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An RS classic from May 10, 2021.
The FBI has published its file on Kurt Cobain. That sounds dramatic – but it is a very common process among politicians, artists and other celebrities, of course also with those who have nothing to be owed. In these files there are often questions and knowledge that are answered or shared.
The federal authority’s report has ten pages. The focus is on two letters from 2003 and 2007, in which the FBI was asked to examine the death of the Nirvana singer of April 5, 1994 as a murder, and not as a suicide. Among other things, the claim was made that there were no fingerprints of Cobain on the murder weapon, a shotgun.
The FBI has reacted to both letters and external “appreciation” about the concerns that the official cause of death is not the correct. However, the authority refer to the processes of crime examinations that should be observed. Accordingly, the findings that the respective state authorities, here that the state of Washington, would have provided. And that notes suicide as the cause of death. Accordingly, the FBI did not even become active.
What is still in the file Find out from the US colleagues of the Rolling Stone:
Steve Albinis Rat to Nirvana: The plate must be through in a week
On Tuesday evening (May 7th) Steve Albini died surprisingly at the age of 61. The legendary producer and noise rock pioneer suffered a heart attack in his studio, as his company announced Electrical Audio Studios to the magazine “PitchFork”.
As a producer, Albini participated in some groundbreaking albums such as “Surfer Rosa” from the Pixies or “Pod” by The Breeders. Another work from his repertoire was “in Utero” by Nirvana. How it came to collaboration for the album published in 1993 can now be read in a newly appeared letter. The band published a four-page letter on their X account. The document comes from Albini and is directed directly at Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic.
These were the conditions Steve Albinis:
As can now be read in the letter, Albini did not appeal to the collaboration directly. The producer considered the possible cooperation only possible under certain guidelines. So he wrote: “I think the best thing you could do at the moment is exactly what you are doing: bring out a record in a few days, with high quality, but minimal ‘production’ and without interference in the executive floor.” Albini feared that the participation of those responsible at the work of Nirvana could negatively influence the sound. He also didn’t seem to be a fan of elaborate productions: “If it takes longer than a week to make a record, someone built crap,” he writes.
“I would like to be paid like a plumber”
In the four -page letter, the producer also goes into his desired form of payment. In this way, he refrains from financial participation in the finished songs and only wants to be paid in advance. “I would like to be paid like a plumber,” he wrote. “I don’t want to and will not take royalties for each of my recordings. No shares. Point. I think it is ethically not justifiable to pay a producer or sound engineer to pay royalties. The band writes the songs. The band plays the music. It is the fans of the band. The band is responsible for whether it is a great or a terrible plate. The royalties belong to the band.”
Nirvana agreed to Albini’s conditions, perhaps also because Albini would do without a lot of coal, but his fears in terms of the label interference were true. The recordings that arose, as agreed in the “raw” style, were revised. Nirvana’s label again mixed the singles “Heart-Shaped Box” and “All Apologies” and missed the rest of the album a remastering, which Albini was not enthusiastic.