What was the origin of the “vandalism” sticker on Kurt Cobain’s Fender Stratocaster?
There’s one guitar that Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain will always be associated with. Appearing mid-1991 and quite possibly used during the sessions of their sophomore album, the post-Nevermind explosion that followed was accompanied by his beat-up but trusty black Fender Stratocaster.
Wielded during their first show at 1991’s Reading Festival and later at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, Cobain’s black Strat was afforded further exposure in Dave Markey’s 1991: The Year Punk Broke documentary that captured the alternative blast at the beginning of the decade.
Grunge guitar heads have poured over its tech details, noting either the DiMarzio H-3 or Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge, as well as the two white stock single-coils on its pickup. It’s the bumper sticker slapped on its top body which thrust the Strat into underground lore, reading “Vandalism: As beautiful as a rock in a cop’s face” in big, bold font, followed by “Courtesy of Feederz: Office of Anti-Public Relations” in smaller lettering.
Made of paper rather than durable vinyl, the sticker became ripped and torn as their summer tour went on, and its battered neck was replaced with a Fernandes brand. The “vandalism Strat” would make a memorable showing at their only performance on BBC’s Top of the Pops, miming to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ with a lampooning Morrissey croon and comically obvious distance between his hands and the strings, the bumper sticker scribbled over.
Despite popping up here and there later in the year, including shows at Hollywood’s The Palace and Amsterdam’s Paradiso, the 1965 Fender Jaguar supplanted the Strat, possibly due to its destruction at a gig in Rennes. “He used it as a backup; he was mainly playing that black Vandalism Strat around the time,” band guitar tech Earnie Bailey recalled. “And then the Vandalism Strat got smashed in France – it was destroyed at that point – and then the Jaguar moved into the number-one slot”.
So, what was the origin of the “vandalism” sticker?
As proudly emblazoned on the sticker, the culprits of Cobain’s decorative bumper were Arizona punk anarchists The Feederz. Featured on Alternative Tentacles’ seminal Let Them Eat Jellybeans! compilation with the controversial ‘Jesus Entering from the Rear’, frontman Frank Discussion imbued The Feederz’s hardcore with Crass style stunts and happenings, dropping press releases mistaken as terrorist manifestos by the local authorities and exploring situationist takedowns of the government and systems of oppression.
For 1986’s Teachers in Space, famed Dead Kennedys collage artist Winston Smith was recruited for its stark album cover, which featured a black-and-white snap of that year’s Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Notably, stickers were included inside, featuring all manner of subversive messaging, including “shopping: work the boss doesn’t pay you for”, “you don’t have to pay…steal”, and “ever feel like killing your boss?”
Just as his Unplugged in New York cover of ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam’ introduced a new generation to The Vaselines and the “Hi, How Are You” shirt brought outside folk-artist Daniel Johnston a wider audience, Cobain’s “Vandalism Strat” turned many a Nirvana fan to Discussion’s little known hardcore band. The Feederz would later release 2002’s Vandalism: Beautiful as a Rock in a Cop’s Face, notably recorded by Bleach producer Jack Endino.
