90’s
The Year of
Grunge
Mr Gregory
THE MODERN COLLECTION The perfect range of accessories and gift ideas to enhance the style of your modern man!
People who made this possible ! Executive Editors - Kritika Ahuja Creative Director - Ritik Shrivastava Deputy Editor - Daniel Kile Executive Digital Director - Michael Hogan Director of Editorial Operations - Caryn Prime Executive Hollywood Editor - Jeff Giles Director of Special Projects - Sara Marks Executive Entertainment Director -Alison Ward Frank Managing Editor, VF.com - Kelly Butler Deputy Editor - VF.com Katey Rich Editor, Creative Development - David Friend Senior West Coast Editor - Britt Hennemuth Senior Editors The Hive - Michael Calderone, ,Claire Landsbaum Senior Hollywood Editor - Hillary Busis Senior Editor Keziah Weir Entertainment Editor - Caitlin Brody Associate Editor - Erin Vanderhoof Senior Media Correspondent - Joe Pompeo National Correspondent - Emily Jane Fox Politics Correspondent - Bess Levin National Political Reporter -Abigail Tracy Chief Critic - Richard Lawson Senior Feature Writer - Julie Miller TV Correspondent - Joy Press Senior Staff Writer - Joanna Robinson TV Critic Sonia Saraiya Staff Writers - Dan Adler, Kenzie Bryant, Yohana Desta Staff Reporter - Caleb Ecarma Special Correspondents - Nick Bilton, Anthony Breznican, Bryan Burrough,
William D. Cohan, Joe Hagan, Maureen Orth, Jessica Pressler, Mark Seal, Gabriel Sherman, Writers at Large - Marie Brenner, T.A. Frank, James Reginato Associate Producers - Jaime Archer, Maham Hasan, Assistant to the Editor in Chief Daniela Tijerina Editorial Assistant - Arimeta Diop Special Projects Manager - Ari Bergen Special Projects Associate - Charlene Oliver Editorial Finance Manager - Geoff Collins Design & Photography Design Director - Justin Patrick Long Visuals Director - Tara Johnson Senior Designer - Ashley Smestad Vélez Senior Visuals Editors - Chiara Marinai, Cate Sturgess Senior Visuals Editor - Tim Herzog Visuals Editor - Lauren Margit Jones Visuals Editor Research - Eric Miles Associate Visuals Editor - Allison Schaller Art Assistant Justine - Goode Visuals Assistant - Madison Reid Fashion & Beauty Fashion Director - Nicole Chapoteau Beauty Director - Laura Regensdorf Accessories Director - Daisy Shaw-Ellis Senior Menswear Editor - Miles Pope Production Director - Mia Tran Legal Affairs Editor - Robert Walsh Research Director - David Gendelman Copy Director - Michael Casey Associate Legal Affairs Editor - Simon Brennan Production Managers - Beth Meyers, Roberto Rodríguez Research Managers - Brendan Barr, Charlotte Goddu, Michael Sacks
Pg 15 Photography Shelby Ursu -Something Sweet
Pg 45 Art Pg 28 Fashion Merra Granna -Accesories
Harumi Hironaka – Secrets
Pg 66 Music Hole, ‘Live Through This’ (1994)
Pg 81 Films Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Pg 32 90’s Aesthetic90’s gift to us
About Grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, featuring the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, neglect, betrayal, social and emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle’s independent record label About Grunge/05
Sub Pop and the region’s underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed the style shrewdly, encouraging the media to describe it as “grunge”; the style became known as a hybrid of punk and metal. By the early 1990s, its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge was commercially successful in the early-to-mid-1990s es Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, Alice in Chains’ Dirt, and Stone Temple Pilots’ Core. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time.
Grunge is a darker, edgier style these days that is usually depicted with glitches, vinyl records, cigarettes, neon lights, and the color black (which has absolutely nothing to do with the original grunge). Grunge, historically though, has its roots in the 1990s hard rock scene of Seattle, Washington as a countercultural, anti-consumerism movement, music genre. The fashion was made popular by bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. Grunge clothing was meant to be timeless and quite casual. Grunge started in 1989 with Nirvanas first album “Bleach”, however it became mainstream in the 1990s and eventually lost its anti-consumerist philosophy, having now been reduced to a shallow aesthetic people seem to embrace to see edgy in the modern era.
