we can. So I think that’s the only thing I’ve really learned which has really come in useful, is to kind of not let any outside kind of influence creep in there, you know. We do what we want to do, and if it feels good, we’ll roll with it. Living by those rules, you know, it’s worked out really well for us.” Temper Temper entered the chart at Number 13 and the latest single from the disc is “Dirty Little Secret.”….This is sad news. Many Marilyn Manson fans recall the inception of the band with guitarist Daisy Berkowitz in the late 80’s, early 90’s. Pulse of Radio reports Scott Mitchell Putesky, known by his stage name Daisy Berkowitz, has revealed he is battling stage four colon cancer. Putesky told WLRN.org he is currently two months into a six-month round of chemotherapy. The 45-year-old musician said he had been experiencing pains in his abdomen for over six years before ending up in an emergency room last August, where a colonoscopy found the cancer. Putesky is keeping a positive attitude, even growing a mustache as a symbol of his fight against the disease. He explained, “It represents my personal crusade. Cancer: Take my hair. Take my mustache. I challenge you. I still have my hair and mustache. So I’m winning.” Fans and friends of Putesky played a benefit show to help raise money for Putesky’s treatment on Saturday night (Nov 16th) at Churchill’s Pub in Miami’s Little Haiti area, where Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids played their very first show over 20 years ago. Putesky was unable to attend as he is receiving his medical treatment in Philadelphia. We wish Scott all the best in this battle against a disease we hope someday doctors and researchers will find a cure for….Mastodon has crafted its own micro-brew in the UK called Black Tongue! Loudwire reported Signature Brew, the British company who is distributing the beer, has posted the following description of Black Tongue: “Rumbling smoky notes are offset by the elixir of misbehaving punchy hops. Mosaic and Magnum hops to the front, with Carafa Special 3 Malt and Pale on the baseline. A beer for enjoying slowly, letting the bombardment of flavour and intensity hit your tongue and explode with every sip.” Due out on Dec 3rd, the beer is currently available for pre-order in quantities of 3-packs, 6-packs and 12-packs, but anyone outside of the UK should be prepared to pay a hefty shipping cost. All the details are available here….Wow! Jimmy Page somehow came up with the idea of mashing-up Led Zeppelin‘s “Ramble On” and Notorious B.I.G.‘s “Hypnotize.” Despite the dirtiness of the mix, the song is kinda cool. Before there was hardDrive, I used to produce a hip hop show called Street Heat. I interviewed Biggie, who was the nicest, big teddy-bear of a man you would ever meet. I think he would be flattered the legendary rockstar would consider doing something like this with his song. “Rambalize” indeed! Check it out here…..Happy 51st today to Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Happy 29th to Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold and Happy 60th to comic book writer Alan Moore, the man responsible for Watchmen, From Hell and V is for Vendetta.
