By now it’s a given that the Sonics take their own sweet time doing things. Tacoma’s garage-rock heroes disbanded in 1967 and – an early ‘70s reunion gig in Seattle aside – didn’t get around to their comeback bid for four decades.

Then, last October, lead howler Jerry Roslie revealed the names of four new cuts his band had been working on, “Bad Attitude,” “Vampire Kiss,” “Cheap Shades” and “Don’t Back Down” (interview audio posted here.) And now, band manager Buck Ormsby expects those new songs to finally see the light of day on a new EP that’s simply called simply “8.” Ormsby speculated that copies of the new disc could be in stores by the end of this month.
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Seattle’s Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum announced a major Nirvana exhibit this week. “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” will run from April 16, 2011 to April 22, 2013, and here is a list of a few of a few artifacts that will be on display, excerpted from the announcement on EMP/SFM’s web site:

• Kurt Cobain’s never-before exhibited, high school painting of two aging, Reagan-era punks in the post-apocalypse, informally known as “punk American gothic.”
• The Teac reel-to-reel tape machine owned by Mari Earl, Cobain’s aunt, on which a young

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Over the weekend I spotted this Rolling Stone piece with former Rocket editor Charles Cross talking about the future of Universal Pictures’ Kurt Cobain biopic, which is in pre-production and will be based partly on Cross’s best-selling biography “Heavier Than Heaven.”

The RS piece says “The Messenger” director Oren Moverman is on board. And there’s a fun link soliciting fans picks for who should play Nirvana, Courtney Love and company.

I’ll take a stab at that one. Based on looks alone, I’m going with Charlie Hunnam as Cobain. Every time I watch …

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Them Crooked Vultures, “Them Crooked Vultures”

Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Nirvana’s Dave Grohl and Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones united for a super-group we can really get excited about. With Homme at the helm, this basically sounds like the most star-studded Queens CD yet. And that, for the record, ain’t a bad thing.

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Velvet Revolver. Eh.

Audioslave. Interesting for a minute.

But Dave Grohl plus Josh Homme plus John Paul Jones? Now there’s a supergroup we can finally get excited about. And here’s what the trio – joined by Queens of the Stone Age alumnus Alain Johannes on rhythm guitar – played Saturday night at the Paramount.

Them Crooked Vultures set list
Paramount Theatre, Seattle
Nov. 21, 2009

No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
Dead End Friends
Scumbag Blues
Elephants
Highway One
New Fang
Gunman
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser, No Chaser
Caligulove
Interlude with Ludes
Spinning in Daffodils
Reptiles
Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up

Opening act: Mini Mansions

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There’s been buzz aplenty this fall about Them Crooked Vultures, the super-group featuring Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. And now the band’s publicist has announced a couple of Northwest dates for the highly anticipated band.
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You know how you start out looking for one thing on YouTube and through some crazy stream of consciousness you stumble onto something else that’s really cool? Well, that’s happening to me this morning. And it’s been a while since I heard this song, so I had to share.

Of course, he’s doing his political thing as opposed to his musical thing. (Which reminds me: I still haven’t gotten my hands on that album he recorded with Flipper. Shame on me!) Anyway, here’s the poster from the event.

I didn’t get approved to shoot video of Pearl Jam last night. But bootleggers don’t need no steenking photo pass. So here’s a clip that reader and fellow blogger-type Bernie Zimmermann uploaded to the ol’ YouTube machine. The video includes “Indifference” and Eddie Vedder talking about Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic. Enjoy it while it lasts (assuming PJ cares about grainy clips of their sets showing up on the Internet.) And check Bernie’s take on last night’s show over here.

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Publicity firm Nasty Little Man has issued a statement on behalf of Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl regarding Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero V. (Also see previous post.)
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