About Grunge/06
Soft Grunge Soft Grunge, also known as “pastel grunge,” stems from the original grunge movement in the early 1990s. With noticeable gothic and kawaii influences, the “cute” and deliberate soft grunge styles started to gain popularity in 2010, on social media. It is typically a form of the grunge aesthetic, but adding in more colors and a feminine touch. Grunge was never about being pretty or being liked. It was about finding solace in one’s loneliness through the words and riffs from “anti-rock star” bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. So considering that 90s grunge was more of a masculine world (very different from the riot grrrl movement that was also at a height during that period), the girls who loved grunge were about
About Grunge/09
maintaining that sense of edge and rebelliousness in the least pretentious clothing as possible.Think over-sized flannels borrowed from dad or brother’s closet, typically worn around the waist or over a baby doll dress from the thrift store. The concept of dressing “grunge” was very hippie-esque, as it was about using fashion to show what your view on the world. It was not about perfection. So what about the soft grunge girls of today who epitomize edge and rebelliousness with septum piercings, pastel-colored hair, and metallic combat boots? Many are, in fact, top YouTubers and fashion bloggers who give tips on how to attain their look. But instead of poking fun at, or even showing judgment to the soft grunge goddesses of today, let’s keep in mind that it’s all rock and roll! When you’ve created a look that is linked to a certain culture or subculture, sometimes one can get caught up trying to look like the next. But we know the value of maintaining a sense of individuality in a sea of sameness. So in our age of superficiality as well as artistic expression, soft grunge looks to be more than just a trend.
About Grunge/10
PHOTOGRAPHY
G
runge photography is a style where the final image looks dirty, distressed or distorted. To create grunge pictures a photographer uses incamera technique and edgy post-processing.
Much like grunge music with its antsy lyrics and distorted chords, the best grunge photos will bring up disturbing emotions. Although there are sub topics to it which may differ your choice of the theme, you can also pick different elements of grunge and create what you like.
Photography/14
“My shoot was inspired by my love of late 1960’s/early 1970’s fashion. I wanted people to feel as if they may have travelled back in time while looking at these photos. I got to express myself so creatively with the styling and photographing, and it was pure joy to bring my vision to life.” Photography/15
Shelby Ursu
Something sweet
Photography/16
Nacha Mont I Ran (So far away)
Take pictures of your friends, most of all when all you wanna do is run away.
Photography/17
Photography/18
Rocío Aznárez About Us
Photography/20
This dreamy and kind of melancholic photo-series with a beautiful nostalgic vibe was taken by Mirella de Mar, a 35mm film photographer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is now based in Barcelona.
Mirella De Mar Fantastic Fakeland
Trying to find the most dreamy places of the cities I visit and connect that with the personality of the people I work with. These photos I did in collaboration with Mayte Stevani, a multi talented artist, dj, fashion designer and illustrator.
“I try to capture the kind of sensitivity that comes from what can not be seen. I like that my photos take you through a world of fairy wasteland where everything seems a fantasy but at the same time you feel a certain intimacy and melancholy.” ~ Mirella
Photography/21
Photography/22
Audrey Gillispie This hurts
Audrey Gillespie say’s that “This Hurts explores obsession, release and fantasy. My work runs in circles, building patterns, constructing itself into a wormhole of questions. Questions that ease me and questions that haunt me. Photography acts as a social space and a form of later isolation. Ritualistic, I build comfort with this routine. Night and darkPhotography/23
ness feature prominently in both my photography, it’s a space and time cherished from younger memories. Vulnerability and fragility expose themselves throughout the work, in the form of smallness, subtext and saturation. Everything I do, I do out of fear. I document queer youth through my interactions, stumbling around on this island in Northern
Ireland. Driven by a hazy aesthetic I invite the viewer to submerge into a world of my bleared emotions. Using lo-fi techniques to create an unpolished form with 35mm format photography and camcorders, colours glaze over dark backdrops and I immerse into a self constructed personalised fantasy.”
Photography/24
Lydia Heise Karaoke Night Out “These are candid images that were not intended to become a photoshoot, but I love the carefree nature of them and how they turned out. All images are taken on 35mm film and are of model Elenor Jones-Gray.” -Lydia
23 year old writer and photographer Lydia Heise from Adelaide, Australia took these pretty photos of Elenor on a fun karaoke night out. Her photograpgraphic works ofte focuse on gender performance, hyper-femininity, fashion, pop simulacra, suburbia and the notion of the gaze. Photography/25
Photography/26
F
ashion of the late 1980s and 1990s was often purchased out of thrift stores at the time. Some will argue it was done out of a rejection of the fashions of the time. But it’s generally agreed that it’s because it was cheaper as, at the time, most grunge artists were dirt poor.
Women tended to favor slip dresses, flannel shirts, ripped jeans, chokers, and the bell-bottoms/babydoll t-shirt was a popular combination as well.
FASHION
Men often wore over-sized t-shirts, flannel shirts (that would be tied off around the waist when it got too hot), ripped jeans, and combat boots. These were considered timeless looks and were generally durable and reliable clothing to wear.
Definitely expect this trend to regress as Y2K starts to become more and more prominent only to cycle back in another 20 years, as all trends seem to. But with the Grunge renaissance, the philosophical elements of the Grunge movement were completely dropped in favor of just achieving the visual aesthetic of looking Grunge (although often paying far more exorbitant amounts of money compared to the original Grunge style icons, who almost exclusively shopped at Thrift Stores).
