“Nirvana was a political band”

Nirvana alumni: suicide victim, leader of a successful post-grunge band, lieutenant governor?

Grunge-rock pioneer Krist Novoselic says he may run for lieutenant governor in what would be the next step of a transition from rock star to politician.

Novoselic, a founder and bass player of the seminal band Nirvana and more recently an activist Democrat, is enough of a politician already to be wary about facing off against fellow Democrat Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a two-term incumbent. But he’s thinking seriously about the intra-party challenge, is talking to party leaders and says he does not want to go through 2004 as a spectator.

“I’ve been really contemplating how I want to get involved next year and make a contribution,” Novoselic said this week. “It’s going to be a big year and I’m trying to find a way to fit into it.”

The office has few required duties. In the past, celebrities have been successful at winning the post.

“I don’t go around encouraging primaries against incumbents,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt. “But we’ve had a big-band leader and a University of Washington coach in that job. What’s to say that a member of Nirvana wouldn’t fit right in?”

….While Novoselic says he is done with the music business, there are ties between his music and his politics.

“Nirvana was a political band,” he said. “And we were the prophets of the disenfranchised. We spoke to the disenfranchised because we ourselves felt that way.”

He promoted Super Districts in a speech earlier this month at Portland State University.

“Once democracy becomes predictable and a formula to sustain the establishment, people become cynical, stop voting and tune out,” he said in the speech. “The time has come for the new wave in American politics. The time has come for a ‘Full Representation’ democracy.”

Given his interest in elections, Novoselic said some people have suggested he consider running for secretary of state instead. The office is currently held by a Republican, Sam Reed.

But Novoselic is attracted by what he sees as the bully pulpit opportunities of lieutenant governor, a job whose biggest public role is presiding over the state Senate during the legislative session.

Owen is a former state legislator and convenience-store owner. As lieutenant governor he has promoted an anti-drug program and performs at schools in a rock ‘n’ roll band. [Seattle Times]

Hey, why not?

UPDATE
In other Nirvana news, the paperback edition of Kurt Cobain’s Journals has some new weird stuff in it:

The paperback edition of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s “Journals” has been bolstered with 14 pages of new material, including an extended narrative about a semi-fictional serial killer.

Riverhead released the volume Nov. 10, with a front cover reproduction of Cobain’s red Mead notebook bearing his hand-written caveat, “if you read, you’ll judge.”

“Frankly, we had this the first time around, but we chose not to include it, because it’s disturbing and bizarre,” Riverhead co-editorial director Julie Grau told Billboard.com of the serial killer-themed pages. “We checked, and there was a serial killer that shared some of the traits and biographic facts that he writes about. But it’s hard to know if Kurt was inventing all of this but had pieces of facts he recalled.”

“I think the first time, we thought it would skew the appreciation of all the material that was in here,” Grau continues. “Now that the hardcover has come out and the journals have been judged and read, we thought people could handle it.”

“Journals” now also features lyrics to an unrecorded song titled “Travelin’ White Trash Couple,” a cookie recipe and a previously unpublished list of Cobain’s favorite albums, one of the artist’s favorite topics for doodling in his notebooks.

On the latter page, which features albums by the Stooges, the Pixies, Rites Of Spring, Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth, Cobain’s widow Courtney Love had written a sarcastic note back to him on the other side in dark black ink. “Do you really want to intimidate and alienate people this much?,” she wrote. “This is the most characterless indie rock snob list I have ever seen.” [Billboard]