Nirvana
“I guarantee you I will screw this song up.” – Kurt Cobain
“I hate this band.” – “Prog Man,” a commentator on George Starostin’s site
“Nirvana were a musical…enema for me, really. I loved them.” – C. C. Deville
Albums Reviewed:
Incesticide
From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah
Nirvana were the most important band of the ‘90’s. And you know what? That’s sort of a bad thing. If there were no Nirvana, there’d be no Puddle of Mudd, or Nickelback, or numerous other crappy, CRAPPY bands that try to be “angsty” for the express purpose of selling records to moronic teenagers. Ofcourse, for a moment, let’s say there were no Nirvana, then maybe ‘90’s rock would be influenced by HAIR METAL rather than that shy blond guy from Seattle. I guess that’d be even worse. It’s tough to say. Influences are funny like that. If there were no Van Halen, there’d be no hair metal. But Van Halen rules, even though hair metal sucks. I’m rambling. Anyway, no matter Nirvana’s influence on popular music today, one thing cannot be denied: Kurt Cobain was a great songwriter. It would’ve been nice if he had a bit more self-confidence (maybe we’d have more than three real studio albums from them), but Kurt’s insecurity is really part of what made him so great. Why did so many kids (like me, for instance) identify with him so much? Because he was like us. He wasn’t a rock star. He was just a regular, insecure schmuck who happened to have a great gift for songwriting. And he changed music as we know it a decade ago. Good for him.
Oh, and Courtney Love is a BITCH. Let’s just get that in the open right now. I HATE Courtney Love. I’m sure Kurt really did love her, but I don’t give a fuck. She wasn’t famous at ALL until Kurt died and she became “Kurt Cobain’s widow.” It’s a bit suspicious, don’t you think? It is to me. The legal battles that have gone on between her and the surviving Nirvana members, Dave Grohl (drums) and Krist Novoselic (bass), really make me sick. Why would she block the release of the box set? Who gives a FUCK if one of the songs criticizes her? Didn’t he do that REALLY explicitly a few times on In Utero anyways? It boggles the mind. I think one the coolest things I’ve ever seen was when MTV2 gave its reigns to Courtney for TWENTY-FOUR HOURS a few weeks ago. That was hilarious. There was a disclaimer that said “these are the opinions of Courtney Love and do not at all represent the opinions of MTV2” that they had to flash across the screen like every ten minutes. When the bitch started giving her opinions on race relations, I’m sure the MTV honchos were thinking “what the FUCK did we do?” She made an ass out of herself. Oh boy, that was funny. Hoo-ah. OK, enough about Courtney. Let’s get to Kurt’s little band. Maybe you’ve heard of them?
Bleach (1989)
Rating: 8
Best Song: “About A Girl”
Christ, the production on this record is HORRIBLE. Awful. It sounds like it was recorded for $10 and a turkey sandwich, and, the thing is, I think it was actually recorded for about $9 and a pastrami sandwich. See, first impressions can be deceiving like that. Just like the first impression that this record is a horribly produced, muddled load of dog crap.
Well, it is horribly produced. And muddled. But it is most definitely NOT dog crap. It’s good! Once you get past the really awful production (the only record I’ve heard with worse production than this was Husker Du’s Zen Arcade. Now, THAT is a badly produced album.), you realize that the songs, while obviously a cut below later Nirvana material, are still mostly prime choice Grade A stuff. At least I realize that.
Anyway, one
idea I want to dispel right now is that Nirvana is a punk band. Nirvana is NOT a punk band. If you equate punk more with an attitude,
then I can see your argument. But if you
equate punk more with a sound, like The Ramones or something, then they just
aren’t. The influence I hear most on
this record is Black Sabbath. A lot of
these songs sound like speeded up and (mostly) poppier Black Sabbath things
(hey, I just defined “grunge!”). One
example of this would be “Floyd The Barber.”
