"Just an article from the Thurs., June 22, 2000 Boston Herald I found interesting and thought I'd pass on to you, Experience Music Project is a new museum in Seattle, in case you haven't heard of it, mostly dedicated toward Jimi Hendrix, but includes exhibits about Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Basically the point of the museum is to capture the Seattle music history. If you have some free time, take a look." Thanks to Dan for the article that you can read here.

I think I mentioned this story before. If not, here it is again; "Courtney Love recently spoke out at a Gun Law meeting. She said that the gun laws in america needed to be increased because it is now easier to buy a gun than to buy a Teedy bear. She also said that Suicide was a drastic conclusion to Kurts problem. She suggested that there were many different options for him to take for it but suicide was the easiest choice. She also said that Frances now has to grow up without a dad so how could his suicide be a good thing? This was a while back so my memory is a bit vaige on the whole account." Thanks to Dave for this one.

It has now been almost a year since the current NFC Discussion Board opened, using the Ultimate Bulletin Board script. Prior to this, a standard and outdated 'WWWBoard' script was used for a couple of years. The new script registers the number of posts every user has made. I decided to make a function that would take all these numbers and add them together, thus generating the total number of posts done by all the users. So here is the outcome: In the period from July 4, 1999 to June 19, 2000 the 1.556 registered users have posted nothing less than 115.354 messages! This figure is not entirely accurate as it: a) includes every message, even deleted ones - b) doesn't include certain posts that were submitted sometime last year, where the member data file crashed and c) doesn't include posts made by users that have had their profile deleted (for some reason). This shouldn't be more than a few hundred posts, though. In any case, it should be accurate to say that the NFC Discussion Board has received more than 110.000 messages in one year. Obviously, not all of these have been kept, but some of the most interesting ones are available in the archives. Thanks to all the users for their tireless posting. If you would like to see the latest list of registered users, just click here.

Kolin submitted this; "You can go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website and vote for the top 10 greatest rock songs of all time at www.rockhall.com among them are Smells Like Teen Spirit by none other than Nirvana. Currently Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway To Heaven' is winning and probably will win, but SLTS could at least make 2 or 3. Anyway, the top 10 songs will be featured in a permanent exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio."

Brandon added some info about the mentioned Nirvana specials at M2; "In the past day, at about 1am then 1pm (Central Time) MTV2 Aired 14 consecutive Nirvana videos. The play list was: Polly (MTV Studio Performance), Lithium, Heart-Shaped Box, Drain You (MTV Performance), About a Girl (Unplugged), In Bloom, Territorial Pissings (MTV Performance), The Man Who Sold the World (Unplugged), Smells Like Teen Spirit, Aneurysm (Concert Performance), Come as you Are, Rape Me (SNL Performance), Sliver, All Apologies (unplugged)"

Mic sent this story in; "Some more information from the British press that I thought you might like to have a look at. Kurt and Dave are both in Melody Maker's Coolest People in Rock. Dave comes 5th and Kurt is 6th. Here's the full text from both, although the entry for Kurt which sees a quote from Dave is probably the most interesting. Incidentally Courtney Love came 11th up from 20th last year and Melissa Auf Der Maur, Dave's current other half came 50th." Check the full entry about Dave here or his comment about Kurt Cobain.

"On VH1, they had a Top 40 'Bad Asses' of all time. Kurt Cobain was #29. They also played the video 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' They cut some of the guitar solo out though. Courtney Love was #12. I don't know how she beat Kurt because now she is all Hollywood. They did show one of Hole's videos, I can't remember which." Thanks to Jon Murray for that one. Casey Ewart also noted that; "VH1 just aired a special edition of the Rock Show today (6/18/00) dedicated to the top 40 'Badasses' of Rock... Kurt Cobain made the list, ranked #29 out of 40, I believe, next to such legendary badasses as Alice Cooper and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots. The show basically gave a few facts about Kurt, while showing clips of him jumping into the drumset and banging his head into an amp. They ended by playing the Smells Like Teen Spirit video." Also thanks to Jesse and a few others for the story.

