smells like teen spirit
Every decade has a defining musical moment. A moment when one decades sound officially dies and a new, different sound takes it's place. If the 80s new wave killed disco, then the 90s grunge killed the 80s new wave. Ushering in this new era in music was Nirvana.
Nirvana was an American rock band originating from Aberdeen, Washington. With the above video and lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their 1991 album Nevermind, Nirvana exploded into the mainstream, bringing along with it a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also gained in popularity, and, as a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-middle 1990s.
Nirvana's brief run ended with the death of Cobain in April of 1994, but the band's popularity expanded in the years that followed. Eight years after Cobain's death, "You Know You're Right", an unfinished demo that the band recorded two months prior to Cobain's death, topped radio playlists around the world. Since their debut, the band has sold over eighty million albums worldwide (see also Best selling music artists), including more than ten million copies of Nevermind in the US alone. Nirvana remains a consistent presence on radio stations worldwide.
History
Cobain and Krist Novoselic met in 1985. Both were fans of The Melvins, and often hung out at the band's practice space. After a couple of false starts at forming their own band, the duo recruited drummer Aaron Burckhard, creating the first incarnation of what would eventually become Nirvana. Cobain later described the sound of the band when they first started as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff." Within a few months, Burckhard was fired from the band. He was temporarily replaced by Dale Crover of The Melvins, who played on the band's first demos. Dave Foster then began a brief tenure as the band's drummer. Later in 1988, the band finally settled on a drummer, Chad Channing.
Nirvana's first official release was the single "Love Buzz/Big Cheese" in 1988. In 1989, the band released its first album, Bleach, on Sub Pop Records. The record had a limited first pressing of 1000 white vinyl records that were sold at the Lamefest in Seattle on August 8, 1989.
The money for the recording sessions for Bleach, listed as $606.17 on the album sleeve, was supplied by Jason Everman. Everman was introduced to Cobain by Dylan Carlson, but had known Channing since the fifth grade. Everman began hanging out with the band, and offered to loan the money to them for the recording. Though Everman did not actually play on the album, he was credited for playing guitar on Bleach because, according to Novoselic, they "wanted to make him feel more at home in the band." After the album was completed, Everman had a brief and contentious stay with the band as a second guitar player, but was sacked following their first US tour. Not long after, he briefly played bass with Soundgarden before joining the band Mind Funk.
In early 1990, the band began working with producer Butch Vig on recordings for the follow-up to Bleach. During the sessions, Kurt and Krist realized that Chad was not the drummer the band needed, and he was let go after the sessions were complete. After a few weeks with Dale Crover of The Melvins filling in, they hired Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, with whom they recorded the song "Sliver". Later that year, Buzz Osborne of The Melvins introduced them to Dave Grohl, who was looking for a new band following the sudden break-up of D.C. hardcore punks Scream.
Following repeated recommendations by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, David Geffen signed Nirvana to DGC Records in 1990. The band subsequently began recording its first major label album. The result, Nevermind, is now widely regarded as a classic.
For the album, the band decided to continue working with Vig. Rather than recording at Vig's Madison studio as they had in 1990, the band shifted to Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. For two months, the band worked through a variety of songs in their catalog. Some of the songs, including "In Bloom" and "Breed", had been in the band's repertoire for years, while others, including "On a Plain" and "Stay Away", lacked finished lyrics until mid-way through the recording process.
Initially, DGC Records was hoping to sell 250,000 copies of Nevermind, which was the same level they had achieved with Sonic Youth's Goo. Instead, the album was certified triple-platinum (three million copies) in the US less than six months after its release. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" received heavy airplay on MTV, inspiring many imitators and bringing the grunge sound into the mainstream.
Nirvana released Incesticide, a collection of rarities and B-sides, in December 1992. Many of Nirvana's BBC radio sessions and unreleased early recordings were starting to circulate via trading circles and illegal bootlegs, so the album served to beat the bootleggers to the punch. The album contained such fan favorites as "Sliver", "Dive", "Been a Son", and "Aneurysm" as well as covers of songs by The Vaselines, a band that became more popular as a result of Nirvana's covers.
For 1993's In Utero, the band brought in producer Steve Albini, well-known for his work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa. The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick: the initial version of the album was recorded and mixed in two weeks, a far cry from the months spent recording and mixing Nevermind.
