News Ticker: U2, Waka Flocka Flame, Patti Smith, Smashing Pumpkins

• U2 will release their Artificial Horizon remix album as a triple-vinyl set on May 14th. According to the album's site, Trent Reznor, Justice and Hot Chip are among the 13 producers who reworked songs from Pop to No Line on the Horizon.

• Waka Flocka Flame has been arrested for violating his probation by traveling outside of Georgia. MTV News reports the rapper will be held in a Houston jail pending a hearing in several weeks.

• Patti Smith will receive the ASCAP Founders Award and perform at the group's 27th annual Pop Music Awards on April 21st in Los Angeles.

• Smashing Pumpkins will launch Record Store Day on April 17th with a special performance in L.A. hosted by Rocket Science Ventures and Amoeba Records. Fans will be able to pre-order Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol 1: Songs For A Sailor exclusively at indie record shops on the 17th as well.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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