The Rocket exhibit: Nirvana

Nirvana and The Rocket most notably share a connection in Charles R. Cross, who served as editor-in-chief of The Rocket from 1986- 2000 and who became Kurt Cobain’s biographer with the book Heavier Than Heaven.

Nirvana and The Rocket evolved alongside each other as the music scene in Seattle gained national prominence. The Rocket was among the first to review Nirvana’s music. The magazine was also the first to publication to feature the band on their cover in 1989, before their national SPIN cover and the release of Nevermind.

The Rocket was reaching 50,000 readers per month when bassist Kris Novoselic and Cobain began forming Nirvana. The paper had gained considerable influence over the Northwest music scene and beyond.

It makes sense that a 20-year-old Kurt Cobain would turn to The Rocket’s classified ads to find a drummer. Cobain and Novoselic needed someone to round out their group, known at various points as Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, and Bliss. 

In 1988, the paper featured their debut single from Sub Pop records. Grant Alden wrote:

“Nirvana sit sort of at the edge of the current Northwest sound — too clean for thrash, too pure for metal, too good to ignore.”

The collective Rocket staff embraced Nirvana. Gillian G. Garr’s review of Nirvana’s first full-length, Bleach, was positive. It hailed the tracks for their “undeniable power.” Her album review refers to Cobain as Kurdt Kobain, the alias Cobain used to credit himself as on the album sleeve.

The band had already made a name for themselves before Bleach, but this review helped anointed Nirvana as Seattle’s next big thing.

The Rocket’s coverage of Nirvana changed following the success of their album Nevermind in 1991. The reception was very positive at first. The Rocket featured Nirvana on the cover of their October 1991 issue. In the corresponding story, Jennifer Boddy wrote:

“Nirvana’s second record kicks butt, rocks the casbah, is a pop masterpiece, oh, nevermind.”

Boddy still referred to Cobain as “Kurdt Kobain”, an indication of the frontman’s relative anonymity at the time. Boddy praised the album: “By leaving behind all the rock 'n' roll premeditations and belabouring they create songs, real songs that you want to sing with music so simple and so true it gives you an unreachable sense of near-bursting.”

Boddy’s piece is notably not an album review. The full critique of Nevermind was written by the infamously verbose contributor, Mike Logan: “Litigating bestiality is very difficult whether in Seattle or Washington, DC; millions of crack smokers can’t be all wrong...I’m all for these geniuses expressin’ themselves, but next time you come up with shit like “Something in the Way,” send me a postcard from jailbait.”

The Rocket staff ranked Nevermind at the top in their end of year summary, but with a caveat from critic Grant Alden:

“But they [top local artists]...have failed to create sounds that were spectacular, risky, dangerous or groundbreaking.”

Alden wrote a 1992 profile of Mudhoney that focused heavily on Nirvana’s success. In the article, he claimed Nirvana had been “inaccurately perceived as the cutting edge of Seattle music”. In Mike Logan’s review of L7’s Bricks Are Heavy, he wrote that both L7 and Nirvana were overextended “singles band[s].”

By 1993, the long-running column Lip Service had started referring to Nirvana simply as “the N-Band.” Despite this, Nirvana’s third album In Utero was praised by Rocket writers.

In April 1994, Kurt Cobain died by suicide in his Seattle home. The April 13th issue of The Rocket was almost ready to go to press when the news of Cobain’s death dropped. The paper rushed to include a response by Gillian Gaar, the same writer who had reviewed Nirvana’s debut, Bleach.

Gaar lauded Nirvana for speaking out against sexism, racism, and homophobia at the height of their fame. As stated in her piece:

 “Their willingness to take a stand on different issues. Their courage in fighting to maintain their integrity... And most importantly, their ability to stand up in the middle of all the mayhem and say yes, our music does make it all worthwhile.”

Publisher Charles R. Cross explained that he wanted to redirect the narrative around both Cobain and Nirvana in publishing Gaar’s piece.

The Rocket paid tribute to Cobain in the following issue as well. The April 27th edition of The Rocket devoted a page to
readers’ letters responding to the news. The paper included a statement that said they could not publish all the submissions due to the sheer number received.

Cross wrote a lengthy piece titled, “A Heart Shaped Box.” He criticized the press coverage, particularly The Seattle Times’ choice to publish a photo of Cobain’s body. Cross shared his own grief: “Kurt Cobain is now dead. I’ll miss him. I’ll miss the music he’ll never make, the songs he’ll never sing.” Alongside Cross’ piece, The Rocket ran a graphic comic that depicted the media’s insensitivity.

For The Rocket’s 200th issue in 1995, the staff voted Nevermind the number one Northwest album of all time.

On the first anniversary of Cobain’s death, The Rocket published the “1 Year A.D.” issue. Jeff Pike’s accompanying story was titled “Kurt Cobain’s Year Without Peace.” Cross later called the story “infamous.” In it, Pike wrote:

“On the Internet and America Online and other points electronic, much band-width continues to be sacrificed to Cobain and Nirvana and Courtney.”

He described how surprised he was that people would stop him to insist that Cobain wasn’t worthy of coverage because he was a low- life:

“Will Kurt Cobain still be famous in five years? Or will we think of him merely as ‘Kurt Who?, the slacker, Generation X, twenty something whiner who offed himself for no good reason...I don’t know, but I think I’m ready to join the parade of people who want to put it behind us.”

The Rocket went on to celebrate the debut of Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl’s band, Foo Fighters, that next year. The Rocket also featured Courtney Love several times, each article mentioning her late husband’s band. Nirvana was mentioned in readers’ letters, in album reviews, and in wanted ads for musicians inspired by the band. Nirvana would continue to appear in The Rocket until the paper’s end in 2000.