There’s never been that much of a difference between the worlds of music and cinema. One might be in speakers, and the other on a screen, but true artists are usually kindred spirits who are never afraid to put their innermost thoughts out into the world. Although Jim Carrey kept most things lighthearted whenever he appeared on the screen, his listening habits always returned to ‘Breed’ by Nirvana.
At the same time, are we really surprised that the guy behind Ace Ventura is into heavy music in his spare time? This is the same guy who brought Cannibal Corpse onto the set to play simply because he liked the band, so this wasn’t some fly-by-night rock fan who kicked back and listened to easy listening afterwards.
Metal is one thing, but Nirvana always spoke to people on a more visceral level. As much as fairweather rock fans could enjoy a song like ‘In Bloom’ or ‘Come As You Are’, Kurt Cobain always saw his music as mini art projects rather than the disposable pop junk that would be forgotten in just a few years.
Although Cobain himself had some issues with the recording of Nevermind, the album didn’t skimp out on the heavy stuff. Regardless of how you feel about the hits on the record, ‘Breed’ is one of the most cutthroat Nirvana songs in their canon. While the message is about the primal feeling of sex, the riff is an absolute firecracker from the moment it starts, building to Cobain screaming his way through the chorus.
For Carrey, this has always been his pump-up song, telling CinemaBlend, “One of my anthems. Put it on and imagine you’re pummeling your foe’s face into blood soup.” Given how much Nirvana could put into one album, though, it’s amazing that this is on the same album that has something as striking as ‘Something in the Way’, which relies entirely on acoustic guitars and Cobain singing in a defeatist voice about the problems going on in the world.
Granted, it’s not hard to see why ‘Breed’ didn’t get the love it deserved. Rock fans would have loved to hear this song on the radio, but when you put it alongside a track as powerful as ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, it’s like looking at a small fireworks show next to a musical neutron bomb.
Carrey even admitted that ‘Breed’ never really got its just due, saying, “If I need to get into a certain mood, if I need to get chaotic or crazy sometimes, something like ‘Breed’ by Nirvana. It’s kind of an unsung piece that’s been overshadowed by other hits that they had.” While the track is a lot more meatheaded compared to the rest of the songs on the record, that’s actually not a bad thing at all.
Whereas the singles exist for a reason, ‘Breed’ and ‘Territorial Pissings’ were better indicators of what Nirvana was like outside the mainstream. They could still write pieces that could go toe-to-toe with the greatest melodies of all time, but how many bands could achieve Beatles-level melodicism and then sound like that could open up for Bad Brains within the span of two songs?