From Yahoo! news; "Originally dubbed Leonard Cohen Afterworld, the indie film about finding Kurt Cobain's ghost is now being called Trip. Starring Jared Leto and Selma Blair, the film's initial title was lifted from a lyric in the Nirvana song 'Pennyroyal Tea' (which Cobain lifted from the book by Stefan Banz). Loosely based on the events following Cobain's death when thousands of people made a pilgrimage to Seattle to attend his funeral, the film is currently being shot in Seattle and is scheduled to be released later this year by New Line Cinema." Courtesy of Yahoo! More information about the film is available here. Comments from the film's property master is also available in some previous NFC Newsletters. Thanks to Jonathan for the link to the Yahoo! article.

Another story from Yahoo! that I also found somewhat interesting; "Motley Crue is scheduled to kick off their Maximum Rock Tour, which also includes hard driving Megadeth and Anthrax on June 24 in Sacramento, but they might be doing it without recent addition Randy Castillo on his drum stool. Last weekend Castillo was rushed to the hospital for emergency stomach surgery, and has been recuperating ever since. 'I'm not at liberty to say the nature of his illness -- that's personal -- but I can tell you he hasn't rehearsed with the band all week,' said Ashley Smith, spokesperson for the band. 'We are confident, however, that he'll be OK by the 24th.' Just in case he isn't, the Crue have contacted Hole drummer Samantha Mahoney, who is willing and able to take over the sticks. Hole's Web site confirmed the news, claiming that drummer began rehearsing with the band on June 13." If anyone happens to have a recording from the Mötley Crüe/Megadeth tour, please do drop me a note here.

On June 5, 2000, this site was awarded as the "Checkout site of the day"! Here's the beef; "Congratulations, The Internet Nirvana Fanclub has been selected as the CheckOut Site of the Day for 06.05.2K!" - "Because of your site's combination of extensive content and impressive design, CheckOut.com, The Entertainment Network has deemed you worthy of a spotlight mention in the 'CheckOut The Web' section of Checkout.com. CheckOut the Web delivers a researched and hand-picked selection of the most relevant entertainment sites, audio and video files, and images that best reflect the information fans want." Thanks to Checkout.com and Brad Barrish for this.

While this happens almost once a month, I suppose I should mention that Comedy Central are once again re-airing Saturday Night Live featuring Nirvana. Episode #742 featuring Rob Morrow and Nirvana airs June 27 at 12:00 PM. Episode #808 - featuring Charles Barkeley and Nirvana airs July 7 also at 12:00 PM, both EST.

Apparently, the British music channel MTV2 (M2) have been airing Nirvana videos all of this week. They have aired all the official music videos along with some live clips, mostly from the show at MTV Studios in January 1992. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the exact air times at M2's terrible website. Nobody seems to know them, anyway.

Courtney Love recently wrote an article, debating the subject of MP3 files and how the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) are reacting to them. This topic became in particular juicy when Metallica filed a lawsuit against 'Napster', a piece of software that people use(d) to distribute Metallica songs illegally. Somehow I don't think Courtney did all the research for the article, but nevertheless it's a very interesting read. The article is courtesy of Salon. Read it here. Thanks to Mike for the link.

A few days ago, this year's MTV Movie Awards ceremony was held. Not much Nirvana related about it, though they did play snippets of some songs by the Foo Fighters during a couple of the presentations. The show featured a rare live performance of the song "I disappear" by Metallica. The big winners of the next were mainly Sarah Michelle Gellar, and 'The Matrix' which won the award for Best Movie. You can probably find a list of all the winners at MTV's website. If you missed the show, it will be aired again throughout the weekend at MTV Europe and MTV Germany.

