For Squirrels - Mighty K.C.

What this video is

Released in fall 1995 by Sony/550 Music, 'Mighty K.C.' is a tribute to Kurt Cobain (died April 1994) that became entangled with its own tragedy: three members of For Squirrels died in a van crash on September 8, 1995, weeks before the album Example was released. The video circulated on MTV as a posthumous promo, lending the footage an unintended elegiac weight. The song peaked at #15 on Billboard's Modern Rock…

Why it matters

An understudied artifact of mid-90s post-grunge alternative rock, 'Mighty K.C.' occupies a rare position: a posthumous chart hit that memorializes both Kurt Cobain and, inadvertently, the band itself. Its blend of jangly R.E.M.-influenced alternative rock with grunge heaviness represents a…

The director

Seattle-born photographer and director Lance Mercer began documenting the Pacific Northwest punk scene in his early teens and became a full-time freelance photographer in 1991. He served as Pearl Jam's official touring photographer from 1992–1995, and his…