Fashion/28
Merra Grana Accesories Here comes a wonderful nostalgic-appearing, analogue photo-series by Merra she shot for Grana Accesories. Merra used monochrome vintage style that could at the same time highlight the accesories, and a vintage atmosphere of a couple remembering moments for the fashion film.
Fashion/29
Fashion/30
Mona Cordes NYC Girls Authentic and colourful photoseries by Mona Cordes. Entirely shot on 35mm film, featuring Jo and Zoë as models and with garments designed by 30 Marsh Wall.
Fashion/32
Elaine Ellis Juxta Pose Juxtaposed with the unfamiliarity of night and the unfamiliar characters that come with it, an intimate surrounding is navigated through the veil of the night.
Fashion/33
The discordant clash of colours reflect a chasm between light and dark. This incongruence impels us to look again.
Fashion/34
Camila Fortunato SHANGHAI BABY
Camila Fortunato‘s latest photo-series is colourful and wonderfully expressive. She teamed up with model Sofía Toledo, stylist Zó Peña, MUA-artist Barbie Juarez and photo-assistant Rocío Filippini to create this visual artwork.
Fashion / 35
Kanilldy Williams Bored of the neighbourhoods Authentic and beatifully nostalgif is Kalindy Williams‘ latest analogue photo-series she did with model Lewis Macmaster. They just wandered around Kalindy’s neighbourhood shooting in front of cool houses until they got rained out.
Fashion/37
Mona Cordes Mona Cordes is a London based Fashion Print designer of German heritage. We are happy to feature her collection ‘SELSHAMOUR ~ HIDE + SEAM’ she finished this summer. “This collection is the result of my Masters I did at Kingston university in Fashion design and specialised within digital print
Fashion/39
Selshamour ~ Hide + Seam for it. Due to Covid-19 and studios being closed I switched from doing an all round screen-printed collection to digitalising my print ideas. To create ‘SELSHAMOUR ~ HIDE + SEAM’ I went home to Germany to complete collection for a couple of months.
Fashion/40
Nordic mythology is a rich source of inspiration for my collection and therefore my print visualisation. I have covered the main nature elements – water, air and fire.
and collection outcome. To illustrate these creatures’ magical powers I wrote a piece for the Troll Look dress print: “Undercover activists, trees erupt, sky sinks, sun burns, wings fly, oceans ride wild, species create, superpowers emerge.” All print designs are I am using myths and nature to guide me mine. when finding my colour scheme, pattern For my title – “Selshamur” is an old Icelandic story about seal hide.
T
he grunge artists and designers emphasized the idea of f reedom and of breaking the rules by following one’s inner voice. With the new technological developments, and the popularity of the Macintosh putting aside the art of designing by hand, artists, like musicians, were able to rebel against conventions.
ART
Now, in relation to the painting production, some critics suggest the existence of two branches. One is typif ied by colored drawings in a cartoon style relating the style of paintings by
Art /43
Jean-Michel Basquiat. The other branch is described as a more ‘painterly’ keeping with the tradition of painters such as Susan Rothenberg. More than anything else, the style of grunge paintings is characterized as reflecting a sarcastic and twisted humor. Stylistically, grunge paintings can be both abstract or f igurative, but, they do lean more towards the f igurative and the narrative. paintings can be both abstract or f igurative, but, they do lean more towards the f igurative and the narrative.
Art /44
Harumi Hironaka Secrets
This post contains a selection of Harumi’s illustrations as well as a little interview.
Interviewer : “When did you realize that illustrating is something special for you and which feelings do you want to express through your artworks?” Hironaka : “Drawing has always been special for me, ever since I was a little girl. I used to draw all the time, especially during boring lessons. It helped me concentrate on what the teacher was saying. I get distracted very easily; sometimes my thoughts get too loud and while I am drawing, they fade out. I guess I want to express myself. I could probably paint girls with vacant expressions, surrounded by flowers and butterflies. They probably would look nice on a family home wall; but that’s not me. I go with my gut and it tells me to be bold.” Interviewer : “You mainly draw women/ girls. Are there any persons (in real life) that inspire you or is it just an expression of your vision?” Hironaka : “It’s good that you mentioned it. There’s this new feature on Instagram that shows you some statistics about your followers and it says that 73% of mine are women. So this means that most of the followers of a female illustrator who paints female characters are women’s and I get all these nice messages from them saying how much they can relate to my work, that they feel represented. For me that is awesome. There isn’t a particular person that inspires me but there are a lot of women who have inspired me throughout my life and continue to do so. This includes poets, writers, artists, songwriters, etc.” Art /45
Interviewer : “Which drawing-techniques do you prefer and what are your favourite colours to illustrate with?” Hironaka : “I don’t know about drawingtechniques, I’ve never taken a lesson. Again I have to say that I go with my gut and that I don’t know what the heck I’m doing 90% of the time; so until things get shaped up everything is a mystery. Lately, my favorite colors are those of the sky in its different shades and moods.”