Ok this has absolutely nothing to do with Nirvana but I had to mention it. Last night there was an online chat session with the talented actor Christopher Reeve, best known from the four Superman movies. With all the hype surrounding the next movie in the series, I asked him about it; "Chris, if you got the opportunity to guest star in a forthcoming Superman movie, would you do it?" He answered politely; "It would depend entirely on the role. I doubt that there will be any more Superman films in the near future. And frankly I cherish the ones from the past and think it's probably better to let them stand alone rather than be involved in a different way." Being a fan of Mr. Reeve and Superman for the past many years it was quite an honour to ask him about it. By the way, greetings to Brian B. who also joined the chat :) Note that the Alicia Silverstone chat session, also scheduled for last night, was apparently cancelled. This, along with a scheduled Courtney Love chat, was mentioned in a May news update. Speaking of Courtney: there is a good chance she will pop up un-announced in the official Hole chatroom, available at holemusic. View a couple of screenshots from the Chris Reeve chat; #1 and #2. If you are a fan of the Superman movies, check out this terrific website.

Someone on my message board added this story; "Here's an article in this week's TV Guide that I found interesting, although the information is pretty much already well known: Britney and 'N Sync are all the rage, but former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic remembers when Teen Spirit had an entirely different smell. And to make sure nobody forgets the scent of sweaty flannel, he's gathering material for a Nirvana box set, due next year. 'It's gonna be the Nirvana encyclopedia, a mothership of knowledge and documentation of a great band,' says Novoselic. The set will feature previously unheard demos, studio outtakes and live tracks guaranteed to make grunge wannabes Creed quake. 'Someone walked up to me the other day and said we were, like, the Led Zeppelin of our generation,' says Novoselic. 'I kinda like that.' " Courtesy of 'evilroboticpope' !

Terry submitted this; "I know this news might be terribly old, but here in Australia we just got the newest copy of 'Rock Sound' which has a four page spread of 'Nirvana - A portfolio'. All it has, really, is some new photos by a photographer called Youri Lenquette. This may be an old issue but since its from europe it takes a while to come in."

The NFC FAQ had a major update. First of all, the index of the FAQ listing all the questions was separated into "categories" instead of just being listed by a number. Thus, all questions related specifically to this site are collected in one pile, all questions about Nirvana recordings are collected in another and so forth. In addition, a lot of corrections were done to the existing answers and some info was added here and there. Finally, a few brand new questions (and their answers) were added to the FAQ as well. Even if you have read the NFC FAQ before I strongly recommend checking out the update. You can always view the FAQ here (part 1).

"I heard on the radio today that Dave Grohl recently said in an interview that, indeed, the Nirvana box set would not be released until September of 2001, not by X-mas of this year as many sources (Dave) had said. He said they were going to do something special with it to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 'Nevermind'. Not sure quite exactly what that means, but whatever. I got this from WBCN radio in Boston, and usually they're 100% reliable." Story courtesy of Rob Holmes.

"Hi I am Paris from Greece. There is a music show here in Greece Called Jammin. They have an internet section where they present bands websites. At 6/2/00 they presented your site as the greatest Nirvana site on the web. The guy who talks about the sites said that it is the greatest site he found on the web and that it has what every Nirvana fan would like to know about his favourite band." Thanks a bunch to Paris for that news.

Every single file of the NFC Sound Gallery are now finally back online. So feel free to check it out while you can :) Enter the gallery here.

Apparently tomorrow, a special about "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is to be aired. The special will air at 9 PM (CET) on the channel 'Bravo' in the show 'Bravado'; "Today's Retro Review looks back to Nirvana's classic hit 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' " Thanks to Rich for the news.

"In this months Australian FHM there are two mentions of Kurt Cobain. The first is a pathetically unfunny joke which goes like this. 'What was the last thing Kurt Cobain said to Courtney Love?' 'Hole's gonna be big!' And the second is on a page about war stuff-ups and on the first page of the story it has a picture of a GI-Joe with a gun aimed at it's head with it's head blown off with the caption, 'The Combat Cobain 2000 was a top seller'. Pretty poor taste really." Courtesy of Davie.