Another would be “Scoff.” Another
would be “Paper Cuts.” Actually, “Paper
Cuts” isn’t even speeded up. Kurt is
trying to sound REALLY menacing in it, too.
That’s a
There are exceptions to every rule, ofcourse, and slap my ass and call me Bambi if there aren’t some here. “Negative Creep” actually sounds a lot like a punk song. It’s still got that sludgy riffage that’s all over everything else, but it’s speeded up SO MUCH it becomes a punk song, and a great one. My second-favorite song on here, in fact. “I’m a negative creep! I’m a negative creep! I’m a negative creep and I’m STOOOOONED!” That’s pretty cool. Nirvana follows a pattern of putting one punk-sounding song on every one of their studio albums, and this is the representative here. They only did release three studio albums, but a pattern is a pattern.
Oh, and hey, there’s also a cover on here! And I like it! The All Music Guide credits “Love Buzz” to “VanLeeuwen.” I don’t know who that is, so I have no idea what band Nirvana is actually covering here, but I like the song. It’s got a cool, almost middle-eastern sounding bass riff at the beginning, and probably the second-catchiest melody on the record. I love the “Can you feel my love buzz? Can you feel my love buzz?” chorus. I wish I knew who it was actually by, though. If anyone knows who “VanLeeuwen” is, please tell me. I’d much appreciate it. I’ll make you a turkey sandwich.
Anyway, Kurt loved his Sabbath and his obscure (at least to me) covers, but, gosh-darnit if he didn’t love sixties pop too, especially the Beatles. I read a story of how he once stayed up all night listening to The White Album, then came into the studio the next day (I think they were recording Nevermind at the time, but I’m not completely sure) just shouting “The White Album is the greatest album of all time!” Now, the fact that I disagree with Kurt here (it’s not even the Beatles’ best album!) doesn’t matter in this review, but the fact that he was yelling that does, and that love of the Beatles does make one appearance here in the poppy “About A Girl,” which you probably know from the MTV Unplugged album. What a great song! He even uses a different guitar tone than he does for everything else. No distortion or sludge. Very pleasant-sounding. They sure put that pastrami sandwich to good use. He must’ve known how good the song was, and didn’t want to bury it behind all the fuzz.
This here’s a damn good album, and don’t let the god-awful production deter you from enjoying it. It’s funny too. Some of the things he shouts out in these tunes are great. I already covered “Negative Creep.” How about “Give me back my alcohol! Give me back my alcohol!” in “Scoff?” Or “Wouldn’t you know it, it’s just my luck. NO RECESS!” in “School?” Good stuff.
Oh, Dave Grohl isn’t on drums yet. It’s some guy named Chad Channing, and you can tell there’s no Dave yet, although the production probably contributes a lot to the weak drum sound. Dave Grohl rules.
Michael F. Noto (notomich@grinnell.edu) writes:
Whoa! Badly produced? Yes, it
sounds exactly like it was recorded in a garage for $600 over three days (which
it actually was). But it sounds absolutely fine to me! The sound's kinda
flat...but that's it. I can hear the bass, drums, vocals and guitar all fine,
and the production initially killing the riffs, as you say...I don't hear that.
I can think of tons of albums that were far more badly produced: the Velvets'
all-time classic "White Light/White Heat" has one of the shittiest
mixes known to man, the Bowie version of the Stooges' "Raw Power" is
infamous, Captain Beefheart's masterpiece "Trout Mask Replica" has
sub-cassette quality sound in many places and still sounds like the
unclassifiable splooge genius it IS, the Sex Pistols' album sounds like it was
ran through a trash compactor because of how compressed it is, Frank Zappa's
"Freak Out!" is mixed so flat and thin that it sounds like it was
recorded on three sheets of construction paper, and even the Ramones' first
album, recorded for $6000, has the bass in one speaker and the guitar in the
other! How lame is that? (Not the Ramones' music; that would be heresy; just
the cruddy production). All those albums are bona-fide classix! Production
didn't get in their way! Likewise with "Bleach." Sorry about the
ranting, but I wanted to make a point...albeit in a stupid way.