Interviewer : “You lived many years in Japan but you are currently living in São Paulo, Brazil. Do you feel more at home in Japan or in Brazil?” Hironaka : “I’ve always felt out of places’s like a tourist. I was born in Perú and I love my home country but I always felt I was treated differently because of the way I look. And the same back in Japan; their culture was so different I couldn’t relate. Eventually things changed thoughts but like I said I’m still an alien.”
Interviewer : “Do you want to return to your home-country one day or is Brazil your dream-home?” Hironaka : “My dream-home hmmm. I could live on a mountain as long as it had Internet access and a convenience store (joking). I live like a hermit anyway (not joking).”
Jane Wunrow Collage World
“I have been exploring the ever-present fluidity of our physical being with the spirit world and the Divine. Through creating intricate illustrations I acknowledge the deep influence culture has on constructing ideologies that form us even down to the very hidden fabric of our identity. Through the process of dismembering these illustrations and juxtaposing them with images of stratum formations I am revealing our potential to break away from the physical constructs of this world and instead embrace a Divine metamorphosis, an eternal unity.” – Jane Wunrow
“Where Skin And Flesh”
Art /47
“He trains `my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze”
“The Lips Of Knowledge” Art /48
Courtney Burnan A world of inspiration
A special, stunning art-feature awaits you today. We like the expression and extravagance in the pictures by the artist Courtney Burnan from London.
Let’s be enchanted by her illustrations and read what her inspirations are below. Enjoy!`
“To me my work is an extension of myself, they’re all incredibly personal and I have this theory that every piece of art an artist produces is a self portrait. For this reason I get my inspiration from everything and anything that interests me, although I may not realise it at the time. London street fashion inspires me a lot right now, coming from a small town London has such an eclectic mix of people wearing clothes that before I moved here I had never even imagined. My childhood was spent being obsessed by fairies and the work of Brian Froud, Arthur Rackham and Cicely Mary Barker. Art /49
This kind of ethereal dreamland that fairies would live in always something I am trying to translate into my work. My current project is based on Manish Arora’s Spring Summer 16 collection which is incredibly colourful and intricate. The name of the collection is “Disco Gypsy” so I’ve been doing a lot of research into traditional Romany culture and magic. Through this route I have also been researching (and learning) tarot, I tend to immerse myself into a world of inspiration to create illustrations.”
Quin Severo is an 18 years old high school senior living in Southern California. In this post awaits you a selection of some of her creative works
“I have had a passion for art since I was very young, from sitting in my highchair drawing for hours on end to watching my mom take photos with her camera wherever we went. As I grew older, I began to experiment with new mediums, such as painting, photography, writing, video, and drawing. In middle school I always took the most advanced art classes that were offered, and also served as my class historian, taking photos and compiling them into a slideshow to play at graduation. In high school, I took AP Studio Art two years in a row, submitting 24-peice portfolios both years. I created a website where I display my photos, poetry, prose, drawings, paintings, and short films. My most notable and recognized art project is called Be Kind Art. I started it as one of the 24 pieces
Quin Severo
– Blue
in my AP Studio Art portfolio during my Junior year. We were assigned to create a piece that would address a message that was important to us, and to make the piece viewable to large amounts of people. I carved a stamp and printed hundreds of posters, pasting them all over Los Angeles. I started to track the hashtag #bekindart, and created an Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter account for the project. Lots of my friends got involved and started to take posters on trips to other states and countries, and I even started to make and sell apparel with the simple logo on them. Senior year I had to focus on school and college applications, so I slowed down with the project, but I do intend on getting it going again as soon as I have the time.” -Quin Art /50
Elena Atzori X Starz
Completely cool and grungy is this photo-series by photographer Elena Atzori from Rome. For this series she worked together with STARZ aka Giuliano Filardo who is a famous graffiti artist also based in Rome. The style of model Cate as well as her natural, often cheeky, expression give the photos a perfect flair. All shot on 35mm film and there’s also a Polaroid-shot at the end. Happy watching!!
I Paint, You Buff
Art /51
Art /52
Riley MCBride
Safety Effect
It’s some time ago that we received an editorial in black and white. This one is absolutely artful and wonderful; and have we ever mentioned that we love ballet?
Art /55
Jeremy Combot A 90’S Atmosphere
“It is quite hard to define my own work but it could be seen as a mixture of colors, street fashion, pop culture. Being a kid of the 90’s, I feel inspired by this period of time that I combine with modern tendencies. I love crazy patterns, sometimes more than I expect. I am inspired by the fashion world, in my own way. I like the link between beauty/tendency and ugliness/kitsch. All my illustrations are handmade, I need to feel the paper under my fingers and smell the colors inks that I use. I also use markers, very thin pens and add some digital front or collages.” – Jeremy Combot
Art /57
Art /58
G
Music
runge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, featuring the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals.
