Month: September 2018

Nirvana’s In Utero shot to the top of the charts when it dropped on this very day a quarter-century ago. 

The grunge rock trio’s third and final studio record was cut over the course of two weeks at Pachyderm studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. The 12-song release’s raw and brutally honest sound cemented its legacy as perhaps one of the greatest rock albums of all time.  

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of In Utero with 10 little-know facts about the Nirvana classic.

In Utero was originally titled I Hate Myself and Want to Die.

“I’m thought of as this pissy, complaining, freaked-out schizophrenic who wants to kill himself all the time,” Cobain said of the initial title in an interview with Rolling Stone. “And I thought it was a funny title. But I knew the majority of people wouldn’t understand it.” 

The entire album was recorded in just 14 days. 

Its genre-crossing predecessor, Nevermind, took over a year to cut between 1990 and 1991.

The band excitedly lit their pants on fire while listening to the finalized mixes.

That’s one helluva way to celebrate the end of a recording session. 

In Utero was banned from Wal-Mart and Kmart. 

“Rape Me” was changed to “Waif Me” and images of fetuses were removed from the back cover art to abide by Wal-Mart store policies. 

“When I was a kid, I could only go to Wal-Mart,” Cobain told manager Danny Goldberg, according to Rolling Stone. “I want the kids to be able to get this record.” 

Cobain hoped In Utero, especially the song “Rape Me”, would strike a chord with female fans.

The album’s jarring second single was written as “a life-affirmative” anti-rape song, according to a 1993 Spin cover story.

“It’s like she’s saying, ‘Rape me, go ahead, rape me, beat me. You’ll never kill me,” Cobain told Spin. I’ll survive this and I’m gonna fucking rape you one of these days and you won’t even know it.’”

The cover art’s iconic angel is actually a plastic model of the human anatomy used in classrooms. 

Cobain added the wings. Supporting tours for In Utero featured winged mannequins.

The riff to “Heart-Shaped Box” was written in five minutes at Courtney Love’s request. 

Love told Rolling Stone that Cobain was jamming inside a walk-in closet when she asked him to write a riff for one of her songs.

“He did that in five minutes,” Love said. “Knock, knock, knock. ‘What?’ ‘Do you need that riff?’ ‘Fuck you!’ Slam.”

The third In Utero single, “Pennyroyal Tea”, was recalled after Cobain’s suicide in 1994.

The label destroyed most of the copies, but between 200 and 400 of the rare records are still out there. “Pennroyal Tea” was re-released as a single in 2014 ahead of Record Store Day. 

In Utero engineer Steve Albini wasn’t originally a Nirvana fan.

“[Albini] was skeptical of any rock band as successful as Nirvana,” according to Rolling Stone. He eventually inked a deal to work on the album for a flat fee of $100,000 without the option to collect royalties. 

 “I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible,” Albini wrote in a four-page proposal to the band. 

In Utero has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 180,000 copies its first week. In Utero has since been certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. 

Lawyer for the little guy by day, vigilante purveyor of justice by night, The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is coming back and we couldn’t be happier. 

After some uncertainty, from both where we left him in terms of plot and with Netflix and Disney’s shaky relationship as they’re set to licenser/licensee to direct competitors, the news of a third Daredevil season is welcome indeed. 

Here’s what you need to know so you’re ready for Matt Murdoch’s return on October 19th.

Where We Left Daredevil

When we last saw Daredevil in the post-credits scene of The Defenders’ first season, he had just regained consciousness while laying in bed at, what looked like a convent. Season one of The Defenders had ended with what looked like a very fatal explosion for both Daredevil and his girlfriend/ally/arch-nemesis Elektra. While Elektra’s fate remains uncertain – though we do expect her to return, the character is just too good – Murdoch’s return to consciousness was followed immediately by a call to “Get Maggie…”

Who’s Maggie?

The Maggie here is, presumably, DD’s long-lost mother and indicates that season three will follow the “Born Again” plot from the comics, a fan-favorite arc and one that again pits DD up against Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin. It’s also likely that this plot will introduce Bullseye, a long-time Daredevil nemesis from the comics who, up to this point, has been conspicuously absent from the show.

The Cast

Staples like Charlie Cox who plays Murdoch, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, DD’s friends Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) are set to return. Murdoch’s mom, Maggie, will be played by Joanne Whalley. It’s rumored that another newcomer to the cast, Wilson Bethel, is likely to play Bullseye. Oh, and Rosario Dawson will probably show up Claire Temple, the nurse who’s constantly patching up Daredevil and seems to show up in everything that involves The Defenders. 

The Other Defenders

Like Iron Man, Captain America and the other heroes of the MCU, who we know exist in the same universe as Daredevil, the rest of The Defenders, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Danny Rand aka Iron Fist are all still out there in NYC. Presumably, everything that has happened after the first season of The Defenders, may lead to yet another team-up of our small-screen MCU heroes and season three of Daredevil is likely to bridge the gap.

 As usual, we’ll be keeping our eye on Daredevil first and foremost when season three hits just a few weeks from now. If you want to catch up fully, two seasons of each Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, as well as the first season of The Defenders, are all streaming on Netflix right now. 

Carmen Electra is back with a steamy new photoshoot that leaves little to the imagination, shot with renowned photographer Eli Russell Linnetz.

Posing in nothing but her birthday suit, the 46-year old former Maxim cover girl showed off stunning physique in the photo series, proving that she still looks just as good as she did in her Baywatch days.

As stunning as she is in the buff, a few shots in the series involve a star-spangled bustier and nothing else.

Aaand some wallpaper or wrapping paper or something. 

Well, what can I say? Carmen Electra has still got it.

The photographer, Linnetz, is no stranger to shooting naked celebrities, as he’s also the man behind Kanye West’s NSFW campaign for Yeezy Season 6, which featured a bunch of hardly-clothed Kim Kardashian lookalikes.

He also recently shot Lady Gaga in the buff:

And a topless video for Alexander Wang x Adidas.

Anyway, back to Carmen Electra. Let’s check out some more of her hottest Instagrams, just because.