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Nirvana (band)
Background information
Origin Aberdeen, Washington, USA
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Grunge
Years active 1987—1994
Label(s) Sub Pop
DGC / Geffen Records
Associated
acts Foo Fighters
Sweet 75
Fecal Matter
Eyes Adrift
Website Universal: Nirvana
Members
Kurt Cobain
Krist Novoselic
Dave Grohl
Former members
Aaron Burckhard
Chad Channing
Dale Crover
Jason Everman
Dave Foster
Dan Peters
Nirvana was an American rock band that formed in Aberdeen, Washington. With
the 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.
As Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain found himself referred to in the media as
the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana the "flagship band" of
"Generation X".[1] Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed
his focus on the band's music, challenging the band's audience with their
third studio album In Utero. While Nirvana's mainstream popularity waned
somewhat in the months following its release, their core audience cherished
the band's dark interior, particularly after their 1993 performance on MTV
Unplugged.
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 fifty million albums
worldwide. [2] Nirvana remains a consistent presence on radio stations
worldwide.
History
Early years
Cobain and Krist Novoselic met in 1984. Both were fans of The Melvins, and
often frequented 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."[3] 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.
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names,
including Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. The band finally settled
on Nirvana in early 1988, playing their first show under the name that
March. A couple of months later, 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. Bleach was
highly influenced by The Melvins, by the heavy dirge-rock of Mudhoney, and
by the 70s rock of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Novoselic noted in a 2001
interview with Rolling Stone that the band had played a tape in their van
while on tour that had an album by The Smithereens on one side and an album
by the black metal band Celtic Frost on the other, and noted that the
combination probably played an influence as well.[4] Bleach became a
favorite of college radio stations nationally, but gave few hints of where
the band would find itself two years later.
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."[5] 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.[6]
Nevermind
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.[7]
After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out to mix
the album. However, after a few days, both Vig and the band realized that
they were unhappy with how the mixes were turning out. As a result, they
decided to call in someone else to oversee the mixing, with DGC supplying a
list of possible options. The list contained several familiar names,
including Scott Litt (known for his work with R.E.M.) and Ed Stasium (known
for his work with The Smithereens). However, Cobain feared that bringing in
known mixers would result in the album sounding like the work of those
bands. He decided to choose the guy at the bottom of the list next to the
name 'Slayer': Andy Wallace. (Wallace co-produced Slayer's 1990 album
Seasons in the Abyss.)
Wallace brought to the album a completely different mindset, adding layers
of reverb, drum sampling, and other studio trickery to give the album a
glossy polish. A few months after the album's release, Cobain complained in
the press that Wallace had made Nevermind sound too slick, even though
Wallace had been his own choice and the band themselves had been involved in
the mixing process.[8] Even if the band was disappointed at the sound of the
album, Wallace had successfully tempered the band's indie rock leanings and
created a mainstream-ready rock sound that others would attempt to duplicate
over the next decade.
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.[9] 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. The popularity of alternative rock, as well as the
sidelining of hair metal, is often credited to Nevermind. In January of
1992, the album reached the top of the Billboard album charts, replacing
Michael Jackson's album Dangerous, an act often considered the defining
symbol of the rise of alternative music over pop. Citing exhaustion, the
band decided not to undertake another US tour in support of Nevermind,
instead opting to make only a handful of performances later that year.
In February 1992, following the band's Pacific Rim tour, Cobain married
Courtney Love in Hawaii. Love gave birth to a daughter, Frances Bean, the
following August. Just days after Frances Bean's birth, Nirvana performed
one of its best-known concerts, headlining at the Reading Festival in
England. Cobain entered the stage in a wheelchair as a practical joke, then
proceeded to get up and join the rest of the band in tearing through an
assortment of old and new material. At one point in the show, Cobain related
to the crowd the recent birth of his daughter, and succeeded in having the
crowd chant "Courtney, we love you!" in unison. Dave Grohl related in 2005
on the radio program Loveline[10] that the band was genuinely concerned
beforehand that the show would be a complete disaster, given all that had
happened in the months leading up to the show. Instead, the performance
ended up being one of the most memorable of their career.
Less than two weeks later, Nirvana put on a memorable performance at the MTV
Video Music Awards. MTV had wanted the band to play "Smells Like Teen
Spirit", but the band wanted to play a new song called "Rape Me". MTV was
appalled at the idea of a song called "Rape Me", and eventually agreed that
the band could play "Lithium" instead, the band's then-current single. When
the band began their performance, Kurt strummed and sang the first few bars
of "Rape Me", giving the MTV executives a solid shock before jumping into
"Lithium". Near the end of the song, frustrated that his amp had stopped
functioning, Novoselic decided to toss his bass into the air for dramatic
effect. He misjudged the landing, and the bass ended up bouncing off his
forehead, causing him to stumble off the stage in a daze. As Cobain trashed
their equipment, Grohl ran to the mic and began yelling "Hi, Axl!"
repeatedly, referring to Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose, with whom the band
and Courtney had had a bizarre encounter prior to the show.[11]
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.
In Utero
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 of studio
trickery.[12]
Prior to the album's release, controversy erupted. Stories ran in several
magazines suggesting that DGC was unhappy with the completed album and that
it might be shelved. As a result, fans began to believe that the band's
creative vision might be compromised by their label.[13] While the stories
about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band actually was unhappy with
certain aspects of Albini's mixes. Specifically, they thought the bass
levels were too low,[14] and Cobain felt that "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All
Apologies" did not sound "perfect".[15] Longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt
was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional
instrumentation and backing vocals. Litt also remixed "Pennyroyal Tea," but
Albini's version was used on the album. (DGC later planned to release Litt's
remix as a single.)