Music /61
Grunge music has what has been called an “ugly” aesthetic, both in the roar of the distorted electric guitars and in the darker lyrical topics. This approach was chosen both to counter the “slick” elegant sound of the then-predominant mainstream rock and because grunge artists wanted to mirror the “ugliness” they saw around them and shine a light on unseen “depths and depravity” of the real world.[38] Some key individuals in the development of the grunge sound, including Sub Pop producer Jack Endino
and the Melvins, described grunge’s incorporation of heavy rock influences such as Kiss as “musical provocation”. Grunge artists considered these bands “cheesy” but nonetheless enjoyed them; Buzz Osborne of the Melvins described it as an attempt to see what ridiculous things bands could do and get away with.[39] In the early 1990s, Nirvana’s signature “stop-start” song format and alternating between soft and loud sections became a genre convention
Nirvana, ‘Nevermind’ (1991)
In the early Nineties, pop music was in a dire state — rappers wore genie pants, rockers wrote schmaltzy nine-minute epics about November rain, and Michael Bolton plagiarized the Isley Brothers — but Nirvana shook its foundations. Unlike their mainstream counterparts, they cut out the bullshit and wrote four-minute bursts of raw, uncensored honesty, changing the face of the Hot 100 and putting a spotlight on crude guitar riffs and heartfelt lyrics for much of the next decade. Kurt Cobain sang about feeling stupid (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”), ugly (“Lithium”) and disillusioned (“Something in the Way”), and defied hard-rock convention by acknowledging that women were people, not objects (“Polly”). The album was so powerful that within a few months, it displaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous to become the bestselling album in the United States. The band had grown up immensely since forming in 1987. A few years earlier, Cobain was grunting and shrieking over the sort of foundation-rumbling riffs that owed an obvious debt to Melvins and Mudhoney, but time on the road and assistance from producer Butch Vig, who made everything hit harder and sound cleaner than on Bleach, led them to create a masterpiece. “Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I’m embarrassed by it now,” Cobain said in the band’s official biography, Come as You Are. “It’s closer to a Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk-rock record.”
Soundgarden, ‘Badmotorfinger’ (1991) After Chris Cornell had a revelation while working on Temple of the Dog, a project that forced him to refocus his songwriting toward catchier and more concise tracks, he led Soundgarden into a new era with Badmotorfinger, the band’s commercial breakthrough. Although drummer Matt Cameron proudly told Rolling Stone, “We don’t make pop records,” when the album came out, it arrived at a time of sea change for heavy rock, and the band scored a trio of hits with “Outshined,” “Jesus Christ Pose” (thanks in part to MTV banning its video) and the rhythmically off-kilter “Rusty Cage” — the last of which Johnny Cash later covered. Each of the songs had a uniquely brutalizing riff, paired with Cornell’s otherworldly, always-perfectlyon-pitch shrieking, that made it a classic. Meanwhile, deeper cuts like “Slaves &
Music / 63
Bulldozers” and “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” became live go-tos, because of the way they pummeled audiences. “After Louder Than Love, we kind of had to turn back,” guitarist Kim Thayil once said. “The dark psychedelia, which was replaced by our slight visceral heaviness on Louder Than Love, that came back and so did the quirkiness [on Badmotorfinger].” Soundgarden were heavier than Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but they still wrote anthems, securing them an easy place among the first wave of grunge superstars; the album made it to Number 39 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified double platinum. It also earned a Grammy nomination. “I love Badmotorfinger because it sounds great in a car,” Thayil once said. “It’s got a lot of weird quirks in it — as is typical with Soundgarden.
Soundgarden were heavier than Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but they still wrote anthems, securing them an easy place among the first wave of grunge superstars; the album made it to Number 39 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified double platinum. It also earned a Grammy nomination. “I love Badmotorfinger because it sounds great in a car,” Thayil once said. “It’s got a lot of weird quirks in it — as is typical with Soundgarden. We always added that element of crazy and weird. We had an ability to not take ourselves too seriously, while committing to the heaviness. Sort of like laughing while kicking your ass.”
Music / 64
Hole, ‘Live Through This’ (1994)
Live Through This is the sound of Courtney Love ripping herself to shreds. Her band’s second album is a roller-coaster reflection on co-dependency, motherhood and feminism that found the volcanic frontwoman making the case that she was more of a pop-culture heroine than the villainess she’d previously been painted as. Of course, the timing was unsuspectedly tragic: Hole’s major-label debut was released just days after Love’s husband Kurt Cobain’s body was found in their Seattle home following his suicide Music / 65
by shotgun. The title of Live Through This felt like a prophecy as Love was suddenly thrust into the role of celebrity widow. Still, even before the earthshaking loss of Cobain, Love had something to prove, and with this LP, she went above and beyond. She plays with her public image (“Plump”), teases the Washington scene kids she came up with (“Rock Star”), tackles postpartum depression (“I Think That I Would Die”) and gets brutally honest about relationship insecurity (“Doll Parts”).
