Jim Carrollon music
Smells like another Kurt Cobain movie
The Kurt Cobain industry continues to hum with activity. There was additional news this week about the mooted biopic of the Nirvana singer, while a new Cobain-based documentary has just gone on release in the US.
Troy screenwriter David Benioff has been tapped to write the Hollywood version of Cobain's life, which is based on Seattle journalist Charles Cross's 2001 biography, Heavier Than Heaven. Cobain's widow Courtney Love is on board as executive producer.
Such a film would undoubtedly add to the value of the Cobain estate. Last year, Forbes magazine ranked Cobain as the top-earning dead celebrity with income of over $50 million in 2005.
While previous attempts to get the Nirvana frontman's story onto the big screen were nixed at various stages, one such film is now showing in US cinemas. Kurt Cobain: About a Son (expected to open in Ireland next year) features Cobain talking about his life, music, Nirvana, drugs, Courtney and the downsides of fame. These insights come from interviews conducted by writer Michael Azerrad with Cobain in 1992 and 1993 while he was researching his Come As You Are book on Nirvana.
Director AJ Schnack took 25 hours of these interviews and culled extracts to narrate the singer's story in his own words.
Among the topics Cobain addresses are growing up in Aberdeen, his early obsessions with music (including The Beatles, a Hawaiian guitar and an eight-track cassette of Queen's News of the World) and the break-up of his parent's marriage which, he says, marked the end of his childhood happiness.
His comments about the changes he perceived in his relationship with band-mates Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic post-Nevermind are particularly telling.
Instead of approaching the Cobain estate for permission to use Nirvana's music, Schnack and Azerrad instead used the music of such Cobain favourites as Bad Brains, Mudhoney, The Melvins and David Bowie.
That's the Spirit
It's all change on Dublin's Middle Abbey Street with the Spirit nightclub about to adopt a new moniker and, by the sound of things, a new direction as well.
The Dublin venue will be known as Spirit 57 from November 1st with former Olympia Theatre boss Brian Whitehead taking the reins at the Denis Desmond-owned venue. The club's New York outpost has been closed for some time.
One of the first changes will see the electrohouse club night Dirty Fridays ceding to Brutus Gold's Love Train, a UK club night which bills itself as "a fantasy recreation of the disco years".
Jazz warms up for winter
There should be no withdrawal pangs for jazz fans after this weekend's traditional blowout in Cork, with a full dancecard of shows scheduled for the coming weeks.
Made On Mondays is a series of Irish talent showcases at Dublin jazz haunt JJ Smyths during November. It kicks off on November 5th with the Ariel Herndandez Trio and Savage Monkey. Other highlights include electronic composer with trad fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (Monday 12th), Awkward Silence (Monday 19th) and Italian pianist Franceso Turrisi's first foray into the world of the trio (Monday 26th)
Meanwhile, one of Europe's most promising jazz players, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, plays Cork's Triskel on Wednesday and Dublin's Sugar Club on Thursday.
Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca brings his band to that same Dublin venue on November 14th.
40 years of Astral Weeks
Four decades on from its release, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks continues to gain new fans and increased acclaim.
Plans are now afoot to mark the album's 40th anniversary with Astral Weeks Revisited in Morrison's native Belfast next January.
The event will feature a number of Irish performers playing the album in sequence, with music writer and BBC broadcaster Stuart Bailie talking about the record's genesis and context.
There are tentative plans to run similar events in Cork and Dublin. Acts interested in participating should contact Stuart at stuart@ohyeahbelfast.com
