Nirvana Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Nirvana was a popular American grunge rock band
founded in 1987 in Aberdeen, Washington. With the lead single "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" from the band's 1991 album Nevermind, Nirvana exploded into the
mainstream, bringing along with it an offshoot of punk and alternative rock that
the mainstream media of the time referred to as 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 during the early-to-middle 90s.
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". Cobain declined the position, and placed his
focus on the band's music, challenging the band's audience with their third
album In Utero. While Nirvana's mainstream popularity waned in the months
following its release, their core audience cherished the band's dark interior,
particularly after the band's 1993 performance on MTV Unplugged.
Nirvana's brief run ended with the death of Cobain
in 1994, but the band's popularity expanded in the years that followed. Eight
years after Cobain's death, 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 more than fifty 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.
****
Origin Aberdeen, Washington
Country USA
Years active 1987–1994
Genre(s) Alternative rock, Grunge
Label(s) Sub Pop, DGC Records
Members Kurt Cobain
Krist Novoselic
Dave Grohl
****
Early
years
Cobain and Krist Novoselic met in 1985. Both were
fans of The Melvins, and both were interested in forming a band. They worked
with several drummers (including Aaron Burckhard and Dale Crover of The Melvins,
who played on their first demos), before settling on Chad Channing. Nirvana's
first album, Bleach, was released by Sub Pop Records in 1989. Bleach was highly
influenced by Cobain's then-favorite band, 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. Bleach became a favorite of
college radio stations nationally, but gave few hints of where the band would
find itself two years later.
Though he did not actually play on the album, Jason
Everman was credited as playing guitar on Bleach because he put up the money for
the recording sessions: $606.17. 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 wasn't 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 Osbourne 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.
Nevermind
Following repeated recommendation by Sonic Youth's
Kim Gordon, David Geffen signed Nirvana to DGC Records in 1990 and the band
began recording their first album for a major label. 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.
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 didn't like 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. Cobain did not want to use mixers that had
worked with other bands that he liked, given that he did not want to sound like
them. He decided to call in 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.)
Months after the album's release, Cobain complained
in the press that Wallace made Nevermind sound too slick, even though Wallace
had been his own choice and the band themselves had been involved in the mixing
process. Even if the band was disappointed at the glossy sound of the album,
Wallace successfully tempered the band's indie rock leanings and created a
mainstream-ready rock sound that others would attempt to duplicate for the next
decade.
Initially, Nevermind, wasn't expected to sell more
than 500,000 copies. Instead, the album was certified triple-platinum (three
million copies) in the US less than six months after its release. The highly
infectious single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" received heavy airplay on MTV,
inspiring a slew of 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 a handful of performances later that year.
In February of 1992, following the band's
Australian 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. 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 "We love you, Courtney!" in unison. Dave Grohl related in 2005 on the
radio program Loveline that the band was genuinely concerned beforehand that the
show would be a complete disaster, given all that had happened during the year
and that they hadn't rehearsed in six months. Instead, the performance ended up
being one of the greatest of their career.
Not quite 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 execs 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. Unfortunately, he misjudged the landing, and the bass ended up
bouncing off of his forehead, forcing 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.
Nirvana released Incesticide, a collection of
B-sides and rarities, in December of 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, perhaps best 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.
Bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move
on Nirvana's part to give the album a rawer, more unpolished sound, as if the
band wanted to alienate or distance some of their new "mainstream" audience
who'd paid little or no attention to the alternative, obscure, or experimental
bands Nirvana saw as their forebearers. For example, one song on In Utero that
featured 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'd always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording
without layers and layers of studio trickery.
Following its release, fans fell under the
impression that the band wanted this distorted masterpiece. However, in reality,
the band was actually unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes.
Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low, and Cobain felt that
"Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" didn't sound "perfect". 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 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
album's artwork as too controversial for the "family-oriented" chains. 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 didn't enjoy the same success as Nevermind.
When the band embarked on the US In Utero tour, its first major tour of the
States since the success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", it regularly played to
half-filled arenas, stymied by the lack of tour support for Nevermind and the
challenging new release. (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 of 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 1st, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe
laryngitis. The next night's show at the same venue was cancelled. On the
morning of March 4th, Cobain was found unconscious by Courtney Love and 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
cancelled, 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 rehab. After less than a week in rehab, Cobain climbed over the wall of the
facility and flew back to Seattle. A week later, on Friday, April 8, 1994,
Cobain's lifeless body was discovered at his Seattle home, effectively
dissolving Nirvana. (More information regarding the circumstances of Cobain's
death can be found in the article for Kurt Cobain.)
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 subdued and eerily morbid performance for MTV Unplugged, Unplugged in New
York. This album included guest appearances by members of the Meat Puppets, as
well as cover versions of songs by the Meat Puppets, Leadbelly, 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 of
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 of 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, Courtney 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 Courtney 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 Courtney Love. In May
of 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 of 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).