Carrying it all is Love’s vitriol: Her voice jerks chaotically from soft, überfemme vulnerability to guttural, blood-curdling screams that feel like they’re being torn from the depths of her stomach. After grieving both Cobain and bassist Kristen Pfaff, who played on the LP and died of an overdose three months after its release, Love found herself on the road for a controversial tour. She knew the impact the album could continue to have, and set out to e`stablish herself as an icon in her own right. “I would like to think that I’m not getting the sympathy vote, and the only way to do that is to prove that what I’ve got is real,” Love told Rolling Stone in 1994. “That was the whole point of Live Through This.”`
Music / 66
The debut release by Green River is a janky gumbo of punk, metal and hard rock, full of slow-grinding riffs, dramatic cymbal crashes and frontman Mark Arm’s Iggy Stooge–like caterwauling. It’s the sound of young musicians feeling their way through their influences: a little bit of Aerosmith and Blue Öyster Cult in the chorus of “Swallow My Pride,” some Black Flag pummeling and Neil Young whining on the iconic “Come
Green River, ‘Come on down’ (1985)
On Down” (a song whose chorus, “Come on down to the river” is all the more chilling considering that murderer Gary Ridgway, a.k.a. the Green River Killer, was strangling sex workers in the Seattle area at the time) and some Iron Maiden galloping on “Tunnel of Love.” “Stone [Gossard, guitar] was really into UFO and Iron Maiden,” bassist Jeff Ament recently told Rolling Stone. “I don’t know if any of us really ever embraced those bands at the time. He was writing a lot of music, so we were taking those riffs that he was bringing in and deconstructing them and turning them into our own thing.” There are only faint hints of the music the band members would later make in Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog on the record. It’s more like a rough blueprint of where grunge was headed. K.G.
Music / 67
Alice in Chains, ‘Jar of Flies’ (1994)
“Mind if we just jam?” Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell told producer Toby Wright in 1993 after the band booked time at Seattle’s London Bridge studio between tours. Grunge’s darkest group saw massive success the year before with their breakthrough album Dirt. But where that album ratcheted up Cantrell’s brutal, chainsaw guitar, Jar of Flies, recorded in 10 days after the band was reportedly evicted from their apartment, showcased the quartet’s deft, if still deeply bleak, acoustic balladry. “[I] just wanted to go into the studio for a few days with our acoustic guitars and see what happened,” singer Layne Staley told Hit Parader in 1994. “We never really planned on the music we made at that time to be released. But the record label heard it and they really liked it.” The (relatively) hip-swaying groove of “Swing on This” and “No Excuses,” and the string-laden doom of “I Stay Away” helped make Flies the first EP to ever debut at Number One on the Billboard 200. But it’s heartbreakingly gorgeous tracks like “Nutshell” — “That song still gets me choked up whenever I play it,” bassist Mike Inez told Revolvewr in 2013 — that highlighted the range of one of the genre’s most innovative groups. J.N.
Music / 69
Jerry Cantrell, ‘Degradation Trip’ (2002)
Recorded at a time when Alice in Chains’ chief songwriter Jerry Cantrell was “just really fucked up” on drugs and released mere months after Layne Staley’s death, Degradation Trip is a frightening glimpse at the singer and guitarist’s sunken place. It opens with a doomy, devastating guitar chord and the sound of moaning
on “Psychotic Break,” as he sings “Thinking ’bout my dead friends/ Whose voices ring on” in teeth-grating harmonies. It gets only bleaker from there. “I’ve always been drawn to music that tells the sadder tale and tells the deeper, truer tale, which at times can be very dark,” Cantrell said when the album came out. “I draw from what
I see and what I experience, and I only really know how to do it one way.” He recorded the album with Ozzy Osbourne’s rhythm section at the time, bassist Robert Trujillo (now of Metallica fame) and drummer Mike Bordin (also of Faith No More), and he littered it with allusions to drugs — just look at the cover — and crunchy, feel-bad
riffs. They recorded so much music, he expanded it into a two-volume set later in 2002. Tracks like the slithery “Bargain Basement Howard Hughes,” crushing “Hellbound” and even the poppier “She Was My Girl” are a stark contrast to Cantrell’s lighter, more experimental solo debut, Boggy Depot. It’s a heavy trip that’s not easy to shake. K.G.
