Okay. Apparently, grunge is now 20 years old. Of course, grunge purists and musos will argue the toss over a whole host of dates which could signal the first flush of grunge, but everyone is agreeing on this one because it’s easier, okay?

And basically, like all grunge chat, it circles around Nirvana, who were smart enough to mix their fondness for pure pop and fuzz pedals, leaving a legacy that was, sadly for Kurt Cobain, filled with jocks like Limp Bizkit, who he so obviously loathed.

However, it goes without saying that there was so much more to grunge than Nevermind and Cobain’s suicide. Let us have a look back shall we?

Nirvana kicked off their career with Bleach -  the go-to album for barefaced liars who say it’s their favourite because they want to appear like they liked ‘em first or, indeed, they’re just being purposefully awkward – which was pretty much ignored by the world ’til Nevermind hit the shelves.

Such was the fervour to get more Nirvana in the system, that everyone started to buy everything with their name on it, which included a brief spike in sales for the ’60s psychedelic band with the same name, but alas, a very, very different sound.

The way Nirvana captured a feeling – not necessarily with words, as Cobain was prone to penning impenetrable lyrics – hadn’t been seen in the UK since The Smiths peddled their own brand of disaffected, cod-poetic rock. While Mozza & Co wistfully yearned out of grubby kitchen windows, Cobain seems to extol the virtues of slumping Z shaped under motorway bridges, sniffing glue.

Alas, we all know how the story ended, with Cobain killing himself shortly before a tour of the UK while everyone was still utterly enchanted by Cobain’s magnus opus, ‘In Utero’.

However, much more impressive than Nirvana’s musical output, was their willingness to drag everyone along with them. Most bands make friends with celebrities and vanish into the world of A-Listers with their parties and cocaine wraps.

Nirvana were still keen to promote the scene that spat them out. Mudhoney, Babes In Toyland, L7, The Melvins and Sonic Youth were much more likely to crop up in interviews with the band, rather than some tall tale of hanging around with Bruce Willis in San Tropez.

Despite their huge success (something that Cobain actually wanted, regardless of the what myth might tell you), somehow, this noisy ragtag bunch of misfits still looked and sounded like those bozos in a garage band talking to a local fanzine, rather than conducting an interview with MTV.

And in many ways, that was the thing that people really loved about this unassuming group. They didn’t play too well and they sure as hell didn’t look like stadium filling superstars… they were just three likeable spivs in a noisy rock group who just happened to write a whole buncha great tunes.

While you’ll be able to immediately recall your favourite Nirvana tracks, it’s worth taking a look back at the grunge scene as a whole. Sure, there were turkeys like Stone Temple Pilots, but there were great things in-and-around it. Inextricably tied-up with Riot Grrl and the US Punk that came before it like Hüsker Dü and the Pixies, grunge opened a door which let a whole gang of noise-wielding idiots through the door.

So here’s a Spotify playlist featuring Sonic Youth, Melvins, Mudhoney, Hole, Babes In Toyland, Huggy Bear, Bratmobile, Soundgarden, Sebadoh and more.

Enjoy.

Click here to check our super grunge playlist on Spotify.

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Separating the sweet, juicy flesh from the stone and skin of this week’s major label releases.

Planes are falling from the skies, the government is shrivelling up like a salted slug, and Brangelina are rumoured to be living separately. All unmistakable signs of an impending Apocalypse. But fear not: hecklerspray presents the music which this week will be arriving to make your lives wonderful. Better. Marginally more bearable. Slightly less of an endless dreary drag towards the inevitable end, and eternity spent in a pauper’s grave.

It’s the Monday Music Mango! Whoot!

As usual, each of the musics will be represented by a thought.

Firstly, The Eternal, Sonic Youth, Album. Nearly 30 years after their birth, the legendary “noiseniks” (TM) are about to release their 16th studio album. We’d like to believe that Placebo, who also release a new album this week, will have been sent a copy with the words “Real Music” scrawled across the cover.

Because, you know, Sonic Youth are ace and Placebo are a bit shit.

Featuring the beautifully emotion-filled vocals of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, the rumbling tumbling drums of Steve Shelley and more weirdly-tuned guitars than you can shake a plectrum at, courtesy of Lee Ranaldo, it’s a return to their peak. Kudos to the the Youth, by the way, for being incredibly zeigeisty and including what must have been a very hastily written song about Susan Boyle (Anti-Orgasm). You’ll like this album.

Trust us, we’re hecklerspray.

This album is represented by the thought:

“Okay, got the new Sonic Youth album, the Converse sneakers and an awesome pair of secondhand courduroy trousers. Time to head head home and write some material for tonight’s poetry jam.’

Secondly, The E.N.D., Black Eyed Peas, Album. Starring pants-wetting, formerly-ladylumps-loving singer Fergie, bandwagon-chasing-then-catching-then-singing-about shouter Will.I.Am., and two other blokes with even more ridiculously self-absorbed pseudonyms, the BEPs have been producing their catchy pop-hop since 2003. And more power to them, for what the world absolutely needs right now is more songs about boobs. Despite the video for I Gotta Feeling, which seems to have been directed by Abercrombie & Fitch‘s advertising agency, we have a soft spot for this sugary little album.

Standout track is Party All The Time, which we’d like to see subtitled as “When Kylie Met KISS“. This album is represented by the thought:

“Ladylumps! She means her tits!! LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Thirdly, 20, Orbital, Album. 20th anniversary retrospective roundup by the overlords of intelligent electronica. Orbital make us want to cut our ears off and replace them with iPods playing Chime on an endless, uplifting loop. They make us want to tattoo the words “Orbital Exist As Gods Upon Earth” on the insides of our eyelids. They…we love Orbital, okay?

Go and buy this, listen to it in its fancy, dancey, feelgoody glory, then come back here and try to claim you haven’t just had your mind opened, probed with a lightsabre and stitched back together. Because you have. Just not literally.

This album is represented by the thought:

“Are We Here? asked the song. Who are ‘we’? And where is ‘here‘? Oh bollocks, here is the Ozric Tentacles tent, and our acid-soaked selves are missing Orbital at this festval which we are currently at. Shitwanks.

Farewell, good folk, until next week’s Mango.

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