Nirvana bassist and co-founder Krist Novoselic's new group, The Bona Fide Band, have just played their first few shows in the Washington area, including Kurt Cobain's hometown Aberdeen. As fitting for the occasion, they paid tribute to Cobain with their own rendition of Love Buzz, a song that launched Nirvana's career.
The Bona Fide Band, which, aside from Novoselic on bass, consists of vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson from the grunge supergroup 3rd Secret, former Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel, guitarist Kathy More from The Kathy Moore Super Power Trio, debuted at Easy Street Records in Seattle on June 20. The band performed at the Make Music Day celebrations in Aberdeen, Washington a day later.
While their set heavily skewed towards tracks from the 3rd Secret's repertoire and Novoselic's former band Giants in the Trees, the band covered psych-rock band Shocking Blue's Love Buzz.
This performance served as a nod to Nirvana, who famously released a cover of Love Buzz as their debut Sub Pop single in 1988. A slightly different mix later appeared on Nirvana's debut album Bleach.
Speaking of his new band and this performance to Seattle's KOMO News, Novoselic said he formed The Bona Fide Band partly to raise awareness of his new political party, the Cascade Party.
“It's moving. I'm really looking forward to playing in Aberdeen, and that's on June 21st on World Music Day. We're just going to make music and try to make people happy and entertain people.”
“If it brings back memories and feelings for people, that's the magic of music,” he asserted. “We're not going to contaminate that with politics. We're not going to make these political speeches.”
For the occasion, Novoselic brandished an Alpine White Gibson Thunderbird bass. In a 2011 interview with Bass Player, he commented on his career-long affinity for Gibson basses, particularly the Gibson Ripper he used during his Nirvana days.
“I’m six foot seven,” he commented, “which is lucky, because it’s a big bass. Check one out when you go to a music store. Try it on, because it’s big and heavy, it’s a big gun, but it’s got that sustain that I really like. You just let the note ring. That’s probably why I stuck with Gibson basses the whole way through, because they’re so dense.”
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