Oh, and "Bleach"? Fantastic debut! I like it very much! It has great
ear-puncturing unlistenable dirges like "Paper Cuts", which sounds
like a cross between the Swans and the Melvins and is the best song ever
written about an abused dog (at least, that's what I think), and great
punk-shtompers like "Negative Creep" and especially "Blew"
(Oh! That intro bass riff!). And even a Pop song, which everyone knows cause
they heard it a thousand million times on "Unplugged". Nice site,
brad. – mike
Nevermind (1991)
Rating: 10
Best Song: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
So, let’s see here, they dumped Carol Channing or whoever, replaced him with Dave Grohl (a.k.a. the coolest man in the universe), signed a contract with a major label, got Butch Vig (who’s now in Garbage with that hot redheaded Scottish chick. Oh baby she’s hot…) to give it a shiny, sleek, studio production, recorded a bunch of songs, slapped a naked baby on the cover, and, lo and behold, made THE GREATEST ALBUM OF THE ‘90’S. And no, that was not at all an objective statement. Let me explain.
Maybe you understand this, maybe you don’t, but do you have an album that, regardless of whether it’s your favorite from an objective standpoint, you consider almost your personal album? An album that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t at ALL look at objectively? It’s part of your person, part of your being, part of what makes you you. If you understand what I’m talking about, then this is that album for me (and I bet for a lot of other people about my age as well). If you don’t get it, then go find an album for yourself. Everyone should have one that they identify with in this way, something that just fills a hole inside of them. Trust me, if you don’t have an album like this, there’s a hole. A big, gaping hole.
See, I grew up with this album. When the whole “grunge/alternative rock” thing got started with this baby in 1991, I was nine, so I came of age surrounded by those bands, especially Nirvana, and ESPECIALLY this album right here. People can discount it and say “oh, just right place, right time, nothing more” all they want, but it really was, for me, the exact right album at the exact right time in my life. There’s really nothing more to it. It wasn’t because they were “hip” or it was “cool” to like them. I just saw Kurt Cobain and I saw myself. The insecurity, the vulnerability, everything. You can spout all the VH1 cliches you want, and most of them will probably be true.
I have so
many STORIES that center on this album.
Like the time I was going on a long drive up to
Or how about the time, in 7th grade English class, when our teacher (the immortal Mrs. White, who looked like a horse with an overbite) had us write a short little first-person narrative and then present it accompanied by music of our choice. I, being a dork, chose to write a short narrative from the point of view of a man trapped inside an insane asylum and narrate it to “Territorial Pissings.” They fit well together, especially the line from the song “just because you’re paranoid don’t mean I’m not after you,” and the other students loved it (since it was freaking Nirvana!). I bet Mrs. White was worried. I wonder if they started a file on me at school after that, meaning a second one, besides the one they undoubtedly had already. No matter, I transferred from my public junior high to my fancy-shmancy all-boys private high school two years later, so they can eat me.
I remember also in junior high how me and my friends (none of whom I think I’ve seen in five years…I heard they’re all druggies now. Whatever.) would go to school dances and constantly request “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (which was my favorite song of all time until I discovered Led Zeppelin when I was 18) just so we could mosh, by which I mean shake our heads up and down and ram into each other like a bunch of idiots. One time I think I fucked up my neck doing that. I couldn’t hold my head up straight for a week.
And the stories kept going in high school. I’ve been known to dabble (poorly) on the drums, and my friend Joe has a small drum kit in his house. He doesn’t really play it, but he does dabble (better than me on drums, but still no Jimmy Page) on the guitar, so we every so often break out some phat jams. Ofcourse, after one or two of these sessions we had worked out laughably bad facsimiles of about half of Nevermind (what else were we going to play? Rush????!!!! Geddy Lee sucks!). Our special is “Come As You Are.” I have the drumwork for that spot-on. Booyeah. For those of you who are intrigued, we also perform a kickass version of System Of A Down’s “Chop Suey.” I don’t think you TRUST!…..IN!…..MY!……SELF-RIGHTEOUS SUUUIIIICIIIIIIIDE! Yeah. Rock on.