Music / 70
Alice in Chains, ‘Jar of Flies’ (1994)
Jar of Flies is the third studio EP by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on January 25, 1994, through Columbia Records. This is Alice in Chains’ second acoustic EP, preceded by 1992’s Sap, and it is the first EP in music history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the first week sales exceeding 141,000 copies in the United States. The self-produced EP was written and recorded over the course of just one week at the London Bridge Studio in Seattle. The tracks “No Excuses”, “I Stay Away” and “Don’t Follow” were released as singles to promote the album. Jar of Flies was nominatMusic / 71
ed for two Grammy Awards in 1995; Best Recording Package and Best Hard Rock Performance for “I Stay Away”. The EP was well received by critics and has been certified tripleplatinum by the RIAA, selling 4 million copies worldwide, making Jar of Flies one of the band’s most successful releases. In Canada, Jar of Flies was certified double-platinum for the sale of 200,000 copies. In Great Britain, the album was certified silver after selling 60,000 copies.
Such was the strangeness of the post-Nevermind Nineties that a band as uncompromising as Melvins, who were coming off a half-hour drone-doom opus, could find themselves signed to the same label as Phil Collins and Bette Midler. Longtime friends of Kurt Cobain, the band brought him on to co-produce their Atlantic debut. Even though he guested on a couple tracks, the collaboration was far from fruitful: “Unfortunately, Cobain was in no shape to produce anything,” frontman Buzz Osborne recalled to The Stranger
in 2009. The group’s fifth LP featured some of their strongest, most streamlined songs to date — including opener “Hooch,” an absurdly heavy, improbably catchy riff-fest with lyrics consisting entirely of nonsense syllables; lumbering rocker “Night Goat,” redone after appearing on a ’92 single; and a monolithic cover of Kiss oddity “Goin’ Bind” that left the lightweight Hotter Than Hell original in the dust. But there was plenty of room, too, for the band’s patented time-stretched weirdness, as on the
towering, slo-mo “Hag Me” and “Spread Eagle Beagle,” a closing Dale Crover drum solo that was more Ionisation than “Moby Dick.” “I’ve had people [say that to me] in the past 20 years. ‘It must be good to be off a major label where you don’t have them telling you what to do’ and all the stuff like that,” frontman Osborne told Nashville Scene in 2012. “My response is always, ‘Did you listen to the records we did for them?’ [Laughs]. If that’s record company meddling, then good on them.” H.S.
Music / 72
FILMS
A
h, the 90s. The decade of smelling like teen spirit, flannel shirts, and socially acceptable overalls. It was a time of unimaginable slack piled atop never-before-known opportunity. It was also a time of some really fantastic f ilms-and a few less-fantastic movies that still resonate for what they were to us when there was a Clinton running for president and
reality TV dominated the airwaves. You know. The last time that happened. Including movies that make us miss the styles, the zeitgeist, that help us abide or remind us we weren’t even supposed to be here today, these f ifteen f ilms make us wish for those heady days of Nirvana, Kurt Loder, raves, and f rosted tips.
Films / 76
TRAINSPOTTING Directed by Danny Boyle United Kingdom, 1996 Drama, Crime, Cult
Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy-drama film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, and Kelly Macdonald in her debut. Based on the 1993 novel of the same title by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996. The Academy Award-nominated screenplay by John Hodge follows a group of heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage
Films / 77
through life. Beyond drug addiction, other themes in the film include an exploration of the urban poverty and squalor in Edinburgh. The title of the film comes from a particular scene in the book where the main character, Mark Renton, meets an old drunk in a disused train station, who turns out to be his friend’s estranged father. The old man asks Renton and Begbie, who is the man’s son, if they are “trainspottin’”. This scene showed up in the film’s sequel as a flashback.
THE PUNK SINGER Directed by Sini Anderson United States, 2013 Documentary
What does it mean when a singer goes silent? And a power woman loses her energy? And what if that woman is Kathleen Hanna? "The Punk Singer," a documentary about Hanna by Sini Anderson, explains using vintage performance footage, interviews with Hanna's fellow musicians, and chats with Hanna herself. Never one to mince words, Hanna's own surprising answer, the reveal of the f ilm, is that Hanna has had something as dreary as Lyme Disease.
Films / 79
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck Directed by Brett Morgen United States, 2015 Documentary
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (also billed as Cobain: Montage of Heck)[2] is a 2015 documentary film about Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. The film was directed by Brett Morgen and premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It received a limited theatrical release worldwide and premiered on television in the United States on HBO on May 4, 2015. The documentary chronicles the life of Kurt Cobain f rom his birth in Aberdeen, Washington in 1967, through his troubled early family life and teenage years and rise to fame as front man of Nirvana, up to his death in
Films / 81
April 1994 in Seattle at the age of 27. The film includes artwork by Cobain as well as music and sound collages composed by him. Much of music and sound collages were released on the film's soundtrack, Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings. A companion book was also released containing animation stills from the film as well as transcripts of interviews, photographs, and Cobain's artwork that were not featured in the film.
