Peter Haskett and Raymond Huffman were two violent, alcoholic roommates living in a run-down apartment complex in San Francisco in the late '80s. Their near-constant drunken arguments kept two recent college graduates next door from getting any sleep. So the two friends, "Eddie Lee Sausage" and "Mitchell D.," began recording what would later be referred to as the "Shut Up, Little Man" recordings, named after Haskett's constant, boozy retort to his roommate's profane protestations. more ›

Nirvana's Nevermind album was released 20 years ago this September (that baby on the cover is also around 20 years old now)—and SPIN is celebrating the anniversary a little early with a tribute album. You can download the entire thing right here, it features covers by Meat Puppets, Amanda Palmer, Titus Andronicus, Surfer Blood, and more. Hey: Nirvana's Nevermind album and downloading MP3s (and MP3s!)... all things we didn't have 20 years ago. more ›

Did you know the original Sub Pop version of Nirvana's video for "In Bloom" was filmed at South Street Seaport? The video, filmed in 1990, features Kurt, Krist and Chad (Channing, the band's original drummer) goofing off inside the South Street Mall... and Wall Street, too. more ›

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of music journalist Michael Azerrad's history of indie rock, Our Band Could Be Your Life, indie musicians of all persuasions gathered at the Bowery Ballroom last night to perform the material of the 13 bands featured in the book. More than just a bunch of de facto cover tunes, the concert was an opportunity for a reinterpretation of enduringly influential music by contemporary ears. more ›

Grunge may have died when the first kid said, "Grunge's not dead," but 2011 is starting to really feel like the sub-genres 20-year-anniversary high school reunion. Hell, every kid in Williamsburg is wearing flannel again, and Dave Grohl has a freakin' number one album, which was produced by Nevermind producer Butch Vig! But best of all, long out-of-print seminal grunge documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke is being lovingly repackaged and released later this year, so you can relive every mosh pit from a magical time before Chris Cornell made albums with Timbaland. more ›

As we mentioned last week, Shepard Fairey's May Day mural on Houston Street may be illegal, since it was wheatpasted on to a wall that was constructed without permits. And now the NY Post reports that there may be more problems—according to city officials, the mural isn't art, it's advertising for his May Day show at Deitch. In a statement, Fairey defended his piece, saying: "This is a work of art, not an advertisement, and it is disappointing and shortsighted that city officials want to ignore the rich history and role that public art has played in revitalizing this particular area of lower Manhattan." more ›

Fifteen years ago today, Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27—he was found three days later inside of his home in Seattle. That day many fans of the band came home from school or work to see this MTV Kurt Loder broadcast (which we don't remember him delivering quite so detached). Soon after, Loder talked to Courtney Love—that year, 1994, she lost both her husband and her friend/bandmate Kristen Pfaff. Today fans are gathered, as they are every year, at the unofficial memorial of the singer: a bench in Viretta Park in Seattle (Cobain has no gravesite). more ›

Last night Jesse Frohman's "In Bloom" exhibit opened at SoHo Grand's gallery, and Papermag describes it as "epic," twice (doubly epic!). The show features Frohman's now 14-year-old images of Kurt Cobain, and allegedly some photos of flowers. He told the website, "This shoot was supposed to be a five hour shoot. We had to do it in 15 minutes. It was crazy." It took place in NYC just before Cobain's death, and the singer arrived 3 hours late, looking exactly how he does in the photographs. But why show the seven photographs, from one photo shoot, now...is this just one more person trying to capitalize on Cobain? Could he be using his 15 minutes with the icon to get his, you know, 15 minutes? Whatever the reason, the show runs through January 31st, and images from the shoot are available for purchase in multiple places online. more ›

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.

This week in the Times, Bruni three-stars Le Cirque, bumping the restaurant's rating up from the two stars he awarded it in 2006. Executive chef Christophe Bellanca’s menu “nimbly straddles the line between predictable decadence… and creative flair,” he says. He also says that you’ll pay—a lot—for what you get, and that Le Cirque isn’t quite as reliable as other three star restaurants. more ›

Courtney Love wished us all a belated Merry Christmas today via her MySpace blog (which we don't normally check in on, but thankfully Curbed was on the ball). What did Santa bring her? An apartment in the West Village! So really, it's like a present for us all. She stated, in perfectly readable English:

i think/hope we foundteh PERFECT plaCE, its a w village 4 floor house 2 floors are being rented by the owners, itllcost ...alot...to returjn it to a house biut fbc doesnt need to have all that space til she moves here at 18 and its a great invesment.

MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two... more ›

READING: Rosemarie Tichler, casting director and artistic producer at New York's Public Theater, and playwright Barry Jay Kaplan have put together a written work called Actors at Work. Tonight they'll be discussing this quintessential, and inspirational, resource. more ›

Rolling Stone has officially turned 40! We can't honestly say it's aged very well, but it sure is partying like it's 1967. Last year, at 39 and issue number 1000, Jann Wenner wrote, "The fact that we had John Lennon on the very first cover [pictured] was serendipity. We had a publicity photo from his role in the anti-war film How I Won the War. That photo, we now realize, speaks so clearly to the paths of culture and politics that came to define Rolling Stone." more ›

Smith doesn't like to have her photo taken, so we left our camera at home. The Hotel Chelsea bloggers snuck in and took some shots of the action off-stage. Above is their photo of Smith entering the hotel before her performance. more ›

TASTING: Forget wine and cheese...come pair up your favorite fromages with some beer! FreeNYC points us to Bierkraft - Park Slope's proprietor of some of the finest microbrews, cheeses, and chocolates. They're having a pairing of 5 beers with 5 cheese tonight, here's what's on the menu: more ›

MUSIC: It's hard to believe Kurt Cobain would have been 40 today. In celebration of his birthday and life there will be live performances of Nirvana albums Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero from Daouets, The Domestics, and Schwervon with some other musical guests. Bring flannel, your inner teen angst, and rock out like it's the early 90s. more ›

Kiki & Herb are, in reality, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Earlier this year they hit Broadway for a run of sold-out shows, which they followed up with a three night stint at Joe's Pub. At that show, they sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" (which went directly in to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). You can watch a clip of that above. more ›

You know how this story goes, though. Reality tv and other shows replaced videos, and the only videos aired anymore are the same ones over and over again (you've seen TRL, right?) So today the channel turns 25, and has become way less mature since we stopped watching in the early-mid 90's. more ›

Goes Cube are rock. Their enthusiastic hard and fast interpretation of the genre has been compared to Nirvana, leading New York's rock scene into a much more hopeful future. Their live show will make your brain shake, your body move and your soul scream. Lucky for us, their set translates well in the studio, and they just finished recording their new release, Beckon The Dagger God. more ›

Old friends of Gothamist, (they played our Movable Hype 1.5 show way back when!), Morning Theft is still chugging through the New York scene playing their inspired brand of Pixies-meets-Nirvana rock. They've recently entered the Emergenza Festival...a national battle of the bands of sorts. This Friday at the Knitting Factory, they will be playing in the semis for a chance to advance to the finals at Webster Hall. They'll be on at 8:00 sharp. Come out and show your support! more ›

Yesterday we received a number of emails regarding Hasidic reggae rapper Matisyahu. Apparently, the man has left his long time managers, also the founders of his old label - JDub Records. He has not done this for any higher powers...he's done it to move on to a relationship with the equivalent of a major label manager. The same man who "found" Nirvana, Gary Gersh. more ›

Sara Dobbs, Actress/Singing Waitress more ›

Morning Theft, fresh off the bus from Boston in 2003, have been desribed as Pearl Jam meets Travis, Nirvana meets the Cure, the Pixies meets Radiohead...you get the point. But these guys have their own sound. And it sounds good. They're the band who has been (not so) silently brooding in the corner of the indie rock scene. They're loud. They're catchy. They're pensive mood rock. Gothamist (and pretty much everyone below 14th St) loves Morning Theft, you should too. Go check them out for free at Luna Lounge tomorrow night. More details after the interview... more ›

For more about Kurt Cobain and the ten year anniversary of his death, check out LA Weekly's 13 Ways of Looking at Nirvana. MSN also has a pretty extensive feature on Kurt Cobain, Black Table has thoughts from notable writers about the death/legacy of Cobain, and there's an L.A. Times article (via Newsday) written by Cobain biographer Charles Cross, who wrote Heavier than Heaven. Plus more links via Coolfer. And On This Day in History. more ›

But for Gothamist, the best part of the article was finding out some people call a less–than–Manhattan–long subway line a "stubway." more ›

Man, if Courtney Love thinks taking her case to Rush & Molloy is going to win her some support, she clearly is insane. Love talks to the Daily News' gossip mongers in order to give a glimpse into her mental health, as she tries to get custody of poor little Frances Bean back, after Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services placed her 11 year-old child with Kurt's mother, Wendy O'Connor when police arrested Love for, oh, being under the influence of controlled substance (and breaking the windows of her ex-boyfriend's house) and overdosing on OxyContin. Some gems: more ›