As Nevermind had brought in a new audience of listeners who had little or no experience with the alternative, obscure, or experimental bands Nirvana saw as their forebears, bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move on Nirvana's part to give the album a raw, less-polished sound. For example, one song on In Utero featuring long periods of shrill feedback noise was titled, ironically, "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter". (In the industry, a "radio-friendly unit shifter" describes an "ideal" album: one capable of heavy radio play and ultimately selling many copies, or "units".) However, Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers and layers of studio trickery.
With the release of In Utero, the band also faced corporate censorship. Giant store chains Kmart and Wal-Mart refused to carry the album, citing song titles like "Rape Me" and Kurt's plastic-fetus collage on the back cover as too controversial for the "family-oriented" retailers. The band decided to abide by the request, and compiled a version of the album with "clean" artwork and "Rape Me" retitled "Waif Me". Other than the inclusion of Litt's mix of "Pennyroyal Tea", however, the music on the album was identical to the wider release. When asked about the edited version, Kurt noted that he could relate to the small-town residents that had no other local music stores and were forced to buy their music at Kmart.
While "Heart-Shaped Box" was received warmly by alternative and mainstream radio, and In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard Album chart, the album did not enjoy the same success as Nevermind. That fall, Nirvana embarked on a US tour, its first major tour of the States since the success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (For touring in support of In Utero, the band added Pat Smear of the punk rock band The Germs as a second guitarist.)
In November 1993, the band decided to change direction and sat down for an appearance on MTV Unplugged. The sessions revealed the depth of Cobain's songwriting, which had often been buried under the sonic fury of the band's sound. The song selection also demonstrated Cobain's broad musical interests through his choice of cover songs. It became a hallmark moment of Nirvana's history, if not amplified by the tragedy soon to follow.
In early 1994, the band embarked on a European tour. While the tour started off well, the performances gradually declined, with Kurt looking bored and distracted during the shows, particularly during the Italian leg of the tour. Following a tour stop at Terminal Eins in Munich, Germany, on March 1, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis. The next night's show at the same venue was cancelled. On the morning of March 4, Love found Cobain unconscious and he was rushed to the hospital. The doctor told a press conference that the singer had reacted to a combination of prescription Rohypnol and alcohol. The rest of the tour was canceled, including a planned leg in the UK.
In the ensuing weeks, Cobain's heroin addiction resurfaced. An intervention was organized, and Cobain was convinced to check into drug rehabilitation. After less than a week in rehabilitation, Cobain climbed over the wall of the facility and took a plane back to Seattle. A week later, on Friday, April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead by an electrician at his Seattle home, effectively dissolving Nirvana. (See Cobain's final weeks for more information.)
Several Nirvana albums have been released since Cobain's death. The first came in November of 1994 with the release of the band's performance for MTV Unplugged, MTV Unplugged in New York. The album included guest appearances by members of the Meat Puppets, as well as cover versions of songs by the Meat Puppets, Lead Belly, The Vaselines, and David Bowie.
Two weeks after the release of Unplugged in New York, a video compilation of Nirvana performances, titled Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!, was released. Cobain himself had compiled a significant part of the video, which documented much of the Nevermind tour. Memorable footage from the video included an infamous incident with a bouncer at a Texas club in October 1991, as well as the band's performance of "Aneurysm" donned in dresses at the Hollywood Rock Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January 1993.
The original intention was to release the MTV Unplugged set in a double-disc package, along with a second disc of live electric material to balance the acoustic set. However, for the two surviving band members, sorting through the treasure trove of Nirvana recordings so soon after Cobain's passing became too emotionally overwhelming. The live disc, a compilation of Nirvana concert recordings, finally saw release in October of 1996, titled From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah.
In August of 1997, online music news website Wall of Sound reported that Grohl and Novoselic were organizing a box set of Nirvana rarities. Four years later, the band's label announced that the box set was complete and would see release in September to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the release of Nevermind. However, shortly before the release date, Love filed an injunction to stop the box set's release and sued Grohl and Novoselic, claiming that Cobain's former bandmates were hijacking Nirvana's legacy for their own personal interests. What followed was a protracted legal battle over the ownership of Nirvana's music that lasted for more than a year.