If I kept thinking, I’m pretty sure I could come up with some other stories, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. This album pretty much defined my junior high years, as you no doubt already ascertained. I wore out the tape on my cassette, then got the CD, and I’m sure that’ll be worn out pretty soon, though maybe not, since I don’t even listen to this record much anymore. I’ve listened to it SO MANY TIMES that I can practically play the whole thing in my head. Even so, I’d never part with my copy, since, like I said, it’s my album, the one that defines me more than any other ever has or ever will.
Oh, crap, I didn’t write an actual review, did I? Well, every song rules, it’s undoubtedly a 10, “Breed” is the token punk-sounding song, and…aw, hell, it’s awesome. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last eleven years and don’t have a copy, go get one today, and live out my awkward teenage years right in your own home.
Barrett Barnard (okeydoke0@yahoo.com) writes:
hey
brad i just read your nirvana page and i totally agree with your review of
nevermind.for me and a whole bunch of people like me that album was like the
sex pistols record or the ramones first record in that i learned to play my
instrument to it and it got me interested in music i wasnt ever gonna hear on
the local cock rock station.the first time i heard drain you may be the single
biggest moment of musical euphoria in my life.anyway i appreciate the review.
Incesticide (1992)
Rating: 7
Best Song: “Aneurysm”
I remember distinctly that when
this album came out people were PISSED.
It was the first album Nirvana put out after The Most Important Album Of
The Decade, and I guess people expected like Nevermind II or
something. Ofcourse, these are the same
people who, were they the same age today, would probably be going around raving
about
In truth I think it’s the weakest Nirvana offering. It’s damn inconsistent, and there are three covers (one of which is great), but I still almost gave it an 8. I vacillated for a while before deciding on a 7. It’s a high 7, but 7 seems like a fair rating for this record.
The first half of the album is pretty good, for the most part. It’s also where the three covers reside, but we can’t have everything, now can we? “Sliver,” the record’s second tune, is great. I’m sure you’ve heard it. It’s the “Grandma take me home! Grandma take me home!” song. Great catchy bassline at the beginning. It’s surrounded by three other songs that are all pretty solid, but nothing more than that. I’d call “Dive,” “Stain” and “Been A Son” run-of-the-mill Nirvana songs. Since Nirvana is a great band, they’re good, but…yeah, run-of-the-mill. The three covers are all right in a row from tracks 5-7. “Turnaround” is actually by DEVO of all bands, which would explain the odd industrial-sounding bass tone that Krist uses at the beginning before Kurt’s guitar comes in. Tracks 6 and 7 are by a little band called The Vaselines, an obscure Scottish pop duo who recorded nineteen songs in their life. Nirvana covers three of those nineteen songs at some point in their discography, for some reason. Kurt liked ‘em! “Molly’s Lips” is OK here, but nothing special. “Son Of A Gun” is very good, though. The chorus is great. “The sun shines in the bedroom…when we plaaaaaayyyyyyy. The raining always starts…when you go awaaaaaayyyyyy.” It’s one of only three songs on this record I’ve ever found myself singing along to (the others being “Sliver” and “Aneurysm”). After the covers there’s a completely useless super-fast punk version of “Polly” from Nevermind called “(New Wave) Polly.” It’s not very good.
