No Foo-ling, That’s Nirvana

Your ears aren’t deceiving you: That is a new Nirvana song on the radio.

Well, not exactly new--”Marigold” was recorded nearly three years ago, and was released in Europe as a bonus track on the CD single of the song “Heart-Shaped Box.” It has never come out in the U.S.

Now, two years after the death of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, it’s becoming a big hit on KROQ, moving into the influential L.A. station’s Top 10 listener requests since it started airing recently. The song was written and sung by drummer Dave Grohl, who now fronts the Foo Fighters, but it has Nirvana’s distinctive sound, and Grohl’s voice could easily be mistaken for Cobain’s.

“The hunger is definitely there for new Nirvana songs,” says KROQ Music Director Lisa Worden, who heard “Marigold” last month after buying an import box set of Nirvana’s European singles at the Virgin Megastore. “But we won’t have new songs by Nirvana--and this is a killer song.”

Given that hunger, it’s remarkable that so little previously unreleased Nirvana material has come out since Cobain’s suicide in April, 1994.

The band’s posthumous catalog is limited to one album culled from its “MTV Unplugged” session. A second live disc drawn from other concerts was originally set to accompany that album, but was scrapped and remains in limbo. And there are no plans for another U.S. album like 1992’s “Incesticide,” which compiled B-sides and bonus tracks.

“We are aware of the public’s interest in hearing new music, and that’s important to me,” says Mark Kates, the Geffen Records artists and repertoire representative for Nirvana. “But anything involving Nirvana is emotional for many of us. Yes, eventually there will be other Nirvana releases. But I’m really hesitant to say more.”

In fact, Kates says, the company has no intention of even capitalizing on KROQ’s spontaneous playing of “Marigold.” There will be no advertising, video or any promotional activity from the label. Geffen won’t even be sending out copies of the song to radio stations.

But given KROQ’s leadership in alternative radio, “Marigold” is expected to have a life of its own--a rarity in a medium where marketing and focus group research usually determines what’s played.

Sean Demery, music director of Atlanta station WNNX-FM--another influential alternative-rock outlet--is excited about KROQ’s success with the song and plans to buy the box set and try the track out on the air.

“Nirvana is still huge here,” he says. “On April Fools Day we had a right-wing guy from the AM talk station do our morning show and he said, ‘Kurt Cobain’s a bad role model. We’re doing a poll, should we or shouldn’t we play more Nirvana?’ We’re still getting calls today, ‘Hey man, you’ve gotta play Nirvana. Nirvana rules!’ ”