The film grossed $107,055 during the first two days of its limited theatrical release in the United States.[19] In the United Kingdom, where it was released on home video on April 27, 2015, the film topped the Official Charts Company's UK Music Video Chart Top 50 for the week of May 3–9, 2015[21] and peaked at number six on the UK Blu-ray Chart Top 100,[22] number 13 on the UK DVD Chart Top 100,[23] and 11 on the UK Video Chart Top 100.
Films / 82
SLC Punk!
Directed by James Merendino United States, 1999 Comedy, Drama
SLC Punk! is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by James Merendino. The film is about the young punk rock fan Steven "Stevo" Levy, a college graduate living in Salt Lake City. The character is portrayed as a punk in the mid-1980s. SLC Punk! was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999
Films / 83
Sundance Film Festival. Merendino created the film based on his experience growing up in Salt Lake City. Although the film is not autobiographical, Merendino has said that many characters were based on people he knew.
Films / 84
SLC Punk!
Directed by Richard Linklater United States, 1993 Comedy
Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, and Rory Cochrane. The plot follows different groups of Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976. The film was a commercial failure at the box office, grossing less than $8 million in the United States. Despite this the film has
Films / 87
enjoyed critical and commercial success over the years, and has since become a cult film. It ranked third on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine also ranked it 10th on their "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list. The title of the film is allegedly derived from Jake Holmes's song of the same name. Linklater approached the surviving members of Led Zeppelin for permission to use their song "Rock and Roll" in the film. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones agreed, but Robert Plant refused.
Films / 88
THE DOOM GENERATION Directed by Gregg Araki Unitved States, France, 1995 Comedy, Crime, Drama
The Doom Generation is a 1995 black comedy thriller film written and directed by Gregg Araki. It stars James Duval, Rose McGowan, and Johnathon Schaech. The film follows two troubled teenage lovers, Amy Blue (McGowan) and Jordan White (Duval), who pick up a young handsome drifter named Xavier Red (Schaech). After Xavier accidentally kills a store clerk, the trio embarks on a journey full of sex, violence, and people from Amy's past. Billed as "A Heterosexual Movie by Gregg Araki", The Doom Generation is the second film in the director's trilogy known as the "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy", the first being Totally Fucked Up (1993)
Films / 89
and the last one Nowhere (1997). The characters of Amy Blue and Jordan White are based on the Mark Beyer comic strip "Amy and Jordan". The Doom Generation was Araki's major film debut. It was shot mostly at night during January 1994 in Los Angeles on a budget of $800,000. The crew avoided well known landmarks and shot in undeveloped areas of urban sprawl to give the film an apocalyptic feel. The budget allowed Araki to hire professional crew, making it the first of his films not shot by himself.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 1995, before appearing at various other film festivals. It received mixed reviews from critics. During the press screening, many of the critics walked out. However, at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), the film received critical acclaim, most proclaiming it as Araki's breakthrough film. Distributed by Trimark Pictures, it was released in the United States on October 27, 1995. The film was not a financial success, earning only $284,785 at the box office. McGowan was nominated for the Best Debut Performance at the 11th Independent Spirit Awards.
Films / 90
90’s Aesthetic
Aesthetic means the pleasant, positive, or artful appearance of a person or a thing. An example of the word is aesthetic is to say that a particular car is beautiful. The definition of aesthetic is being interested in how something looks and feels. An example of someone who is aesthetic might be an artist. Merriam-Webster defines aesthetic as a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses.
Put simply: your aesthetic is your personal “look.” It’s how you approach things, what you perceive as beautiful, and compelling Aesthetic concerns what is considered beautiful. In pop culture, an aesthetic refers to the overall style of someone or something, like a musical sound, interior design, or even a social media presence. Key elements are Strength, Sweetness, Sourness, and Texture (for taste). Use these elements when possible to enhance the full picture, so our users can feel the aesthetics even deeper.
90’s Asthetic / 92
90’s Asthetic / 93
90’s Asthetic / 94
90’s Asthetic / 98
The 90s were a great time for pop culture and music, which greatly influenced the fashion trends at the time. If you want to create a 90s-inspired outfit, wear things like flannel shirts, baggy jeans, and combat boots. Other popular trends include windbreakers, tube tops, and overalls. Pick a 90s top and bottom, and pair your outfit with 90s accessories to easily dress from the 90s. Fashion in the 1990s was defined by a return to minimalist fashion,[1] in contrast to the more elaborate and flashy trends of the 1980s. One notable shift was the mainstream adoption of tattoos,[2] body piercings aside from ear piercing[3] and to a much lesser extent, other forms of body modification such as branding.
90’s Asthetic / 99
In the early 1990s, several late 1980s fashions remained very stylish among both sexes. However, the popularity of grunge and alternative rock music helped bring the simple, unkempt grunge look to the mainstream by 1992.The anticonformist approach to fashion led to
the popularization of the casual chic look that included T-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and sneakers, a trend which continued into the 2000s. Additionally, fashion trends throughout the decade recycled styles from previous decades, notably the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
90’s Asthetic / 100