In his most recent blog post, Krist tells the story of the 1992 MTV Music Awards, of the band’s Gun’s and Roses fiasco and his infamous bass-tossing incident.
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Review of Sweet 75's S/T CD
Nude As The News
Sweet 75 is at its best
when hooking into a mean, angular guitar riff, when singer Yva Las Vegas belt out a rough,
screamed vocal or the rhythm section locks into a driving beat. In other words, when it
sounds like Nirvana. For most bands, this wouldn't so bad. But for Sweet 75, which
features former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, it translates into a bit of a defeat.
After all, on the surface, it looks as if Novoselic went to great lengths to expand his
musical self. Sweet 75 features Latin influences, 12-string guitar, a female singer
and even a trumpet solo by Herb Alpert. But underneath, it all still beats to the heart of
the tall, dark and lanky guy who smacked his head tossing his bass into the air at the MTV
video awards.
Sweet 75 is experimental - but only in the way Nirvana was. Novoselic's
anti-riffing on the album is a slight variation of Kurt Cobain's guitar work on In
Utero. Las Vegas' vocals often take on Nirvana's familiar self-loathing tone:
"I'm sleeping with failure/It's my defeat/The world's my ashtray/And you think less
of me," she sings on "Lay Me Down."
But Sweet 75's sources of inspiration aren't the band's main problem, a band could do a
lot worse than being a kindred spirit to Nirvana. It's the way that, despite the attempted
diversity, the band's experiments come off as bland and often downright unlistenable.
"Bite My Hand" falls apart chasing a breakneck, hardcore tempo while Las Vegas'
rough, bluesy voice screeches on like so many angry cats. More conventional tracks such
as "Lay Me Down" and "Dogs" sound like heated-over Led Zeppelin III outtakes. The band shows some promise on "Fetch," "Red Dress" and
"Oral Health," all of which feature the aforementioned angular guitar riffs,
belted lyrics and driving beats.