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.[16]
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
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 canceled. 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.)
After Cobain's death
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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19]
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). In addition,
with a running time of less than 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.[20]
In a 2002 interview with Jim DeRogatis,[21] Love described the countless
rehearsal tapes, demos, and bedroom recordings that were left behind after
Cobain's death. For example, a four-track version of "Do Re Mi" was
apparently recorded with Kurt on drums, Pat Smear on guitar, and Eric
Erlandson on bass. Whether anything from the remaining archive will ever see
release remains to be seen.
In April 2006, Love announced that she had arranged to sell twenty-five
percent of her stake in the Nirvana song catalog in a deal estimated at $50
million. The share was purchased by Primary Wave Music, which was founded by
Larry Mestel, a former CEO of Virgin Records. As Love controlled
ninety-seven percent of Nirvana's catalog, the deal meant that Mestel had a
significantly larger stake than Novoselic and Grohl combined. In an
accompanying statement, Love sought to assure Nirvana's fanbase that the
music would not simply be licensed to the highest bidder, noting, "We are
going to remain very tasteful and true to the spirit of Nirvana while taking
the music to places it has never been before."[22] The initial licensing
included the use of "Breed" in commercials for two videogames, "Motorstorm"
and "Major League Baseball 2K7".
Post-Nirvana
In the years following Nirvana's disbanding, both surviving members remained
musically active. Not long after Cobain's death, Grohl recorded a series of
demos that eventually became the debut album for the Foo Fighters. The Foo
Fighters became Grohl's main project, releasing several commercially
successful records over the next decade. The Foo Fighters' 2005 album In
Your Honor featured a song called "Friend of a Friend", which Grohl wrote in
1990 about his first encounters with Cobain and Novoselic.
Beyond the Foo Fighters, Grohl also drummed for numerous bands, including
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mike Watt, Queens of the Stone Age,
Tenacious D, and Nine Inch Nails. He also recorded an album of metal songs
featuring many of his favorite early-80s metal singers under the name Probot.
After the end of Nirvana, Novoselic formed Sweet 75. Later, he founded Eyes
Adrift with Curt Kirkwood (formerly of the Meat Puppets) and Bud Gaugh
(formerly of Sublime). He also performed in a one-off band called the No WTO
Combo with Kim Thayil of Soundgarden and Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys
that coincided with the WTO Meeting of 1999. In December 2006, Novoselic
replaced bass player Bruno Desmartass in the band Flipper for a UK/Ireland
tour and several US shows.[23] The band added "Scentless Apprentice" to
their setlist, a song they had previously covered (minus Novoselic) on the
2000 Nirvana tribute album Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute to Nirvana.
Novoselic also became a political activist, founding the political action
committee JAMPAC to push musicians' rights. In 2004, he released a book
titled Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy, which
covered his musical past as well as his political endeavors. During the 2004
Presidential campaign, Grohl and Novoselic appeared on stage together in
support of the John Kerry campaign.
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)
References
* Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1993.
ISBN 0-385-47199-8
* Erlewine, Stephen Thomas &; Prato, Greg. "Nirvana". All Music Guide.
Retrieved May 9, 2005.
Notes
1. ^ Azerrad, Michael. "Inside the Heart and Mind of Nirvana". Rolling
Stone. April 16, 1992.
2. ^ Armstrong, Mark. "Nirvana Tops 50 Million Mark In Worldwide Sales,
'Journals' Number One". Yahoo! Music. November 17, 2002.
3. ^ Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday,
1993. ISBN 0-385-47199-8, p. 294
4. ^ Fricke, David. "Krist Novoselic". Rolling Stone. September 13, 2001.
5. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 91–2
6. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 151
7. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 176–177
8. ^ di Perna, Alan (Fall 1996). Grunge Music: The Making of Nevermind.
Guitar World.
9. ^ Wice, Nathaniel. "How Nirvana Made It". SPIN. April 1992.
10. ^ Loveline Archive
11. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 279: Cobain's version of the story was that Courtney
had jokingly asked Axl to be the godfather of Frances Bean. Axl responded by
telling Cobain to "shut up his bitch". Cobain turned to Courtney and said,
"Shut up, bitch!" eliciting laughter from the Nirvana entourage.
12. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 317
13. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 332
14. ^ Fricke, David. "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview." Rolling
Stone. January 27, 1994.
15. ^ Azerrad, 1993. p. 336–337
16. ^ Pareles, Jon. "Concert Preview". New York Times. November 14, 1993.
17. ^ Ali, Lorraine. "One Last Blast". Rolling Stone. October 17, 1996.
18. ^ Graff, Gary. "Nirvana Box Set Coming Someday". Wall of Sound. August
28, 1997.
19. ^ Heath, Chris. "The Nirvana Wars: Who Owns Kurt Cobain?". Rolling
Stone. June 6, 2002.
20. ^ Lash, Jolie. "Unreleased Nirvana Due". Rolling Stone. September 20,
2005.
21. ^ DeRogatis, Jim. "A Piece of Kurt Cobain". Chicago Sun-Times. March 10,
2002.
22. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer. "Courtney Love Sells Substantial Share Of Nirvana
Publishing Rights". MTVNews.com. April 13, 2006.
23. ^ Jasmin, Ernest. "Krist Novoselic to play with Flipper".
TheNewsTribune.com. September 25, 2006.
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