With one VERY notable exception, the second half is just not that good. I first want to complain about the presence of “Downer,” which was the last track on Bleach. If this is an outtakes/b-sides/rarities collection, WHY would you put a song that was actually on one of your albums on it? I understand no one actually bought Bleach, but it’s still an odd thing to do. Much of the rest of the second half is just ODD. “Beeswax,” “Mexican Seafood,” and “Hairspray Queen,” besides being strangely titled, just sound like Kurt fucking around. The main lyric to “Beeswax” sounds like “I got my diddley spayed.” I don’t know WHAT that’s supposed to mean. I guess we’ll never know. Such are the mysteries of life! “Aero Zeppelin” sounds like neither Aerosmith nor Led Zeppelin, and doesn’t sound that good, though it has a neat structure. “Big Long Now” doesn’t sound like Nirvana. It sounds like Soundgarden. There’s no reason for them to cover a Soundgarden song, especially two years before Superunknown came out and people knew who they were, but hot damn it sounds like Soundgarden with Kurt fronting them. No, actually, Kurt sounds a lot like Chris Cornell when he sings it. Jesus. OK, let’s move onto the last track, “Aneurysm.”
Now THIS is a reason to get this baby, if for nothing else. A super-catchy guitar riff starts the tune, which is replaced by a screeching ascending riff while the bass plays what the guitar was just playing, then more guitars come in and play the first riff, then the ascending one comes back, then it slows down and starts sounding like a completely different song, then Kurt yells “Come on over and do the twist!” and we are ready to go. I love the “UHHHH-HUH!”’s in between the main lines of the song. “I love you so much, it makes me sick! UHHH-HUH! Come on over and SHOOT THE SHIT! UHHHH-HUH!” Awesome. Now, I am by no means implying that Nirvana is in any way, shape or form a prog or art-rock band, and this is still just alt-rock, but the shifting moods and tempos here (althought NOT arty, oblique lyrics, obviously) make this song, to me, the closest Nirvana ever got to that that style. Now, they’re still in a completely different stratosphere from it, but at least Kurt inched a little closer when he wrote it.
Hold on, because I want to mention one more thing. In the liner notes to this record, Kurt wrote a little essay of some sort. The contents are unimportant, though it’s pretty funny, but the way that he signs it absolutely kills me, and really shows his insecurity, as well as his sarcasm and cleverness. After finishing it, he signs “Kurdt (the blond one).” As if people didn’t know who he was! That’s classic, um…Kurdt. Where did the “D” come from?
In Utero (1993)
Rating: 9
Best Song: “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
Well,
Kurt was obviously VERY uncomfortable with having released The Most Important
Album Of The Decade and subsequently becoming a rock demigod. That shows up in a myriad of ways on this
record. I mean, two years ago he was
just a schlub from
Well, first
of all, having always claimed he didn’t like the sleek production on Nevermind,
he hired Steve Albini to produce it, and thus try to make it as utterly
unlistenable as possible. It’s like he
was saying to everyone back in
But, despite all that messy guitar noise, the songs are superb, with two exceptions. “Radio-Friendly Unit Shifter” is a funny title, because the LAST thing it is is “radio-friendly.” Its main feature is a high, squeaky feedback line (that annoys the hell out of me) that runs throughout the song. Also, “tourette’s” isn’t a song. It’s ninety seconds of Kurt’s yelling, basically. Now, I like a good Kurt yell, but at least give me something else in the song BESIDES the yelling. Fuckin’ A.
The rest of it rules, though. “Serve The Servants” and “Scentless Apprentice” would be two songs Kurt and Mr. Albini successfully butchered, meaning they’re VERY grating on the ears. They’re great, though! The opening drum riff to “Scentless Apprentice” is awesome. Dave does that with ONE bass drum I think! I can’t do that with one. I can’t tap my foot that fast. “Pennyroyal Tea” is probably the MOST awfully produced song here, although that was probably on purpose. Kurt’s voice is buried so low in the mix during the chorus that it’s borderline inaudible, but guess what, the song is great anyway! “Heart-Shaped Box” was the hit, although it’s mixed rather un-commercially as well. Grating guitar noises abound. “Very Ape” (the token punk-sounding song) and “Dumb” would have been better choices for the hit, as they’re short, catchy, fun, and to the point, and most definitely not messed with by Kurt and Albini. “Dumb” has NO distortion whatsoever and a CELLO. Sellouts…
The
remaining songs are the absolute cream of the crop on the record. “Rape Me” is an obvious self rip-off of
“Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but when you rip off a song that good there’s
usually no problem. “Milk It” is
hilarious. Actually, specifically one
verse is hilarious. “I own my own pet
virus. I get to pet and name her. Her milk is my shit. My shit is her milk.” Fneh?
