26 — Friday, May 14, 1999 ~ North Shore News | Bowen Island’s puck rock bassist Bob Mackin News Reporter AT this time of year, most hockey players are leaving the rink and heading to the links. Not Jay Bentley. Bad Religion’s bassist, a Bowen Island resi- dent, did it the other way around. Benuey backstopped his bandmates in a char- ity hockey game last night against CFOX deejays and other luminaries from the Vancouver puck rock scene. Last Saturday he went for a round of golf with a friend at Northlands golf course in North Vancouver, “It was actually snowing,” he said. “The guy came down on the sixth tee and said it’s snow: ing on the seventh, and we're like, rain cheque? How ‘bout a snow cheque? “¥ did horrible. We could muster through nine, it was a challenge of wills. We were all looking at each other going, well we wanted to stop, but no one would say it. Who’s driving next? So I shot 54 for nine, which is horrible. But hey, I wasn’t over 100 for nine and [ proba- bly should've been, because J couldn’t even feel my hands!” Bentley, singer Greg Graffin, guitarists Greg, Hetson and Bnan Baker and drummer Bobb Schayer begin a five-city Canadian tour tonight at the University of B.C.’s Student Activity Powin was traded to the New York Islanders earlier this vear. “At the very botton: of my file tiny heart | want Toronto to take it,” Bendey s “Ina weird way I feel bad, because that's old team, it’s kinda like having a friend who was in a band and then when he’s out of a band the band goes multplatinum!” rniley grew up in Los Angeles and followed ic Kings trom the end of the Marcel Dionne start of Wayne Gretzky imania, He didn’t accually lace on a pair of skates and play the game uno his mid-20s when bandmate,” kir gs* season ticker holder Greg, Hetsor 4 him. “Being tloin Los Angeles vou played basket- ball, and baseball or football. He said why don’t we go and sign up? Well Pm 25- old, you don’t go sign up tor hockey when you're 25. Because it was L.A. I got away with it, because you can be like 100 other 25-year-alds who’ve never put on ice skates and actually be on a hockey game. “Up here, these guys are pretty good and they're skating 100 miles an hour and slapshots that are 80 miles an hour and goalies are stand- ing on their heads, Wow, this is not what ’m used to, but good, it'll make me better.” Bentley moved from Los Angeles five years ago on the suggestion of his wife Michaela, who hails fom North Vancouver. He almost had sec- ond thoughts after game seven of the 1994 Stanley Cup. “I was fortunate to be in New York when Centre. They'll be keeping an eye on coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs along the way. Bentley is rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs, even after goaltender and Bad Religion fan Felix Nirvana represented ‘anti KRIST Novoselic is a big fan of the rock film genre. But he’s not so excited about Kurt and Courtney, a 1997 documentary by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield. It’s among several works that claim Kurt Cobain was murdered in a conspiracy devised by his wife, Courtney Love. Novoselic said he hasn’t seen Kurt and Courtney. But he dismisses it as another attempt to profit from the tragic death of a man who was not only his musi- cal collaborator, but a friend since their teenage days ’ in Aberdeen, Wash. “T_ know that Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and all those allegations are false,” said Novoselic, who played with Cobain in Nirvana. “You have to consider the mind of a conspiracy theorist and the way that theorist shapes a conspiracy. 1 conspiracy is very amorphous, it’s malleable, you can shove it in a square hole or you can shove it in a round hole. It'll fit in both holes, because it’s malleable, right? But the fact that Kurt Cobain committed suicide and is dead _ and gone is not malleable, that is a fact. It has one shape and it can only fit in one hole. And there’s peo- ple who can’t grasp that idea, so what they do, they fabricate all these crazy conspiracy theories, and I’ve s¢en some of them and I know I see the errors in their theories, from stuff that I saw first hand.” Novoselic said conspiracy theories about dead celebrities are nothing new. Some misguided people, he said, continue to believe that Jim Morrison, Jimi they lost it. You’ve gotta remember this, I left See Recording Page 36 Hendrix and Bruce Lee faked their deaths to extri- cate themselves from stardom. : “It’s pretty painful for me to talk about that stuff, but those theories, I don’t pay much attention to them. It’s not going to bring Kurt back. “The whole thing is just tragedy with Kurt's death. It has a lot to do with dysfunction and it’s a story that plays itself out in homes all around the world in Canada and the United States. It’s just dys- function, it’s sad what happened. I knew that I grew out of that dysfunctional situation and I knew that Kurt would’ve, but it’s just too bad he didn’t give himself a chance to.” Cobain’s body was found April 8, 1994 at his Seattle home. Police found a shotgun, drug para- phernalia and suicide note at the scene. He was 27. Cobain, Novoselic said, should always be remem- bered as somebody who poured his heart, head and soul into music. “That’s the most important part of Nirvana’s music is that it was real and Kurt was up there and people felt the music and it affected them,” he said. “They found meaning and feeling in it. “There’s the idea of the band and the image of the band, and then there’s that feeling, the music and the emotional response. I think that the fecling and emotional response was what Nirvana was about. ; “Nirvana was really about an idea. It really wasn’t an image, it was an anti-image.” — Bob Mackin BAD Religion's Greg Hetson (left), Jay Bentley, Greg Graffin, Brian Baker and Bokby Schayer warmed up for a five-city Canadian tour with a hockey game last night. Mixing here good experience From Page 14 mainstream. That’s an important thing to remember. : “For the most part I’ve had a good experience, I’ve had my share of bad. It’s like a relationship, basically. That’s why I say the film’s about the bad parts of the music industry. And I’m part of the music industry whether I like it or not.” More than anything else, the Beauty Process is about personal responsibili- ty, Novoselic said. Artists should know what they’re getting into before they sign their creativity away to business interests. Since Nirvana came to an abrupt end with Kurt Cobain’s suicide five years ago, Novoselic has remained busy in and out of music. In addition to Sweet 75, he’s part of a music and film collective called Sunshine Cake with mem- bers of Sky Cries Mary and Ministry. He’s been recording with Sweet 75 and Sunshine Cake in a mobile digital studio which he plans to inszal in a Pacific County bus that he recently bought. He’s also working on film collaboration with Kurt Danielson, bassist with Tad. Perhaps the biggest change for Novoselic has been a leap into political activism. He’s the driving force behind JAMPAC, the Joint Artists and Music Promotions Political Action Committee. JAMPAC lobbies against censorship to state and federal politicians. In Seattle, it is seeking amendments to the controversial teen dance ordinance, a bylaw that restricts all-ages concerts. Novoselic will be at the Canadian premiere of L7: The Beauty Process next Thursday. Novoselic and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl spent some time in West Vancouver at Bryan Adams’ home studio to mix From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah,, the Nirvana live album released in 1996, “It’s got a really nice board and all the gear, it’s got everything you really need to mix a world class record,” he said. “It’s a laid back place, it’s quiet around there, unless you're really crankin’ up the mixing speakers. It’s a pretty nondescript place. It’s a nice house. If you kind of walk around back there’s a sliding glass door, all of a sudden you’re in the mixing room. We had a good experience there.” MORTGAGES Have Your Cake And Eat It Toe! Reaching your financial goals shouldn't have to mean making a choice between paying down debt or saving for your future. At NSCU you cin have your cake and eat it too with a unique mortgage that lets you save while you borrow! 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