Much of the legal wrangling centered on a single unreleased song, "You Know You're Right", the band's final studio recording. Grohl and Novoselic wanted to include the song on the box set, essentially releasing all of the rarities at one time. Love, however, argued that the song was more important than just a generic "rarity", and should be included on a single-disc greatest hits compilation. After more than a year of often public and sometimes bizarre legal maneuvering, the parties settled, agreeing on the immediate release of the greatest hits package including "You Know You're Right", titled simply Nirvana. In turn, Love agreed to donate cassette demos recorded by Cobain for use on the box set.
Nirvana fans' first taste of "You Know You're Right" came in early 1995 when Love played a version of the song with her band Hole on MTV Unplugged under the title "You've Got No Right". A live rough draft version of the song performed by Nirvana at their October 23, 1993 concert at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago surfaced in Nirvana tape-trading circles a few months later. In the years that followed, rumors of the existence of a studio version of the song perpetuated through Nirvana's fanbase and grew to almost mythic proportions. For fans, the first real confirmation of the studio version's existence came in November 2001 when Access Hollywood aired a ten second clip of the song as part of an interview with Love. In May 2002, several longer clips surfaced on the Internet via an unknown source, who claimed he was planning to release the entire song. However, the source backed down, fearing legal action. As the court case neared completion in September 2002, the entire song unexpectedly leaked, days before the announcement of the release of Nirvana. Even though the studio version turned out itself to be a rough draft with unfinished lyrics, fans and non-fans alike adored the song, leading it to become one of the most-played songs on alternative radio in both 2002 and 2003.
Nirvana was released on October 29, 2002. On top of "You Know You're Right", the album contained hit singles from their three studio albums as well as several alternate mixes and recordings of familiar Nirvana songs. Following its release, many long-time fans complained about the song selection, noting that the alternate version of "Been a Son" (from the Blew EP) was not the band's preferred version, and that the disc lacked songs such as "Sappy" (released as "Verse Chorus Verse") that had received significant radio airplay in the US following Cobain's death. Fans outside the US questioned the inclusion of the Unplugged version of "All Apologies" (as opposed to the single version from In Utero) and the Bleach version of "About a Girl" (where the Unplugged version was a popular single in 1994). Also, with a running time of under fifty minutes, there was certainly ample space to include other popular songs, such as "Love Buzz", "Drain You", "Aneurysm", and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" (the latter of which was included on some foreign releases of the disc).
The box set, With the Lights Out, was finally released in November 2004. The release contained a vast array of early Cobain demos, rough rehearsal recordings, and live tracks recorded throughout the band's history. Of note to serious Nirvana fans were unfinished studio recordings of "Old Age" and "Verse Chorus Verse" (different from "Sappy") recorded during the Nevermind sessions. Another notable track on the box set was a solo acoustic demo of a song called "Do Re Mi", recorded by Cobain in his bedroom. The song showed that even in the turmoil of his final days, Kurt still had the gift for melody that he had demonstrated so many years earlier in songs like "About a Girl".
A best-of-the-box compilation titled Sliver: The Best of the Box was released in the fall of 2005. The CD compiled nineteen tracks from the box set plus three previously unreleased tracks, including a version of the song "Spank Thru" from the fabled 1985 Fecal Matter demo tape. According to Rolling Stone, Cobain's daughter Frances Bean aided in the selection of the title and cover art.
Band members
Kurt Cobain - vocals, guitar (1987–1994)
Krist Novoselic - bass (1987–1994)
Dave Grohl - drums (1990–1994)
Prior members
Aaron Burckhard - drums (1987–1988)
Dale Crover - drums (1988, 1990)
Dave Foster - drums (1988)
Chad Channing - drums (1988–1990)
Jason Everman - guitar (1989)
Dan Peters - drums (1990)
Touring members
Pat Smear - guitar (1993-1994)
Lori Goldston - cello (1993-1994)
Melora Creager - cello (1994)
Discography
Main article: Nirvana discography
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Nirvana
Interscope: Nirvana - Official label website
Nirvana Live Guide - Comprehensive guide to Nirvana's live performances and live recordings
Live Nirvana - A resource site, including detailed timeline and performance information
The Internet Nirvana Fan Club
Kurt's Equipment FAQ - Site detailing Kurt & Nirvana's equipment, both live and miscellaneous
