Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today April 5
1994
Kurt Cobain dies: the day grunge lost its center
Kurt Cobain took his own life at his Seattle home, aged 27. His body would be found three days later. With him died the illusion that massive success and punk integrity could coexist without destroying someone. That week was Generation X's Kennedy assassination. Nirvana had played their last concert a month earlier, in Munich.
Kurt Cobain
Nirvana
2002
Layne Staley dies, exactly eight years after Cobain
The same date Kurt Cobain had died eight years earlier, Layne Staley, the sepulchral voice of Alice in Chains, died in Seattle. His harmonies with Jerry Cantrell and his brutal candor about addiction on "Dirt" are among grunge's darkest and most honest work. The coincidence of dates still raises goosebumps.
Layne Staley
Alice in Chains
One ephemeris a day, one editorial a week. Zero spam, pure archive.