Cultural nostalgia has a 15-year-cycle for a reason -- it takes about that long for teenagers to grow up and create art that reflects their youth. Not to say that Billy Talent's ferocious new album 'Billy Talent III' sounds dated, but both the record and the rockers behind it are heavily influenced by the "alternative" revolution that roared through the early 1990s.

"It was a beautiful time to be a teenager," says Billy Talent's lead singer Ben Kowalewicz. "To look at all the bands -- Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day -- that's pretty insane to think about. Those are still the bands that everyone turns to now. They set the precedent."

For their third major release, Billy Talent (which includes guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk) didn't just pay lip service to their past. They actually hired legendary producer Brendan O'Brien, the man behind the boards for countless alt-era classics by bands like Rage, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Remember the summer of 2005? Seems so long ago, doesn't it? Led Zeppelin had yet to reunite (they still do, really), the Foo Fighters had a hit record with 'In Your Honor,' and Queens of the Stone Age released not one but two albums sandwiched by a blockbuster tour. Still, that's the year when Foo frontman Dave Grohl dropped the big one in a Mojo Magazine interview.

No, he wasn't planning on reuniting Nirvana by filming a reality-TV series about the search for Kurt Cobain's replacement. Instead, he was looking to form a new power trio featuring him on drums, naturally, QOTSA's Josh Homme on guitar, and ... drum roll please, Mr. Grohl ... Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass.

"That's the next album," he told Mojo at the time. "That wouldn't suck."

With their message of teen angst and social discontentment, Nirvana came across more as entertainers than as politicians, per se. It's not clear that all that much has changed, even in light of bassist Krist Novoselic announcing that he's running for clerk of Wahkaikum County in Washington. A small county in the western part of the state, Wahkaikum's total population is less than 4,000 citizens. Novoselic, apparently, is one of them. And by his own admission, he's not even that interested in the position; he's doing it to prove a point and to protest a policy.

Novoselic's bone to pick is that the state of Washington allows candidates to choose which party they wish to be affiliated with ... but without that party's necessary approval. In his column for the Seattle Weekly, Novoselic explains why the issue matters.

"I am officially running for office, and under the laws of the State of Washington, the ballot will say: Krist Novoselic Prefers Grange Party," he writes. "Of course, there is no such thing as a Grange Party."

Item: NIRVANA Kurt Cobain Hospital Bill Original 1 of a kind!

Starting bid: $2,499.00

Seller's Descrition: You are looking at a piece of Rock n' Roll history! This is an original one of a kind item. NOT A COPY. A fully authentic hospital bill that is addressed to Kurt Cobain. The letter is in excellent condition and has been professionally framed with the prepaid envelope. The letter was issued on 08/19/1992 from the Consultants For Pathology & Labora. The place of service was Cedars-Sinai I/P, Date of Cobain's service: 08/04/1992. Kurt's name and address are on the letter, as well as his account number and other info.

An actor has yet to be cast to play Kurt Cobain in the late rocker's long-rumored biopic, but at least one couple may toss in a vote for Ewan McGregor. The actor tells Britain's Heart FM magazine that, while in London shortly after Cobain's 1994 death, he was mistaken for the ghost of the Nirvana frontman.

"This couple came around the corner and they saw me, and at the time I had quite long hair," he recalls. "I think it would be safe to say they were on some form of chemical enhancement. The guy thought I was Kurt Cobain and he looked at me and slightly panicked and grabbed hold of his girlfriend and he asked me if I was Kurt."

Courtney Love has come to the realization that handlers of the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobain, have allegedly lost all the money that the Nirvana frontman had left for her and their daughter Frances Bean. A team of lawyers, forensic accountants and investigators have reportedly determined that Cobain's estate has been looted of more than $30 million in cash, and up to $500 million in real estate.

"I have never seen such greed and moral turpitude. This case is going to make Bernard Madoff look warm and fuzzy," Love's lawyer, Rhonda J. Holmes, of Gordon & Holmes in San Diego, told the New York Post. "We will be filing civil cases ... within the next 30 days. There are many, many millions missing. We've only been able to track down $30 million, but there is more. And then there is the real estate."

Although Kurt Cobain trashed Pearl Jam when he was alive – blaming them in 1992 for "pioneering a corporate, alternative and cock-rock fusion" – singer Eddie Vedder thinks that the late Nirvana frontman would have changed his tune.

"I don't think Kurt understood us at the time, but we became friends and I'm glad we had some of the great conversations we had," Vedder told The Sun while promoting expanded reissues of the band's 1991 debut 'Ten.' "I don't talk too much about him in respect to Krist [Novoselic] and Dave [Grohl] and I know he said that early stuff about not liking us."

Nearly 20 years out from the heyday of grunge, Vedder looks back at the Nirvana-Pearl Jam rivalry with a different twist. "There's a couple of complimentary things that he said in public about me as a human being, which I'm proud exist," he explains. "If Kurt were around today, I know he'd say to me, 'Well, you turned out OK.'"

Vedder also revealed that Pearl Jam is halfway through making its ninth studio album. "It's taken two weeks to get halfway there and that's writing it from the bottom up, so we'll see how long it takes to finish it," the singer says. "We will be playing shows. One of us is having a baby next year, so there'll be no touring then, so we have to get it done this year."