Casey McCurry of Sunset Hearts waxes poetic about Nirvana

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Casey McCurry (of Sunset Hearts) wrote something about Nirvana (and—insanely tangentially—their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) that summarizes exactly how I feel about the band and their impact on my life:

Nirvana was a great band, and probably was even more so to my teenage self (before the decade-long flood of weak imitators). But what they meant to me transcended being just “a band I love”; Nirvana was the first band to introduce me to feminism (and while I couldn’t give less of a fuck about anything Hall of Fame-related, this was highlighted by Nirvana’s choice to employ only women to replace him at the recent induction) and an extremely long list of artists that shaped who I would become, both musically and otherwise. You probably wouldn’t guess by listening to my music, I suppose. I rented the Markey film on the strength of Nirvana and then Sonic Youth became my favorite band of all time. I read an interview with Kurt and discovered Big Black. I saw tee shirts he was wearing and discovered Daniel Johnston and Sebadoh, Vaselines, ABBA, Dinosaur Jr, Shonen Knife, Polvo, Bikini Kill, the list goes on forever. I could list 500 bands I wouldn’t have heard without him. And what is so amazing is that this isn’t even sort of a personal story, this happened for millions of kids on the geographical fringes of art culture. In this way Kurt Cobain should be firstly remembered as a Sagan-type figure in music, a great popularizer and champion of women and underground artists around the world.

I interviewed McCurry last year. You can check that out here.

Photo of McCurry by way of Matt Barnard’s Facebook page

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.