The song DOMINATES though. The
biggest soft/loud dynamics contrast I’ve heard on a Nirvana song. The closer “All Apologies” is absolutely
superb as well. He obviously doesn’t
like Courtney (“Married! Buried!”). Good!
She’s a leech. When he keeps
repeating “All in all is all we are” at the end…well that’s just fucking
awesome. It seems so profound or
something. Or it could be bullshit. Who knows.
That just leaves my personal favorite song, “Frances Farmer Will Have
Her Revenge On Seattle.” Supposedly,
there really is a Frances Farmer in
OK, enough with the music. To me, the lyrics are the most striking thing about this record. EVERY SINGLE SONG (except “tourette’s, which isn’t a song) has a sort of “I REALLY hate my life right now” vibe going on. It’s often clever, funny, sarcastic, and self-deprecating. Sometimes it’s more direct. Sometimes it’s about that BITCH Courtney. However, it’s always there. “Serve The Servants”: “Teenage angst has paid off well. Now I’m bored and old.” “Scentless Apprentice”: “You can’t fire me because I quit. Throw me in the fire and I won’t throw a fit.” “Heart-Shaped Box”: “She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak.” “Rape Me”: um…”Rape me!” That’s pretty self-explanatory. “Frances Farmer Has A Song Title That’s Much Too Long”: “I miss the comfort in being sad.” “Dumb”: “The day is done, but I’m having fun. I think I’m dumb, though maybe just happy.” “Very Ape”: “I’m too busy acting like I’m not naïve.” “Milt It”: “Look on the bright side is suicide.” “Pennyroyal Tea”: “I’m anemic royalty.” “Radio-Friendly Unit-Shifter”: “I love you for what I am not. I don’t want what I have got.” “All Apologies”: “What else could I write? I don’t have the right.” And, unlike the (seemingly) hundreds of faceless awful “nu-metal” imitators, Kurt is obviously sincere here. Krist Novoselic once said in an interview that, essentially, Kurt had a whole idea and opinion about the world, and when Nevermind became NEVERMIND, and he became “the spokesman of a generation,” Kurt never really recovered from that. Plus he had chronic, incredibly painful stomach problems, which probably sucked too. Around the time of this album, there was surely a lot of turmoil (at least in his head) going on in Kurt’s life. This album, its production and its lyrics, is really a document of that inner turmoil he was experiencing. It’s also really, really good. Get it today.
Oh, one more thing. Nirvana were a SMART band. I mean book-smart here, though I could mean all kinds of smart. The evidence for that is right here on In Utero, because do you know what In Utero is? It’s Latin! It means “in the womb,” which would obviously go right along with all the fetus/pregnant woman imagery through the album artwork. I’m a classics dork. Let’s move on.
Nick
Collings (crawlaway@lycos.co.uk) writes:
Digging the Nirvana reviews, pretty much agree with everything you say. Over the past few years, I'm starting to believe In Utero could actually be a better album than Nevermind, because it hasn't dated as much, in fact In Utero hasn't dated in the slightest - now that's a sign of a great record!
Jeff Johnson (lighteninggsx@msn.com) writes:
Tourettes and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. These songs
rule, dammit! If
you are like me at all, (which it seems you may be, sadly) then you could
see the talent involved in making feedback its own instrument as Kurt so
skillfully did. And as for Tourettes, sometimes you just gotta scream a
little. Umm.. for 90 seconds straight!
