(This piece originally appeared on rollingstone.com)
Nirvana Pay Back Killing
Joke
Dave Grohl drums on U.K.
band's first studio album in seven
years
Twelve years after Nirvana borrowed heavily from Killing Joke's "Eighties" to create "Come as You Are," the reunited U.K. band is borrowing the defunct Seattle band's drummer to make its first studio album in seven years.
Dave Grohl laid down drum
tracks during the last week of March at Grandmaster
Studios in Hollywood for Killing Joke's The Death and
Resurrection Show, due in mid-June on their
Malicious Damage label, distributed by Sony. Of the 1992
Nirvana/Killing Joke controversy, Killing Joke bassist
Paul Raven says, "Yeah, Dave and I had a few laughs
about that over the past year or so. He mentioned it to
me when I met him backstage at Pantera a couple of years
back." "Come as You Are" (1991) is fueled by a slowed-down
version of the guitar riff in "Eighties" (1985). At the
time, Killing Joke opted not to file a copyright
infringement lawsuit for personal and financial reasons.
Nirvana's then-manager Danny Goldberg later copped to
the similarity between the two songs. In the 2000 book,
Eyewitness Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Chronicle,
Goldberg said, "We met to discuss what
[Nevermind's] second single would be. We couldn't
decide between 'Come as You Are' and 'In Bloom.' Kurt
was nervous about 'Come as You Are' because it was too
similar to a Killing Joke song ['Eighties'], but we all
thought it was still the better song to go with. And, he
was right, Killing Joke later did complain about it."
More than a decade later, no hard feelings remain. In
fact, Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman sang "Requiem,"
from their 1980 self-titled debut album, with the Foo
Fighters during their show in New Zealand in January. As
for Grohl's contribution to The Death and
Resurrection Show, Raven says, "He's done his thing
and it sounds amazing. He's on the entire record at this
point. We also tracked three or four songs with John
Dolmayan, the drummer from System of a Down, but since
they're just compiling it now, we're not even sure
what's gonna end up on the final version."
The Death and Resurrection Show, Killing
Joke's first release of new material since 1996's
Democracy, is produced and mixed by former Gang
of Four guitarist Andy Gill, who has also worked on
albums by Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Jesus Lizard, Bis
and Boss Hog. Artist Mike Coles, who's worked on all
Killing Joke releases, is creating the album cover art.
And, while other reports have cited the title of the
record as "Axis of Evil," Raven says, "I believe the
artwork with 'The Death and Resurrection Show' title is
pretty much done."
Killing Joke plan to tour this summer and hit some of
the European festivals, including Reading. As for Grohl,
his current band the Foo Fighters kick off a tour in
support of One by One tonight in Bakersfield,
California.
CARRIE
BORZILLO-VRENNA
(April
10, 2003)