It was revealed in the liner notes of the Nirvana
album that Cobain was concerned that he had not been able to write anything
substantial during their last tour and had little material with which to go into
the studio. He had always made a point of working on new material during the
tour and playing it differently every night so that by the time the tour ended
they would have the songs worked out, ready to be recorded. For example, a 1989
performance of the song "Breed" (then titled "Immodium") was included on
Wishkah, recorded a full two years before the song's release on Nevermind.
Additionally, several songs on In Utero were written as early as 1990. Many who
believe Cobain committed suicide cite his feeling of being "written-out" as one
possible explanation.
November of 2004 finally saw the release of the
Nirvana box set, titled With the Lights Out. The box set 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.
In a 2002 interview with Jim DeRogatis, Courtney
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.
Post-Nirvana
In the years following Nirvana's disbanding, both
of its surviving members have remained active musically. Not long after Cobain's
death, Grohl recorded a series of demos which eventually became the debut album
for the Foo Fighters. As of 2005, the Foo Fighters have released five
commercially successful albums. The most recent Foo Fighters release, In Your
Honor, features 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 has also drummed for
bands including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mike Watt, Queens of the Stone
Age, Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, and Killing Joke. 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. More recently, 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.
More significantly, Novoselic has become a
political activist, founding the political action committe 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.
While Nirvana came to a sudden conclusion following
their final show in Munich, the remaining members of the band (including Pat
Smear) offered a bittersweet farewell to the band's fans. At the end of the Foo
Fighters' 1997 performance at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, Grohl
suddenly jumped behind the drum kit, with Novoselic wandering onstage with bass
guitar in hand. The trio (Grohl, Novoselic, and Smear) serenaded the
enthusiastic crowd with loose covers of Prince's "Purple Rain" and Led
Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown". The short performance served as a
lighthearted (and loud) nod to Seattle and all who supported Nirvana during its
short, tumultuous, and unforgettable run.
Band
members
Kurt Cobain - vocals, guitar
Krist Novoselic - bass
Aaron Burckhard - drums (1987-1988)
Dale Crover - drums (1987-1988, 1990)
Dave Foster - drums (1988)
Chad Channing - drums (1988-1990)
Jason Everman - guitar (1989)
Dan Peters - drums (1990)
Dave Grohl - drums (1990-1994)
Pat Smear - guitar (1993-1994)
Discography
Albums
& Compilations
Year Title Label Other information
1989 Bleach Sub Pop First studio album.
1991 Nevermind Geffen Records Second studio album.
1992 Incesticide Geffen Compilation of rare studio
songs, B-sides, alternate versions, and cover songs.
1993 In Utero Geffen Third studio album.
1994 MTV Unplugged in New York Geffen Live acoustic
album.
1994 Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! Geffen VHS home
video with live performances and interviews.
1995 Singles Geffen Hit singles from Nevermind and
In Utero in a box set.
1996 From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah Geffen
Live electric album.
2002 Nirvana Universal Also called Best of and/or
Greatest Hits. Features previously unreleased "You Know You're Right."
2004 With the Lights Out Geffen Box set containing
three compact discs and a DVD. Includes rare and previously unreleased material.
2005 Sliver: The Best of the Box Geffen 19 tracks
from With The Lights Out plus three previously unreleased recordings.
Singles
& EP's
Year Title Label Other information
1988 Love Buzz Sub Pop (Bleach) Limited to 1,000
copies.
1989 Blew (EP) Tupelo (Bleach) EP Released in
France and United Kingdom only.
1990 Sliver/Dive Sub Pop
1991 Candy/Molly's Lips Sub Pop With Fluid; Live
1st issue black vinyl (2,500 copies) and 2nd issue blue vinyl (3,500 copies)
1991 Here She Comes Now/Venus in Furs Communion
Velvet Underground covers, with The Melvins (1,000 copies in eight different
colors)
1991 Smells Like Teen Spirit Geffen (Nevermind)
1992 Come As You Are Geffen (Nevermind)
1992 Lithium Geffen (Nevermind)
1992 In Bloom Geffen (Nevermind)
1992 Hormoaning (EP) Geffen Tour EP Released in
Australia and Japan only.
1993 Puss/Oh, the Guilt Touch and Go With The Jesus
Lizard (100,000 copies worldwide)
1993 Heart-Shaped Box Geffen (In Utero)
1993 All Apologies/Rape Me Geffen (In Utero)
1994 Pennyroyal Tea Geffen (In Utero) Recalled
after Cobain's death. No vinyl copies and only a few hundred CDs are believed to
exist.
1994 About a Girl Geffen (MTV Unplugged in New
York) Mainly released in Europe, with a 5,000-copy limited edition release
issued in Australia.
1996 Aneurysm Geffen (From The Muddy Banks of The
Wishkah) Promo only, released to promote the album on radio.
2002 You Know You're Right Geffen (Nirvana) Promo
only, released to promote the album on radio.
* * * *
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