MTV Unplugged In New York
Rating: 10
Best Song: “The Man Who Sold The World”
This is one SAD-sounding album. It’s very hard for me to listen to this (especially the chillingly somber rendition of “All Apologies”) without thinking about how just a little after it was put out Courtney went and shot Kurt in the head. Oh, what? Oops! Never mind! I mean, Kurt went and shot HIMSELF in the head. Sure, yeah, that’s what I mean…
Now, in the four albums they had released up to this point, Nirvana had put out a grand total of TWO acoustic songs (both from Nevermind), and then they went and stuck an awful punk rendition of one of them on Incesticide, so this was undoubtedly an intriguing concept. I didn’t have cable when MTV actually aired this performance (dammit), and I STILL haven’t actually seen it, which annoys me, but I’ve listened to this record enough times to pretty much imagine what it was like. The pictures of the performance inside the CD don’t hurt, either. It’s so somber. If In Utero was like the turmoil before Kurt’s death, this is the wake after it. Except Kurt’s not dead yet, which makes that analogy pretty odd.
So, yeah, SOMBER is the word of choice for this record. There’s also a very interesting selection of songs to play in that somber manner. One from Bleach, four from Nevermind, three from In Utero, and six very good and diverse covers. The rendition of “About A Girl” is great. I absolutely love how Kurt prefaces it by saying “This is off our first record. Most people don’t own it.” Oh, that Kurt! Always so self-deprecating! Jesus, you’d think he didn’t even like himself! Oh, wait…never mind.
The
selections from Nevermind and In Utero are good. Personally, I would have liked to see them
try to play songs like “Breed,” “Scentless Apprentice,” or ”Milk It” that would
have just translated HORRENDOUSLY to an acoustic setting. It would’ve been neat, and funny. Sure, maybe you WANT stuff like “Polly” or
“Dumb” that sounds great acoustically, but I want oddness! Ah, I kid.
They all sound good. The covers
are even better, though. Kurt does his
third Vaselines song (I told you there were three!) with “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me
For A Sunbeam,” which sounds great. The
accordion (yes, accordion) really makes the song for me. Ofcourse, the cover of David Bowie’s “The Man
Who Sold The World” is best track on here.
Kurt does a GREAT job with it.
I’ve never actually heard the original, however. I should.
It’d be neat. About two-thirds of
the way through the concert Nirvana turns into a Meat Puppets cover band (“I
thought we were a big, rich rock band, we should have a whole bunch of extra guitars,”
says Kurt as the Kirkwoods come out to be backing musicians on their own
songs). “Plateau” and “Oh, Me” are good,
and, as you undoubtedly know, “
And Kurt really is the star of the show here, and sets the somber tone with his musings, like how he says “I guarantee you I will screw this song up” before “The Man Who Sold The World,” then, after he doesn’t, goes “That was a David Bowie song…hey, I didn’t screw it up, did I? But here’s another one I could screw up.” Then he plays “Pennyroyal Tea” solo, and proceeds to REALLY screw it up. A few of the chords sound wrong, and once he forgets a lyric and sings “I’m anem-mennyroyal tea!” That always gets me. That’s followed by Dave (I think) telling him (sarcastically) “That sounded good,” to which Kurt fires back “SHUT up.” That’s pretty funny. Oh, and how before he starts “Pennyroyal Tea,” he goes “if it sounds bad, these people are just gonna have to wait.” I remember I was once watching a band perform in Eliot House courtyard right here at good ol’ H-Town, and one of the members said that at some point during a break. It had me rolling on the grass in hysterics. Seriously. People were looking at me like I needed to take my medication. And in fairness to them, I really DID need to take my medication, but I’d rather not talk about my chemical imbalances, no matter how serious they may be.
