Inside the Indie Rocker Studio

AS EVERYONE KNOWS, it's been 10 years since Kurt Cobain gave himself the Hemingway floss. Standard bearer of hipness, the New York Times commemorated the occasion by tapping Indie Rock Ambassador to the Upper East Side Thurston Moore for an op-ed piece. Moore knew Cobain. It could have been a nice personal essay about a well-known person dealing with a well-known tragedy. Instead, we got a vile exercise in hagiography.

Simplified, Thurston's essay explains, "Kurt was a confused god. I am a wild experimental musician who can still relate to the kids." While shoring up his indie cred for three paragraphs, Moore sets the indie rock scene while he's waiting to perform a "spontaneous guitar/amp feedback piece." Some Cobain-looking kid accosts him with questions about Kurt. Thurston repeats the MTV/Rolling Stone platitudes: Kurt mixed R.E.M. with Black Flag and created a series of masterpieces. He hated corporate rock bullshit. He was the alt-rock Jesus; he died for your sins. The happy ending is that "the underground scene Kurt came from is more creative and exciting than it's ever been."

Moore, accustomed to free-form screechy improv in his music, seems constrained by the Times. Which is why, presumably, amid gushy nonsensical phrases like "drone-folk-psyche-improv" and "hyperfractured beat play" he didn't have room to mention the circumstances of Kurt's death. Yeah, maybe something along the lines of "he was a troubled guy and it sure is a shame," would have been nice. But that would have been a little less experimental and not very cool.