Adam found this story; "ClassMates.com and RollingStone.com Team Up to Launch the Internet's First Celebrity Photo Gallery SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2000--ClassMates.com, the largest online community for high school alumni, and RollingStone.com announced today the exchange of site archives used to create the first online celebrity photo gallery featuring today's biggest stars from their high school days to their debut on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine." - "Each month, RollingStone.com will provide ClassMates.com with a selection of its most memorable covers from the magazine's 30-year-plus history. Likewise, ClassMates.com will provide RollingStone.com with a collection of high school yearbook images of stars such as Kurt Cobain, Sandra Bullock and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Each site will host an image gallery of the other's content to accompany its own extensive library of exclusive material." Courtesy of Adam Seldon and Yahoo! News.

Two new non-official Nirvana CD's were just released recently. The first, entitled "Leer", features a recording of the June 26, 1992 show from the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. While the show has been available among traders for quite a while - all copies have lacked in quality. The "Leer" disc features the show in very good quality and offers the complete recording. The actual performance is not the greatest but it does include a rare live version of the song "Swap meet" as well as a nice rock version of "Something in the way". The "Leer" disc comes with some very nice artwork including a photo of Kurt that I haven't personally seen before. Generally it is a pretty good disc and the recording should be a good upgrade over the existing copies of the show.

The other new CD is called "Downtrodden" (?) and features the brilliant show Nirvana did in Muggia, Italy on November 16 1991. Unlike the Roskilde recording, this show is already available in high quality on a bootleg called "Europe 1991". The quality on this CD and the new "Downtrodden" disc seems to be identical. Even so, the performance is very good and is supported by an audience that sings along to almost every song. In addition the band does some very rare live performances of the tracks "Talk to me" and "Oh, the guilt". The show is highly recommended and has always been one of my favorites. Apart from this show, the "Downtrodden" disc also features a few tracks from the popular '91 Rome show that has been aired on Italian TV. As with the "Leer" disc this one also comes with some nice artwork, though neither of the discs have any liner notes which is a bit of a shame. If you are interested in the CD's, here's some info; "I will be collecting orders on all two titles, the following way: a cash only thing. $20 per disc + $5 for registered mail worldwide." To order the CDs, send cash to this address. Thanks to Andrea for the CD's and the info. View the front cover of the 'Leer' disc here. Back cover. View the front cover of the 'Downtrodden' disc here or the back cover. (the poor quality is due to my sucky scanner). A more detailed review of the "Leer" CD is up at the Digital Nirvana website here. Note that the Internet Nirvana Fan Club does not manufacture, distribute or sell these CDs AT ALL.

Another update on the boxed set, this time from the June 3 Kerrang! magazine; "Nirvana's former bassist Krist Novoselic has announced that the band's box set will be released in September 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the breakthrough 'Nevermind' album. The set will feature out-takes, alternate versions of songs and 'jams'. 'Sometimes I feel like I'm going into the past,' says Novoselic 'But I know people really want it and they really miss it. So if I can put my heart and soul into it, that's the least that I can do' " Thanks to Kerrang! and Mic and Lais for this one. As the number of sources reporting the September 2001 release date increases, maybe it isn't that unlikely after all.

Harri submitted this little story; "On a Finnish radio station, Radio Mafia, [there] was a Top 100 songs from the 90's and Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' was number 1 and 'Come as you are' number 69! You can see the list here. Courtesy of Harri. You can also view the Top 10 here, courtesy Niko Oravainen.

NME put up a brief story on the new project Krist Novoselic is working on, also mentioned in yesterday's update; "FORMER NIRVANA bassist KRIST NOVOSELIC appears in a series of documentaries to be broadcast on the Internet on Monday (June 5). The programmes were made by Seattle musician Roderick Romero, former frontman with the group Sky Cries Mary and include footage shot by Novoselic himself. The series will also feature a one-off performance by a group calling themselves The No WTO Combo, featuring Novoselic, Jello Biafra, ex-Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil and drummer Gina Mainwal, recorded during the WTO demonstration in Seattle last year. The show is called Intervision and can be seen at www.fastband.com. As previously reported on nme.com, Novoselic and Thayil are among the grunge stars featured on video interviews at the Experience Music Project museum, which opens on June 23 in Seattle." Story courtesy of NME. Also thanks to Tom for this.