Anyway, even though I’ve just spent the last paragraph saying how funny Kurt is during this performance (and he is), that doesn’t alleviate the deathly somber tone of the whole thing. In fact, it adds to it. The little quips and remarks he makes may be funny, but they’re also (as I’ve said repeatedly) usually said in a VERY self-deprecating manner. Even when the thing he says itself isn’t, the WAY he says it is. His emotions are really exposed for everyone to see during this performance. He was not a happy man. When he sings “all in all is all we are” at the end of “All Apologies,” it sounds like “all alone is all we are,” and I think maybe that was on purpose. He felt all alone. I guess that’s where the gun came in.
From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah (1996)
Rating: 8
Best Song: “Aneurysm”
Nirvana had put out everything but a regular (i.e. non-Unplugged) live album, so two years after Kurt shot himself Dave and Krist patched this together. It’s taken from a whole bunch of different live performances, as opposed to one concert. Krist (ofcourse…I mean, it’s not like he had anything else to do) summarizes where everything comes from in the liner notes. Everything on here is pretty much uniformly good. They only take three songs from Incesticide and two of those are “Sliver” and “Aneurysm,” so therefore the song selection is obviously excellent.
And speaking of “Aneurysm,” it kicks ASS on here. The live rendition on this record is an absolute rip-roaring, ass-spanking, booty-slapping, ball-licking good time. At the end, the crowd gives a HUGE cheer, and Kurt sort of shyly mumbles “thank you.” I love Kurt. Ofcourse, the crowd’s cheer is louder for the next song on the album, obviously, since it’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The fans never come even CLOSE to the enthusiasm they show right at the start of this song anywhere else. Half of them were probably moronic jocks who just wanted to hear the hits. That’s really the one thing Kurt hated most, that so much of his fan base were the morons who were probably headbanging to Poison two years before Nevermind, since that what was cool then for some reason. He hated those people. I do too. Poison sucks. And speaking of Poison, how much do you wanna bet C.C. Deville was just saying that quote above to sound hip? Nirvana put him (and all his awful hair metal brethren, except for Bon Jovi, I guess) completely out of business!
Anyway, those two really are the highlights of the album. The live version of “Sliver” starts out awfully, as you can’t hear Kurt’s voice at ALL during the first “Grandma take me home!” part. It improves by the end. Maybe Kurt started having a good time halfway into the song. It’s odd. He REALLY starts yelling loudly at the end. That’s something he does a lot in this album, yell. The whole first track, “Intro,” is just a minute of Kurt screaming like hell at the top of his lungs with no musical backing. He really screams during live performances, like painfully loud. No wonder he had debilitating stomach pains. I would if I had to yell like that all the time. The yelling is cool though. Another cool thing is the little conversation Kurt and Dave have with the crowd before the play “tourette’s.” This performance was from well before In Utero got released, and they go like this:
Dave: “This is a new song that we don’t feel like actually going through the trouble of putting out ourselves, so…”
Kurt (cutting in): “This song is called ‘The Eagle Has Landed’”
Dave: “…Thank you, so, yes, this is for all of you bootleggers to go ahead and GO!”
I think that’s pretty cool.
They’ve also got one unreleased track on here, “Spank Thru.” In the liner notes Krist says it was the “first Nirvana song.” You can tell. It confuses me. It confuses me because it’s a Nirvana song (that’s not just Kurt fucking around) that sucks. That’s weird!
There’s no real complaints about this I can make about this record (except that they left off “Frances Farmer Will Seattle Her Revenge On Nirvana”). It’s uniformly good, but…it’s just good. I’m usually not a huge fan of live albums, and consider them extraneous, and I can’t make an exception here as I do for Unplugged because, unlike that album, this one doesn’t really give me anything I haven’t gotten before. There are no new interesting wrinkles, like, for instance, the entire thing being done acoustically, or Nirvana turning into a Meat Puppets tribute band for ten minutes. I’d recommend this if you’re a hardcore Nirvana fan (like me) or if you’re biased towards live albums. If you’re biased against them (like me) and are not a big Nirvana fan, you should probably stay away from this one.