ROCK RECORDS
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Sweet 75: Sweet 75 (Geffen, CD). Since the death of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, once the drummer of Nirvana, has found new fame in Foo Fighters, ignoring the precedent set by the surviving members of the Doors and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hoping to buck the trend for a second time is Krist Novoselic, Nirvana's bassist, and now leader of Sweet 75.
Like his old colleague, Novoselic has switched from his original instrument to guitar, but he's left the singing to Yva Las Vegas, a Venezuelan screecher, and he has eschewed punk-pop in favour of, well, more or less anything he can think of. "La Vida" is Spanish fiesta music, "Ode To Dolly" is novelty country `n' western. Either Novoselic is trying to ensure that he isn't pigeonholed, or else he's just trying to stop Sweet 75 sounding like Nirvana - and not being entirely successful.
The guitar-playing and the jigsaw song structures still have a whiff of Kurt Cobain about them, but without the energy or the rage or the classic riffs, ie, the three things which made Nirvana what they were. Given enough listens, though, this alternative rock oddity becomes quirkily intriguing, and even fun. The chances of Nirvana-level or even Foo Fighters-level stardom are slight, which probably doesn't bother Novoselic in the slightest.
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