Leor Galil, Reader staff writer
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck I’ve suffered from Nirvana fatigue for at least a decade, so I never expected to like—or even watch—this new documentary on the life of Kurt Cobain. I gave it a shot after realizing it was the work of Brett Morgen, who codirected The Kid Stays in the Picture; he avoids hagiography and makes Nirvana’s rise feel improbable instead of inevitable.
Arvo Zylo, noise musician, leader of Blood Rhythms, founder of No Part of It
Coil Coil’s 20-year career weaves a magnificent web of carefully sculpted, occult-infused experimental electronic music. I’ve read everything in their Web archive, which at one point hadn’t changed since 2010. In November, I loaded it to see an update about two new art books—it was like witnessing an eclipse. One of the books, from Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, includes his photos of the Sex Pistols, COUM Transmissions (pre-Throbbing Gristle), schoolyard brawls, and staged death scenes. They painted their windows black. My kinda guys.
Danielle Dax Danielle Dax is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist from the UK who was most active (musically at least) in the 1980s. Listen to one of her albums (recently I’ve been enjoying Pop-Eyes and Dark Adapted Eye) and ruminate on the fact that she’s playing most everything you can hear. Experimental music for pop fans, pop music for experimental fans . . . who gives a shit; either way it’s wonderful.
